Another Great Year at the Gathering!







Another great year at Innovative Martial Arts / KSMA's 9th annual Gathering of the Tribes 2009!! This is a weekend seminar where instructors and practitioners come from all over the U.S. to train, reconnect, eat and hang! I enjoyed reconnecting with friends and meeting new faces. The training was superb as usual! I love experiencing all of the different perspectives and styles of the people who came out. It is cool that the various instructors are so open to share what they know not only during their respective sessions, but also in impromptu' training where someone pulls them aside to ask questions. Everyone's willingness to teach and learn is second only to the openness and friendliness found here. I really appreciate Chuck and Jeannie Pippin taking the time and effort to put this all together for everyone to learn and enjoy! It is great training, food and friends minus the usual ego that seminars like this often have... and it is so economical!! A weekend like this would usually easily cost four times this anywhere else!

I have to mention that I did miss seeing Bobbe and Cody this year. Although the two dimensional Bobbe was very active and kept everyone laughing the whole weekend! It was almost like Bobbe was really there... and in a way he was! I hope the three dimensional versions of both of you two can make it out next year.

On another note, I would like to extend my gratitude for the honor of being asked to instruct one of the sessions this year. I shared some IKI Krav Maga pistol disarms, a few stories, and concepts about Robert Humphrey's / Jack Hoban's living values defender/ protector mentality. I have never experienced a group of people (many of whom were instructors) who have been so open to new material, enthusiastic and caught on so well. All of the questions and feed back were inspirational! Thank you!

Finally, I would like to thank Chuck and Jay for inducting me as a member of KSMA. I was getting ready to leave when they cornered me. As they first approached they had that strange look in their eye, a look even stranger than their usual one, if you can believe that! Since I was a little on edge after reading The Gift of Fear I was ready to make a run for it figuring they were going to assault me and steal my wallet & gear or do other unmentionable things you only hear about in Turkish prisons. Instead they presented me with a KSMA membership certificate!

All joking aside I am proud to be a part of such an organization.
http://ksma.blogspot.com/ (here is the link to the entire blog)

All the best!

Keep going,
~Craig

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Uncomfortable Situation

Image
  Funny pic (and movie) about a not so funny situation… In training as in Life, it’s better to treat people with dignity and respect. However… What does that look like in the moment? Being that I’m teaching a Women’s Assault Prevention and Response Workshop this weekend - it’s probably a good time to talk about… Uncomfortable Situations Let’s talk about training at the academy for a minute… We run open co-ed classes at the local academy. What does that mean? Men and women train together, but we don’t stop there. People of different skill levels, backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations, careers, religious beliefs, political affiliations, ages, injuries, pre-existing conditions, life experience, training expectations etc. etc. train together! We ALL work together! Overall, I think it’s better this way. Of course sometimes there’s static, you know, conflicts, and misunderstanding. When something happens, most of the time it’s just that, a misunderstanding… Sometimes people simply do
Read more

The Shot Heard Around the World

Image
Even though many could see where all of this division and hatred in our country was leading to, when we witness the actual violence, realty once again floods in and has a way of shattering the comfort of our complacency, if only until the next headline. Some may find all of this shocking, others may see it simply validating their own fears. Regardless, of your political views, we have to take into account what this level of violence can do not only to the former President and his family, but what does to the state of our entire Nation. Yesterday as news broke of former President Donald Trump being shot, I can’t say that I was entirely surprised. Saddened, but not surprised. Regardless of your political stance, this act of violence is a dark reminder of the dangerous consequences of a society steeped in hate and division. Our collective heartbreak should not be about politics, but about the division and hatred that fuels this erosion of our humanity. We live in a time where traditional
Read more

Cutting Through the Static

Image
  Me and the crew at Venue 3 Two after a PeaceWalker Conflict Communication Workshop Remember in the old days when you used to listen to the radio on a road trip? No, not digital or streaming. I’m talking about old school FM radio. When you’re putting some miles on and crossing state lines. The radio stations you listen to don’t broadcast far enough for your entire trip, so you have to channel surf to find new channels as you move on down the road. You continue to push the search button until you hear a song in the genre that you want so you can lock in a desirable station for a spell. Sometimes you’re listening to a song you really like but the station is fading… The static starts feint, almost imperceptible, than grows in intensity to the degree that you can no longer ignore it. If you really like the song, you try to hang on as long as you can, listening to the tune through the white noise and times it cuts out completely, hoping to hear as much of the song as you can before the sta
Read more