I attended the Arakan Sydney Night Club Seminar in June.
In one word for the experience, wow, unbelievable. That’s two words!
The most amazing thing about the nightclub seminar was the level of energy - with all of us students as well as the instructors from the beginning to the end, it just multiplied exponentially.
It was overseen by Master Rob, who amazes me every time I have had the pleasure of doing a seminar, group lesson or end of year celebration with him. His ability to read the level of where all the students attending is extraordinarily. Being able to push us, whilst maintaining a sense of control in amongst the madness, is outstanding.
I think I can speak for everyone on how appreciative I was of so many instructors coming interstate to attend the seminar. They arrived in all shapes and sizes, with big Tom and Anthony as security and the ladies; it provided such a great variety of feeding. A lot of whom we have never met before, however one of the wonderful things about Arakan is that we all seem to connect very easily. I think that there are a lot of like-minded individuals that both teach, as well as students like myself. We were pushed, we were sweating, the skills were learnt in such an intense environment and like I said, probably the most amazing thing for me was the level of intensity from the beginning to the end.
From the beginning we felt like we were walking in to an actual nightclub. The instructors were doing security at the top of the stairs, behaving like rowdy patrons on the way up the stairs. Someone was talking jackets and putting them in the cloakroom when we rocked in, because it was hammering down with rain in Sydney that Saturday morning.
The skills were amazing, some of which we haven’t used before. I’ve got to say, I was very intimidated by Nathan, Richy, the usual suspects. Initially they were putting it on us just a bit at the start of the seminar, however towards the end I certainly felt so much more confident to deal with the situation that was presented in the best way possible based on what Master Rob had taught us along the way, on how to deal with these situations.
To be able to work within that grey area so often, where an instructor was bailing you up and staunching you, whether or not to go, so it was great to actually be able to work in that grey area and try and figure out the best thing to do.
I would encourage any student at any level to attend nightclub seminar. I have only been doing Arakan for a couple years myself now, however whether I had just started or I envisage 10 years down the track, I will be chomping at the bit to do another Arakan nightclub seminar.
Big thanks to all the instructors that made it, big thanks to all of the students and last but not least Master Rob for providing such an incredible experience. I would actually call that one a bucket list and I’ve ticked it off but I want to do it again, so thank you!