For the second year running Sensei has had the great pleasure to host Guru John Spezzano. Sensei first met
Guru John whilst training at the prestigious Inosanto Academy, Los Angeles in 2006. SMA was very honoured to
host such a world class instructor at our very own Dojo.
The seminar lasted 4 hours and took place at Anchorage Lodge on Sunday 29th April 2007.
Guru John started the students on some basic groundwork to warm up before they partnered up for the start of
their two-hour training session on Brazillian Ju Jitsu (no Gi). This session included escapes and submissions
from the mount and various guard positions.
After a short break Guru Suzanne took over by taking the students through a typical Silat warm up. Minds and
hips open, we were then ready for the rest of the Silat training.
Guru John used the remainder of the seminar to teach techniques from Silat, All the students would agree that
this was a very interesting sessuib as Guru John taught pins and chokes using a sarong. Not many students
have had the opportunity to train using a sarong but due to the clear explanations and demonstrations given,
all students managed to pick this up very quickly.
There was a fantastic turn out of SMA and non-SMA students, some of which traveled great distance to train. As
Sensei stated "if it wasn't for the support shown, these seminars could not take place", so a big thank you
to everyone who spared their time to attend the seminar and support not only Guru John Spezzano but also SMA.
Everyone who attended the seminar would agree that it was a very beneficial day and a pleasure to meet such
inspiring world class instructors. It was also very pleasing for SMA to be joined by 'outside' students /
instructors who Sensei would very much like to thank for their support.
A very big thank you also goes to Sensei Boh for unselfishly organizing the seminar for his students.
Written by:- Sarah Dowden-Smith (29th May, 2007)
