If not, I think we’ll invent one this weekend. 
looks like it’s going to be a ‘good-training’ weekend in Nashville w/ Shifu Brazier.
mud and rain are good for working root and real gripping power. 
see all you fellas in a few hours…looking forward to seeing Shifu Biggie again as well.
Yep, looking forward to spending the weekend with Shibo Brazier. The training will be challenging indeed. Also attending will be Mike Biggie, Matt Melton, Steve Ottaviano, Annibelle Lin and Sam Smith.
Along with hopefully learning as many of the Eighteen Essentials, we are going to have a round table discussion on Tanglang W/Kevin Brazier.
Rain is forcasted, but I have an indoor space available. The rain would be nice though, it was 98 yesterday.
Maybe someone can chime in as the weekend goes by to share what we have done.
Wish I would have gotten 8 hours of sleep in last night!:rolleyes:
heh…I haven’t gotten more than 5 hours in…weeks, months? can’t remember.
where is the indoor space?
we’re about ready to hit the road around 1
This shall be the official seminar thread for this past weekends seminar in Nashville
rolled in from the road just a bit ago…more rain on the way back…the Cumberland Plateau is getting plenty of water.
well, it was hot…it was humid…it was a blast.
I’ve got a lot on my mind with moving the school and suchlike so I wasn’t in my usual mood for training…my apologies to my Shibo and the Nashville crew for any moodiness that came accross.
Eighteen Essential Techniques to Apply on Initial Engagement
It was very, very cool to train techniques that are illustrated in pictures of Shiye Li Hongjie and video clips of Shiye Shi Zhengzhong.
I’ll hopefully have some pics to post tomorrow and a better descriptoin of the weekend.
Xie Xie Shibo.
This was a great weekend. The 18 essentials are just that—essential. This was really valuable material to learn. Anybody who got a piece of it definately came away with a lot. Training with Shibo Brazier is great.
After working out in the slippery grass, practicing out on the flat concrete is no sweat…or any other flat surface for that matter. I fell on the wet ground more times than I can count.
Seeing old friends like Steve and Annibelle was fun. I also met new ones like Mike Biggie and his crew from Akron. They were all good guys. I always value the experience of training alongside my Shifu as a fellow student. If anybody gets the chance to train with Kevin Brazier, take it.
The training…
Wow, what a weekend! First off, thank you Shifu Brazier for all your efforts this weekend. It was an amazing few days of training, no breaks, just training. And thanks to my kf brother Steve for making the trip and assisting Kevin. It was special for me to have the opportunity to pair off with Shifu Mike Biggie. Great guy with good skills. Props to Kelley, Joe and Bob.
I meant to chime in over the weekend and tell how we were doing, no time and no energy! It was literally all about training and learning the material.
Each session (3 hours) began with Kevin`s warmup routine. This was followed by “Yi Jin Jing” Qi-gong. He also taught everyone “strike four gates”. This SFG is a very good tool for improving footwork and the ability to strike with power from an angle you normally think would not contain power. I learned alot about this subject from this little exercise.
Kevin mentioned that we were probably only going to be able to learn 9 out of the 18, I can see why now. This was easily 6 months of training rolled into a single weekend. Quality time was spent on each. I liked the way Kevin presented the material. Each technique was first taught as a “line drill”, then after doing these many times over a very long distance, we paired off with a partner. Kevin looked at each and everyone of us to assure we were getting right, often jumping in front of us and applying the strikes. Also we switched partners to get the feel of differant peoples energy. We also repeated the line drills with Kevin calling out, we had to respond to the name of the essential. Gloves were put on in order to step things up and apply with more power. On the final day, Kevin spent a lot of time showing differant variations to each technique, almost overwhelming. I see the importance and necessity of “knowing” the types of strikes needed in the initial engagement. These really helped me with my entering the engagement aswell. Maybe with Osos help and Kevins permission we could put up some clips.
Also, the gathering took place on top of a civil war fort where many battles were fought. It was a very cool place, up high, secluded and beautiful. Kind of added to the ambiance… thanks Justin for finding this spot.
more later…
Nice…
Sounds like this is a great gethering. Thank you Oso, Bung bo, and Yu Shan for the detailed reports. I am looking forward for the clips.
Warm regards
Mantis108
seminar
It was a nice weekend of training. Nice to see all of the pong lai people and Shrfu Biggie’s students.
Like Yu said, it was a great spot to train at and everyone did great.
yea, the old fort was cool. I took some pics of the area early sunday morning before everyone got there.
I should have those up in a little while.
Ok, here’s the first batch
The first two are of the Fort. These pics just give a sense of the size of the field but not really the bowl effect created by the trees, the slope of the ground and the bluff over the river off to the right of the pics. A very nice location.
next are some group shots
next batch…K.Brazier, 18elders, yu shan, Oso, Metal Mantis, bung bo, Pie Anne, Eric, Keoni (sp?)
that’s pretty much all the decent pics I have. lot’s of blurry ones 
Oso,
Nice photos! Unfortunately, I found out about it too late, or I would have joined the Bigginator and his crew. 
Glad to hear you guys had a great time!
I will squeeze the guys for details at class.
Richard
Richard,
There will be more. Right now, the plan between me and Jim is to swap towns…He brings Shibo (K.Brazier) in to Nashville and me and mine travel there and the next time Shibo comes to Asheville and he travels here…every other visit. All subject to change of course. I’ve got a school to move and get enrollment up over the next 6 months to make it work. So, Shibo may visit Nashville next before he visits Asheville again.
I hate that Shifu Biggie had to leave early. We talked a little bit about the trials and tribulations of trying to make a commercial school work Saturday morning and was looking forward to talking more over some beers later. He also showed me his application of the first move of Gung Li…I’d figured his arms were pretty hard but…owitch!
Please pass on my best wishes to him and his family.
Matt
Nice to meet you all.
I just wanted to say thank you to Mr Brazier and all the Pong lai folks. Great weekend and enjoyed meeting everyone.
It is great to be able to put faces to names.
We all enjoyed ourselves and thank all of you for being so kind and having us down there with you.
Best wishes and we look forward to seeing you all again and hopefully soon.
Kelley
ahhhh…Emeraldphoenix…yea, good to see you guys too.
Bob doing ok?
Oso
Bob is fine. Heat and humidity got to him. Tenn. aint Ohio. We have had pretty cool year this year. Compounded with little sleep and he didnt eat. Bad combination.. that’s all.
You were very quiet over the weekend, dont worry about the school thing, it will all work out.
didn’t eat??? ya’ll need to get him edimacated…kung fu needs food.
but, yea, we were pretty much swimming in the air it was so humid.
Thanks…things are coming together on the school. I did a lot of work yesterday.
Matt,
Mike speaks highly about you and your group. I hope to meet you next time, or at the next mantis conference in Las Vegas.
Yes, Mike’s arms are *&^% hard. I was teasing him the other day that those scrawny little things that he calls arms should be named “bars of steel”. I started three star training over thirty years ago and I still hate banging arms with him. :eek:
BTW, ask him about the time he had his hand x-rayed years ago (80’s). Interesting story!
Richard
Darn it…
(Well, I had composed a long reply, but upon trying to send it, my work computer took a poo. I will just give the thanks out now, due to my frustration)
Thank you Shibo Kevin for sharing your time and knowledge with us! It is always a pleasure to train with you, even when I am vomiting in the bushes…
Thank you Shifu Jim for putting this together and being understanding to my ignorance in the past… See you tonight in class…
It was good to meet Biggie and his folks, sorry to hear of your family emergency, I hope all is well… You will be in our thoughts…
Oso, it is always fun to get tossed around by you, foul mood or not Perhaps I will make it over for Bel-sher (sp?).
I was glad to share one of my favorite parks in the town I grew up in… Now that I feel it is broken in, I will be sure to train there more often…
The 18 Essentials are exellent… I look forward to spending many many many hours feeling what is expressed best by my body and evolving understanding… I look forward to more…
~Be well~
Richard: I’ll probably not make this years conference due to financial constraints…read that as ‘i’m broke’
I’ll have to ask about the hand x-ray…sounds like it might be similar to when I broke my hand punching something stupid and they couldn’t get a needle stuck in the back of my hand to give me the lidocaine shot.
J - ‘Bele Chere’…it’s french you cretin. I hope you do…looks like the big band to see this year is Galactic…but, we stumbled on that other band with the bad ass bass player so there’s always something good.
http://belecherefestival.com/music.php?sub=line_up
I look forward to spending many many many hours feeling what is expressed best by my body and evolving understanding… I look forward to more…
carefull there buddy…someone might mistake you for a hippie…
alright…time to go do my best impression of Shibo…