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Water and Steel East 2010 Review by Gary Mah / Promoter & Host
Ramada Inn on the Beach was the home for Datu Kelly Worden’s Water and Steel East for the third year in a row. The hotel is located on the Boardwalk in the resort area of Virginia Beach and the Atlantic Ocean is steps away from the training rooms. After the second day of training, three attendees decided to enjoy the waters of the Atlantic Ocean with a quick dip before dinner. Stripping down to their skivvies and running across the beach sand, they made their plunge into the Atlantic Ocean and returned to enjoy the hotel hot tub before dinner. Sounds like a great way to finish training right? What I fail to mention was that the outside temperature was about 26 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was blowing snow at about 20 mph. Three Warriors left the warm training rooms and three very pained individuals returned from the ocean. In my opinion a root canal would have been more fun and from the look on their faces when they came back in I think they would agree.
Starting on Friday night with two hours of training and ending on Sunday afternoon, approximately 46 people participated in this year’s Water and Steel East. There was a wide range of experience levels from "never done anything like this before" to "Instructor Level" individuals in the Natural Spirit International, Worden Defense System.
As a special bonus for the weekend, Datu Kelly invited Gary O’Neal to talk about his experience as the way of a warrior. Gary O’Neal is a living legend. He spent 33 years of service in the Army which included Special Forces, Army Rangers, First Aviation Brigade, and First Field Force. He led missions in Special Reconnaissance, POW rescue, flight operations, and many other classified assignments. He was Michael Echanis team leader in Central America and currently trains "up and coming" Warriors. Gary O’Neal spoke in a lecture format on the Way of the Warrior and emphasized that the greatest weapon is our mind. Our mind protects us and heals us and coming from a Warrior, I gained much respect and appreciation for what he has done for all of us and for this country he so loves and serves.
Friday night’s two hour session opened with some short blade work utilizing basic movements. The conceptual approach starts to stand out in Datu’s teaching approach with not teaching techniques but the concept and allowing the student to use what they know or to start to develop their own patterns. Once the student develops their own pattern it becomes theirs to keep and employ with out thinking.
Water and Steel East in Virginia Beach, Va. offers all participants the opportunity to stay in the hotel at a deeply discounted price of $49.00 per night. The hotel restaurant, Mahi Mah’s, is a long time local's favorite as it serves up award winning meals and is recognized by Wine Spectator for it’s wine selection, making training and relaxing all under one roof convenient and enjoyable. A freak winter storm paralyzed the city but the Water and Steel East was unaffected since most people arrived by Friday night and the storm dumped the 6 inches of snow early Saturday morning while everyone was sleeping.
Saturday’s training started off with empty hands with some tool development such as the dirty dozen strike pattern, use of hammer fist, moving inside or outside of center line to name a few. I enjoy most the background introduction when Datu explains his development of these tools through his personal interactions with many legends he has crossed hands with such as Professor Remy Presas, Jesse Glover, Taky Kimura and Roland Dantes. This is the connection of the dots from so many systems that Datu exposed himself to and made it his own.
Sunday continues with foot traps, locks, double stick, single stick and all was integrated into the conceptual art of training. It is not what weapon you carry but how you use what you have in your environment, be it a stone on the street, a chair on the floor, or a wall next to you.
It was another eye opening weekend and I’ll never forget to be aware of the observer and cheer leader who are standing at arms length and never clearly identified as friend or foe. The modular format of training allows individuals to enter into any training phase and learn something even if they were not present the night before or had not done this type of training before.
This year we did some video taping to produce a DVD of the weekend so watch Datu’s website for when it becomes available. We plan to do this again next Jan. 2011 and I hope you will join us. Dates will be posted after the summer on the Datu’s website as well.
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TAK Knife Prize Winners
Front Row, left to right: Andrew Evans, Gary Mah (Promoter), Barbara Moore, Kristen Stonehill, John Stanley (TAK)
Back Row, left to right: Jim, Davis Lindsay (Polar Plunger), Christian Whelan (Polar Plunger), Kevin Danielson, Isaac Callicrate, Simon Yang
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