Tell me about yourself(how long have you been doing martial arts? how did you start? how did you meet your Master for Gong Kwon Yusul?) I have been training in martial arts for 32 years. I started in Tae Kwon Do when I was 10 years old. My father did phone work at a martial arts studio and the owner gave us lessons as payment because I had from age five wanted to try martial arts. My two brothers started with me but didn’t like it and stopped after a couple of months. During one of my trips to Korea to train with Master Kwon, I went to one of Master Jun Kang’s (my Gongkwon Yusul instruction) seminars and really liked how he taught and how he looked out for his students but still taught the art. How do you generally prepare yourself and your students for seminars? I normally decide what the students and/or instructors need to learn or work on and then teach those subjects. The last seminar, we were going over subjects that students testing for black belts needed. I then pick one or a couple of my students who are willing to learn the new items in the subjects I would like to teach at the seminar, to be my assistant. Training them for specific techniques I will be teaching in the seminar to make sure someone won’t get hurt. How do you decide what to teach at a seminar? Most of the time, I ask my students and instructors what they would like to learn. But the last seminar, Master Kang gave me a list of things he wanted me to go over with the students to better their technique. What is the purpose of a seminar? A seminar is done for students and instructors to learn certain subjects with more detail and for instructors and students who do not live in the area to be able to learn from instructors with more experience. Students and instructors come from other states to learn new things and things in more detail. Does anything that happens in the seminar determine what you’ll teach next? Sometimes or someone asks for more details on a subject that wasn’t covered in the seminar. Are there different kinds of seminars? Yes. There are different martial arts and different subjects in each art that can be taught at seminars. In Gongkwon Yusul, seminars can be taught for ground fighting, stand up fighting, self defense, throwing, joint locks, how to stop a throw, how to reverse a joint lock, etc. How often are there seminars? Seminars for Gongkwon Yusul are normally 2 to 3 times a year. How was preparing for a seminar in a pandemic different than previous seminars? I had to put a lot of thought into how to make the seminar as safe as possible and what the best subjects were to teach to keep students as safe as possible. What were some unique challenges presented by the pandemic? Making sure the subjects I was teaching were not too difficult for people while breathing with a mask. Trying to pair people up so contact was limited. Making sure the subjects that were taught were safe for everyone. |