Grandmaster Larry Tatum Event

Hello Everyone,

From March 27-28th, 2015, 10th Degree American Kenpo Karate Black Belt, Grandmaster Larry Tatum will be teaching seminars in Blenheim, Ontario. The event will include two days of intense martial arts training and is open to all martial artists. Other camp instructors at the event will include Thomas Armstrong, Chad Berry, Kelly Perkins, Jamie Seabrook, Scott Southwell, and Steve Turkington. The training provided at the event will be very diverse, as can be seen in the schedule below:

March 27th

5 pm Thomas Armstrong: Introduction to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
6 pm Chad Berry: Knife to Knife Combatives
7 pm Larry Tatum

March 28th

9 am Steve Turkington: Kids Seminar
10 am Larry Tatum: Kids - Photos and autographs
11 am Jamie Seabrook: How to Use Strategy in Stand-up Sparring (Teens, Brown Belts, Junior Black Belts)
12 pm Larry Tatum: Teens, Brown Belts, Junior Black Belts
1 pm Scott Southwell
2 pm Kelly Perkins
3 pm Larry Tatum

THIS IS AN EVENT YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO MISS!!

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Black Belt Promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy

On November 24th, I promoted Justin Franklin to Junior Black Belt and Brennan Weatherhead to 1st Degree Black Belt in American Kenpo Karate. Justin is 15 years old and has been training with me for about 6 years. Brennan began training with me just over 4 years ago as a 1st Degree Black Belt from another Kenpo Karate school in London, Ontario. Brennan is now ranked as a 1st Degree American Kenpo Black Belt, and is the 25th student I have promoted to Black Belt in 20 years of running my school in London, Ontario. Congratulations to both of you.

November Belt Promotions

The end of the year is in sight. Wow, this year flew by!

Here are some recent promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy:

Jeremy-lee J: Advanced White
Matteo D: Yellow
Harrison F: Blue
Mackenzie F: Blue
Justin F: Jr. Black Belt
Brennan W: 1st Degree Black Belt

Amazing job everyone!

October Belt Promotions

Congratulations to the following students on their recent belt promotions:

Seung-You C: Advanced White
Travis H: Advanced White
Santiago B: Advanced Yellow
Victoria: Orange
Peter Z: Purple
Joseph H: Advanced Purple
Josh G: 1st Degree Brown Belt

Fantastic work!

September Belt Promotions

Congratulations to all of the following students from Seabrook Martial Arts Academy on their recent belt promotions:

Eric B: Yellow
Cameron V: Purple
Nathan V: Purple
Christofer L: 2nd Degree Brown
Joseph L: 2nd Degree Brown
Madison Seabrook: 2nd Degree Brown
Michael L: 2nd Degree Brown
Reese W: 2nd Degree Brown

Awesome work!

August Belt Promotions

Congratulations to the following students on their recent belt promotion at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy:

Matteo D: Advanced White
Santiago B: Yellow
Alex K: Purple
Ben K; Purple
Jennifer B: 3rd Degree Brown
Vince B: 3rd Degree Brown

GREAT WORK!!!

Evaluated by a true Kenpo lengend

I say this to my students all the time - it's really not about winning or losing. Of course, we try our best to win; but at the end of the day, it's all about putting forth 100% effort consistently. On August 9th, I was able to win the self-defense division at the 6th Annual Can-Am Kenpo Camp. But you know what? It really didn't matter to me how I placed. All I want to do is train hard and improve. What mattered to be about this particular tournament was to have the opportunity to be evaluated by Grandmaster Larry Tatum. Even if it's only for a short 3-5 minutes, for that brief time period, he was focused on me. I can't say this enough - if you haven't had the opportunity to train with Larry Tatum, you are really letting something in life pass you by that you will regret.

July Belt Promotions

Congratulations to Maria who was promoted to Purple Belt at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy in July.

Recap of the 6th Annual Southwell's Can-Am Kenpo Camp

From August 8-9th, Scott Southwell hosted his 6th annual Can-Am Kenpo Camp in London, Ontario. The camp was awesome, filled with intense training and a tournament. Camp instructors included Grandmaster Larry Tatum, Kyoshi Mike Leclair, Sifu Michael Shaw, Professor Jamie Seabrook, and Senior Instructor Scott Southwell. Grandmaster Tatum taught two-man set, and it was truly an honor to be able to do that set with him over and over. My seminar focused on Gracie Jiu Jitsu mount escapes and mount submission techniques, which is an overlooked aspect of self-defense in Kenpo Karate. These camps just get better and better, and I highly encourage all of my students to participate whenever possible.

The following students from Seabrook Martial Arts Academy also won 1st place in the self defense division in the tournament that was held after the seminars were finished (more important than placing, however, is that they had the opportunity to be evaluated by Grandmaster Tatum):

Victoria Brock
Ben Kopichanski
Matt Trejo (2nd-4th Degree Black Division)
Jamie Seabrook (5th Degree Black Belt and Up)

2014 Power Nationals Martial Arts Challenge

Congratulations to Brennan Weatherhead and Jennifer Brock of Seabrook Martial Arts Academy on their tournament success this past weekend at the Power Nationals Martial Arts Challenge in London, Ontario. Brennan won 2nd place in Black Belt weapons performing Long Form 8, and Jennifer won 3rd place in Sparring and 3rd place in Forms performing Short Form 3.

Awesome work!

June Belt Promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy

Congratulations to the following students on their recent belt promotions:

Peter Z: Advanced Orange
Adam G: Purple
Justin F: 1st Degree Brown (Jr)

Keep up the great work!

Happy 12th Birthday Morgan!

Yesterday was Morgan's birthday! Can't believe she is now 12! Love you Morgan!

Can-Am Kenpo Camp, August 8-10th, London, Ontario

Hi Everyone,

From August 8-10th, Grandmaster Larry Tatum (10th Degree American Kenpo Karate Black Belt) will be returning to London, Ontario teaching martial arts seminars at the Courtyard By Marriott, 864 Exeter Rd. Other seminar instructors Professor Jamie Seabrook, Master Tony Mayo, Kyoshi Mike Leclair, Sifu Michael Shaw, and Sensei Scott Southwell.

The cost for 9 hours of seminars is $125 if paid before July 30th.

The seminar schedule is as follows:

Friday August 8th

5-6 pm Sifu Michael Shaw
6-7 pm Kyoshi Mike Leclair
7-9 pm Grandmaster Larry Tatum

Saturday August 9th

8-9 am Master Tony Mayo
9-10 am Professor Jamie Seabrook
10-11 am Sensei Scott Southwell
11 am - 1 pm Grandmaster Larry Tatum


Self-Defense Tournament

August 9th at 2 pm. Cost is $35 for tournament only, or $150 for camp and tournament combined.


Note:

Private lessons with Grandmaster Larry Tatum are $100 U.S. per hour.


All cheques can be made payable to: Scott Southwell

May Belt Promotions

Congratulations to the following students on their belt promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy in the month of May:

Santiago B: Advanced White
Wesley S: Advanced White
Victoria B: Advanced Yellow
Alex K: Advanced Orange
Ben K: Advanced Orange
Cameron V: Advanced Orange
Nathan V: Advanced Orange
Joseph H: Purple
Anya F: Advanced Purple
Noah B: Blue
Scott B: Blue
Timothy B: Advanced Green
Ethan B: 3rd Degree Brown
Luke N: 3rd Degree Brown
Maxim F: 3rd Degree Brown

Fantastic work from all of you!

Rener Gracie Mount Submission Mastery Seminar

Today Matt Trejo and I attended a Rener Gracie seminar on mount submission mastery in Newmarket, Ontario, at the Gracie Humaita school. The seminar was phenomenal, and Rener's instruction and enthusiasm was second to none. As his assistant, Rener brought with him Brian Ortega - a Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belt who has just signed with the UFC and who will be fighting on the May 31st card in Brazil against Diego Brandao.

The seminar started with super hooks mount control, with emphasis placed on strong hip pressure and a low body position. Rener then taught on how to create submission opportunities from the neck-hug sequence using the wrist isolation, Americana armlock, figure-four armbar, and twisting arm control (TAC) transfer. The figure-four armbar is used when the opponent holds my arm to prevent it from looping around the head to prevent me from using the Americana armlock. With the TAC transfer, I drop my body against the opponent's back arm in response to the arm reaching across his body to release the isolated wrist.

Matt and I picked up on a lot of important material, and look forward to training with Rener again soon.

Darren Wynes - 2nd Degree Black Belt Promotion

On Saturday, April 12th, I promoted Darren Wynes to 2nd Degree Black Belt (Assistant Instructor) in American Kenpo. Also joining me to sit on the testing panel were Evan Wiley (4th Degree Black Belt), Matt Trejo (4th Degree Black Belt), and John McDonald (3rd Degree Black Belt).

Darren began training with me as a 1st Degree Black Belt in November 2010. Darren is an incredible student and black belt, driving around 1.5 hours each way to come take private lessons with me. Darren's private lessons are at least 90 minutes at a time, and usually a full 2 hours. Moreover, he travels to London at least 2 times every month to take private lessons, averaging a good 3-4 hours of private lessons monthly.

For Darren's test, he had to perform all American Kenpo Forms required for promotion to 2nd Degree Black Belt. He also demonstrated many advanced American Kenpo self-defense techniques at street speed on a partner, and had to fight full-contact against every member of the testing panel.

If you are in the Kitchener, Ontario area, I strongly suggest seeking out private lesson instruction directly under Darren Wynes, as he is the top American Kenpo Karate instructor in that area.

March 2014 Belt Promotions

Congratulations to the following students on their recent belt promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy:

Ben W: Yellow
Lucas C: Yellow
Noah C: Yellow
Noah B: Advanced Purple
Scott B: Advanced Purple

Great work all of you!

Larry Tatum Seminars

This past weekend Grandmaster Larry Tatum came to Southwell's Kenpo to teach American Kenpo seminars. Myself, and five of my students attended the event. The seminars were awesome. For the Friday night seminar, Mr. Tatum taught how to counterbalance your kicks, and he also covered Leaping Crane, Shielding Hammer, Fatal Cross, Destructive Twins, and Delayed Sword. For the Saturday morning seminar, we did a graph sequence of Thrusting Prongs into Crashing Wings and then into Tripping Arrow. We also went through Locked Wing with the extension. A large part of his seminars also focused on striking the weak point of the opponent. Mr. Tatum has a knack for detail and his power and speed are mind-blowing.

Congratulations to Scott Southwell on his promotion to 4th Degree Black Belt (Senior Instructor).

Here are a couple of pictures from the event.

February 2014 Belt Promotions

February was a big month for belt promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy, especially because I had several children move up to Junior 3rd Degree Brown Belt (we have separate programs for children and adults). In my school, it takes children one year per stripe for all Junior Brown Belt levels, which means that the minimum time-frame for a children's 3rd Brown Belt to be able to test for Junior Black Belt is 3 years since his/her promotion to Brown Belt. This equates to an approximate total time of 8 years for a child to be able to test for Junior Black Belt since beginning American Kenpo. When a child reaches Junior Black Belt (we only have 2 in our school, one of whom is my oldest daughter Morgan), he/she then has to learn all 154+ self-defense techniques that are required in our adult program to be eligible to test for 1st Degree Black Belt. Although this may seem like an insurmountable task, the reality is that a Junior Black Belt would already know many of the techniques required, especially the beginner techniques and those already contained in the American Kenpo encyclopedia forms.

Here is a list of all of the students that I promoted in February:

Brandon D: Advanced Yellow
Alex K: Orange
Ben K: Orange
Cameron V: Orange
Nathan V: Orange
Anya F: Purple
Ethan B: Advanced Green
Luke N: Advanced Green
Maxim F: Advanced Green
Chloe B: 3rd Degree Brown
Christofer L: 3rd Degree Brown
Claire H: 3rd Degree Brown
Joseph L: 3rd Degree Brown
Maia G: 3rd Degree Brown
Madison S: 3rd Degree Brown
Michael L: 3rd Degree Brown
Nathan T: 3rd Degree Brown
Reese W: 3rd Degree Brown
Brennan W: 1st Degree Brown

Great work all of you!

January 2014 Belt Promotions

Congratulations to the following students on their recent promotions at Seabrook Martial Arts Academy:

Noah C: Advanced White
Victoria B: Yellow
Joseph H: Advanced Orange

Awesome work!

November 2013 Black Belt Grading

On November 28th, 2013, three of my top students were promoted to a higher degree of Black Belt. John McDonald was promoted to 3rd Degree Black Belt (Head Instructor) in American Kenpo, and Evan Wiley and Matt Trejo became the first two students I have ever promoted to 4th Degree Black Belt (Senior Instructor).

For their testing, each of the candidates performed Long Form 5 and 6, and Evan and Matt also did Long Form 7. In addition, all three candidates demonstrated many street self-defense techniques on each other, and all of them had to fight in full-contact stand-up, including an individual match with myself.

In my view, these three black belts carry the Kenpo flame with passion, and are three of the top black belts in American Kenpo in Canada.

My 2013 Martial Arts Training Log

Every day I log my martial arts training routine to motivate me to train harder, to track my progress, and to determine where I need to re-evaluate what I am working on. I recommend that all martial artists to do this on a regular basis. In 2013, my biggest change to my training schedule was the time I devoted to Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Having spent the past 29 years training in Kenpo Karate, I have now been training in Gracie Jiu Jitsu for the past 2 years to complement my stand-up fighting skills acquired through Kenpo. Although some martial artists view Jiu Jitsu as a sport, the standards set forth by the Gracie Jiu Jitsu academy are as reality-based as you can get. For my information, I highly recommend you go to gracieacademy.com

Below is my 2013 training log:

Days Practiced: 340
Total # of Classes Taught: 580
Stand Up Sparring (days) – 55
Push-ups: 5224
Sit-ups – 9236
Kettlebell (days): 133


American Kenpo Karate

Random Kenpo Techniques – 4605
Yellow Belt Freestyle Techniques: 8
Blocking Set 1 – 122
Blocking Set 2 – 30
Kicking Set 1 – 59
Kicking Set 2 – 20
Finger Set 1 – 56
Finger Set 2 – 12
Coordination Set 1 – 34
Coordination Set 2 – 12
Striking Set 1 – 27
Striking Set 2 – 12
Stance Set 1 – 44
Stance Set 2 – 12
Short Form 1 – 114
Short Form 2 - 63
Short Form 3 – 79
Long Form 1 – 39
Long Form 2 – 20
Long Form 3 – 34
Long Form 4 – 43
Long Form 5 – 33
Long Form 6 – 12
Long Form 7 – 17
Long Form 8 – 12
10 Yellow Techniques – 12
12 Orange Techniques – 12
12 Purple Techniques – 12
16 Blue Techniques – 12
20 Green Techniques – 12
20 3rd Degree Brown Techniques – 12
20 2nd Degree Brown Techniques – 12
20 1st Degree Brown Techniques – 12
20 1st Degree Black Techniques – 12
2nd Degree Black Techniques (Orange ext) – 12
3rd Degree Black Techniques (Purple ext) – 12
4th Degree Black Techniques (37 Blue-Green ext) – 12
5th Degree Black Techniques (36 Brown ext) – 12


Modern Arnis

Anyo Isa – 8
Anyo Dalawa – 8
Anyo Tatlo – 4
Anyo Apat – 4
12 Basic Strikes (control) – 2
Slice blocks: Block, check, counter to 12 basic strikes – 1
Six-count drill (canes) – 1
Trapping hands (De cadena) – 2
Banda y banda vs. angles of attack (1-2): 1
Rompida vs. angles of attack (1-2): 1


Black Dragon System Kung Fu

Long Fist 1 – 1
Roaring Tiger - 1
Breathing Law 1 - 2
Single Dragon Short Stick - 13
Orr Fai Do Fa – 11
Spear (Qiang) Form - 27


Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

Trap & Roll Escape from Mount: 327
Americana Armlock from Mount: 135
Positional Control from Mount: 175
Take the Back from Mount: 88
Rear Naked Choke from Back Mount: 85
Leg Hook Takedown (Standing): 60
Clinch Aggressive Opponent Standing: 55
Punch Block Series Stages 1-4 from Guard: 131
Straight Armlock from Mount: 76
Triangle Choke from Guard: 48
Elevator Sweep from Guard: 24
Elbow Escape from Mount: 68
Positional Control from Side Mount: 42
Body Fold Takedown (Standing): 11
Clinch Conservative Opponent: 10
Headlock Counters from Mount: 40
Double Leg Takedown (Standing): 19
Headlock Escape 1 from Side Mount: 28
Straight Armlock from Guard: 20
Double Ankle Sweep from Guard: 30
Pull Guard (Standing): 7
Headlock Escape 2 from Side Mount: 25
Guillotine Choke (Standing): 24
Shrimp Escape from Side Mount: 21
Kimura Armlock from Guard: 23
Standing Headlock Defense: 10
Punch Block Series Stage 5 from Guard: 27
Hook Sweep from Guard: 23
Rear Takedown (Standing): 17
Haymaker Punch Defense (Standing): 12
Take the Back from Guard: 42
Guillotine Defense (Standing): 11
Elbow Escape from Side Mount: 20
Standing Armlock: 17
Twisting Arm Control from Mount: 43
Double Underhook Guard Pass from Guard: 31


Super Hooks (Mount Controls): 120
High Mount (Mount Controls): 72
Surprise Rolls (Mount Escapes): 75
Surprise Elbows (Mount Escapes): 60
Americana Armlock (Mount Submission Counters): 51
Straight Armlock (Mount Submission Counters): 36
Twisting Arm Control (Mount Submission Counters): 51
Neck-hug Sequence (Mount Submissions): 48
Cross Choke Sequence (Mount Submissions): 68
Control Flow (Side Mount Controls): 36
Knee on Stomach (Side Mount Controls): 46
Bump and Shoot (Side Mount Escapes): 27
High-low Guard (Side Mount Escapes): 35
Americana Armlock (Side Mount Submissions): 32
Elbow Cup Armbar (Side Mount Submissions): 18
Safe Hands (Side Mount Submission Counters): 32

December 2013 Belt Promotions

Happy New Year everyone! I am very excited about 2014, and am hoping and believing that this will be one of the best years ever for Seabrook Martial Arts Academy with respect to skill development and knowledge enhancement. As the head instructor of our school for the past 19 years in London, Ontario, I am committed to doing everything I can to bring out the best in each and every student.

The purpose of my first blog of 2014 is to recognize all of the students who were promoted in December 2013:

Ben W: Advanced White
Lucas C: Advanced White
Cameron V: Advanced Yellow
Nathan V: Advanced Yellow
Peter Z: Orange
Chris H: Blue
Jenn B: Advanced Green

Congratulations everyone!