Thanks/Congrats/Gan Bei

[Three Harmonies]

I wanted to express my heart felt thanks and appreciation to all those involved with this historic event, the First All Mantis Conference! Truly a major success! I am too tired (six hours of sleep over two, alcohol soaked, days!!) to get into all the nitty gritty details. But may I say those who missed out, really MISSED OUT! :p
My thanks go out too.....
First and foremost Steve Cottrell for putting up with all our *******es, and organizing an event many said was impossible, and not only doing it, but doing it darn near perfectly! Hats off, and first toast to him!
I also want to thank Steve Cottrell for his continued support of Hu Laoshi and myself. I am but a baby compared to the rest of you, and Steve insisted on me not only attending, but also presenting. I hope I taught someone, something, they did not know. :o Hu Laoshi thought this was a major success, and is very proud to be a part of it.
Not in any order, but I wanted to thank the following......
Mike Biggies Laoshi and his troup of brawlers.
Tony Puyot...what can I say....one of the most humble individuals I have met, my only regret is that we did not have more time to touch hands! A true gentleman that needs to get out into the community more!
John Wicker and his students.
The Pong Laiers..... John Scolaro Laoshi...Jim SMyer Laoshi....Matt melton Laoshi.....Mike Courcelle Laoshi.....Steve Ota (I will not slaughter it Steve, please forgive I am rather slap happy right now) and all of their students! Great group with the most solid support base at the conference!
ALL of the students that made it....without you these things are not possible.
Neil Armstrong for becoming a great new friend and sharing his understanding with all at 2am in Garry's room!
Also to my teacher Hu Xi Lin for taking time out of his schedule to take a chance on us crazy "guai luo" and our conference! He totally enjoyed himself, and his seminar today at Biggie Laoshi's new school (which BTW is quite nice!) was a complete success with over 30 people attending!

Thanks to all, for all reasons! Next time we can have it in NM where the sun shines 330 days out of the year (for those complaining about the dusting of snow we got in April ;) )

Respectfully,
Jake Burroughs :D

[Ming Yue]

It was an amazing day!

I'm sorry I missed Master Hu's Sunday seminar, after taking part in his presentation on saturday I'm sure everyone had a blast on Sunday and took home plenty of good info.

My heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Sifu Cottrell for bringing us all together and to all presenting Sifus and schools for sharing their treasures.

ok, so .....can we start planning the next one now???....
:D

[BeiTangLang]

Many thanks to all those that took the time to come out and participate in this event!

There were fantastic mini-seminars presented by a varied spectrum of mantis families. They were informative on many levels & were well done. Quite frankly, I was amazed by a couple of them....I wish I had the money to travel a bit more! LOL!

No politics, no fuss, no problems; all mantis, all open, all informative.

Although I did not have enough time with each one that participated with this event, It was a great pleasure to at least meet you and put a face with the names of some of you here.

There was a grand amount of alcoholic consumption on behalf of many of us before, during and after some great conversations and touching of hands..(even during the accidents of smacking each other during the hand-touching, the peace was preserved) & much information was gained through this as much as the seminars....maybe more.

I very much look forward to the next meeting & hope that the spirit of this first all mantis all family, all lineage will carry over for generations.

My deepest thanks to all that participated!
~Roy Baker
~BTL

[18elders]

I would like to thank Mr. Cottrell for organizing this event. It was a great success and im sure he is very pleased with its outcome. I would also like to thank Jake for bringing Master Hu and offering a seminar in 6 harmony mantis. We all had a great time and enjoyed training with Master Hu.
I enjoyed everyones seminars and it was nice to train with the different styles and meet all the different shrfus and their students.
Also nice to see my pong lai kung fu brothers and sisters. Keep up the good training, everyone is looking good.
Can't wait for the next conference!!


Jake- no problem with the last name, just "O" is fine.

[yu shan]

One of the best weekends I have ever had! Thank you Cottrell Laoshi for putting this together, indeed a major success! The event went smooth, couldnt have been planned better. We could have done without the 12" or so of snow we woke up to Sunday. :eek: Really funny watching (including myself) all us hungover mantis guys digging out of the snow early Sunday morning.

The conference began with a demonstration of differant Mantis groups. I especially enjoyed this, seeing the dissimilar ways of playing forms. ALL very well done. You guys be nice when you see my BengBu... I was nervous as sh*t being in front of all those heavy hitters. The Hong Kong Mantis guys were very clean with their presentation. Master Hu, Tony Hu and Jake demonstrated Six Harmonies and Taiji Mei Hua... very sweet. Tony Puyot treated us to Ba Bu Lipi form. Hats off to my kung fu brothers, Steve and Mike for blasting out the partnered form BengBu... really good job.

The mini seminars were very informative. I`m pretty sure everyone came away with something to take home, I know I did! I especially think this idea of these mini seminars were a good idea.

The gathering at Biggie Laoshi`s school in Akron for Master Hu`s seminar was a good turnout. Everyone slapped the sh*t out of each other, always friendly though. If someone landed a good one, there were hugs and highfives. Neil Armstong and Matt Melton squared off, a good exchange! :D Hu Lasoshi was incredible as usual, son Tony was a big help assisting all us nimrods. The Six Harmonies forms might look simplistic, but the fighting aspects are challenging.

We all appreciated Biggie Laoshi for opening his new school for this event. A school full of character. Bodies were flying...

It was nice to meet and greet with some of the worlds high level Shifus and their students. I made alot of friends over the weekend. Mike Biggie is a phenomenal boxer and Teacher, with a great group of guys that bang hard. Mike is very layed back and humble, and a very good host. I met some of his students Shirkers1 and Mantis22, good dudes that fight fight fight! It was especially nice to meet Tony Puyot, what an inspiration! By chance I got to sit one on one with Puyot Laoshi at lunch. He might not know, but I learned soooo very much from him that little hour. We had a nice visit outside exchanging our versions of Qi Shou. He liked the way we played ours and I liked his way. The man is humble and caring, and very willing to share. Now all we have to do is get him out more. Also, Steve Cottrell was pretty amazing with his presentation of boxing skills... the man is very fast and a seasoned boxer.

I`m looking forward to the next Mantis gathering, you should not miss it!

Oh yes, BTL is a very cool dude, glad to have met you.

[kejia nu ren]

Wow...my body is so tired I woke up and felt a bit drunk. :p

I would like express my gratitude for being allowed to participate in this historic event at such a young point in my training. It was a most memorable experience and I am so happy to have had the chance to meet everyone involved, finally putting faces to names that have been praised so highly and that I've read about numerous times.

Huge thanks to Shifu Cottrell for organizing this successful event! It was wonderful to see this open exchange of information from such a variety of schools and styles.

Thanks to all the seminar presenters and opening ceremony demonstrators. I enjoyed each and every member's participation and am overwhelmed with the knowledge and skill that I have witnessed this past weekend. It is definitely something to reflect upon and keep in my mind as a motivation factor as I continue my training.

Many thanks to Shifu Jake Burroughs and Master Hu for a wonderful seminar on Liu He Tang Lang. It was my first personal encounter with Six Harmonies, and from what I have seen, I like a lot (to say the least)! Although the application was a little too much for my brain to absorb and process successfully, it was wonderful to see it in practice and to experience the immense power of this style. I hope this is the first of more learning experiences I will have with Burroughs Laoshi and Master Hu Xi Lin. Your contribution to this community is treasured, and I'm sure that my sentiments are shared by most everyone.

Another big thanks to Shifu Mike Biggie for inviting us to his new venue to participate in the Liu He seminar. I very much enjoyed the seminar on the Iron Palm training as well as the conversation on Chinese medicine. Another wonderfully skilled and knowledgeable resource in the mantis community!

And most importantly, thanks to my Shifu Jim Smyer for letting me participate in this amazing experience as a part of the PongLai family. I can't fully express how grateful I am to have found PongLai in Nashville and to have the opportunity to train with everyone here. I am so proud to be a part of this family and am looking forward to many more training experiences as a part of it.

Congratulations to everyone on a job well done! :D

~Annibelle Lin~

[Oso]

all I can say it that it was a capstone on a long search begun over 5 years ago.

lots of new faces and some old ones from the beginning of my personal search for 'my tong long chuen'.

thanks to my immediate Pong Lai family...

thanks to Gary for the fat lip, and to Neil for very much humbling me Sunday morning...

thanks to Roy for working with me...I miss having other big guys to play with...

but most especially, thanks to Sifu Cottrell for all he has done to accomplish this amazing feat.

till next time...

[Xiao Tang Lang]

It was a sincere pleasure meeting everyone at the conference! Every seminar had something to offer and I came away feeling extremely grateful that everyone was so open and willing to share their knowledge and experiences! I am thankful to be able to meet ALL who attended the conference but I would like to especially thank Jake, Master Hu Xi Lin and his son Tony for sharing Liu Hu Tang Lang and exposing us to this rare Mantis style. I would also like to thank Sifu Mike Biggie for hosting the seminar at his new school and I wish him all the best with his school. Sifu Biggie is a very kind and knowledgeable person and I really appreciated his Iron palm seminar! Of course I am so thankful to Sifu Steve Cottrell! He is a very kind man with enormous knowledge and skill! I appreciate all the hard work he put in to make this event happen! Special thanks to all my Pong Lai brothers and sisters! It is always a pleasure to spend time with you! Lastly, I would like to thank my Shrfu John Scolaro for sharing his knowledge and taking the time to train me so patiently over the years! I look forward to the next event!

Regards,
Mike

[shirkers1]

I had a wonderful time meeting everyone and getting a chance to talk, touch hands, etc with all of you and it was great... :D I only wish we had more time. :) I'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who made me feel better about my performance as well for the video. It was my first ever performance in front of an audience and I was plenty scared... Hell I didn't even know what I was going to do until I was up there getting the introduction.. So I had no warm up or even a chance to stretch.... Look for the shivering legs when you get the vid and you'll see how nervous I was. . :D Oh well it happens.

I was impressed by a lot of what I saw and really enjoyed the interaction with such diverse flavors. Thanks to all who picked up a shirt, and I'm glad you guys were pleased with the end results.

Yu shan I'll post some pics of the online crew when I get home and have access to my computer. I can't do anything here, so look for those this weekend.

mark

[mantis22]

I had a great time meeting all of you, i look forward to seeing everyone again, steve great job, jake thanks for bringing Mr. Hu, great man, very open you have a great teacher (really liked getting thrown around) his son the same, Tony P. very nice meeting you, will be practicing my speed :) hope to meet you again. all the pong lai crew, great seminar, mad i only got to touch hands with a few of you, Jim hope to see you soon, mark good job in the shirts, always love sparring with you brother Trent

[Oso]

I think this is a great pic of the two gentlemen

a bit grainy as it was very dark to start off with and Ming Yue had to lighten it for me.

[Three Harmonies]

Ming Yue.....identify yourself, I am not sure which one you are from Asheville??? :confused:

I am Jake :p

[yu shan]

The stunning blond who performed the two-person stick with Matt.

[Oso]

L.L.P.L.

:D

;)

[Ming Yue]

LOL... Yu Shan's wife has trained him well. :D

[yu shan]

Look in the mirror darlin`look in the mirror... :D

sorry Bei, someone get us back on topic.

[Oso]

Praying Mantis is awesome.


;)

[Three Harmonies]

AHHH. That girl was hot ;) !
Gracias! :D
Jake (the stunning bald one) :p