Dragon Tang Soo Do

Zara’s Seminar

After the repeated enthusiasm that Master White had put forward for the Zara Seminar at the Open Championships, my hopes were built up and I was not disappointed. The seminar itself was worth every penny, should the same seminar be done at any time next year, I encourage you all to go it should not be missed. Book the day off work in necessary! (And just to be on the safe side take the next 3 days off for recovery!) There were several Stokers wielding numerous bruises and I myself had a trophy of a bruise from Sabrina literally kicking my bum and several other areas!

Zara Phythian is an amazing martial artist, she is by far the best role model for women that I have met. Her team of screen fighters, trainers and film crew were kind and very encouraging.

The seminar was a tightly packed and intense session. The workout was hard but energizing, you felt pushed to your limit but enjoyed every second of it. It was not strict and if you needed a breather you were encouraged at any time to stop take a drink and recover if needed.

A personal favourite part of the seminar was the push ups race! Two lines of incredibly tired and warn out martial arts students doing push ups and moving up the hall in a race against each other! After performing the much tiring push up race, we then faced a further challenge of push up and sit up race! It was fast paced, intense and I think at one point I actually lost the will to stand up.

After the infuriating hard work, we were opened up to Screen fighting. Never before have I wanted to do screen fighting, so thanks to Zara and the crew for opening up the world of action screen fighting to me and the others! This was a lot of fun we all had a great laugh, even at the expense of others. For example Carolyn punching Warren! Blood was spilt but it was very entertaining and in good (almost harmless) nature.

At the end of the seminar Zara lined up for photos and autographs. At which point yours truly asked for Zara to sign the do’bok and then my chest!

Zara Phythian’s Seminar – Awesome? I think so.

Tang Soo!

Tristan Butler

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