MAP Meet 2018

We have arrived in Wycombe today. We had some trouble with the accommodation, but everything worked out in the end so we have done some exploring, too!
I am looking forward to the sessions and to swing you all in person tommorrow!

...our payment should have already gone through.

 

8:15
@chatter box and I have arrived!

 

She wouldn't let me have a lay-in!!

 

I'm on my way- stuck in traffic and likely to be late- but on my way nonetheless.

 

Fantastic day so far!
Big thank you to everyone involved in making today happen!

 

Awesome day. Thanks to everyone who joined the Muay Thai sessions. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and took a little something away from it all.

 

What a day!
Boxing session:
Basics, but beautifully done, and a much needed refresher after quite some time away from striking like that. Was lucky enough to get picked for several demonstrations, so got up close and personal with the coach. Had a few issues with changing my stance for it, as I seem to fight quite square on, but a really fun session!

Muay Thai:
I've only ever done a small amount of Thai, but the thing I'll be trying to take away from this is the technique for holding pads! Wonderfully explained for both striker and pad holder, and @Unreal Combat did a cracking job of getting round everyone individually.

Sanda:
I've competed in this, but for various reasons my training has been sporadic to non existent for the last 18 months or so. There were a couple of teaching differences from how I'd learnt it, but I certainly wouldn't take anything away from it, I thoroughly enjoyed the session, and @Ben Gash CLF was mega patient with me, and happy to talk about why he did things the way he did.

DJJ
Dunc Jiu Jitsu
Through my yoshin ryu, we share a lineage, (I'm not super hot on the history, couldn't tell you when it split etc), I recognised the majority of the stuff we did. Some of the little tweaks for a more self defence angle were interesting, hand placement and so on. The session had a nice flow, with everything linking into something else.

The atmosphere, as always, was incredible. It was really good to see some of you for the 2nd time, and meet more of you for the first! Had some impromptu grappling sessions, started learning how to spinning kick, and just generally jammed with people. A brilliant day for a good cause.

 

Glad you got something out of it dude. If you have any further questions feel free to shoot me a PM or just ask.

 

-Far too excited.

 

Had a totally awesome day yesterday. Great to see some old faces again from last year, as well as plenty of new faces.

Session #1 - Boxing Basics
So much was covered in this session, but yet there was so much detail included. Keith was able to explain, demonstrate and correct in a clear and concise manner. We covered basic stance, footwork, Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut, clinching and breaking out. From watching him move, you can see he clearly has the skills himself that he is teaching. If he runs a session again next year, I'll definitely be looking it up!

Session #2 - Traditional Japanese Weapons (Sword & Staff)
Who doesn't love swinging swords and sticks at each other's heads?? @Dunc broke down a series of drills into easy to digest segments, clearly showing the progression of attack to defence to attack and so on. It was great fun!

Session #3 - Sanda/SanShou
I'd been really looking forward to this session as thought it would really feed into my own Tai Chi practice, and Ben didn't disappoint! We covered a series of different entries and take-downs, both from kicks and from punches. Again, so much to take away from this session that I'm going to be dissecting it for weeks to come!

Session #4 - Sitting
Sadly I wasn't able to take part in either of the last sessions (BJJ, or Trips & Dumps) due to a flair up of my hip following the previous session. I did, however, enjoy watching both groups giving it everything they had, and really having fun.
Being able to watch the technicals of the BJJ up close, it was really interesting to be able to pick out all the little movements that added up to create these big effects on the opponent.
The Trips & Dumps session looked great, with everyone being thrown and dropped in some pretty stunning ways. From observing, I even managed to recognise a particular trip as a movement I've often questioned from my own Tai Chi form.

Anyone wondering whether or not to come next year - JUST DO IT! A brilliant day of training and having a laugh with a great gang of peeps. So much was on offer this year, I would be highly surprised if anyone didn't take something away from it.

Massive well-done, and thank you to the team for organising the event, and to all the instructors who gave up their time to showcase their arts!

 

Boxing
Awesome basics session. A lot of stuff I already knew but a great refresher none the less. I cannot stress how important it is to sometimes just go back to basics every now and then to reinforce them. I think what I took away from it the most though was the way Keith taught. Some really good tips given from a coaching perspective. Would definitely love to tap into his knowledge for some more coaching tips.

Sanshou
Well taught session with some genuinely good throws in there. Some similarity to Muay Thai with some of the kick catching but obvious differences in the method and technique for the scoring system used. It was really interesting to see this from a different scoring perspective. Good session.

Was teaching for two sessions so that's all I got around to trying, but from what I saw as I glanced over to the other groups, everyone was also having a great time with the weapons training and BJJ.