Post by fleur on Jan 24, 2011 0:48:43 GMT
Hi, I'm simply too tired right now to write anything at great length but I wanted to let you know that the weekend seminar I attended with Andre Bertel this weekend was great.
He is such a lovely guy and OMG passionately crazy about his karate. He instructs in such a positive and supportive way, he never lets you feel like an idiot for not getting it.
My body hurts! And apparantely this was a very light technical training seminar because he has been really sick, (massive chest infection)like I mean they wanted to admit him to hospital this week but he promised them that he would say in his bed at home and take his drugs and be a good boy. His wife caught him after he was into his 5th kata around the bedroom before he was scolded and promptly ordered back to bed.
He was still very pale and dark around the eyes and chesty when he spoke but it didn't stop him - crazy stuff.
It was a really small class, around 8 students so really great! We went through extention when punching, relaxation, body rotation and pivoting, centering the core/balance, hip rotation - contraction and expantion or loading and releasing, lots of crazy exercises that pushed my girlfriend and I to the limit as we had never done them before, but we were always smiling. And we were taught a beautiful kata which I have to find out what the name of it is,(I must of said it 20 times and still cant recall) so that we could apply what we learnt in this kata as home practise and training.
Amazing stuff, amazing guy! What more can I say.
I have a couple of photos and video but I'm not sure yet how to load that. Cheers...
PS. A big thank you to Steve who mentioned Andre to me, which allowed me to find him and attend this seminar. ;D
He is such a lovely guy and OMG passionately crazy about his karate. He instructs in such a positive and supportive way, he never lets you feel like an idiot for not getting it.
My body hurts! And apparantely this was a very light technical training seminar because he has been really sick, (massive chest infection)like I mean they wanted to admit him to hospital this week but he promised them that he would say in his bed at home and take his drugs and be a good boy. His wife caught him after he was into his 5th kata around the bedroom before he was scolded and promptly ordered back to bed.
He was still very pale and dark around the eyes and chesty when he spoke but it didn't stop him - crazy stuff.
It was a really small class, around 8 students so really great! We went through extention when punching, relaxation, body rotation and pivoting, centering the core/balance, hip rotation - contraction and expantion or loading and releasing, lots of crazy exercises that pushed my girlfriend and I to the limit as we had never done them before, but we were always smiling. And we were taught a beautiful kata which I have to find out what the name of it is,(I must of said it 20 times and still cant recall) so that we could apply what we learnt in this kata as home practise and training.
Amazing stuff, amazing guy! What more can I say.
I have a couple of photos and video but I'm not sure yet how to load that. Cheers...
PS. A big thank you to Steve who mentioned Andre to me, which allowed me to find him and attend this seminar. ;D