Constructive Criticism of UechiCon, Graduation and Master’s Testing
Uechi Convention -
Felt it was one of our best events
This year's overall format was great!
The Uechi Con website was the best yet!
Banquet in the armory was a great idea!
Put Andre Tippett on his own time!
The presentation of different banners, pictures, and information during the event was very professional.
Smaller rooms so can hear the instructor and see more;
not in the big room where two or three things are going on all at once which makes it hard to hear and focus on the seminar you are attending;
love that the sessions were longer;
loved that the instructors did not try to teach too many things but stayed on 2-3 main themes. That should be reinforced to next year's presenters. I would rather master of one or two new things rather than try memorize a flutter of many
Communication was much better.
As soon as I go to the next session I forget what I learned. Videos of the basics from each presenter would be helpful.
Fully support the three day Uechi-con
Let’s push for more Juniors next year.
The number and quality of presenters were outstanding Having so many martial arts organizations willing and performing very well during their presentations... for the most part everyone’s ego was left at the door!
It would be helpful to go beyond offering basic techniques in a 45 minutes to 1 hour workshop. Even if we included a follow-up time slot for participants to work with the presenters a little more.
I thought the program was exciting with new presenters “Andre Tippett” as well as experienced presenters “George.”
Since we had more rooms it was a bit confusing know to where the rooms were.
The doors between the rooms should be marked not for use.
Would like more 10 Dan and higher instructors on Saturdays' list to teach.
The lunch arrangement was a hit or miss event - Understanding where and how to get the lunch packages and what food selections was available was a challenge!
Would like to see (not sure how this is to be done, BTW) the master’s testing be under an hour.
Would like to see the diploma hand-off be more streamlined at the end of graduation. Perhaps designating areas for each dojo so that students know exactly where to go beforehand. This could lead to an easier transition to end the day. Plus, it would give us a better opportunity to take some pictures with our students.
One of the more common pieces of feedback I heard was that people wanted to see more information on the bio of the teachers and what they would be teaching.
It would be neat to see one designated time slot and teacher cover Uechi application from kata. This particular workshop or seminar should be highlighted and scheduled for a longer time slot due to the fact that 90% of the participants are Uechi ryu practitioners. This workshop should definitely be on Saturday.
Regarding graduation, I would like to see Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseiryu, and Dan Kumite performed. No skits—just kata and kumite performed at a high level!
The dragon dance and drumming has gotten old!
the book signing is a very big hit, unfortunately it takes up a very long time. Perhaps it can be done in two (2) schedule time slots ove a two day period?
As an alternative option, we should consider keeping the graduation on Saturday, leaving Sunday as a more relaxing training day. This would be especially nice for the senior and facilitators running the event as they will have less on their shoulders and can focus on learning. It also would have them running the graduation while less exhausted from the weekend. We could hold the master test and banquet Friday night as we have in the past.
Realizing the challenge with the number of presenters we historically have. I would be a good idea to have only a couple of presenters for the last session of the day, as some people get tired and don't train for the last session. This worked well for the last Saturday seminar that Dan Dovidio ran where he had the whole adult group.
Black Belt Testing thoughts for this upcoming test
Better bowing-looking at the board -and stronger starts to the katas
Knowing the significance of the many parts and movements of the kata they are doing.
What are they doing?
Why are they doing it?
How do you do it?
Those are critical questions and I feel a candidate should be able to articulate and answer because it shows they understand the kata and not just memorizing a pattern of movements
Also, knowing the target of their strikes and kicks. Too often I see the movement but no real application of what the movement is for. Punches go out in a rush so they can go to the next movement but have no effect and are not on any real target.
Would like to see a higher level of professionalism from the candidates at the review. i.e. pressed gis with patches; more of a hustle to get to the board.
Would like to see the adult students have a better grasp of Sanchin principles such as stance foundation/grounding and body mechanics/leverage.
Would like to see more intend with the attacks for kumite and bunkai. During the review portion of the adult testing, many strikes were more placements than attacks (obviously with bunkai there is less here for the test). Kicks especially looked like they were being thrown without a focused target. Defense against kicks for the kumite also needs to be stronger as some blocks were unrealistic in how they would work against a non-cooperative attacker.