One of the highlights of the ATA calendar has come and gone, as the 2006 ATA Summer Training Camp has opened, and closed, to great acclaim at Camp Lyndon on Cape Cod. Over the course of a steamy July weekend, over 100 Tang Soo Do practicioners gathered from ATA locations as close as South Yarmouth, and as far away as Fort Wayne, Indiana. They gathered to meet and work and share their common love of Tang Soo Do, for excellent seminars, great food and wonderful camaraderie.

This is a preliminary report on the event, but make sure you check back in about a week - we'll update with a great many pictures from Kyo Sas Jeff Mazzucco and Greg Theokas, who spent their weekend insuring that the event was appropriately (or even better!) doumented.

Friday evening:

The camp kicked off on Friday evening with food and friends and movie night. The ATA family gathered from all over the northeast, setting up and settling in for the weekend. In the mess hall, there was good food, catching up with old friends, and "The Last Samurai."

Saturday morning:

Promotions:

One of the traditional highlights of the Saturday morning session is the awarding of promotions to those who participated in the May Black Belt test at Grandmaster Byrne's Malden studio. This year was no different, with 5 students moving up from the gup ranks as they received their Cho Dan Black Belts, and 2 Sam Dan's joining the ranks of the Masters.

Dan Promotions - 7/15/2006

  • First Gup -> First Dan
    • John Teixeira - Medford Tang Soo Do
    • Elisabeth Beverage - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, North Reading
    • Samuel Beverage - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, North Reading
    • Ross Kibby - Fort Wayne Tang Soo Do
    • Jennifer Amaral - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, Malden

  • First Dan -> Second Dan
    • Loren Blake - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, North Reading

  • Second Dan -> Third Dan
    • Eric Hartman - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, North Reading
    • Sean Nugent - Metro West Tang Soo Do
    • Nick Koufogazos - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, North Reading

  • Third Dan -> Master (Fourth Dan)
    • James Fabian - Fort Wayne Tang Soo Do
    • Eric Hill - Byrne's Tang Soo Do, Malden

Seminars:

After the bowing in ceremonies and words of welcome and introduction from Grandmaster Byrne, the group was split up, with the gups working with Grandmaster Byrne and the Dan members working with special guest instructor Professor Dave Castoldi. After about an hour, the groups swapped, so everyone had an opportunity to work with both of these martial arts legends (and former tag-team professional wrestling partners.) Professor Castoldi worked on many different knife self-defense techniques. Grandmaster Byrne worked with the groups on some of the manifestations of internal energy. As always, the seminars were excellent.

Saturday afternoon:

Following lunch, there was free time, time for campers to spread out and interact. The lake was a busy spot, as many took advantage of the water for relief from the heat. There were groups of people outside the mess hall on the picnic tables in the shade, and others just scattered about the facility.

Cardio-kickersize:

During the afternoon, Kyo Sas James and Allison Robinson of On-Site Martial Arts set up and ran an aerobic step workout on the field for about 35-40 participants. Their program, which they run at various corporate facilities in Pennsylvania, is a high-energy full-body cardio step workout which incorporates Tang Soo Do blocks, strikes and kicks. It's an interesting program, and those who participated seemed to be suitably impressed.

Saturday evening:

Following another great meal, the entire group gathered on the field again to watch the Masters of the ATA demonstrate various aspects of the art of Tang Soo Do. With advanced forms, weapons forms, breaking, self-defense, and more, the Masters demonstration was, as it always is, a high point of the ATA year. It's an event that is eagerly anticipated and never fails to please.

But following the Masters demonstration, we got something else that was special, and nearly as good. Early Saturday morning, there had been a basket and a set of blank question forms set out in the mess hall. Grandmaster Byrne was willing to take questions, and answer them. On any topic. Which he did.

With the ATA gathered around and listened, for nearly an hour Master Mitchell asked the questions of Grandmaster Byrne, and he answered them. On his age. His birthday. Why he got started in the martial arts. Why he opened his own school. How the "iron palm" works. He addressed everything. (Nearly everything. The questions from Masters Driscoll and Costantino - "Is it true that Master Driscoll is your favorite Master? Is it true that Master Costantino is your favorite master?" - elicited just laughter...) It was a fantastic event, and everyone there was glad to have seen it.


Sunday morning:

For the last seminars of the weekend, Master Penny Mitchell, aided by Sam Dan Donna Roberts, took the children 12 and younger off to work on Tang Soo Do techniques, and play a spirited game of Tang Soo Do baseball. The older students got a chance to work with the Masters of the ATA. Master David Rexer, a multiple time winner of Grand Champion in Forms at Grandmaster Byrne's annual ATA tournament, spoke about performing forms, the mental and physical training that needs to go into winning forms. He followed that up with some work on a couple of different sparring techniques. After a brief break, Masters Brian White and Jerry Driscoll spent the rest of the morning working with the group on a couple of different self-defense techniques.

Following a little bit of time for lunch and swimming, the weekend wound down, with tired but satisfied campers scattering to the four winds. A great time was had by all.

The camp atmosphere and environment are different than those at any other event. At tournaments and tests, there is a focus to the event, a time schedule imposed on the interactions that is not there at camp. At normal classes, people work with the same classmates every day. Camp allows the free time for people from different schools to interact, to work with and teach and learn from each other, as every one has a different focus and every one has different talents and skills. The camp seminars allows for large blocks of time to be spent on items that might only be occasionally touched on during the course of a normal class. In short, it's a tremendous opportunity for the Tang Soo Do family to meet, and for the members of that family to expand their skills and horizons. The people who have been there, know it, and love it, and wouldn't miss it...


Pictures!

We have a great quantity of pictures available from the two official ATA photographers. For ease of viewing, we've separated them into separate photo galleries, accessible below.
(Each gallery page is filled with thumbnails, and may take a while to load...)