Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy

November 9th 2003 was a historic day. A year & 2 months on from the humble
beginnings of the International Alliance Of Martial Art Schools, a number of schools
from England IAOMAS got together to hold the 1st ever IAOMAS seminar & as such
made a small mark in the history books & by doing so, set the precedent which we
truly hope other counties will follow.

The first IAOMAS seminar was scheduled for 8 (yes 8) hours of training, with the only
costs being a fiver to cover the hall. Not only was this seminar tremendous value for
money for all IAOMAS students that attended, but the diversity of the arts being taught
, together with the quality of the instructors made it absolutely superb, with something
for everyone, in bundles.

The seminar started off with a short introduction by host Stuart Anslow, followed by Shihan Michael Holden
(5th Dan, Atemi Jiu-Jitsu) teaching escapes from wrist grabs. Shihan Holden took everyone from basic releases
through to more complex ones using strikes & good footwork & made some complicated releases look very
simple, and very painful! These techniques ended with painful locks, chokes & throws!

Following Shihan Holden was Sabumnim Stuart Anslow (3rd Degree, ITF style Taekwon-do). Stuart taught an
advanced application of 9 Shape Block (Gutja Makgi), utilizing the block as a hold & control technique & placing
it in street applicable attacks, for example sucker punches, front kicks, chokes & a bear hug. This got the
sweat going as students used vital point strikes in order to secure the block (hold) followed by devastating
knees & an ankle break or take down!

Following Sabum Anslow was Soke Robert Pattern (6th Dan, Goju Ryu, Uechi Ryu & Ryukyu Kobudo). Soke
Patton demonstrated some great knife defences & got everyone going, first with simple counters & releases,
following onto more complicated combinations utilizing locks & throws. What was
interesting about what Soke Patton taught (aside from the actual techniques themselves)
was the fact that all his counters finished with non-deadly force, although the opponent
was highly incapacitated in most scenarios anyway!

Following Soke Patton, Bousabum`s Vikram Gautam & Farhad Ahmad (1st Degrees,
ITF Style Taekwon-do) took the seminar participants through a number of Taekwon-do's
advanced kicking techniques . Warming everyone up with the simple front kick, they
were soon onto jumping front kicks, jumping back kicks, jumping turning kicks, reverse
turning kicks, jumping reverse turning kicks, 360 degree jumping back & reverse turning
kicks & combinations involving the fore mentioned kicks. Demonstrating the power found
within the Taekwon-do kicks & enabling everyone to have a try at some of these
beautiful techniques.

After a short break for lunch Sabumnin Stuart Anslow introduced the seminar
participants to a small segment on Taekwon-do sparring. Starting off with reflex work to
build up reaction speed, he followed onto 'one for one' & 'two for two' kicking. After this
everyone was introduced to Taekwon-do competitive light continuous sparring, which
was enjoyed by all. After a few rounds, a round of street applicable sparring practiced to
highlight the difference between 'competitive only' sparring & street style sparring, which
includes sweeping, grabbing, throwing & takedowns as well as kicking & hand
techniques.

Once everyone had regained their breath following the sparring work, it was the turn of
brothers Jamie & Damian Ward (2nd Dan Ju-Jitsu) to demonstrate some Ju jitsu escape
techniques. These escape techniques included leg work, front, side & rolling breakfalls,
escapes from the ground & standing (bear hugs etc.) often ending up in painful locks,
with their opponents flying through the air only to end up locked tight on the floor in a
choke or hold. All of which Jamie demonstrated on his brother with effortless ease.

Following this section Soke Robert Patton (6th Dan) took the floor again & introduced
everyone to the kobutan (a weapon of control & restraint). Soke Patton demonstrated
some take downs ustilizing the kubotan, followed by some very painful pressure point
applications & defensive combinations which employ this great little weapon.

The next section saw Shihan Holden (5th Dan) take the floor again, introducing
everyone to another traditional weapon, the Te-Bo. A short stick that is capable of
producing some very painful locks. Shihan Holden demonstrated how the Te-Bo can be
used against punches; forming a wrist lock, arm lock & choke all in a few short movements, against
kicks, forming a extremely painful takedown & ankle lock. He also demonstrated how the Te-Bo can
be used to disarm & control opponents & as a pressure point instrument.

The final teaching segment of the seminar was taken by Wayne Timlin (2nd Dan Thai & Kick Boxing).
Wayne started off by taking everyone through Muay Thai's devastating low kicks, utilizing the shin as
the weapon. This was followed by some great low kick counters, which involved over stepping the
kick, rather than taking it straight on, using the arms for higher kicks & utilizing a take down on the
kick. Following this Wayne demonstrated knee kicks, again followed by their counters including a
nice little takedown on a knee kick. Wayne concluded his section with powerful elbow strikes &
forearm smashes.

Though the teaching sections of the seminar were over, we rounded up with two mini-competitions for
fun, one ground based & one stand up. The stand up was first. With each competitor being knocked
out with a single point, so it was fast and furious. The eventual winner was Justin Goh from Rayners
Lane Taekwon-do Academy.

Immediately following this was the ground based competition, after some tough bouts & an even
tougher final, Richard Steele (2nd degree, Lincs ITF) won the bout by choking out his own student in
a very tough final.

And this concluded the 1st International Alliance Of Martial Art Schools England Seminar.

Following the seminar, all students who attended received a glossy certificate & all instructors
received a video of the event, filmed by Julie Anslow and all this for a fiver!

Apart from the cost, what made this seminar so different from others? Well, it was a good
mix of different arts, every instructor and student was friendly, non-blinkered & open to others
ideas. The way each segment was presented was excellent & made the day fly past, with
many commenting how quick it went (remember it was 8 hours long). Many 5th & 6th dans
would have sat by the sidelines when something was taught by either a lower grade, or some
thing that they wasn`t as good at as others was happening, but all instructors at this
seminar trained along side everyone else when each instructor took the centre. To watch a
5th degree Ju-jitsu instructor, trying out 360 degree jumping back kicks from Taekwon-do &
enjoying every minute of it was very refreshing & very humbling for us all, it was fantastic.

A big thank you to all the students & instructors that attended & made it such a great day.
Thank you to Soke Robert Patton & the Taifu Karate & Kobudo Kai, Shihan Michael
Holden & Seishin~Ryu Jiu~Jitsu School, Jamie & Damian Ward & Sai Ju-Jitsu School,
Wayne Timlin & Impact Martial Arts, Richard Steele & Lincs ITF School & of course
Stuart Anslow, Vikram Gautam, Farhad Ahmad & the students of Rayners Lane
Taekwon-do Academy.

"Well done on the seminar, very well planned and definitely no time for getting bored.
An interesting collection of events on the day, All instructors presented their sections
clearly and explained techniques to make them easier - even the ones that looked
impossible, which on attempt seemed a lot more straight forward than expected.

The weapons sections were particularly impressive, its amazing how something so
simple can cause so much pain. On a recent Bo Staff and Bokken seminar we were
shown a few flashy moves and spinning techniques which were difficult to pull off for beginners, although the day was excellent, we didn't seem to learn many practical applications of the weapon so in that aspect we learnt a lot more in the IAOMAS seminar.

It was a very long day for our club (especially as I broke down on the way home!) but definitely worth the visit. I have a nice set of bruises now - to me that means a good training session. Thanks for a great day" - Karen (Lincs ITF)

"Thank you for hosting such a action packed day. Me and my students thought very highly the tuition and availability of material learn. I was very impressed by the Ju Jitsu guys, and would appreciatte if you could pass on my thanks to all of them. I was astounded by your Black Belts kicking prowess, and your junior grades very very talented. Looking forward to the next one." - Richard Steele.II (Lincs ITF Instructor)

"Again thank you for a great day out - and thank you for putting all your time and effort into organizing this event for the benefit of us all. As you mentioned, everyone had a very good day out and i hope everyone learned as much as i did on the day, plus I also got to meet loads of great people as well there from all back grounds of martial arts - and I look forward to the next event in 2004." - Wayne Timlin II (Impact Martial Arts)

"Fantastic Seminar, really enjoyed the Kubotan work, I thought that I wouldn't enjoy the 9 shaped block section but the application of it was fun. It was good that we had to keep swapping people so that the classes mixed.

Big thank you to the lads from Rochdale and to the those from Stuarts class who went to the Kebab shop afterwards - made me feel really welcome. Especially the Green Belt (Forgot her name) who gave me a lift. See you all next year in the 2nd Annual England IAOMAS Seminar." Peter.

For more information on the
International Alliance Of Martial Arts Schools
(IAOMAS)
visit
www.iaomas.com
or
www.raynerslanetkd.com