What you did not like

[jks9199]

Probably this would be my biggest dislike as well. When paying for a seminar I am not looking to have a major killer PE warm up workout before the seminar starts. I am looking and paying to learn techniques and different training methodologies. Now if a killer workout happens while learning he techniques that is absolutely great.

Just not the brutal warm up workout before hand as that does not really involve any learning experience.

If the instructor (or his reasonable designee) leads some appropriate warmups prior to beginning the material -- I think that's fine. For example, if the seminar is on long stick, and the instructor starts by teaching some stretches & warm up exercises for long stick, or any similar situation where the warm up is geared to specifically preparing for the "meat" of the seminar.

But if they just want to watch the attendees doing jumping jacks and other calisthenics... that's wasting time. If it's a 2 hour seminar -- and the first hour is lining up, doing calisthenics, and other stuff with no relation to the topic of the seminar... that's just being disrespectful of the group's time.

 

[IcemanSK]

My favorite story about seminars was about 2 friends of mine. One ran a school, the other was MA-ist & a former training partner of the now school owner. These guys had know each other for years & were good friends. Both attended a Hapkido seminar (both were yellow belts or a low rank in Hapkido). 2 weeks later, the school owner (a BB in another art) invites his friend to a seminar he's putting on at his school. Friend "B" pays for a seminar at his buddy's school to go over the same material they BOTH just learned!

Ah, capitalism. Needless to say that the friendship has suffered a great deal.

 

[jks9199]

Also you sometimes get others who offer to "help" you and keep giving advice although they are not the instructor and they aren't qualified to teach you.

Along those lines, what irks me is when someone trying to "help" their partner is so sure they already "know" what the instructor is showing that he's getting it all wrong!

It's one thing if it's just an honest misunderstanding (saw a left, moved the right type of thing) -- but when what they're trying to "show" you is so far off that it's clear they didn't watch & listen...

Of course (and I'm guilty of this), some instructors don't make it easy... They say one thing, show another, and then instruct/walk through a third!