Our Club was invited to a periodic special clinic by the Richmond Hill Budokan, to be taught by their esteemed founder, O-Sensei Reynolds, our founder's teacher. I hadn't been out to one of these in several years, and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. In the small mirrored dojo, about 15-20 clubs were represented, mainly by high-ranking instructors. It was a who's-who of martial arts, and an absolute treat to participate.
I do come to these clinics when I can, as I love being forced out of my comfort zone and trying different techniques and styles with different people. As the Budokan's chief instructor mentioned, the purpose of these clinics is to come together from across various styles and have a fun time trying something new among friends. We cannot stay narrow-minded about the particular styles we practise; in order to be artists, we must open up to others and have a dialogue. Preferably with wrist locks!
O-Sensei Reynolds spent much of the night taking us through several series of techniques for control of the body, through wrist locks, shoulder locks, and head locks. With so many people in the room, there wasn't much space for take-downs, but we did force each other to our knees a few times. You always have to have your wrists warmed up if you want to dance at the RHB. And you will dance. On your tip-toes. From pain. :)
In the past, there were a few times when I'd felt out of place at these
clinics, like I wasn't good enough. But it's all a matter of
perspective. I think I ended up training with close to 10 different people, all with various backgrounds, and I was able to teach them and learn from them all. Plus the senior Kitsune Ryu instructors were always on hand to either fix things, or give us a little extra piece of info about the technique (so it would hurt more!) It was a very warm welcome as usual, and I feel like I finally did come in with an open mind about my own skills and experience.
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