The Martial Arts Seminar

A seed plot is an area of land that is designated for the growing of plants for transplanting. The seeds are sown, and proper care in their growth is taken over a period of time as they mature. While gardening and agriculture are important facets of our human experience and even an important skill for martial artists to acquire, we’re discussing the Latin term for a seed plot, which is the word ‘seminar’.

A seminar is a period of instruction that lasts longer than a lecture. It may be less intense in its progression, simply because it is a prolonged period of learning, and includes more student inquiry and discourse, which is exactly why it needs to take place. A lecture or class takes place in order for the student to receive material and practice it on a time-sensitive schedule with some guidance by instructors. A seminar, however, is a decidedly longer period of time for a group of engaged students to participate in in-depth, comprehensive study of said material; put differently, a seminar is not a sandwiched-in engagement, but the primary activity of the day (or weekend, depending on its duration).

Much like training camps and clinics for popular sports, seminars in martial arts training are of great importance to the serious devotee. Though traditional Asian practices are not as culturally ingrained in our North American society as hockey or baseball or soccer, the intention is the same; intensive focus on curriculum. It’s the chance to absorb a base of material that can be touched upon over following months, and even years in regular training sessions and classes.

A martial arts seminar is also an opportunity to authentically examine one’s own endurance in traditional martial practice. Though whisking away to a temple in order to dedicate weeks, months, or years to a discipline may not fit into one’s current life situation, seminars offer an idea and experience similar to that same undertaking; being in a mode. It is easy enough to dedicate an hour or two of being in that mode on a couple of days or nights a week, but committing the physical, mental, and spiritual efforts of a quarter, half, full day or more to training is entirely another.

Until next time,

Mr. Kenney McCoy, (Nidan)