This was my second time attending a seminar with Howard Popkin and the only disappointment I came away with was that the time between each opportunity is as long as it is…
Howard has a confident yet quiet delivery and whilst he is friendly, open and safe in his delivery of the content I was left in no doubt of his martial prowess and technical capability.
The prime rules that we were given at the beginning were essentially “don’t hurt/get hurt” and “enjoy yourselves” – by the end of the weekend I think all in attendance would agree that the established goals were reached!
Hurting people is easy, damaging people is also easy, frighteningly so; the flip-side of this, being able to move/affect/unbalance someone with minimal effort and with such softness that the person is unbalanced before they register that it’s happened is very difficult to do well but Howard makes it seem effortless.
The class was pitched to a group with diverse experience levels and backgrounds with a perfect degree of complexity; never seeming to leave people so far out of their depth as to be completely bewildered, though difficult enough to keep everyone having to work at the material to make progress.
Whilst Howard is very open I get the distinct impression that, as fascinating and enlightening as a weekend seminar with him is, we merely scratched the surface of the quality teaching that Howard has to offer; I for one look forward to the next chance to train with him.