M
y fellow Martial Artists, I would like to take the opportunity, if I may, to tell you all about a martial arts event we have here in the UK 4 times a year. They are known simply as The Gatherings.
The Gathering of the Masters started years ago at two different locations and under two different sets of instructors. Let’s start with Neil Kirkland, and his Adaptive Martial Arts UK & Ireland group. Around 2010, Neil started holding seminars with his good friend Sensei “Mad Robbie Woodard” in Welwyn Garden City (By London) and at his own dojos in Cambridge. The plan was simple, get some instructors together to teach inclusive seminars for all abilities and share some knowledge. As with everything, it started off small and between Neil and Robbie the number of participants started to grow. More instructors were invited to share their knowledge as the seminars grew in size and popularity. As the Welwyn Garden City venue being used was a function room in a bar, it made sense that after the training and a shower, and some fresh clean clothes, all would meet back up at the venue for a sit down meal and some singing and dancing with a few drinks at the bar. Further north we were doing exactly the same thing at Tony Pillage’s dojo over in Coventry. About every 2 months, gangs of us would turn up and just train together, with a different instructor on the mat every hour or so.
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