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This past weekend another fantastic Sayoc Sama Sama event was held in beautiful St Cloud Florida. Over 100 practitioners came from Sweden, England, Ireland, and all over the United States and Canada to spend three days of intensive training in Sayoc! Here is a brief overview of some of what went on during this massive FMA event! (more…)
Why do we do blade sparring? Are we really ever going to be in a dueling situation with another person? Note that I used the term “dueling” and not fighting. Dueling is “a formal prearranged combat between two persons” Dueling or sparring is what we do and at its outset has very little to do with having an attacker pull a blade and try to stick you. Don?t put your sparring on the back shelf just yet though, because sparring is a great method for improving the attributes of footwork, aggressiveness, sensitivity, endurance, technical refinement and coordination.
The reality in sparring is that you are practicing with another skilled (or somewhat skilled) opponent with the same intention as you, namely to beat you at the game. In a survival situation, you will have to deal with the adrenal response and all the niceties that it brings with it, as well as just survive to live another day. Rarely if ever will you be in a direct dueling situation on the street. It can happen, especially with the preponderance of all the new, so called ?Blade Masters? teaching the use of the knife in their martial arts schools, and the availability and use of a knife in everyday life. According to the FBI and Justice Department?s latest statistics on homicide, 13% of all homicides are with a knife. This statistic does not include the rate at which a blade was used in the act of committing a violent crime, which is much higher. Many criminals do not want to be caught with a firearm for the penalties are severe, and the availability of a bladed weapon is ubiquitous. (more…)
{This is a work in progress!!}
1910 – The Labangon Fencing club is organized in Cebu.
1910 – The Paete Arnis Club is revived.
1920’s – Cipriano Geronimo forms Sikaran.
1920 – 1929 Ramiro A. Estalilla teaches Riganon Estalilla Kabaron at the Minneapolis Athletic Club, Minneapolis Minnesota.
1928 – Professor Florendo Visitation (Profeesor Vee) , moves to Stockton, California where he continued studying Filipino martial arts from available sources.
1932 – Founding of the Doce Pares club in Cebu City (more…)
It has been a very busy 3 days! Ray Floro, flew in from San Jose California, to start my training in the Floro Fighting Systems, Kalis Ilustrisimo. We checked in the hotel and went over to the school for some training on Friday night. The one thing, I fully enjoyed was that Ray teaches his art out of ?sparring?, meaning, put on a little protective gear and bring it on! There are many teachers in the arts today, but not many of them put their art to the test against their own students, never mind a complete stranger. Ray introduced me to the basic fighting position, footwork and blade grip. We quickly went out and started to drill some basic techniques out through sparring. The first thing you will notice in the Kalis Ilustrisimo system is that it is very subtle, feints to draw an attacker into a position to quickly dispatch him. After, about 45 minutes of sparring, and quite a bit longer talking about various fighting systems, training philosophies, and projectile throwing. We called it an evening. (more…)
One of the most dangerous conflicts to be in is any fight that involves a weapon, especially a bladed one! A knife of any size and shape cuts indiscriminately, is difficult to see, harder to disarm, and for odd reason, forces you to want to get away, and fast!
Many of us FMA practitioners or even MMA practitioners train in a variety of drills to start a reference and familiarity with a bladed attack. We then progress to some type of sparring, to help hone out fighting attributes, but many, many practitioners do not add a realistic approach to grappling with a bladed opponent. Most fall back upon the belief that this “will never happen in a real fight”, or that “there is no chance to survive”, etc., etc., etc. A real conflict will be fast and furious, could involve a rushing attack, where the opponent charges at you to thrust his weapon into your body, or could involve you tripping and falling to the ground and having to deploy a weapon, when some huge attacker is trying to pound your face! (more…)
Over the last several years I have been privileged to attend the various Sayoc Kali Sama Sama events, and each year the keep getting better and better! This year was no exception! I hope my short review will give you a good look at some of the training opportunities that went on this past weekend. (more…)
Whether you are a WEKAF fighter, or a Limited armor full contact stick fighter, the following tips will definite help you gain more skill and aid you in your upcoming matches!
Let’s start with a couple of fundamental pieces that are often overlooked, your grip strength and hitting power. (more…)
I finally caught up on watching and reviewing the new Atienza Kali training DVD, and I have to say it is packed with a fantastic overview of the basic material covered in Atienza Kali.
From the introduction, each of the three Atienza brothers explain an aspect of their system. It leads off with Guro Allain discussing the “mental state and combatant” philosophy, Guro Carl discussing the reasoning behind the blade and how it is more effective to transfer skills from the blade to the stick than the stick to the blade, and finally Guro Darryl explaining the development of the “Mass Attack.” (more…)
After just returning from the Sayoc Kali 2005 Sama Sama event, I have to say this was one of the best training events that I have been able to participate in! There was so much going on all of the time that it will be difficult to capture it all here in words, but here are some of the highlights of this event!
Friday July 1st,
The weather was absolutely fantastic in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania! After a brief thunderstorm, the clouds broke and the sun was out! Training started with a Kerambit class with Tuhon Ray Dionaldo! It was a fast pace review of the Kerambit template, with a detailed breakdown of the application and variations of this devastating weapon! After working the template, Tuhon Ray continued on with various blade disarms, grip changes, arm trapping maneuvers and so much more! After the first 2 hours of this session I knew this year’s Sama Sama was going to be fantastic! After we broke for dinner, we returned to the training site for a surprise event featuring the the Sayoc Tactical Team, and Kevin Reeves (a specialist in tracking), I won’t go into the details of this portion of the training camp but it was an eye opening event, which completed around 3:30 – 4:00 am!!! (more…)
With close to eighty participants from all over the United States, Canada, and even as far away as Sweden, as well as representatives of an Elite military unit, and Masters of various styles, this years Sayoc Kali Sama Sama, was great success! Held at the premiere Off Road East Coast adventure park, Paragon Adventure Park, (www.paragonap.com), in West Hazleton, PA. (more…)
