A few weeks back; I put up a post crowing about a self defense seminar I've been planning for a long while. This was the first seminar I've hosted with by own school and it was a coup to get Marc MacYoung - considered to be one of the top, if not the top - self defense instructors on Earth as its first guest instructor.
Well; last weekend, it finally happened and man, was it great. There were downsides - I didn't get very many students in; only 10 total but that did allow for a great deal of one-on-one instruction. Basically we had my students, Dave, Paul, Anne and Jill; and a few guests from other styles.
As host I made sure Marc had a good time when he came into Toronto; and that's pretty easy - Marc has fun wherever he goes. I took him up the Tower; and into the hockey hall of fame. I took him to some great restaurants - Greek, Indian, Chinese (real Chinese; not the North American version you normally get).
Oh - the actual teaching bit was fun too.
I've learned a lot from Marc and his wife Dianna over the years; and though it may be ego I like to think they've learned some from me as well. We've certainly had some ripping arguments from time to time.
Throughout the seminar; I (as the resident big guy) wound up as uke (Read: crash test dummy) for the ladies in the group; as they learned mere size and strength does not need to be an overwhelming advantage to an attacker. Ohh, did they have fun - once they realized someone 6'4", 215lbs can be toppled relatively easy; they threw themselves into it with gusto - it was a great deal of fun (if a bit painful) watching them learn.Anyway; I put up photos on Flikr; here they are if you're interested. The quality's not great, but still I think you'll like them.
They're here.
Enjoy!
Dave
