What did you think of the Seminar - European Edition

[Nicholas Sortino]

Coach wanted a new thread started here for people to post their opinions, good and bad, of the seminar, and for others to ask questions relating to it.

I guess i will start.

Good:

I thought the Information presented was top-notch and explained very well. Dillon did a great job of showing us how to do the exercises and Coach was always there making sure people were doing it right. There was so much information presented it was just incredible. I have a much better grasp of what I need to do, and I am going to go way back to the basics. Joint prep was just awesome, especially the wrist and shoulder series.

Bad:

Razz said this in person, but I will repeat it. We got of topic more than a few times and spent a bit of training time telling stories. There was a lot of information that was not presented because we ran out of time. I understand this is unavoidable to an extent, but there were a few things we had to go over in the hotel lobby without demonstrations that I would have really liked to see shown.

Other thoughts:

It was an amazing weekend in generally, and I am really glad i made the trip out from the States. All of you guys were just awesome, and if you are ever in my neck of the woods, let me know and I will at least buy you a beer, or even let you crash for the night if you need. Thanks to all of you for making this trip such an awesome experience. Special thanks to Alvaro and David for organizing this, and Razz and Alex for giving me good stories to tell.

[Nicholas Sortino]

I know a lot of different people took pictures while at the seminar. I am sure we would all love to have each others pictures. This is why I created a photobucket pro account so anyone can upload there pictures there, and anyone can save them from there. This way you only have to upload it once instead of emailing pictures to 15 different people.

if you were part of the Seminar, send me a PM and I will give you the login information.

Please everyone be respectful and do not delete others photos off of the page. This is meant to be something that will make it a little easier for all of us. I hope this works as well as I plan.

I won't be posting my pictures until I get back home, and won't be able to give out the info until then either. But Once people start posting pictures there, for those that want to check them out and weren't there, you can search for the user GBEuropePics. Click follow if you want updates when people upload their photos.

[Tarun Suri]

Will you guys post a group picture?

[Mats Trane]

I know a lot of different people took pictures while at the seminar. I am sure we would all love to have each others pictures. This is why I created a photobucket pro account so anyone can upload there pictures there, and anyone can save them from there. This way you only have to upload it once instead of emailing pictures to 15 different people.

Hi Nick, what a great idea I´ll Pm you now. Hope you have a safe trip home.

Mats

[Neal Winkler]

Wow, Nick, you paid a lot of money to go to the seminar! Overseas plane tickets are not cheap.

[Mats Trane]

Hi

First of all I would highly recommend any one seriously interested in bodyweight training to go to the seminar!

We had 3 excellent days totally focused on bodyweihgt training.

Tips for you who havn´t been to one:

Write down questions, goals etc that you have about your training so you dont regret yourself forgetting to ask things on your way home. Coach and his staff are very helpfull and will (if you ask) answer all your questions.

Dont overdue your training at the seminar (dont be macho) or you will be sore and not be able to get the most out of all 3 days! Remeber its when you get home you want to do the work.

Bring a good notebook

Good things about the Mallorcan seminar:

Professioanl staff, coach was realy good at explaining everything in an easy and understandable way and Dillon and Allen very good at showing how it was done.

Everything is step by step, from one progression to the next

The warm up and the prehab series were just perfect. Lots to learn here as this is not in the Wods or in the book.

The locals Al and David had prepared everything with, hotel, bustransport to and from the traininghall, lunch etc etc.

This meant that we could focus 100% on the training and not worry about were to stay,transport, lunch etc etc

You´ll have a great time and meet new friends with the same interests as you. We all stayed at the same hotel so we got to know each other well.

Things that could be improved:

I found it a bit stressfull to take notes during the training, as doing is better than writing. But I was afraid that I would forget something when I got home to implement all this information. I´m note asking for a detailed outline on every single element but subjects or an outline of the seminar would be good and then use that to put your own notes in.

Hope I´ll be able to go to the next seminar.

Mats

[Christian Sørlie]

This was a great seminar. If you are interrested in strength, health, flexibility or agility make the trip to one of these seminars. Only drawback is that if you go once, you'll want to go again. Coach and his athletes were just great and very helpfull.

The atmosphere was wonderful. It felt really good to be with such a great gang of likeminded people. Really hope we stay in touch and meet up again.

Good things:

Alot of info, great shoulder, ankle, wrist and knee prehab routines. The presentation was really good and you had the opportunity to try it out and to take your time. Nothing was rushed through. I have so much to implement in my own training that even if I make to the may seminar I might still only have gotten through a fraction of what is possible. Things take time so enjoy the journey.

"Bad" things:

Time. There is so much to go through and only three days, and that means something will be left out. Sometimes I felt we were a bit too soft on things, I would have liked more info on the dynamic leg training and plyometric elements.

Overall:

I am really glad I made the trip, money well spent! The information and advice i've gotten is really great and now it's up to me to do something about it. Because of the seminar I know where my time will be best spent, what excersises to focus on and just how important active flexiblity and mobilty really is.

So a BIG thank you to Coach, Dillon, and Allan for making this seminar great and also to Omegant and Seratonin for making it possible!

[Razz]

Finally back home from one of the best weekends ever. The atmosphere, the people, the weather in mallorca was just amazing. Combine that with first class info from coach that you will not find elsewhere (or maybe you will, if you travel the entire world and interview every single gymnastics team) and you have a potent combination. I'm tired right now so I'll give a brief review and probably post a longer story in my log one of the coming days.

good:

Info was amazing, there has been nothing but gymnastics on my mind since day 1. There is just so much information and although many of the exercises are not rocket science, the rep ranges and info about the exercises and especially the prehab and pre requisites for intermediate and advanced work is just worth gold. The athmosphere was incredible, everyone shared the same interest and everyone respected each other while still being able to joke around. Coach himself is an such a knowledgeable and wise person, not only with gymnastics but on life aswell. The reason he has had this success is obviously the product of gymnastics knowledge coming from an unbelievable work ethic for many years. Coach is constantly trying to improve his system and stay on top of the game. His athletes Dillon and Allan were really cool guys and Dillon did a great job showing all the exercises and making us all feel humble. I mean seriously, imagine rewinding the cirque video and you have what Dillon showed us, a one arm chinup rope climb!

things to improve:

We strayed a bit too much off topic in my opinion with some one hour talks. These talks were still really interesting so it's not like I was bored, but I would have loved to get into a bit more dynamic leg strength for example. In my opinion days could easily be a bit longer and maybe with a bit shorter lunch. two half hour breaks with the day going from 8-18 is doable in my opinion.

Special thanks goes to coach for being a real gentleman and answering my 10,000 questions even after seminar time was over. Dillon and Allan for helping out and just being beastly guys that made me feel weak (and inspired of course). Nick and Alex for a great night out saturday and last but DEFINATELY not least Alvaro and David for arranging everything, we're all in debt to you guys, this seminar was amazing and I can't thank you enough!

worth the money?

I'd starve for a month if I had to, just to save money to go.

[Alex Dienaar]

I personally loved the information overload on the seminars. It really helped me get my training straight.

Good things :

- The amount of nformation and the quality of information

It's just amazing how many things you can pick up from Coach, Dillon and Allan in 3 days that will help your conditioning/longevity for the rest of your life

- How helpful everyone is, Coach and Dillon will gladly answer any question you have or help you with certain things if you have trouble. I found it amazing how open and approachable they were, and eager to help : ) Even on things that were not on the seminar schedule.

- It was great after the seminar as well, atmosphere-wise, group bonding and massive amounts of fun. Everyone was extremely social and seriously the coolest group of people I've met so far.

- Again the information that will help you stay injury free and know where to focus your progressions, it was very detailed, very well explained and gave me a very clear direction to go with training and how to implement all the things we've learned.

- The anecdotes and stories of Coach, they gave a personal twist, more engaging feeling and gave examples of character, determination and information filtering. (Not sure if everyone agrees with this since it cut a bit into valuable information-giving time)

- Special attention given to your needs, Razz for example was very strong out of our group, so he got captured by Dillon for some more advanced work while the rest of the group stayed with Coach for what was on the program.

- All of the information is extremely practical and can be directly put to use.

- You'll feel great after the 3 days of hard work under supervision of a semi-sadistic Coach.

- Dillon doing a concentric version of the cirque (one arm out, pull up, grab with other arm, pull up) O_O

- Seeing Allan in training.

Bad things :

- We were not able to get through all the information needed and needed to rush at the end. Although the amount of information was already an extreme amount, I did miss alot of things (in retrospect, to CDX's previous point - Prepare your questions beforehand!).

- The seminar wasn't 5 days

- It was hard to get notes in sometimes, at moments it was a bit of overload of information

Notes:

- Bring a notebook

- Do your wrist prehab, you're going to need it from writing notes

- Prepare questions beforehand

- Do not think it'll be an easy 3 days

Other things :

The trip was f-ing great, I had a seriously great time with everyone there. Had great adventures with Nick and Razz in Palma haha. All of the combined dinners were extremely fun, hilarious stories going around and interesting discussions, the vibe was just perfect. The group was also amazingly strong! CDX was an inspiration to see in action So were Bjonic and Maria!

-A big thank you foremost to Coach Sommer, Dillon and Allan for all of the information, the great time, the helpfulness.

-Another big thank you to Omegant and Serotonin for the huge trouble of organizing and making everything go extremely smooth! (From the shirts, to the busses, to the hotel bookings to the facilities, everything was superb)

Other special thank yous to :

- Razz for forever ruining my innocent mind and lending me toothpaste.

- Niklas and Maria for teaching me alot of cool Finnish.

- Mr. Brady for his advice and interesting conversations

- Nick, for awesome stories about America, Bacon, relationships and more, and saving me and Razz from a peculiar situation in Palma haha

- Oakwise and Thomas, showing us a great restaurant and teaching me about dates wrapped in bacon and giving me the names of some interesting books to read

- Omegant (David) for showing us the local specalities, ordering the good stuff for us to taste at restaurants, telling us about the island, tradition, culture, food

There's probably more, but I can't remember it at this moment. Wasted from the trip!

*Right, another very big thanks to Coach Sommer for a very valuable life-lesson he gave me, his views and his work ethic and knowledge of life are amaing and a great source of inspiration.

* AND another one to Razz and Nick for that Saturday night out in Palma, that was seriously amazing XD (also to Oakwise and Thomas here for the first half!)

* The massive amounts of fun on the last day with Niklas and Maria, from Minigolf to eating out, to pranking cars outside and weird posing on the streets haha.

[Blairbob]

Again, while it is nice to have the 1 hour lunches, these easily can become 1hr15m or 1.5hr from the time you start till you are all back together again.

It makes a lot of sense to bring food with you or go get something or have something ready and stay on-site. It's nice to commiserate but it's a killer on time.

Many of those out there in the retail world know that 30m for lunch is too short to really go drive somewhere and get something but 1h ends up giving you extra time you don't what to do with.

[Nicholas Sortino]

Wow, Nick, you paid a lot of money to go to the seminar! Overseas plane tickets are not cheap.

Totally worth it, for more than just the training and information too. I am really glad I got to meet everyone there.

Also, a very helpful forum member helped me find rather cheap tickets. Between the Seminar, the Flights, the hotel, and food I still spent less than $2,000, which really isn't bad at all. Besides, I make money so I can spend it, right? I wish United would give me a free flight or something though, for the 5hr delay I had in Madrid.

[Michael Traynor]

Wooohooo!

FInally home again after the longest journey from Mallorca to Scotland in history, I might of well have walked, I have no bags though sadly. I could regale you with stories of just how crappy my journey was but i'll spare you.

Good Points:

I agree with pretty much everything that the previous posters have written on the good points.

. Fantastic content

. Well presented

. Great atmosphere

. Great socialising outside of the seminars

. Very professional but also informal enough to be very comfortable

. Coach, Dillon and Allan really went above and beyond their call of duty, answering question after question outside of seminar time, spending social time with us at restaurants and on the beach. Although for them this material is nothing new and despite this seminar being the 100+ time they have told someone how to hold a FL combined with jet lag and everything else they still seemed to have a great time and were always happy to help which really speaks to their passion, dedication and professionalism.

Bad Points:

. There is just not enough time; in days, in trying to do the exercises and write down the exercises and try the exercises etc but there is not necessarily much that could have been done to fix this except to add extra days. I feel that I personally enjoyed the stories and flavour that Coach provided, it was slightly more frustrating when coach was engaged in long conversations being translated with the Spanish coaches but that was also unavoidable so as not to be rude and to keep everyone happy. I think that the way the Seminar was run as a whole was fantastic and I wouldn't really change anything as i'm not sure that that would be possible. Except that I would have liked for us to bring a packed lunch with us even though the lunch place was really close to the gym. It would have been really great for us to be able to use the space even just for 30-60mins after the seminars to run over movements and excercises and play around too but I get the feeling all of this happens more easily in the US seminars and i'm looking forward to May if I can make it.

. Not enough people swam in the sea. ;P

I also just want to say a big thank you to everyone that made this happen Coach, DIllon and Allan, Alvaro and David and everyone that made the effort to fly out and take part. The whole weekend was a testament to the fact that it takes a special caliber of person to put in the hard work to persue the passion that we share and as such you are all of the excellent character that makes me very happy and proud to be a part of such a fantastic community of athletes. This weekend was exactly what I needed and money permitted I will definately be there in May and hope you all will be too!

Right i'm off to train Hollow Body!!!

[Nicholas Sortino]

Will you guys post a group picture?

This is from CDX's album:

fixed it.

[Pedro Otero]

I'm a terrible reviewer personally, but can pretty much second what everyone else has said to varying degrees.

It was pretty much one of the most worthwhile weekends in my life so far. Between the amazing instruction and being surrounded by great people all focused on something that actually matters (something sorely lacking in my usual social circles), the only improvement I can really think of is more time; 366 days on a leap year sounds about right

Now I'm aching for the kind and better prepared multi-tasking-capable souls who took notes to scan some up and share, to make sure I don't miss anything when I'm back to a space where I can properly do everything. I might have to add shorthand speed-writing to my warm-ups in preparation for May; probably worth it. Definitely bring a notebook if you can.

BTW, the picture shows up fine in the topic review when you're typing up a reply, but appears smooshed vertically when saved to disk for some reason.

[Tarun Suri]

Wow. I only recognize two people in that picture. Funny how little I know about everyone here if their usernames are taken away.

[Mats Trane]

come on guys, load up som pictures! I´m the only one so far

[Christian Sørlie]

Sad to say I didn't take any.

So really appreciate the upload Mats.

[Nicholas Sortino]

I only took a few the first day, but I will try to get them up there by tonight. My desk top doesn't have a card reader, so I need to go get one at some point.

I am eagerly awaiting the pictures from Coach's camera and Alvaro's in particular.

[Alvaro Antolinez]

I had time to download them to the pc but not to upload to photobucket. Sorry i'll do it saturday as I'll be out for three days. Nick your pic looks great ImHO! There is also that descend into cross from Dillon that looks nice!

[Razz]

Here's one of me and I will now start uploading all the other..this was taken out of a video, was too tired to hold it and didn't film the first time where it was better :oops: Oh well there's no excuse for not improving now!!!!

edit: here's my album http://s1134.photobucket.com/albums/m617/GBEuropePics/Rasmus%20pics/

[Jenan Wise]

Rather than repeat what everyone has said, I'll just say +1 to all of the above. I learned an incredible amount, even though I only did day 1.

Huge bonus: seeing Coach actually coaching in person and watching a national champ workout! Worth the price of admission alone.

Huge thanks: omegant's guide to the island was *perfect*. For those of you who didn't get a chance to explore the Mallorcan towns: go back! They're incredible.

Huge bummer: Coach saying that it took 18 months to heal an injury he once had that is similar to mine :shock:

PS Do we get a full report on what happened in Palma after T and I left on Saturday or what?!

[Christian Sørlie]

Great pics Razz!

I'm missing the fun we had already, doing Rocky style WOD's (Woods ) one the beach after 8 hours training.

The May seminar is looking more and more likely.

[Razz]

from left to right

Alvaro (Omegant) doing the bridge

Niklas doing headstand

Spanish coach and student behind

Pedro with the long dark hair (rio yeti)

Maria (guess who)

Cole aka Mr. Brady with the glasses

Alex dienaar doing headstand

Dillon "I climb ropes with one hand" Zrike in front

Nick "the italian stallion" in the background

Cdx looking all happy

Mark, Christian and Bjonic aka the beast from the east doing the triplet

David (Serotonin) down in front

Me aka the viking with no piking and The allan everyone should bower too failing at the double plank

Breaks aka beach muscles posing in front with the one and only Coach Sommer behind him

[Alvaro Antolinez]

Spanish coaches are Juan (the tallest) and Luis (just to his right, is also a coach not student, and very strong by the way, I would say close to Razz in certain exercices).

There was a lot of work involved just to take this pic !!!

[Michael Traynor]

Yeah Luis has some very nice skills and great strength!

Uploaded some of my photos that people might like to see. Looking forward to seeing your photos Omegant and hopefully we will get to see Coach's too at some point