Preparing Instructors for the Winter – Karim Daoud’s version of events

This entry is part 3 of 2 in the series Red Sea Instructors 2015. 

And now it is FWC Cambridge and London North West Instructor, Karim Daoud’s turn to tell you what it was like for him….

“Five and a half hours!  An instructor is not meant to sit for five and a half hours. It should be made law that any flight that is over two hours should come with a good Kung Fu film! It’s the only way you will get me to sit still.

Trapped in a claustrophobic plane is the hardest part for an instructor on a week camp. [Editor:  Being trapped next to Karim on a five-hour flight is similarly not much fun]. That and trying to stick to a diet when baklava is being offered, oh and for me, trying to get through passport control and being harassed about which “house” I’m from and a bit of banter of ‘who’s your father?’.

Egypt is hot. That’s what I’m here for. A massive dose of vitamin D before we enter the gloomy British winter days, (which feels even more gloomy now England has lost the rugby!). The dry heat and outdoors is where I’m at my best.

Training is patterns, patterns and more patterns. Only being split up by the endless teasing, joking and camaraderie amongst the instructors. Do a pattern, feel, check, correct. Sometimes ‘Noooo’ from the Chief Instructor, sometimes a prod from a Kung Fu brother, sometimes just me being mindful. The deviations are bought to light and corrected. An inch off, a misalignment here, not acceptable, must correct or my students will copy it. Notice-correct-imprint-flow and do it again until muscle memory takes over, then do it again to mature it.

This is what my days consisted of. I do it at home, but it’s different in the sun, it’s different when in the community of FWC instructors. The corrections feel more permanent.”

Do you train with Karim? Don’t forget to ask him about the nutritional value of baklava and their honeyed deliciousness.