Review of Ben Cole "Playing with your stick and balls" Seminar; Houston, Texas November 2005 I know, but better a little late than never. Well, the seminar was, in my eyes at least, a wonderful success. The turn out was pretty good, hopefully enough people to make it worth Ben's time, but I know it was small enough to allow Ben to spend a few minutes with everyone. The idea behind the seminar was for Ben to share his way of "Seeing" the space (Kukan) that is integral to the way we practice our art. Ben sees this space in the shape of spheres. Spheres that he uses to manipulate his uke, or that he manipulates in order to control his uke. Keeping in mind that Ben was trying to compress a few years of classroom training and personal experience into a few hours, the pace was pretty quick. I'm not going to try and go into the exercises that we did, if you want to know more about them, contact Ben to give a seminar in your area. You'll be glad you did. What he did give us to take with us, were the tools needed to continue the training in and out of class. To sum it up, visualize the space around you and your uke as being composed of spheres. Large, small, medium. On the ground and floating around. Now, visualize moving your body or your uke's body around the spheres. Large, graceful curves and small tennis ball size arcs. You pull and push various parts of your uke onto this spheres and you control where they go from there. Pull his hips onto one and the move him around the outside of it, watch him fly! Bring his hand around large one and then change the direction around a smaller one, whoops! There he goes. Throws that seem like they should be impossible to do, because they defy the generally accepted practice of taking the balance, now happen with apparent ease. At least on Ben's part. Me, I'm still working on it. All in all, I came away with lots of ideas and tools for class. I've also started to "see" these "balls" a bit more easily. Of course, I have to make a conscious effort to, but they are there all the time. Now, I know what to look for. Thank you Ben, for a wonderful time and for sharing your knowledge with us.
What better place to play with your balls than at a seminar....or has someone already done that joke?
Im interested in the level of abilty at the seminar. We're there many begginers and kyu grades? Did they benifit as much as you did? Woul you say it is a concept that is usefull to think about from the beggining of your training or just best to forget about it until it becomes apparent.
I attended Ben's "Stick and Balls" seminar in NYC a couple months back, and as a beginner I think I got MORE out of it that the more senior people, primarily because my future training (incl. the fundamentals) is informed by Ben's concepts. Plus, anyone can "see" the balls, so (at least during the NYC seminar) it wasn't the case the the higher ranked folks got it, while the beginner sat in frustration. It was applicable at all levels. The above is limited by the caveat that I am a total beginner. Mr. Cole and others can feel free to tell me I'm wrong and that I didn't get it.
I agree that it is applicable to all levels of training. (Personal opinion from here out) However, I don't think we "got it". I don't think Ben was planning on us getting it, form one seminar. Rather, I believe he was hoping we;d take with us the lessons and tools he gave us and continue to use them and practice them until we do get it. Yeah, I saw them during the seminar, but as I stated earlier, I don't see them all the time. I have to look for them and visualize them. They don't just "jump" out at me. Yet. I do notice them more and more and not just around people, but I'm starting to notice them around all movement. I think anyone, regardless of experience or skill level can't benefit greatly from this seminar. It was totally cool. Especially the whole grabbing with the elbow thing.... if you have Ben do a seminar and he gets to the elbow, voulunteer to be uke. It's too cool.
Got Balls? Thanks so much for the kind words, Brad and Lester. I am glad to hear that I was not determined "insane" for insisting that these balls exist. Precisely. As I stated at the seminar, I try to give people TOOLS that they can use in order to improve. If you have the right tools AND you have the right "eyes to see", then you are in very good shape. Yes! Ben's balls are big and small, floating and rolling, all around you!!!! LOL! Perhaps I am getting too excited talking about my balls again. All joking aside, I do get excited when other people get excited about this stuff. Despite what anyone says, in the end, we train because it is fun! If I can help people to enjoy themselves and see the art with new and improved eyes, I have served my purpose as a Shidoshi. After the seminar in Houston, we went out for dinner then for billiards. Hanging on the wall at the latter establishment was a T-shirt that just screamed at me and those from the seminar who had come along. It read simply: Got Balls? -ben
