12-Hour Karate Seminar at Taekwondo School — Jesse Encamp

What's up karate nerds it is 6 a.m. It is pitch black outside as you can see and I'm on my way to the airport for another epic karate nerd adventure Just arrived at the airport man this weather really sucks today This trip that I'm about to go on with you guys is very special for three different reasons The first is this this will be my first ever Seminar in Norway, which is a neighboring country just next to Sweden meaning It only takes me like one hour to fly there Number two this will be the first karate seminar I ever teach at a Taekwondo Academy, which is super exciting for me But number three is the craziest one I will actually be right back here at the airport in exactly 12 hours Yes, this is a one-day trip where I will actually fly to Norway Teach a karate seminar at a taekwondo club then fly back all within 12 freaking hours All right karate nerds just landed in Oslo Norway now Let's see if anyone is here to meet me because the seminar starts in like one hour So I hope the sensei the head instructor of the dojo. His name is Henrik will be here waiting for me Hello sensei. Do you mind if I film a little bit? No problem, is this your daughter? Hello. Nice to meet you. What's your name? Sophia and you are Yeah, okay, no problem As you say with Korean instructors, it's the same in Japan you're not supposed to have several Instructors, you're only supposed to have one and then show something called giddy, which means loyalty And it's such a strong part of their cultural identity like the fabric of their whole society is based around loyalty and Following this one school or this one master or this one way no matter what way it is It doesn't have to be the martial arts can be anything So when a foreigner comes there we disrupt their their whole culture Yeah, we turn everything on its head. We go to different sensei's We want to learn what we want to learn because we see ourselves as individuals Yes, but they see themselves as a small part of a greater whole and to them the community is number one so I think that a lot of Japanese people and I have heard this from Japanese people. They're jealous They would love to be able to do what we're doing They admire us but at the same time they feel bad because they would love to do the same stuff that we're doing Exploring learning growing, you know sharing knowledge Cross-cultural referencing all of this is exactly the same in Korea. Yeah. Yeah, actually this summer I was sitting on the porch Three You go over and you push down boom and then you attack Yeah, you block and you go under with that. Yes, you go over push down and then you attack Bang block with the other hand on the inside. Yes I Bring it around here this hand now. I Extend it in that direction Huh, and if it hurts in your elbow, just feel free to tap Okay, I could grab your gi if I wanted to have an even firmer hold all I do is I extend my arm Okay, be careful. You don't want your shoulder or elbow to pop Now from this position is easy to control the person we can walk anywhere I could call the cops with my free hand if I needed or hey, there's something to grab here to just bring you down Easy takedown, and then you could finish them off if you need You punch me in the face I go whoa That's my Windmill rock one two three, okay, I go one two three Application many ways of fighting or you do two punches one punch two punch same thing There's no one right way to apply a move Many of the techniques of kata have been lost in the sands of time And so it's up to us to try to figure out how to apply them again different types of techniques exactly It's like when you have a pond when you have a body of water and there is no fresh input There's no stream and the water gets old the fish die. There's no oxygen in the water, you know You gotta have that renewal I have already planned like when I'm 80 years old. I will do my best to keep up with the 20 year olds. Yeah, keep learning keep growing I don't want to get left behind. It's like you say then you never grow old. Yeah You're always redeveloping Yeah, so you're motivated to keep going yeah And here we are right back where we first started this morning Before this epic trip to Norway It was so much fun And I'm so glad that you decided to come with me on my first seminar in Norway at this Taekwondo Club We actually had people from like seven or eight different karate styles attending plus like three or four Taekwondo types of styles like hapkido and tang sodo and you know that kind of stuff now I'm really tired. So I really need to get some sleep. Like we say in Japanese. Oh, yes to me. That's I good night