Monday, August 09, 2010

Last day, Hungarian RKC


Team Rif, Hungary (left to right)
assistants Tamas ,Amnon,Judit,Me,Tracy,Greg,Alex,Zslot,
back row: Zoltan,Czaba,Andras, Florian,
kneeling: Darius

Missing: Ronen

apologies to those not in the pic and whose names I forgot!


Just a short note here as I sit in the hotel room over looking the beautiful river Danube in Hungary reflecting on the great RKC we just finished. I have to say, after teaching at RKC's for the last five years this has to be my all time favorite one of all.

Not to say I haven't had great, great experiences at all the certs but this one was special. And I really didn't expect it because as most people who know me know, I don't like to travel much. But this was different somehow, despite walking more in the last five days than I usually do in a month. My knee held up really well although it wasn''t easy.

Peter Lakatos, SRKC, did an AMAZING job orchestrating this cert, doing both the job of Dragon Door administration AND leadinghis own team!

My team was incredible and I had candidates from all over; Hungary, Russia, Poland, Germany and Israel! Despite the obvious language differences it worked out fine, with help from my assistants Amnon, Judit and Tamas, who acted as translators as well as RKC instructors.

I think not being able to communicate via the spoken word as easily actually made my teaching easier as I had to take the direct route with body language, sign language and demonstration. the location was excellent and the candidates had more than their share of pain, most of which came having to carry the bells to and from the field each and every day! No small thing,especially at the end of the day and especially since Pavel has gone back to our 'simple but brutal' RKC roots of heavier training and their were many many many 32, 36 and 40 kg bells on the field that had to be transported. No joke, and no complaints; these candidates were TOUGH!

More detailed post later but I haven't even left yet and Tracy and I can't wait to come back!

4 comments:

Juci SFG said...

Please come back :)
What a joy to work with you, Sir! I am still deeply moved.
Looking forward to meeting you and Tracy again.
Judit

Mark Reifkind said...

Judit

I can't wait to come back. This was tracy and my alltime favorite cert! you were so much help I really enjoyed your being my assistant!

Boris T said...

Sounds like a great time for both yourself and the participants. Keep up the good work!

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Boris

this was the best cert ever for me. I really didnt expect to love Hungary so much, an amazing city.

195 x 1 x 11 , 20 kg swings 5 x 8/8, floor pushups 35, 25

  Not great sleep and a bit sore ( no aspirin for last three days) so all in all it was a strong day . Just definitely not 'fresh'  ...