Navadisha seminar

Traveled with Mushtaq and Mariah (and Randy of course) to Chicago last weekend to put on the first ever Navadisha seminar for the public. John's a big fan of anything old school and we'd been planning this for a long time.

By all reports the seminar was a great hit. We tried to keep things moving at a good clip and from what I could tell, everyone was having a great time and learning non-stop.

Navadisha isn't a very complex system (sic) and as Mushtaq noted, one could learn the entire system in 6 months of hard study. Perfecting it of course is a lifetime.

So when trying to design the curriculum for the seminar it can be a bit difficult.

Navadisha is more concept based than technique based. More movement based than combination based.

Combinations are great if the universe would cooperate and hold still while you execute it. Still negotiating with the cosmos for that.

So, the key theme of the seminar was to introduce the concepts in a way that continually drilled in the movements and made them natural to they way the person already moved.

We began with basic stick warm up drills. The concept in these drills is to learn to utilize the elbow for rotation and not the wrist as it often more instinct.

The elbow rotation ties into the movement of all the future concepts.

And if rotating between the joints, all the better.

Next we covered the first two of the three infinities. All techniques in Navadisha are to be found in some point of the infinities.

Eventually footwork using the infinities was explored as well.

Wrong footwork

Correct footwork!

Superb footwork!!

The three differing concepts of meets, follows and passes was also touched upon.

Eventually all was put together with a free flow exercise working at a slow speed to find the flow with your partner. The key to gaining from the exercise is to learn from what you do wrong, not what you do right. When your flow is disrupted, that's where you discover your errors and examine what to correct.

All in all, a great time was had by all. Those teaching as well as those absorbing.

I should note that Mariah did a fantastic job working with the group. Whether demo-ing, partnering or correcting, she was fantastic. All the guys took her serious (as well they should), which I expected from John's group anyway and when I caught what she was correcting people with, it was on the money.

Ron Kaszak, a long time student of Rich Lameroux was a real treat to flow with for Mushtaq and myself. Ron has some considerable skill and similar roots too. Good to see him feeling well and I was honored that he made the time to come.

Nice to see Brandon Cash from the Bandalan group too!!

Don't eyeball me!

John, care to explain this?

You'll have to host a seminar to learn the secret back scratch technique

I was also awarded a 3rd degree black by the Sulong organization. Something I don't covet but I do take their awarding it with all seriousness.