IAOMAS Conference 2014

Last weekend I had the privilege and honour of being one of the featured instructors at the 2014 IAOMAS conference.

I have to hand it to my long-time friend and colleague, Colin Wee of Joong Do Kwan, the IAOMAS Coordinator: everything ran like clockwork.

Colin also managed to assemble a very diverse, yet mutually compatible and reinforcing, group of instructors and managed to attract a participant group that was especially open-minded, friendly and well-skilled.  The net result was a very enjoyable and informative experience.

Proceedings opened with Dr Nigel Farrier of Martial Arts Education Centre whose topic was: "Using your body more effectively for weight transference and generating speed.

I followed with my topic: "Fighting in the ‘melee’ range; understanding the significance of ‘toe to toe’ fighting in civilian defence, distinguishing it from sport fighting, learning to dominate it and avoid collapsing into the clinching/grappling range".

We then broke for a light lunch which Colin organised (and his student Niall cooked!) - a sausage sizzle!

After lunch there was a presentation on Tabata Exercise by Dr Farrier and a presentation on Nutritional Supplementation by Dragan Malesic of Shinobi Bujinkan Perth.

A video showing some highlights of the IAOMAS conference

Andrew Hickey of Inner Circle Combatives Australia then restarted the sessions with "full-force, full-aggression" demonstrations of his system, then followed with sample drills to illustrate his topic: "Do No Harm/Do Extreme Harm concept and how it applies to the continuum of force and legal application of force method".

The very skilled Debbie Clarke of Southern Cross Bujutsu took the session after that.  Her topic was: "Yawarra stick (Kubotan) and its versatility and manipulation, its use in joint locks, and its value in self defence".

Finally, Nigel May of KOMA led the last session: "Sepac Hapkido’s joint locks" which focused on gap closing/entries and a combative approach to the use of joint locking.

The talented Ashley Johnson closed proceedings with an iaido (sword drawing) demonstration.

I'm very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet so many fine martial artists and share in the atmosphere of the IAOMAS experience.

Well done to Colin, the instructors and all the participants!

Copyright © 2014 Dejan Djurdjevic

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