2016 REPORTS | north american & international black belt conference

North american & International Black belt conference

October 7-9, 2016

From October 7-9, 2016 the 10th North American & International Black Belt Conference was held in Banff, Canada. Guest instructors were International Committee member Shihan Kenny Uytenbogaart from South Africa and 7th World Open Champion Shihan Francisco Filho from Brazil.
 
The conference continues to attract attendees from all over North America and around the Globe. Sempai’s Richard Barkman, Isabelle Godin, Steve Antonchuk and myself attended the conference from Calgary, which covered an array of training.
 
The sessions led by Shihan Filho concentrated on kihon, advanced ido geiko, kick boxing combinations and kata. Overall he spoke of the importance of Kihon and how all training relates to fighting and the mindset one must adopt to be successful in one’s daily life.
 
The sessions led by Shihan Uytenbogaart concentrated also on Kihon (including morotte techniques), movement (and using the tanden), self-defence techniques and finally a complete break down of the body mechanics of the basic reverse punch.
 
Shihan Stuart Corrigal also led two training sessions. One was at the top of tunnel mountain which covered some basic Kihon and fighting combinations and the other involved the incorporation of Zanshin into the different components of basic training.
 
The weekend concluded with a wonderful dinner along with some special presentations to the invited guests and some Dan certificate presentations.
 
A huge thank you goes out to all who helped organize this conference and to all the members of the IKOKC for your continued support of our organization for which events like this would just not be possible.
 
OSU!!!