A poster sized flyer catches your eye as you walk past with the words “Martial Arts Seminar.” It prominently displays the face of that martial artist you respect and always hoped you could meet. It has a date and a time. At the bottom are the little pull tabs of paper with the host’s contact information. As you tear one off and put it in your pocket for future reference, you get excited.
Later in the day you get a chance to contact the host and realize you have no idea what the seminar is about. You don’t know anything about it other than you would get to meet the person who’s face caught your attention in the first place. Is that enough for you to sign up right away? Or does it matter what gets taught and how?
Maybe, instead of noticing someone else’s flyer, you are the person looking to host a seminar and you are trying to decide among a few potential instructors. Do you pick the instructor you think will draw the largest crowd or do you have other priorities? Seminars provide opportunities to learn and experience something.
Is it okay to get that selfie with the instructor as well? Usually, yes, but if that photo never happens, hopefully you will still get something out of the seminar. Knowing what type of martial arts seminar to attend can make all the difference. It can make the seminar more likely to be worth your time, effort, and expense.
Let’s look at four common types of seminars: Explore, Examine, Expand, and Express.
EXPLORE
The most exciting type of martial arts seminar for a lot of participants is when participants get to Explore. Exploration occurs when participants learn something completely new, something complete outside their experience. If the words “I always wanted to learn this but it isn’t a part of my style or never thought I could” ring true for the seminar, that is Exploration.
Participants go outside of their comfort zones. This can be scary and exciting at the same time. Successes and failures are both accepted and expected. Because students Explore outside the things they know, it becomes okay to fail in front of others. A good instructor will remind attendees of this idea ahead of time to lower stress levels from the beginning. A great instructor will then also have multiple ways to help everyone succeed and show growth.
Leaving an Exploration seminar happily thinking “I can’t believe I just did that!” signals a positive experience.
EXAMINE
The trickiest type of martial arts seminar to instruct and attend can be an Examine style seminar, but it can also be one of the most valuable. Examination, not to be confused with testing, often advertises a deep dive into a subject. The instructor typically possesses particular skill and maybe even notoriety with respect to what is being taught. Details matter a lot and an Examine seminar spends its time in the details.
This is where it gets tricky for students and instructors. Students ideally already have some familiarity with the subject being taught. When students know the basics, the instructor can spend more time on the finer details that really make a difference. When some students know a lot more than other students it can be challenging for an instructor to make sure everyone leaves feeling like it was a worthwhile experience, especially if the seminar never makes it past the basics.
Ideally, the seminar organizer will help to prevent this from happening. Advertising should make it clear that the goal is to dive into the details rather than to introduce something completely new. If there is enough interest and if that interest can be divided into groups of significantly different experience levels, the seminar organizer and the instructor should consider dividing the group into separate, and more focused, sessions. Time, space, and other logistical considerations may not make this possible, but if the opportunity is there, why not take it?
Be Prepared
What if a local school has students that would like to attend an Examine seminar but don’t have the base level knowledge and skill? In this case, the school instructors may decide to teach that material in the weeks leading up to the seminar to make the seminar more accessible. For students that already experienced the basics, having the chance to review prior to the seminar can also help the seminar be a better experience.
Leaving an Examine seminar with thoughts of “So that’s why I could never get that to work but now I can!” means it was the right seminar at the right time.
EXPAND
For students that have hit a plateau in their training or for those like what they are learning but just want something more, Expand style seminars can be good fit. This type of martial arts seminar builds on what the attendees already know and then runs with it. Expand seminar attendees are looking for answers to questions such as “What would you use this technique for outside of the training floor?” and “What would you do next?” The acknowledges that the attendees already know something about the subject and then shows that there is still more to learn about it as well.
One of the best questions to focus on at an Expand seminar is “Why?” Why is that next? Why do you do it that way? Said with the correct intention, it demonstrates a willingness to learn and to exchange. Be cautious of the attendee that doesn’t really want to Expand but instead wants begin interactions with phrases like “In my style…” or “My instructor says…” These students present one of the biggest challenges to instructors at an Expand type of martial arts seminar.
Leaving an Expand seminar with something new that compliments existing knowledge and skills or that fills in a gap in prior training is about as good as it gets.
EXPRESS
The last type of martial arts seminar for this discussion is Express. Expression is at times one of the hardest concepts to explain but is also at the core of the art portion of martial arts. While an Examine style of seminar focuses on details and the why’s of things, Expression seminars have the opportunity to focus on how You do things.
Did you notice the emphasis on You?
For Expression, you make the style your own in the moment. It isn’t about how your style throws a punch or executes a joint lock. What matters is how you throw the right punch at the right time. It may not be a textbook joint lock, but with your experience, you execute the best joint lock you can for your given situation. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of the hardest roll of your life or if you are shadow boxing in a corner. Expression is you using your art in the right way for you at that moment in time.
This is also why Expression seminars are extremely challenging to teach to more than a few people at a time. Everyone relates to their arts differently because everyone is unique. Expression isn’t about fitting into a mold. Expression is realizing that the mold is to give you a sense of direction, not step by step directions.
Leaving an Expression seminar with an increased awareness of how you relate to your art and how it integrates with you is about as good as it gets.
What Types of Martial Arts Seminar Should You Pick?
While the four types of martial arts seminars we looked at, Explore, Examine, Expand, and Express, cover a lot of seminars out there, many seminars will combine more than one type. I’ve mentioned a few seminars in my other articles about Why You Should Attend a Martial Arts Seminar but this time I’ll use fellow Martial Journal writer Craig Wharem as my example. He teaches from a variety of view points across all four types of martial arts seminars discussed in this article.
Thinking outside of box of single style can have benefits and Craig specializes in helping students break free of their personal boxes to become better martial artists. He has also set a personal goal to teach at least one seminar in each of the 50 states in the United States of America. Maybe his journey will help you or someone you know with theirs. To get a feel for what Craig has to offer, check out Martial Journal – Issue 2 or any of Craig’s other Martial Journal articles.
The effectiveness of combining types depends both on the instructor and on the participants. The instructor must pay attention to the students and the students need to put in some effort to achieve balance. Everyone needs to be present in the moment. That is when the learning happens and when memories get made.
And if you’re lucky, there may be enough time for that selfie after all. They always turn out better when everyone is happy and smiling anyway.
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