This weekend marked our trip to Saint Louis for a seminar with Sensei James Yabe. Actually, it was a series of four seminars. However I am counting it as one workout because it never really stopped for very long.
What can I say about this man… in his sixties, Sensei Yabe can punch faster than anyone (even those half their age). He apologizes for his lack of being able to perform proper stance in one breath, and in the next he’s down in a back stance that is lower than anyone else in the room. His teaching style is so friendly and conversational after only a few workouts you feel like you’ve known him for years. I can probably encapsulate the whole experience in one word: inspiring.
I found some very interesting insights from the seminars dealing with body stability and positioning. I also really enjoyed the seminar on Kanku Sho. I hadn’t really been through that kata formally before and I can think of no better person to learn this kata from. Sensei Yabe mentioned that he doesn’t get to teach kata very much so it was a treat for him to be able to share something like this with us.
From what I gather from his teaching style, Sensei Yabe is a very kind and complimentary person. He would always use positive reinforcement in making his corrections, citing something that you were doing well and then a suggestion on how to fix it. I got a few such corrections, and a few extremely humbling comments from him throughout the course of the workout.
During the first workout when we were working on punching speed, he came around in front of me and told me that I had good power and speed, but I could be faster if I relaxed just a little more and lost a little bit of extra motion in my body. This was one of the “compliment something, then correct something” style corrections that he was making all day.
During the third seminar, Sensei Yabe made a somewhat confusing comment to me midway through the session. We were doing techniques up and down the gym floor and he walked over, watched me for a count or two and then said “I’m sure you are very good at karate.” I asked him what he had said, because I was sure I heard something wrong there. He repeated the same comment, adding… “Very strong and fast.” He slapped me lightly on the stomach as he headed on down to the next person. My reply was “Thank you, Sensei! Osu!”
During the next few counts, I spent a little time trying to figure out how exactly I wrangle my brain around into taking a compliment of this nature from an 8th degree black belt. What a humbling feeling.
Part of me chalked this up to me not understanding Sensei’s meaning… he has a pretty sharp sense of humor and it was a little hard to tell if he was kidding about something. Then it happened again, during the last seminar. Again, we were doing combinations up and down the floor. He stops in front of me and says “You have good speed and good power. You have great potential.” Then he continued on down the line.
After the seminar we posed for some pictures with Sensei Yabe and I took some time to shake his hand and thank him for the experience. He told me that I was very welcome and he’s sure that I have a lot of potential and will go very far in karate.
A few other dojomates of mine echoed additional stories of glowing praise. I think it speaks a lot for the merit Sensei Brewer and Sensei Hartman’s teaching that we turned out good enough for someone of Sensei Yabe’s caliber to say something.
I loved these sessions. They were physically intense, mentally stimulating, and the way they were structred still left you feeling good at the end. I woke up this morning sore in almost every part of my body. Last year at this time, I had a similar experience waking up the next morning. I felt like I learned a lot about how posture affects the speed and power of technique and how to apply that power in sparring. I also learned some intimate details about Kanku Sho that I hadn’t known/realized before. All in all it was 5 hours and $45 extremely well spent.
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