Shihan Asuncion seminar 2012

--originally posted Monday, February 6, 2012--


     Apparently there was some thing called the "Super Bowl" going on this past weekend. I wouldn't know much about that; I was too busy unpacking from the weekend and climbing into bed!     For those of you who don't know what a seminar means for those of us in the Bujinkan, it's a one- or two-day event over a weekend that features one or more high-level teachers. In my experience, there's always been a theme for the seminar, something we'll be working on the entire time. The format goes like this: bow in, maybe do a warmup, teacher shows something, attendees practice, repeat previous 2 steps all day, bow out. Sprinkle in some water/note-taking breaks and a break for lunch, and that's the seminar. (A workshop is like a seminar, but it's typically only one day, it's less expensive, and the teacher isn't as highly ranked. From what I've experienced, anyway.)     Asuncion-shihan is the teacher of both my teachers, and he's been coming to Huntsville every year for the past few years. Both my teachers strongly encourage their students to attend the seminar, to the point of practically requiring it, and with good reason; Asuncion has excellent taijutsu, and it would be hard to go wrong imitating him.     The theme this year was eda koppo, which is the name for a weapon that's basically a stick.

Little stick OF DEATH.

MY little stick of death, a stainless steel Sharpie. (It doubles as an actual Sharpie.)

     It's pretty easy to see that this kind of weapon would be extremely versatile. You can use pretty much anything as an eda koppo. Interestingly, we didn't use it very much during the seminar, which makes me think maybe it wasn't the weapon itself that was the point of the seminar.

     Anyway, it was an awesome way to spend the weekend. And the socializing Saturday night was a blast; always is.