I originally posted this on Rick Wilson's excellent website last week -- it just occurred to me to share it here as well - very slightly edited - oops -
...Uechi in Vancouver
Uechi is still a relatively rare style - it sure doesn't show up in many cities across Canada in any case: so, I wanted to let everyone know that I spent a lovely evening training with a handful of guys on Boxing Day in Coquitlam.
Rob Kolenc has space in a local school where he and a handful of others, under the supervision of Stuart Killen, are operating a Uechi Dojo.
I enjoyed a three hour advanced class with four other black belts. I led the junbi-undo, Rob led the hojo-undo and then a robust fellow named Kai Heinonen led us all through a kata and conditioning class. Kai is a student of Jim Maloney and the flavour of the class very much leaned toward the generation of power and structural fluidity.
Two very interesting observations: Kai's way of moving more closely resembled the way Kanei Uechi appears to move in the old film clips than many other practitioners I've seen; and it also more closely resembled the way the Golden Eagle guys I work out with move -- and they hit really freaking hard! Very interesting - something to explore...
Just before class I was thrilled to share with Rob the kind of material David Mott includes in his classes - such as standing meditation and Uechi style coiling silk. Next time I'm out that way I look forward to sharing some of this material in class.
Having trained almost exclusively at Cold Mountain I often forget that including meditation in one's practice is not the norm.
It's such a big world out there and there are so many different ways of of interpreting the style I feel immensely fortunate to have been able to spend such an enriching evening with this hardworking group of fellow Uechi-ka!
Many thanks,
Chris
