What does a whip training course have to do with safari? That became clear after the first lesson. But first we welcomed another new prospect - Benjamin. As there had been a few cancellations in the days leading up to the start of the course, the number of participants was comfortable for the space in the hall. We started as usual with basic exercises. This went quite well, as almost everyone already had experience. Arvid taught with me so that everyone could be corrected at their own level. Marco tried out his self-made whip, which worked very well. Justus also worked with his own whip. A special thank you to Marco, who also took care of all the small wear and tear repairs immediately.

After a short break, which I used to rebuild, we went to the safari. There was now a balance beam and an upside-down long bench in the middle of the hall. I placed various sizes of creepy animals on it. These were to be whipped down by everyone. After a short familiarization phase, everyone managed more and more hits. Tim and Justus, in particular, quickly found the right technique and scored well. For Michi, Marco and Arvid, the animals couldn't be small enough to keep creating new challenges. A small rabbit, not even as big as a fingernail, became the absolute favorite. It probably had to withstand the most hits. Everything from elephants to squirrels were “hunted” for a whole hour. Nobody noticed how quickly the time flew by.

In the third lesson, we first looked at the basic techniques again and tried to combine them with each other. In this way, we learned the first techniques of the form unobtrusively. Then we moved on to the balloons. It's quite difficult to get them to burst. But here, as usual, there was a lot of ambition. Everyone wanted to pop at least one balloon. Arvid tried something special. We had filled some balloons with flour. This made it easier to capture the moment of popping in the pictures. You can see it in the gallery.

Finally, there was something about self-defense. It was about hand levers. We practiced releasing from the grip on the wrist. You can always use that. Everyone was once again very enthusiastic. This allowed the arm muscles to recover a little from the strain of the last few hours. Then the time was up again. Exhausted but satisfied, everyone made their way home. I always like to see how everyone leaves this course with a happy face. It makes me look forward to the next one.