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 Sensei Evans and myself traveled to attend an instructor training event hosted by Sensei Sonny Kim at his dojo in Cincinnati, Ohio. At some point I didn't’t think we would actually get there due to the inclement weather. Snow, sleet and ice making the going slow between Champaign and Indianapolis, and nearly all the way into Ohio.
Having got to Cincinnati, we were warmly welcomed by Sensei Kim and invited into the dojo. Sensei Kim has recently joined the WTKO and it was an ideal opportunity to meet and train at his dojo.
Sensei Evans and sensei Kim had known each other for some time, and had trained under the same instructors in the past. After showing us to the hotel and taking both myself and sensei Evans to dinner, sensei Kim joined us back at the hotel to relax. Sensei Kim said he would come back the next morning for a light breakfast and take us on to the dojo.
The training was broken up into two sessions, one for black belts and one as an open event for all ranks. The black belt session consisted of some light warm up kihon in which all attendees called out a particular technique up the mat and a different one back. After several times up and down we moved on to kata. Each person called out the timing of the selected kata as everyone else followed.
 After, there were teaching- points to go over for each particular kata demonstrated. A small water break followed as the second session attendees started to file in.
Sensei Evans started by demonstrating the ‘chambering’ effect in the back leg by not allowing the heel come off the ground and pivoting on the ball of the foot, but rather keep the heel flat on the floor and thus eliminating any wasted movement. Sensei Evans demonstrated this by some one step sparring with one of sensei Kim’s students. The ease of movement was amply demonstrated by sensei Kim’s student not being able to land a counter attack without being hit himself!
Next we moved on to some two step sparring utilizing the heel pivot and counter attacking before actually stepping back into a kamae stance. Again the ease of movement made a telling difference in being able to launch an effective counter attack.
Sensei Kim took charge for a while and worked on some body shifting drills and followed up by kata, in which senior grades did their kata while the junior grades watched and then vice versa.
After about three and a half hours, the seminar was called to a halt, and pictures taken.
I would like to extend my thanks the sensei Kim and his students for making us feel very welcome at the dojo, hopefully we will have more times in the future to meet and train again.
Steve Harvey, 3rd dan.
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