I attended a seminar in Poughkeepsie with Kacem Zoughari this past weekend. It was one of the better events that I have gone to in quite a while. Per his reputation, Kacem is an exceptionally knowledgeable martial artist while also being an excellent instructor.

From the beginning of the day (actually even before the day officially began), he demonstrated great skill with his [i]taijutsu[/i], [i]kenjutsu[/i], [i]hanboujutsu[/i] and [i]tantoujutsu[/i] as well as his great knowledge of the Japanese language and history. All this without coming off as being preachy.

The day began with an nice detailed look at [i]juunan taisou[/i] as it appears historically along with an explanation of why it is important to retain one’s joint flexibility. Moving on to taijutsu, Kacem mentioned that he was going to stick to a single concept for the whole weekend – ichimonji – while teaching the concepts of [i]jissen kihon happou[/i] (real fighting basics). Taking time with just about all of the attendees, I was surprised at how much he had to show on even these “basic” techniques. It was eye opening to say the least. Towards the end of the day, Kacem was kind enough to show the crowd a [i]makimono[/i] he had received from “someone”. There were a few other “show and tell” sessions throughout the day as well. I’ll just say that he’s obviously well respected in Japan.

Even thought I had planned to attend only the first day of the event, I ended up coming back for most of the day on Sunday. It was definitely worth the extra driving.