Sunday, September 03, 2006

Martial Arts Demo

I keep thinking about TKDRocker's martial arts demo competition and about our dojang's push to get new students.

I've come to the conclusion that it would help us to have a demo team with some choreographed moves and an "emcee" to introduce people to TKD and to our school. Besides, having a demo team would be another great way to use our TKD skills and gain a greater sense of togetherness and teamwork.

This weekend, I got to see one of my favorite martial arts demos, the samurai arts dojo doing their demo at the Renaissance Faire! We now have 2 ren faires a year near our small city--one in May and one Labor Day weekend. Dojokan (formerly known as Jade Tiger) was at both.

I love their demo.

Here they are demonstrating some self-defense tactics. I think these moves are choreographed, maybe like our 3 and 1 step sparring. They were doing them with the bo when I arrived, but I didn't get my camera out in time to photograph.

Look at the nice uniforms, backdrop, and banners. I like those. Adds a sense of atmosphere and professionalism to the demo, as well as being nice to look at.

They also have music! Here are their drum and flute, which play before the demo (to summon faire-goers) and during some of it.

A great touch.

I didn't get photos of their info table, which has brochures and maps etc. They also have a little games area, where children can play swords with foam boppers and throw leather throwing stars. I think it's a great idea to have some hands-on aspect to a demo, too.

If our school had a nice standard demo figured out, it would be easy to go to fairs, faires, festivals, etc. and make more people aware of martial arts and our school.

We had a good time at the faire. It wasn't all watching the samurai.

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