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Tell us about the seminar!


Neal Winkler
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Joshua Naterman

Absolutely. You will be surrounded by some of the highest quality people on the planet. Coach's guys seem to all be top notch human beings and Coach certainly is as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there in a few weeks!

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I'm hoping you guys will make a small video compilation (if possible and/or allowed) - not to see the full exercises, just to get a glimpse of the atmosphere and work being done :) I actually think it would be a great idea to post a decently edited GB Seminar videoclip on the GB Youtube Channel and in the store portion of the website. It wouldn't have to be longer than, say, a minute and I'm sure it will increase the number of potential attendees (is that a word? ;)).

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I'm hoping you guys will make a small video compilation (if possible and/or allowed) - not to see the full exercises, just to get a glimpse of the atmosphere and work being done :) I actually think it would be a great idea to post a decently edited GB Seminar videoclip on the GB Youtube Channel and in the store portion of the website. It wouldn't have to be longer than, say, a minute and I'm sure it will increase the number of potential attendees (is that a word? ;)).

Nice idea!

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There was some video from a prior seminar with Ido doing a straddle planche off against another attendee and some goofing off. This is pretty much the only thing allowed.

I wished we would have took some video of the tumbling because it was pretty hilarious.

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Yeah I totally understand that it's not allowed to film whole sequences/exercises, I was thinking more along the lines of a short, well-edited clip for promotional purposes and to get an idea of the Seminar atmosphere. I've seen the vids you mentioned and although entertaining, I'd like to see the other aspects as well.

(but I'll see it with my own eyes anyway as soon as the GB European Seminar sees the light of day :D)

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  • 3 weeks later...

T-13 hours! And yes, I still don't have my notes typed up though I have heard I forgot a journal in phoenix in May. So maybe I had more content than I thought. Life should be settling in a few weeks.

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Joshua Naterman
Yeah I totally understand that it's not allowed to film whole sequences/exercises, I was thinking more along the lines of a short, well-edited clip for promotional purposes and to get an idea of the Seminar atmosphere. I've seen the vids you mentioned and although entertaining, I'd like to see the other aspects as well.

(but I'll see it with my own eyes anyway as soon as the GB European Seminar sees the light of day :D)

I agree. I think it would be kind of nice to see a cool sneak preview!

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Joshua Naterman

See, it turns out I brought my tripod but not my camera. Sigh...

Well, the first day is over and I feel like this was the best seminar to date! We covered a lot of material and got some good work in, and no one got broken. :lol: All in all a great day! We've got another excellent group of people, a nice mix of new attendees and some more familiar faces. The energy in the seminar is, if possible, even better than May. People just don't want to leave when it's over! I don't know how else to describe that, other than to be very cliché and say that the environment is nothing short of magical. I know, that's kind of a foo-foo explanation, but that's how it feels to me.

I would like to think several forum members, who I actually still don't know the names of, for a very special gift. Apparently they saw that I all of a sudden had these very... custom... 'rings' that I was working out on, and together they surprised me with a new set of Xtreme Rings at the end of the day! I almost didn't know what to say, I mean I never imagined anything like that happening, so I hope that those of you who got together and made this happen really touched me. This is by far the greatest internet community I have ever heard of.

Then one of the other guys there, a gentleman we call Billy, gave me what turned out to be a thank you card with a gift card attached. Again, I had no idea. I didn't even know what to say, so of course I said thank you, and I just opened it a minute ago here in my hotel room. Let me tell you Billy, I am for real about 98% broke, and that gift card is going to help quite a lot. Thank you!!

Together, a number of the members of the forum have taken this day, which was already fantastic, and turned it into one of the high points of my life. There is, to me, absolutely nothing better than knowing that my presence here has meant that much to people that I may not even know, and I just want to say thank you. It is humbling and heartening to receive this kind of thoughtfulness, and I simply hope that I continue to be helpful to all of us here.

To be a part of a community where we all try our best to help each other in whatever ways are available to each of us is truly an incomparable honor. Thank you all for being who you are.

In other news, we had some special guests! Ido Portal showed up, and it was really nice to see him in person. I've been a big fan for, well, since the first video of his I saw, so to me that was really cool! Aush has made it back and so far has avoided surgery :P and Jeff from Crossfit Portland (did I get that right?) is back as well! We've got two guys here who have blended the GB program with their Olympic lifting and are getting fantastic results, and overall everyone who's come back is much stronger than they were in May. Being here as my second seminar I can absolutely say that this is better not just because those of us who have been to previous seminars are more familiar with the material but also because it's great to see old friends! There is a real family atmosphere that I think many people don't expect from this sort of event, and it just enhances an already wonderful experience.

Well, I'm looking forward to Day 2, we got some excellent updates today as well as some new info, and I am excited to be back in the gym tomorrow! I will post again tomorrow evening.

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Nice to hear. I opted to just go back home and get some RnR. It was a very hard decision last night and reading stuff like this makes me envious but it is what it is.

As well, I was meaning to ask Coach Sommer if he had any spare rings to get as I left my XR with my prize student at my last gym. I have my pvc rings but we have about 3 pairs of rings without any straps at the gym currently and and not much space to hang them except off the PB.

Right now, I'm actually leaner but I would say I'm weaker when it comes to gymnastics upper body strength but perhaps stronger than I've ever been with a barbell. I ended up spending more time training at my friend's gym than in mine. I finally got a set of band straps to work the shoulder mobility stuff but don't have any more DB for stuff like cuban presses.

It's great to hear you are having a good time, Sliz. Have fun the next 2 days. I meant to email Coach last night (early morn as I got in around 1am) but crashed out instead.

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Wow that sounds amazing Sliz, just wish I was there! :P Well I will be in Europe hopefully.. and Ido showing up just made it all even better I can imagine. Big fan here aswell :mrgreen: now even more pumped for an eventual European seminar!

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Seminar so far is incredible. I can't believe no one has mentioned the amazing women here. We had extra time working on rings series, and they all popped right up and were doing awesome. And Odelia completely tore them up! My female clients have zero excuses now with the rings. We also watched a couple people get their first (or first few) muscle-ups. Exciting day for them. So much more I could write about the people and the environment, but I've got to get ready for round 2 of Dilion torture...I mean seminar second day.

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Joshua Naterman

There were some great snapshots being taken of us throughout the day so it seems that there will be some good stock footage to pick some preview shots from!

Today was great. We got way deeper into the Hungarian series than last time and got to see the beginnings of some of the more 'fun' stuff, which actually WAS fun. We hit some supplemental ring strength work and got a little deeper into the shoulder series than last time. HS work was also more in-depth both in the body line and actual HS development drills, but I think the best part was the two rounds of headstand wars! It is really, really hard to move around a lot in a headstand.

Ido took some time and ran us through some of the finer points of his basic shoulder mobility series and explained his choice of tools, which was pretty funny. I asked him where I could find something like that and the answer was "You can't!" :lol: What he had was a gift from when he did a workshop in Russia, and simply can't be obtained outside of Russia. We all had a good laugh at that, and Ido is working on ways to make this available for those of us who aren't native Russians! Watching his shoulder videos is one thing, but being able to see things in action and ask questions was really great, because I got to clarify for myself what the primary focus should be for different exercises within the series, and Ido also shared some great shoulder rolling drills with a dowel on the ground. I tried them out during lunch and my shoulders felt really good!

I also learned from Ido during lunch that there is a book that I and anyone else who wants to learn how to use some rudimentary chinese medicine for healing and physical preparation should read. It's called A tooth from the Tiger's Mouth and this is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743245512/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=039915079X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1SMDQQMWASMJBX7KZ906. Not only does it tell you exactly which herbs to use and how to prepare them for various purposes but it ALSO gives you advice on how to find them in America! Hint: Chinatown. Go there. :P He has found that to be quite useful.

I know I'm forgetting some stuff, like the "light" death run we did for warm up (which was REALLY fun, by the way!), but this was a pretty good snapshot of the second day. I learned a lot of new things.

About twelve of us went to dinner afterward and stayed there until around 9:30 just hanging out and having a great time!

Well, I'm going to crash out. My hamstrings are going to be ridiculously tight tomorrow, so I'll probably stretch in the morning when I wake up. Good night!

EDIT: Coreathlete's right, the ladies here were spectacular! I mean that. The young lady with Ido is better on the ring strength than half of us guys, at least! She makes ring strength 3 look pretty easy. Maybe it was ring strength 2... I'm pretty sure it was 3 though. Her handstand ability is excellent! We were all blown away. There are several other ladies here as well and ALL of them are really keeping up! Anyone who doesn't think that girls can do this program and get everything out of it the guys do is completely out of their mind.

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Damn, I actually wanted to see more of the Hungarian series. Fun stuff?

How long was the light "death" run? In the gym or out of?

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Joshua Naterman

Death run was in the gym, I think we went over, under, or through every single thing in that gym or on the floor twice. It was really fun but pretty tough. Apparently Allan and the others do flips and stuff off of everything when they do the real thing lol... the pace is probably a lot faster too.

Yea, Hungarian is great. I actually don't think any of us besides Ido and his friends are really ready for anything past what we went over, so between now and next time we will just work on this and get it down so that next time we'll be ready for more.

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Ahh, we just call those gym runs. A bit like parkour. It's a fun thing for the boys, which is typically 5 laps. Xtreme Gymnastics would have a bigger lap than my current gym (since we have a kinder area that is blocked off, no pit or in ground tumble-trak). Now at my old gym a few years back we would have awesome gym runs.

Personally, I like them on occasion for team boys but not every workout. I prefer a more structured warmup. I abhor just running laps on the gym floor.

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I like the sounds of those for warm ups. For the kickboxing class I took in university, we just did laps. Of course, it was a really small area (and we were barefoot), so we had to improvise; downstairs, through the halls, back up the stairs...over bad hardwood, concrete, through other people and past constantly opening doors...get one of those in the face and you'll know it.

Definitely gonna try and make it out to the seminar next year (when I'm not emptying my funds into school).

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Joshua Naterman

Today was our final day! It's sad to be leaving, I have had a fantastic weekend and I hate for it to end. Today we got into some deeper plyometric stuff, still pretty basic things for Coach's athletes but more than we've gotten into in the past. The handstand body line work also got pretty intense, there's some stuff that I am nowhere near ready to tackle due to lack of strength. We got to see what turned into some senders progressions, and we went over a LOT of ring strength. I'm not talking about "this is a Bulgarian dip, this is a pull up, etc..." I am talking about foundational work for the ADVANCED stuff like cross, maltese, etc and how to structure the entire ring strength day beyond what is in the WOD to ensure that all the key steps in development are included. This is really important information, and almost made the whole weekend worth the trip all by itself! I can't begin to tell you all how insane it is that so much information is available to us at the seminars.

Besides the information, the hands on experience with good spotters allows you to learn things that just can't be done on your own properly. Hearing the words and remembering them is easy, but when you're in a handstand and Coach comes over to adjust you, there's just no way to put that into words. Sure, he touches your ribs and back and has you adjust position. Those words do absolutely nothing to convey what happens when you feel that squeeze and are guided into the correct position. It has to be FELT, and you can not feel something until you DO that thing.

It was a great honor to be here with everyone, and I am absolutely stoked about the progress I am going to make between now and next May! I'm thinking we're going to have a few more seminar veterans become more active here so that there are more people to help everyone understand the basics so that as we grow there is enough support for everyone who needs it.

I hope to see a lot of new faces in May, and I am looking forward to the many familiar faces I know will be there.

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Amen. Bottom line is if you want results, you will get to a seminar. Otherwise, you have no right to complain about progress. Ever. Because you will make huge progress after attending a weekend. It's understandable if money is a factor, but the cost is certainly reasonable to start saving for; and with the European seminar in the future at some point, distance will become less a factor.

I have no doubt that by the May seminar, the level of performance by those who came this weekend will have tripled at minimum.

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Joshua Naterman

I have to agree with the assertion that if you are REALLY interested in going far with gymnastic strength you will find a way to get to the seminar. Once you go to one you will probably want to go to them all. Every single person who came back from last seminar made exceptional progress! That's something that is hard to ignore.

The hotels are cheap, so start saving! Look at what airfare is a month from now and add that to the cost of however many seminar days you want to attend, and then get started with your saving! If you have to save for a year that's ok! Just do what you can. There is enough support here for everyone to make very good progress for at least a few years, and by that time more volumes will probably be out and there will be more material available to those who buy the books, and even MORE progress will be possible, so even if you can't make it to the seminars for a year or two don't sweat it, just set your savings goal and start saving.

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Aushion Chatman

Well as Sliz and Core have already mentioned the seminar was FANTASTIC! So glad my appendix is already out from the last seminar so that I didn't have to miss anything.

So this seminar for me was very enlightening. I have been nursing shoulder impingement for a few months now (I know...it's on me that it's lasted this long, but you know how bull-headed most of us are). It was to the point that I didn't really know how much I would be able to participate which would have been tough for me :( I knew I would still attend because even book knowledge is good, but there's nothing like practice so I was bummed that I may not be able to get after it with the other attendees.

So as the first day session of stretching and warm-up started I was cautious and anxious...but then we immediately got into one of many shoulder pre-hab series we learned this weekend...WOW! My shoulder hadn't felt that good in a LONG time. Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't take my shoulder pre-hab more seriously earlier.

Unfortunately my shoulder is to the point where I need to be manually worked on. But with the therapist contact that Coach S gave me, I think I'll be back to 100% with dedicated consistent effort.

My BIGGEST take-away from the seminar is that proper joint preparation and pre-hab is ESSENTIAL. The seminars could literally be 3 days of joint preparation/pre-hab routines and I'd be the first one in line to attend.

I tried to thank and shake hands with everyone who attended before I left, but I'd just like to say thank you again to Coach S, his studs, Ido and crew, and all the other attendees who added so much value to the seminar. It's almost funny that you come to the seminar to hear from Coach S, but you learn so much from each other as well and I must say thank you to Coach S for allowing that kind of environment to exist. It'd be easy for ego to get in the way of that. And that doesn't happen with Coach S.

I think the only thing we should not have done was work through lunch on the last day. I didn't think it would be that big a deal, but it was. I was drained...

Going out to eat together was great, definitely we should better organize that for next seminar like was mentioned.

I know the tumbling doesn't fit in very well to what we're doing with GB, but I LOVE tumbling, I think it may be the only thing more fun than ring strength. I know we may not be physically prepared for some of it at this point. but I'd love to learn progressions for Front/Back Tuck and handsprings. We got into it a little bit, with the cartwheel variations.

Coach if that is simply not smart with the level of athlete following GB currently I understand, and there is so much other information to get out it'd be hard to fit in...But maybe that is something that can be kept on the back burner for another year or two's time??

Lastly Coach actually got through his syllabus for the first half of day 2!! HAHA...you should've seen how proud he was that he actually got through the syllabus...(even if it was for only 1/6th of the seminar)....there's just so much info.

See you guys on the msg boards and stronger and better prepared by next Seminar in May! Jeff and Ido I want in on that Paleo challenge, I am going to eat right, and when I see you guys in May I'll be a lean mean ring back leverin machine.

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I truly truly wish I could attend but I am absolutely broke right now and I probably will be for the next year as I finish grad school. I've recently had to pay $3,000 dollars out of pocket for classes so I'm hurting big time. I won't be able to make it to a seminar until 2012 depending on how much money I make after I finish school. I'll just have to justify it to the wife though because I'm going into cardiac rehab, hence, there is no professional justification.

If I can make this gymnastics stuff work for me, it's something I want to do for the rest of my life. I'm hoping that the joint pre-hab is something that will be keep me strong and functional well into old age.

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