I hope you all can join me in welcoming my teacher Tim Cartmell for his first teaching gig here in Seattle WA. It will be November 4-5 2006. Location and details will be given with registration.
As always this is open to any and all, as long as you have an open mind and attitude.
Feel free to contact me with further questions.
Cheers
Jake Burroughs
three_harmonies@hotmail.com
505-385-2987
www.threeharmonies.com




Three Harmonies Chinese Martial Arts
Is proud to present for the first time in Seattle Washington:

A Weekend Intensive on

Applied Martial Dynamics
With
Tim Cartmell

November 4-5, 2006
Seattle, WA.

If pre-registered by October 25, 2006:
Single session: $65
Two Sessions: $100
Three Sessions: $125
Whole weekend: $150
After October 25, add $25!
Location and other information will be provided with registration packet!
Tim will also be available for private lessons by appointment!

To register or for more information contact:
Jake Burroughs 505-385-2987 / three_harmonies@hotmail.com
www.threeharmonies.com




As with all seminars I host, these workshops are hands on and open to any and all practitioners regardless of style, rank, or experience. Come with an open mind and a notebook and be prepared to have fun and train hard!

Session I: Taiji Shuai Fa (Taiji Throwing Methods)
Saturday 12noon – 3pm

All styles of Taiji consist of 80% grappling techniques, yet in the 21st century few instructors are teaching any of this methodology causing a severe lack of understanding within the Chinese martial arts community. In this workshop Tim will explain the principles behind effortless throws, takedowns, and sweeps using applications from Taiji techniques found within all systems (Sun / Yang / Chen / Wu).

Whether you are a new student looking to unlock the complexities of your form, or a seasoned instructor brushing up, you will benefit greatly from the simple straight forward approach of Tim Cartmell.
• Discover hidden applications within your practice
• Learn to effectively uproot your opponent
• Understand why Taiji is considered one of the most powerful martial arts
• Improve your push hands practice, as well as your self defense applications


SESSION II: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – Passing the Guard Pt. 1 Saturday 5-8pm
SESSION III: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – Passing the Guard Pt. 2 Sunday 10-12noon

Drawing on his excellent text by the same title, Tim will lead us through various drills, conditioning, and techniques to safely and quickly pass your opponents Guard. Passing the Guard is arguably the most important, yet most misunderstood aspect of BJJ and this seminar aims to introduce the basic theories and applied dynamics of passing various Guard situations.

A guard pass is no good without a technique to submit your opponent so Tim will also incorporate various chokes, Triangles, and submissions into the various passes we train. None of this can be taught without a thorough understanding of posture and base first though.

• Closed Guard / Open Guard / Butterfly Guard / Half Guard will all be explored
• Learn the importance of hip placement and control
• Improve your ground game as a grappler, mixed martial artist, or for self defense situations
• Learn three basic methods, with numerous variations, for passing the Guard: under / over / around the legs


SESSION IV: Xing Yi Fighting Theories
Sunday 2-5pm

Xing Yi is one of the oldest systems of combat in China, and has become renowned as a brutally effective martial system incorporating all four areas of combat (Si Ji), Throwing (Shuai) / Joint Manipulation (Na) / Kicking (Ti) / Striking (Da). Within Xing Yi’s system there are the 12 Animals which are various manifestations of the Five Elements. These 12 Animals offer an encyclopedia of effective techniques and theories for hand to hand combat that can be applied in the 21st century.

In Xing Yi one does not mimic the animal itself, but rather the fighting attitude or energy of that given animal. In this first in a series of seminars Tim will lead us through the underlying principles of the Horse / Tuo / Chicken and their applications in throwing, striking, and locking. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO KNOW XING YI OR THE 12 ANIMALS TO BENEFIT FROM THIS SEMINAR! Tim will NOT be teaching any of the actual animal forms, so it does not matter if you know them or not! These teachings will transfer easily into whatever your base art may be.

• Learn why the majority of Xing Yi throws are classified as Kao Die, knock downs!
• Deepen your understanding of application directly related to Xing Yi training
• Take the powerful techniques of Xing Yi and apply them to your own martial practice
Plus much more…..


About the Instructor:
Tim Cartmell has become one of the most sought after teachers of martial combative’s in North America. Spending over 10 years in Taiwan and China training with some of the best fighters the Chinese Martial Arts had to offer, as well as fighting (and winning) several full contact fights. Tim then came back to California to immerse himself in training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu because he realized that although his stand up fighting was good, he was ignorant on the ground. Eight years later he has become Cleber Luciano’s only black belt with numerous wins at the Copa, along with silver in the Mundials (World Championships of BJJ in Brazil) in 2005.
Over the past 30 years Tim Cartmell has studied the arts of Xing Yi (Hebei / Shanxi), Bagua (Luo Dexiu’s disciple), San Soo, Taiji (Sun / Chen / Yang), as well as various systems of grappling.
Tim has authored “Effortless Combat Throws,” co-authored “Passing the Guard” and “Xing Yi Nei Gong,” as well as translated Zhao Da Yuan’s pinnacle joint manipulation book “Practical Chin Na,” Dong Zhong Yi’s classic Shuai Chiao text “The Method of Chinese Wrestling,” and the only English translation of Sun Lu Tang’s historic “A Study of Taijiquan.” His current project is a series of DVD’s on Clinch fighting, and stand up grappling.
Tim continues to teach fulltime in Huntington Beach, CA. offering lessons in mixed martial arts incorporating the stand up techniques of Bagua, Xing Yi, and Taiji along with the ground strategy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to create the Shen Wu system of modern day combative’s. For more info on Tim or his teachings visit www.shenwu.com

Man, this sounds great!

I'd love to be there.

Come on down (or up)!
Jake

Michigan is a long way. Maybe, I'll make it there one summer vacation.

Tim is on a short list of people I'd like to travel to train with.

What part of Michigan? I am from Toledo and visit infrequently.
Jake

Both Seattle and Michigan are pretty far for me. Hopefully Tim will still be actively doing seminars when my kids are a little older and I can travel more freely.

Lansing

It saddens / angers me to write this, but due to a severe lack of interest it looks like I may have to cancel (first time, never had to cancel a seminar before in NM!) Tim's visit here to Seattle.
We are just under 2 weeks out and I have only TWO people registered for the event! Sorry but that is not enough people to make ends meet. Over the weekend I have had several guys back out of their verbal agreements to come support the seminar, which leaves me with my pants around my ankle's, if you know what I mean!
If anyone on this board, (or elsewhere) is contemplating coming to this event contact me ASAP! If I can get a handful of guys together for this we can still possibly make it work, but I need to make a decision in the next 48 hours!
Not sure what the deal is, but I got a flood of emails and calls when I first posted this, and then nothing! Everyone talked •••• about wanting to train with Tim, but it seems to be something in the water up here to talk the talk, but not walk the walk. I hope this changes because I will not be able to bring great teachers here to visit without the local support.
So let me know ASAP,
Jake Burroughs
505-385-2987
three_harmonies@hotmail.com


PS Those who have already registered, first of all I thank you, secondly if this is cancelled you will get a full refund.

Any last minute stragglers? Looking forward to seeing you all this weekend.
Cheers
Jake

Tactical Grappler, here, logging in under a new screen name. Too many old handles/passwords.

Looking forward to finally meeting and training with Tim Saturday. Can't wait to pick his brain and "feel" his stuff.

After Seminar report:

I've posted this on a couple other sites as well, so bear with the background info:


I had the opportunity (finally!) to meet Tim in person and train with him in Seattle this weekend.

Tim Cartmell is a CMA practitioner who spent at least ten years in Taiwan and the PRC studying under highly regarded internal martial arts masters of Xing Yi, Tai Ji, and Ba Gua Zhang. During this time Tim competed in full contact fighting tournaments in Taiwan, when Taiwanese tournaments were notoriously rough.

He is also fluent in Chinese and has been studying the writings of the recognized internal martial arts masters, and translating their works and those of other masters (chin na, Chinese wrestling, and a soon to be released police tactics book from the 30s).

If this were not enough, Tim has put his "body skills" where is mouth (and keyboard) is, so to speak, and undertook the study of Brazilian jujutsu, in which he has applied internal martial arts principles to that groundfighting art (not as far fetched as those without BJJ experience may erroneously believe.) Tim is one of the vanguard of Americans who have earned black belts in BJJ, and one of even fewer who has done very well in a competitive format, winning the Copa several times and taking a silver medal in the 2005 Mundials. In BJJ terms, this is a major accomplishment.

Tim continues to test his principles under pressure by training with high level black belts and professional MMA fighters at his teacher's school, and by running an MMA gym in southern California, which he has been developing for a number of years.

*****

I have followed Tim's writings since the days when I studied internal CMA, and watched his evolution closely, as it mirrored my own - his being at much headier levels. So I jumped at the chance to train with him. I was only able to attend the Saturday seminar, which involved Taiji oriented throws and later, BJJ.

Tim started with a brief overview of internal body mechanics, and certain principles of body management, and the management of the body of the opponent. He also discussed something that many Taiji practitioners are perhaps not even aware of: Taijiquan is a grappling art. Tim's research has shown him that 80% of Taiji is wrestling. Push hands was a sort of kumi kata in Taiji's practice, from which a wide variety of throwing techniques would flow. Over time, he believes that as skilled practitioners understood the application of throwing techniques amongst one another, that push hands essentially evolved into the somewhat benign pushing that we see today. It was a kind of "I know you got me on that one" type understanding, that avoided constantly being spiralled into the ground by your training partner. He believes that style of training eventually became par for the course, and over time the majority of practitioners simply stopped practicing real grappling and throwing, leading to what we see the bulk of Taiji practice is today.

We then practiced several "generic" throws based on Taiji principles. I found these very interesting, as they were analogous to judo throws but with a different entry and control (and without a gi). He stressed that internal throws in general do not rely on what can be termed kuzushi per se, and are not based on disrupting the attackers balance, rather they are based on disrupting the attacker's structure, and twisting him into the ground to his dead angle based on how his structure has been changed. Sticking with the whole body is critical in this aspect. (BJJ folks should start seeing the connections right about here...)

At the end of the session Tim opened it up for questions. Several folks asked specific questions about techniques from several Taiji styles. Tim showed how certain popular and well known moves from the forms are actually the entry to and follow through on several throws, several of which would be familiar to judoka, without a gi and a slightly different approach to "fitting in."

Tim explained how he has used these throwing principles on everyone from champion judoka to skilled wrestlers and grapplers in dojo grappling and in high level BJJ competition.

The BJJ session was also very enjoyable. Tim wrote the book on Passing the Guard (get it? ) and showed how posture and controlling the opponent's center is crucial to his approach to passing the guard. He then showed various follow ups to the guard pass. The overall level in the class was for most beginner level, so we concentrated on the very basics. This was beneficial even to the more experienced, as it is in the nuances that make the basics what even the world class experts rely on against equal or greater competition.

And then we rolled. The students rolled together, and then, befitting BJJ tradition, Tim rolled with EVERYONE for five minutes each. This means students of all sizes, and of varying degrees of skills (several with advanced martial arts experience in other arts).

This was but a light workout for Tim, all of 160 lbs soaking wet. And trust me, I TRIED giving him a hard time. I don't think he broke a sweat.

Rather he put on a clinic for how one can stay relaxed and use one's structure and flow to defeat whatever it is people throw at you. I have rolled with several black belts, some of whom have high level competition wins - Tim feels different - the same control but softer, the proverbial needle wrapped in cotton, as the Taiji classics call it.

Sounds like he may be coming up for more in the future. I strongly recommend any traditional jujutsuka or CMA practitioner spend some time with him. His traditional credentials are impeccable, and he "speaks the language." But unlike many, he has put it on the line to discover what its like to really fight against highly skilled, competitive opponents in verifiable open, public competition - something very few internet internal exponents can claim. This has perhaps unsurprisingly led him to a sort of "internal MMA."

Wow, Kit you took care of my job! Thanks!
The weekend was awesome just like Kit wrote. Learned a ton, got my ass thoroughly kicked, and made some new friends.
I want to thank Tim, and all the participants that made this event work. We did well enough, that I am scheduling Tim for a time in January or February (give some feedback as to which would be better if you are interested).
Thanks
Jake

Many thanks to Jake for hosting the seminar, it was a lot of work in a new place, but Jake did an excellent job as always.

Thanks also to Brian Johnson for letting us use his school. Anyone interested in BJJ in the Seattle area should take a look at Brian's classes http://www.nwjjc.com/nwjjc3.html.

Kit, a pleasure to finally meet you. It's an honor to have martial artists of your caliber attend my seminars.

Tim will most likely be back out Feb 10-11 2007. Still tenative, but will get a ticket soon here.
Cheers
Jake

A big thank you to Tim for taking the time to come out to Seattle and share some of his stuff with us.
Pleasure to meet you Tim .
Rick