Brazil Feb 2011

2011 February Brazil Trip

Belo Horizonte

Day One – Thursday 2/17
This was the second Brazilian Hek Ki Boen Instructor Candidate Program training session and also the second visit to Brazil by Grand Master Kenneth Lin.

The first HKB ICP training session was in Fortaleza in 2010, hosted by Sifu Alex Magnos. This first training session was more of a private setting than the 2011 training.

Grand Master Lin and I arrived on Thursday, February 17th. Belo Horizonte is the 3rd largest city in Brazil – and is more of an interiorly located city, in a more mountainous region that I have seen in Brazil to date.

This year’s training was hosted by Elisson Almeida, Erik Alvarenga, and Jason DaSilva joined by Alex Magnos and Daniel Jaeger. They took us to nice restaurants for lunch and dinner, with dinner consisting of the famous Brazilian Barbecue.

The plan of the day was for private, individual evaluations and one-on-one assessments directly with the Grand Master. The remainder of the evening was focused on discussion of professional matters, and developing a first-rate training system in Brazil.

This event was also the second ICP training session this year in which both Grand Master Lin and I took the time to cover professional development of HKB instructors, professional instruction and communication methods, ways to communicate the benefits of the martial arts to the general public, and student development and retention methods. The ICP is more than just a martial arts training program – the goal is to develop a completely professional instructor, educated in all aspects of running a successful, professional school and a well-educated and capable martial artist. These two goals – a professional instructor and a well-skills martial artist – are complete in balance with each other. All too often, instructors focus on the martial arts and let the student service suffer or focus on the student service and let the quality of the training suffer. Our approach is to balance these two areas in a professional setting for our students and members. On this first night, we also discussed the depth of the HKB system – a complete system which allows for multiple programs for the general public without mixing “styles,” needing multiple approaches, or creating conflicting identities within a single school. This depth gives one consistent approach to training in HKB schools, throughout the family, throughout the entire world.

We concluded the first time around 12:30am.

Day Two – Friday 2/18
This was the first full day of ICP training. Session One ran from 10a to 2p, with a lunch break. Session Two ran from 3:30 to 7:30, and then we took a short break from the intense physical ICP training. From 8p to 11:30p we covered professional development for instructors in the area of business systems and marketing. We didn’t eat dinner until midnight. The day also included personal training time between Grand Master Lin and me (Instructor Program training).

Day Three – Saturday 2/19
Today started at 10a, but featured a public seminar instead of only ICP training. After a formal introduction of Grand Master Lin and myself, I started with an introduction to the background, history, and philosophy of HKB. There are many descendants of Wing Chun today, which primarily come from the two Secret Society Flags: Red Flag and Black Flag. Both traditions share the Wing Chun Formula, the use of Economy of Motion based on Time and Space. Within the Black Flag, the unique focus is on maximizing the skill of energy use. This is why HKB begins with the San Chien Po (Sam Jin Bo) form first instead of the Siu Lin Tau form first.

Topics covered included the Three Battle Steps form, Bridge Hand, Sticking Hands, and Skill Challenge. The seminar concluded with an open Q&A session. The seminar was so well received; there were great testimonies share by the participants. Most of them really enjoy the hard core intense training of HKB in addition to the details in concepts. Grand Master Lin was so surprised and excited by the quality of testimonials, that he decided to give extra hours of private training for the best feedback right on the spot.

The seminar officially ended at 6:30p, followed immediately by ICP training for three hours. We stopped to have dinner at a nice mall. We then discussed professional topics from 9:45p to 1a.

Day Four – Sunday 2/20
The started with the business and marketing discussions first from 10:30a to 2:30p, followed by ICP training from 2:30p to 5p. Even though the time was short, the training was intense – by the end of this session, there was literally no possibility of continuing the training. The ICP members worked their hardest at the skill challenge training, and their arms were in no condition to continue. There spirit were strong but their body reach its limits. This is common in HKB training. GM Lin always push to the limits. Module one thru eight was accomplished this time. All five ICP members did a great job and everyone got to know each other and the Grand Master better.

The hosts were great – they even planned a site seeing schedule for Grand Master Lin and I, but – due to the focused schedule and amount of material the Grand Master wanted to cover – we did not have time to go site-seeing on this trip. The food was great, Grand Master Lin complimenting that on this trip he had some of the best steak he’s had in his entire life. I enjoyed the trip for the fact that there are five dedicated individuals that see the treasure of HKB and are willing to go out of their way to learn this great system. They will set the example for all those that follow! Slowly but surely, the HKB seed is being planted throughout the world.

I am also grateful to Grand Master Lin for the additional one-on-one Instructor Training time. As an IP member, I am excited for the future path of all ICP members – HKB is truly a great, deep, and beautiful system.

The next Brazilian ICP training session will be in June 2011.