Las Vegas A.K.K.I. Camp ‘00

 

 

Sams Town Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, Nevada once again was the location of the American Kenpo Karate International bi-annual camp.  This camp, the first of the new millennium ran from Feburary the 24th to the 26th and saw the gathering of the A.K.K.I. family from all over America and Europe for three days of explosive action and fun packed seminars.

 

 

In its short existence the A.K.K.I. has hit many milestone’s and this year was to be no exception with the launch of Mr Mills new first level knife certification manual.  This manual is over ninety pages of material and detail drills, and sets to increase the student’s proficiency with this weapon.  It also covers strategics if faced by an opponent with a weapon and new self defences techniques such as Whipping Lance, Swirling Lance, and Trapping Lance for knife on knife situations.  When this manual is paired with the earlier launched A.K.K.I. club manual they give the practitioner a comprehensive syllabus to what may be the two most common weapons that you may face on the streets today.  Mr Mills is very excited to have these manuals available to his members as they put the A.K.K.I. out in front as the only Kenpo Association to have a full curriculum of weapons training available for its members.

 

 

The year camp kicked off on Thursday afternoon with a seminar taught by Mr Mills and assisted by Mr Ence and Mr Selleroli which was to review all of the club material taught at earlier camps.  This included knowledge and understanding of the A.K.K.I. Universal weapons system, understanding the Partner Timing Drills, detailing of the Disarm Drills, all of which is covered extensively in the A.K.K.I. club manual.  The next seminar up also covered club material with Mr Mills explaining and demonstrating the principles and concepts contained within the Single Heart Set, Double Heart set and the Two Man set.  The seminar concluded with Mr Ence reviewing the club set Phase 1 and Phase 2.  This club set includes all the necessary movements to teach the student how to really move a club with authority, precision, power and speed.

 

 

The next item on the camp schedule was to have a promotional test for first level club certification.  This gave the European’s their first chance to display their abilities with the club when Prof Gino Fusciardi (European and Irish Director) Associated Professor William Kelly (Holland Director) and Associate Professor Bernie Brakes (Channel Islands Director) tested and were successful in attaining first level certification.  When the test finished all participants were presented with a certificate and the newly designed club patch which completes the uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday was dedicated for the International test and promotion.  With over eight students testing Europe was to be well represented.  On the floor with four students testing for respective ranks.  This test would also be special, as these four students were the first group of students from Europe to test at the International Camp.  From the Channel Islands under the instruction of Associate Professor Bernie Drakes, Ivor Bouchaire would test for his first degree black belt, from Amsterdam Holland under the Instruction of Associate Professor William Kelly, Mark Rijke and Michael Mangal would also test for first degree black belts, and last but not least from Ireland under the instruction of Associate Instructor Ger Hickey, Tony O’Reilly would test for the rank of orange belt.  Mr Mills ran the test with the panel consisting of the Board of Directors of the A.K.K.I.  The characteristic hallmarks of the A.K.K.I’s explosiveness, rhythmis timing and fluidity were apparent throughout the test, with everybody being successful and attaining their respective new rank.  Mr Mills was very pleased with the overall standard and the European Contingent received praise and recognition for their very high standards.

 

 

Saturday was to see a day of intense seminars with six seminars in total to be covered.  The seminars kicked of early and the fist two would cover, the new black and brown belt form 2 level 2, the second seminar would cover how to increase Optimum Power through Progressive Sequential Projection.  Form 2 level 2 was covered by Mr Miller, Mr Tomson and Mr Jacob, the form is a extension of the base form 2 but it places emphasis on filing all of the gaps and dead spaces between the transitions.  This form is truly a work of art by Mr Mills.  The second seminar was covered by Mr Mills, Mr Elsasser and Mr Keller.  The theme here was to further refine and polish the basics.  Mr Elsasser explained in great detail the internal operation of the muscle goups and how proper mechanics and form are essential ingredients to achieving maximum power with Mr Mills and Mr Keller demonstrating and assisting the students, basic techniques were being executed with the speed and power the A.K.K.I. is becoming renowned for Mr Mills emphasized again how important it is to polish and perfect the basics as the best we can, and shared some stories of how every time he worked with Mr Parker this would be a large part of the session.

 

 

After a short break the next two seminars covered were the new Phase 3 of the A.K.K.I. club set, and how to create maximum action potential through A.K.K.I. Master Rhythmic Timing.  Mr Ence and Mr Sellerolli covered the new club set.  This phase is much more sophisticated than the first two phases.  But the first two phases lay the foundation for it, the set is very dynamic and concentrates on hitting on spirals and diagonals to achieve maximum effect from our actions.  The second seminar was again covered by Mr Keller and Mr Elsasser, Mr keller took the floor and demonstrated how the master key Timing Patterns can be inserted into the technique’s to allow us to blend and transfer from one technique to another with speed and power.  Mr Keller explained how this allows us to very rapidly change our angle of attack without breaking the flow of our action thus keeping our opponent of the defensive and in check.

 

 

 

The next seminar was covered by Mr Mills and covered some of the new A.K.K.I knife techniques.  Mr Mill’s enthusiasm and intensity inspired all in the room as he demonstrated these techniques with unbelievable speed, power and accuracy.  These techniques conform to Mr Mills three S’s concept and when coupled with the motion learned from the A.K.K.I. Universal Weapons system these techniques can be executed in milliseconds.  Another important aspect to this seminar was Mr Mills regulation of these techniques to the situation, he explained that just because we have a knife in our hand we may not need to inflict the maximum damage possible to our opponent.  He went on to demonstrate how the pommel of the knife can also be a very effective tool in stopping a would be assailant without breaking the flowing and continuous motion of the technique.

 

 

The final seminar of the camp was covered by Mr Gorham, and the topic covered was Blueprinting A.K.K.I techniques to improve the engineer of motion.  This seminar was to be the grand finale in more ways than one.  Mr Mills had engineered the camp so that each seminar built for the next, this seminar would tie together with the two that preceeded it.  We had begun by polishing the basics by means of progessive sequential flow, then we had experimented with the Rythmic Timing patterns and how to maximise our efforts when applying them.  Now the task for Mr Gorham was to put it all together by dissecting each technique and re-building it allowing us to apply the new material we had just acquired.  This seminar also went into great detail as to why Mr Mills had revised some of the techniques within the system and created some new techniques.  From the explanations given along with the visual examples it came clear that Mr Mills had given careful thought and researched all the variables before changing our revising any of the techniques.  By the end of this seminar everybody in the room were executing their techniques with the characteristic rythmis timing, explosiveness and fluidity the A.K.K.I. is becoming renowned for. 

 

 

To bring the camp to a close Mr Mills took centre stage once again.  He took this opportunity to launch the associations newly designed International Las Vegas Flame Patch, then he proceeded to raffle some beautiful custom made knifes.  The European’s stuck lucky in the knife draw with Ger Hickey from Ireland being drawn out second and choosing a beautiful Bowie Knife custom made by Daryl Hibben.  The camp was a wonderful success and once again Mr Mills demonstrated how devoted he is to progressing the art of Kenpo in the new millennium.  On behalf of everybody who attended this camp from Europe, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr and Mrs Mills for making these camps possible and here in Europe we are already looking forward to the next one.

 

 

Ger Hickey AKKI Ireland