# How was the symposium for you?



## Dieter (Jul 16, 2003)

Hi, 

I returned to Germany on Tuesday morning from the symposium and I was curious to read, how the symposium was seen by the other partitioners.
I had a very good time, we had fun during the lessons I taught, I had fun in the lessons I participated, I met up with a lot of people I did not know before and I could meet up with some people I knew and could establish or reestablish a good relationship with them.

Then I had a look at martial talk and I was disappointed: All I see is a discussion about the "Lamont Norshadow" issue and the "Larga Mano audition", that most of us partitioners did not see or were not aware of going on. At least I did not.


Well, for all those, who are not into that and participated in the symposium:

How was it for you. What did you like and what were your personal impressions. Did you have a good time and did you take anything home from the symposium (I am not talking about merchandize).

Thats what I am really interested in after the symposium.


Regards


Dieter Knüttel
Datu of Modern Arnis


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## Rich Parsons (Jul 16, 2003)

Dieter,


I enjoyed myself more than I did not enjoy being involved with some issues.

The Symposium to be was nice and I got to meet you and some others I had nto meet before.

I enjoyed training with you and it was fun.

I also enjoyed Training with Bram Frank, and see some good friends I do not get to see that often, such as Dan Anderson and Tim Hartman.


I have been trying to put together my thoughts on this for a while.  I will make a much more clear post later.

:asian:


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## Dan Anderson (Jul 16, 2003)

Dieter,

I had a good time.  I was running on jet lag for most of the Symposium but overall, the teaching and training was first rate.  Oh yeah, the hospitality in Buffalo is way underrated.  The last three times I have stayed there I have had a great time with my hosts (Tim Hartman, Jerome Barber and Mike Carvelli).

Yours,
Dan Anderson


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## DoctorB (Jul 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dan Anderson _
> *Dieter,
> 
> I had a good time.  I was running on jet lag for most of the Symposium but overall, the teaching and training was first rate.  Oh yeah, the hospitality in Buffalo is way underrated.  The last three times I have stayed there I have had a great time with my hosts (Tim Hartman, Jerome Barber and Mike Carvelli).
> ...



Hello Guys,

Thanks for asking Dieter.  I had a great time and i have received several e-mails from others expressing their pleasure at being a part of the Symposium.  It makes me quite happy that everyone was more or less on the same page with regard to the training. I am also pleased that there were conversations and discussions  going on at the event as well as over dinners and breakfastes.  That is what the the event was supposed to accomplish.  It was a pleasure hosting the event.  Thanks to all who participated.

Jerome Barber, Ed.D.


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## grifter1358 (Jul 17, 2003)

Dieter,

Being an "outsider" looking into the Modern Arnis family, it was great to meet so many people and to place faces with many names that I only knew when I subscribed to the Escrima Digest years ago.  It was also great for us to share our art of Eskrima Serrada to all the attendees at the Symposium.

Dr. Barber and PG Tom Bolden have been supporters of our organization for some time now and our main objective was to support Dr. Barber in any way we could.  Our next objective was to see other styles.

We look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Salamat,

Bob Manalo, Jr.


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## Rich Parsons (Jul 17, 2003)

Bob,

Glad to see you on Martial Talk.

I hope I was one fo those you were able to put a face to a name too, and was happt to meet .

Like I Said Welcome to Martial Talk!
 :asian:


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## Bob Hubbard (Jul 17, 2003)

Datu Knüttel,
  It was nice to finally meet you when you visited Tims school.  I wish I could have had more of a chance to chat.

What was the final tally of attendees?  I've seen a few reviews and it seems that outside of the 'incident' that most folks had a good time, which I think is the more important part.

:asian:


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## grifter1358 (Jul 17, 2003)

Rich,

I never thought that I would get to meet so many people I only recognized by name/e-mail address.  It was great to meet all of you.

Salamat,

Bob


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## Mark Lynn (Jul 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dieter _
> *Hi,
> 
> I had a very good time, we had fun during the lessons I taught, I had fun in the lessons I participated, I met up with a lot of people I did not know before and I could meet up with some people I knew and could establish or reestablish a good relationship with them.
> ...



Dieter

I had been planning to post but with family obligations and work and such I didn't have the time.  I think another thread was started on what they got out of the symposium and I was going to post there but what the heck I checked yours this morning and I'll post here.

First off all things aside I had a great time at the symposium, with all of the hassle of traveling from Texas flying into Pittsburg and driving several hours to get there, falling sleep while driving, getting my hotel reservations made in the wrong city, and such the instruction made up for all of that.

What I got out of it in a nut shell.
1) Datu Dieter's first session covered Tapi Tapi in an organized system and gave me some much needed insight in how to organize my approach to TT drills.  And to aplly my techniques better.

2) Guro Peter Vargas's first two sessions.  Guro Vargas covered Balintawak boxing drills which I had seen (some of them) before on a GM Toboada tape and I thought they would compliment GM Remy's Sinawali boxing drills however not having ever actually done them it was just an idea.  After taking Guro Vargas's sessions I think they (or the idea behind them would fit in with the Sinawali boxing progression, or modify the approach to teaching the Sinawali boxing progression (fill it in etc. etc.)

He also covered some combative applications as well.

3) Tom Boland (question on rank or title here plus spelling of his name no offense meant).  He covered concpets behind his arnis system and how it applied to Modern Arnis.  He covered some much needed points and concepts that I needed to consider.

4) SM Dan Anderson.  Mr. Anderson and Datu Dieter (and hoping to see Rocky) where really the main reasons I came.  Dan taught in his first session on conutering disarms.  Wonderful instruction and SM Dan brought out to me (someone refered to them as gold nuggets on the other thread) that I use speed/power to compensate for my late timing.  This really made me think since I can get away with getting the technique accomplished by my skill but it still not being quite right.  I hadn't really thought about it before but now I have to really watch out for now.

Time for work so I'll post more later.

All of the controversy aside of the Lamont Norshadow thing.  I had a great time and enjoyed the instruction very much.  I want to thank Dr. Barber for putting this thing on, and all of the instructors who showed up and took their time to teach all of us who attended.  I hope that someone else (since Dr. B. has said he won't) decides to try another one.  If the same type of instruction is there than so will I.

Mark Lynn

Don have time for spell checking this.  I'm late


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## Dan Anderson (Jul 17, 2003)

How was the Symposium for me?  Pretty much as I expected.  I came in with a positive attitude as well as the students of the art.  The trouble with a first event is that it has all the troubles of a first event.  An example would be not all of the initially mentioned instructors ended up being there.  Rocky had surgery.  Kelly had scheduling conflicts with his own MARPPIO event.  Dan McConnell had family obligations.  I heard David Ng got sick just before the Sympo.  I'm not sure what happened to Richard Roy or Bruce Chiu.  _First event blues._  That happens.

The even became more of a Modern Arnis/FMA blend than strictly Modern Arnis event.  _First event blues._

Keep in mind that what kept Modern Arnis together (if it ever was in the US) was the charismatic personality of the founder.  It certainly wasn't his brilliant organizational skills.  That's for sure.  

Keeping all that in mind, the training and on floor attitude was great!  It didn't matter who was teaching what portion, the instructors were into it and the students were into it and those who missed it, lost out!  That's the take from the big daddy himelf.  I am very interested in George's video set of it as it is history in the making.

Yours,
Big Daddy Dan


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## Cruentus (Jul 17, 2003)

I mentioned on another thread that whether your senior or Jr., and no matter who is instructing at an event, it is imprtant to try to take home "a little gold nugget" of knowledge with you. This way we can all try to stay posative, despite the negatives. And this way we can always be learning!

 

Here are some of the gold nuggets that I took home with me...

1. Tim Hartman taught a sweet set, which I had the pleasure of playing the UKE role. Although the techniques I was already familiar with, being that I was already familiar with Tim Hartmans style, it was good for me to see how to properly teach these techniques in a seminar format from a professional. 

1. Bram Frank had a great knife system. Period, end of story, say no more. I had a great time training in his session. He really knows how to translate modern arnis to the blade. His gunting is also a great tool.

2. Dieter had shown some great pain delivering techniques, which I got to UKE for most of them. Yay for me!  :rofl: Seriously, it was good to work on a few techniques that I don't normally use. They also have a very structured teaching style that was good to experience.

3. I had fun in Peter Vargas and Tim Kashino's session, just for the simple fact that it gave me the opportunity to explore with the empty hand. I have been a "stick jock" lately, so it was good to get into the empty hand groove. I also had the pleasure of seeing Peter practice a different style of Balintawak (Toboada's style) then what I study. He seemed like a cool guy. I would have liked to play with him/or students with the cane, but time constraints wouldn't allow it. Perhaps another time!

Those were some of the "gold nuggets" I took away with me. There were more, but these are worth mentioning. I also had a great time during my own session teaching; all we did was "play" with the stick. Fun, fun, fun! I like to play with different people to see the different methods and reactions that are out there, and I think that the few who did participate in my session had a good time also.

I have said this before but it is worth repeating; it is the participants and students who made this event. I would like to thank all of the participants! I also thank all of those who took the time to "play" with me!



 :asian:


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