Instructor:Kacem Zoughari
Where:Hemel Hempstead
Theme:Gyokko Ryu Kosshijutsu and Gekito
Ikimassho, alons y, lets begin. Japanese, French
and English. Well he did it again a Japanese art
taught by a French person in perfect English.
Kacem Zoughari spent the weekend in Hemel Hempstead
giving all an insight into Gyokko Ryu Kosshijutsu
and Sword. The seminar was hosted by Sandy Marwick
(thank you Sandy).
A fantastic weekend. Thank you Kacem.
What was taught? Well Kacem started by explaining
what makes a school Koryu and an explanation into
how he was going to teach differently from the
past.
It is incredible what this man knows and offers
and no one should miss it.
Kacem took two techniques from the densho and
expanded upon them showing us all that there are
no secrets just good practise. He explained how
kamae enable us to do techniques and some of the
ways in which we can use the sword. He also did
several Gyokko Ryu Sword techniques (yes techniques
that are specifically sword vs sword and not mutodori),
he explained it is known as gekito.
The weekend was great in that I was able to train
with other students. Thank you, Caitlin, Wendi,
Lee, Warren and Mark. Much was learnt from these
individuals who have trained many times with Kacem
and were able to give a further insight. Kacem
himself came around explaining something to everyone,
a very rare thing in seminars, I hear.
The sword work left me with a lot of questions
and some answers.
I was able to have an interview with Kacem and
this will be transcribed soon (click here when
a link is established).
Some very popular misconceptions were cleared
up by some of the instructors.
In the evening I was lucky to spend time talking
to several martial friends who were able to tell
me some of the stories they were told on other
seminars. It was also a time to catch up and discuss
the day and some intricate details. It is interesting
what different people saw. It truly is appropriate
that Kacem explained a story about Toda sensei
and Takamatsu sensei and an iai lesson. Thank
you for the evening Richard and William.
Hemel Hempstead has an interesting set up with
the magic roundabout. You have to use it to understand
what I mean.
Sunday was equally intensive with just as much
explanation into the sword and Gyokko Ryu. I was
also able to have some Amatsu Tatara techniques
explained to me thank you Alex.
Kacem's ability shows you what you need to do
and again he was kind enough to offer me some
exercises to practice.
It is interesting that people say certain things
in training are useless but it is usually those
that cannot do these things that state this. Only
when you are 70+ years and are classed as the
Grandmaster can you say this.
What does Kacem posess. Knowledge ability capacity
enthusiasm motivation....you know the drill
Skill ability knowledge and capacity interesting
huh!
So in ending what is Gyokko Ryu? Well a koryu
school has lots of information. Explore and you
will find. Just don’t ask me how to explore.
