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Unknown
every serious practitioner has had this experience. You come home from a seminar confused. Your technique feels worse than when you left and you can't fully explain what you spent three days doing. This is not a problem. This is the seminar working. So let's jump into this. I had a student one time who went to a seminar, and after the seminar he was like, oh my gosh, I know nothing.
00;00;30;12 - 00;00;54;23
Unknown
I, you know, and I said, great, great. Now you can relearn. You can rebuild everything. And it wasn't true that he knew nothing. But of course, he just felt that way because the teacher had said some things that contradicted some of the details that his own teacher said and had taught him.
00;00;54;23 - 00;01;05;25
Unknown
Let's take a look at what seminars are actually doing to your training. What really happens and how does it impact the participants? So
00;01;05;25 - 00;01;25;01
Unknown
let's be honest here. Some people go to seminars mainly to socialize, to see their friends. And the training is secondary. If that's you, that's okay. At least you're going. My hope is that you would make those equal.
00;01;25;03 - 00;01;41;09
Unknown
Or maybe the training primary and the socializing secondary, or at least equal. So if you're going to a seminar and you really count the training as the primary reason, then
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Unknown
it can overload your nervous system. In a way,
00;01;45;12 - 00;01;58;03
Unknown
it introduces information that you're nervous system doesn't get a lot of time to process, because then it's the next class and the next class in the next class, in the next class.
00;01;58;05 - 00;01;59;02
Unknown
And
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Unknown
in the next class, the teacher is on to the next thing, or sometimes even within the class that you're in on to the next thing. And that teacher has been working on this concept for years or months, most likely years. And so they've really developed it, embodied it, and you're behind, even if that teacher picks one concept or principle and explores it for an hour.
00;02;29;05 - 00;02;33;02
Unknown
That teacher most likely has been exploring it for years.
00;02;33;02 - 00;03;11;02
Unknown
So your nervous system is is getting overloaded. You have one hour to soak up ten years that they've distilled down into that one hour. So that's super interesting. Feeling confused or worse. After the seminar or after the class actually means that something got in. And so if you're a really diligent student or really serious about the training at the seminar that you go to, you can it can hit you even harder than the people
00;03;11;02 - 00;03;13;16
Unknown
Who go to seminars kind of lightly,
00;03;13;17 - 00;03;16;19
Unknown
who go more just for the social reasons.
00;03;16;22 - 00;03;24;18
Unknown
So that means that the seminar is doing its job. Something went into your brain and your body.
00;03;24;20 - 00;03;43;11
Unknown
what you're able to verbalize the week after the seminar, it's almost never what you actually absorbed. So I think we all have had challenges explaining to people what Aikido is, and I myself have gotten a little bit better at that.
00;03;43;12 - 00;04;04;17
Unknown
But still, it's a challenge for someone who's never done it. Just like golf. It's not that it's mystical or anything, but you know, if you were to explain to me how to swing in golf club, the explanation would be helpful. If you were like a really good golfer and a really good golf teacher, then your explanation would be helpful, I'm sure.
00;04;04;20 - 00;04;31;02
Unknown
But I'm still missing something until I've actually tried it. So that's what I'm saying. You absorbed a bunch of stuff at the seminar, a bunch of new information, and you tried it on and you felt it in your body. Then you come home to people who have never done it. Never. Maybe never seen that teacher do those techniques in that way.
00;04;31;02 - 00;04;36;26
Unknown
And you try to explain it. Oh my gosh. So it's difficult to impossible.
00;04;36;27 - 00;05;05;13
Unknown
One of the most common mistakes that practitioners make after a seminar is trying to apply what they saw and what they experienced before the body has had time to integrate it. So sure you should. You should keep working with this stuff. You go back to your own dojo, and let's say that your teacher is doing something very similar to what the seminar teacher was doing, and
00;05;05;13 - 00;05;12;28
Unknown
what the seminar teacher was was encouraging you to do was notice something internal.
00;05;13;01 - 00;05;31;24
Unknown
Well, you can still keep exactly the form that your own teacher is teaching in, but notice what's inside and remember what the what the teacher was doing at the seminar. But if you try to change everything and go against what
00;05;31;25 - 00;05;41;11
Unknown
you're working on in your class at your home dojo, that can be a recipe for disaster in numerous ways.
00;05;41;11 - 00;06;06;19
Unknown
Another common mistake that people make after a seminar is they go home, they try it. It doesn't work. Oh, this doesn't work. So that teachers Aikido doesn't work, right? I went to Lia Suzuki's Aikido seminar, and I came back to my own dojo and tried it, and none of that stuff worked. So her aikido doesn't work. Well, wait a minute.
00;06;06;19 - 00;06;12;21
Unknown
Did that teacher throw you? Did that teacher throw some other people? Did it work in that seminar?
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Unknown
Maybe there's something there.
00;06;15;03 - 00;06;17;02
Unknown
You know, if you try on a shirt
00;06;17;02 - 00;06;35;27
Unknown
sometimes, you know, right away. Oh, wow, I like this. I'm buying this. You try on another shirt like, oh, this is terrible. I'm not buying this. No, I don't like this at all. Try it on another one. Oh, maybe. Oh, well, let's let's look at it from the side. I think I kind of like.
00;06;35;28 - 00;06;41;07
Unknown
Wait, let me try this other one. Also compare it. So sometimes it takes a little while
00;06;41;07 - 00;06;57;00
Unknown
to see how it feels, especially with an Aikido technique. Not the shirt is a little bit different, but maybe a good metaphor, hopefully. But with an Aikido technique, it's all about how it's going to feel in your body and then how it's going to feel on other people's bodies.
00;06;57;00 - 00;07;21;18
Unknown
And if you're trying it. After after doing it just three days and then you come back to people who aren't used to that and you try it and then you make your verdict immediately. It's too early because first of all, you haven't gotten good at that movement yet. You just tried it at the seminar. You can't get good at it like that, so you can't judge it yet.
00;07;21;18 - 00;07;22;28
Unknown
Also,
00;07;23;01 - 00;07;27;12
Unknown
for example, if I go to a seminar and it's taught by somebody who's huge,
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Unknown
I'm five feet, four inches and about 130 pounds, so
00;07;32;21 - 00;07;46;26
Unknown
I'm not going to be able to do everything exactly the way somebody who's six foot six, 250 pounds, I'm not going to be able to do things exactly the same way that they do them.
00;07;46;29 - 00;07;55;00
Unknown
They're going to have their knees bent more when they go to a certain depth. I don't need to bend my knees quite as much
00;07;55;03 - 00;08;11;04
Unknown
I can come up with a lot of examples how we need to be different if our size is different. So when you try something on at a seminar, don't make your verdict immediately afterwards.
00;08;11;06 - 00;08;21;22
Unknown
Try it and try it again. Try it with this person, try it with that person. Maybe go to another seminar with that instructor if if it was intriguing to you.
00;08;21;22 - 00;08;36;19
Unknown
Speaking of seminars, I'll be teaching in Shanghai and just a few days. Then I'll be teaching a seminar in San Diego September 4th through sixth. And then I'm taking a small group through four cities in Germany
00;08;36;19 - 00;08;41;11
Unknown
it'll be September 14th through 27th,
00;08;41;13 - 00;09;04;03
Unknown
Heidelberg, Bonn, Dusseldorf and Sehnde And there will be off the mat training as well as on the mat training. So we'll have some special breakout classes, some instruction and discussion between cities and it'll be a fantastic opportunity. So please join me and you can jump on the waitlist.
00;09;04;03 - 00;09;06;16
Unknown
There's a link in the description below.
00;09;06;19 - 00;09;24;23
Unknown
Getting back to this idea of the mistakes. So the other mistake that people often make is just talking about what the instructor did and this cool idea, cool movement, whatever. Talk about it instead of training it.
00;09;24;23 - 00;09;30;02
Unknown
it's kind of the opposite of the of the previous mistake. So give it a try.
00;09;30;02 - 00;09;38;07
Unknown
Continue training with it before you come to your decision about whether it was beneficial to you or not.
00;09;38;07 - 00;09;58;16
Unknown
So what should you do? Here's what I recommend. Go back to the dojo the next day after the seminar, and just follow along with your sensei and train what you already know and notice what feels different. Do all the stuff that you normally do, but
00;09;58;16 - 00;10;02;00
Unknown
Check with yourself to see if there's a difference in your body.
00;10;02;01 - 00;10;02;29
Unknown
Also
00;10;03;00 - 00;10;23;03
Unknown
see if your partner's comment. Do any of your partners say, oh, you seem different? Even the ones, or especially the ones who don't know that you were at a seminar? Are they saying, wow, you feel so different today or you seem different or whatever? And if it's positive or negative, you know, ask them, oh, in what way?
00;10;23;06 - 00;10;27;18
Unknown
And if they notice a positive change, then that's fantastic.
00;10;27;18 - 00;10;51;18
Unknown
So notice what's different. And hopefully something is different. So in a way the seminar still happening inside of you. You're still processing this not just mentally but physically as well. So your job is to keep showing up, keep training while you're digesting everything.
00;10;51;20 - 00;10;59;00
Unknown
Don't take a week off to get to get over the seminar to recover physically from the seminar.
00;10;59;01 - 00;11;27;21
Unknown
Go go to the dojo. So the full effect of a good seminar is often not visible until 3 to 6 months later. And if you keep that up, then people are going to to notice like, oh wow. What's going on? You feel so different. And sometimes it's like somebody flipped a switch. It's really amazing. It's cumulative. And suddenly people start to notice at the same time and it's a delayed reaction.
00;11;27;27 - 00;11;51;12
Unknown
So in conclusion, the seminar is the beginning of a conversation with your own training. The answer comes later on the mat in your own dojo with your own body, but it does take time. Check the link in the description below. Get on the waitlist for the Germany tour and I hope you join me. See you then. Bye bye.
