Etiquette

I wanted to put this up as it's easy to forget some things however basic they may be.

Hygiene and well being:

• Spraying deodorant doesn't always cut it! hygiene is important, wash after each session - yourself and your clothes.
• Antibacterial soap never hurt anyone, especially after a particularly sweaty class!
• Clip your finger/toenails, it's no fun spotting little cuts after a session and wondering whose dirty nails cut/scratched you.
• A good antibacterial spray extends the lifespan of your gear, gloves, headgear, shin-guards etc. a quick spray after each session then leave them out to air dry.
• Wear the appropriate gear to the class you're attending, goggles are often neglected in weaponry classes but you only have two eyes and getting poked in either by a stick is no fun! 
• If you have injuries let the instructor and your training partner(s) know.If you're sick, ill or otherwise have any type of condition let your instructor know and think about taking some time off. It's no good training when you're not well, especially if it's something catching!

 Training:

• Arrive on time, let the instructor know when you arrive if you arrive late.
• Don't invade a class. Enthusiasm is great but don't get on the mat and start warming up or hitting the bags while another class is in progress, check with the instructor if it's ok to do so first.
• Show respect to your sparring partner, senior students and those that are older than you.  
• Pay attention to the instructor, he/she is giving up their time to share things with you.
• Don't chew gum when training, not all chokes are successful sub attempts!
• When partnered up for drilling or sparring, show respect to your partner. You can touch gloves, knock fists, high five or bow etc. 
• If you're more experienced than someone you're partnered/sparring with, don't take advantage. Make it more challenging by working your weaker areas or better yet, by offering tips to help them do better against you. 
• Remember that we are all friends in the gym, these are people that help you improve. 
• When sparring don't be afraid to ask your partner to slow down or bring the pace down a notch, similarly don't go too hard unless your partner has agreed. Sparring is to aid learning and raise conditioning, don't hit harder than you're willing to get hit.
• Remember that you do, to some extent represent your school or gym, but especially if you're competing and fighting out of the gym.
• The gym is your gym, keep it tidy and help maintain it for future use.
• Have fun, you learn and improve more when you're enjoying yourself!

Osu!

CFS at the London Open & European No-Gi Championships 2012

Check out my instructor (CFS Head Instructor) Guro David Onuma's fantastic blog with loads of great instructional material

Here's a picture of the post on the tournament... Read more here!

Congratulations to all the CFS warriors that fought on the day!

JKD/Kali International Oct 2012

 Last month I was fortunate enough to attend another fantastic instructor camp with none other than Guro Bob Breen. Among those in attendance were some of Guro Bob's students from all over the UK and Europe, some who have previously or currently compete in national and international circuits in Boxing, Shootfighting, Stickfighting and BJJ.

Throughout the day we covered boxing, trapping and immobilisation to takedowns and empty hand drills vs knife.

We finished off with some sparring which was great, particularly when sparring with Miad Najafi who has quick, accurate hands and heads Elements Martial Arts down in Brighton as well as the brilliant iMMAculate clothing line.

Although I was only able to make the first of the two days of, nothing less than world class training, I took away some great things to work on and teach my students.

It was great to catch up with friends afterwards over chilli tofu and noodles, I can't wait until the next camp!



Thank you to Guro Bob and everyone I partnered up with on the day and sparred with... John, Anil, Miad, Louis and fellow CFS members, Carl, Richard and Jesus. See you all next time.





Photos courtesy of Carl Jackson.

Silat Buka Lingkaran - Birmingham Seminar

This past Saturday I travelled down to Birmingham to attend a Silat Buka Lingkaran seminar. Until this point my experience with Silat has mostly been what I have learned from Guro Bob Breen and Guro David Onuma. I have also had the good fortune to meet and train a little with instructors of Kuntao Silat, Silat Cimande Asli Tarikolot, Silat Harimau and take part in a seminar a few years back at the Bob Breen Academy with Guru Zainal Abidin. 

Amongst other systems and styles, I have had a special interest in Silat based on my limited experience training in various Silat systems. The style being taught by Alvin Guinanao however, was a style I had long wanted to learn about and train in but the opportunity never came until now.

After the 2 and a half hour drive on a Saturday morning we arrived at the gym. After some introductions and chatting about martial arts with other attendees the seminar started off with some excellent warm and conditioning exercises which were one the highlights for me. 

The warm ups took us through postures found in the system and excellent body weight exercises to aid mobility and build strength for the postures and positions we were to find ourselves in later when drilling techniques against various attacks.

Once we had completed the warm-ups we then began with drills to counter straight punches using the twisting Gelek movement and built on them to include a knee strike from the Buaya crocodile posture. As we moved to upright drills we started with the same drill from a standing position and included finishes on the ground.

As we worked on ground vs upright and vice versa, I really enjoyed the takedowns, especially the Harimau shoot and follow ups, which could easily be incorporated into MMA.  I found the stand up techniques and ground finishes very crisp and fluid and the Harimau and ground aspects very effective and dynamic.

I spoke with Alvin before and after the seminar as well as his assistant instructors who done a great job assisting and offering insight throughout the seminar.

I came away very impressed with what little I had seen of the system (so far!). Alvin is a very skilled Silat practitioner, a knowledgeable instructor and a real gentleman. I would recommend anyone interested in Buka Lingkaran and Silat in general to go train with Alvin or his representative instructors throughout the UK. Check out their website for more details.

Here's a clip summarising what was covered on the day, enjoy!

 

Trip to Turkey

Last month during my trip to Turkey I was able to catch up with old friends and make new ones whilst sharing techniques and drills from the Filipino Martial Arts and Silat.

On Thursday 12^th Sept I was asked to take Guru Galip Akdaş’ class and cover self defence applications from the South East Asian arts. We looked at making use of the elbow offensively and defensively against the wide right cross as well as to establish openings and control. We also worked clinch/grappling range in to the puter kapala.

Guru Galip and I had fun with some free flow and exchanged ideas on the different approaches and counters we used from different positions.

On Sunday 15^th I met with friends new and old for a 4 hour session on Panantukan/Silat. We talked about the history, geographical region/landscape and cultures of the arts and looked at various techniques defending kicks, punches and over under tie ups. 

We drilled techniques to explore:

• Low and mid level rear leg round kicks
• Jab, cross counters
• Puter kapala
• Kenjit
• Defending an attempt to counter the puter kapala with a single leg takedown 
• Locks, ground finishes
• Tehniques from over/under clinch

As is the case when you spend time with good friends you don’t want the time to end and I look forward to meeting with everyone again next year. It was a great trip and I was able to catch up with old friends and meet many new ones as we went for Turkish tea after each training session to talk about everything and anything to do with Martial Arts.

I would like to thank my friends for giving me an opportunity to share what little I know in the vast areas of Panantukan and Silat and hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

I would like to extend my thanks especially to Guru Timur Ahenk, Sifu Seçkin Köknar, Guru Galip Akdaş, Sifu Kaan Ahyan, Sifu Adnan Erzen, Hamdi Çevik and Sensei Ömer Tamdogan, especially for his inquisitive questions that helped share extensions to techniques and their principles.

I look forward to future training sessions and cups of Turkish tea! 

Teşekkürler arkadaşlar, Osu!

Daniel Lonero

This past weekend AMC Leeds hosted a 2 day seminar with Guro Daniel Lonero. Guro Daniel is a fantastic martial artist and shared with us details, drills, history and techniques from multiple disciples.

Assisted by Frank Ruppert, himself highly skilled, Guro Daniel taught a multitude of drills and techniques covering Kali and Majapahit/Maphilindo Silat.

We started with double stick drills and as well as staff and stick, disarms from 3 and 5 count sumbrada and stick grappling.

Guro Daniel shared history and background as we moved into some great ground and standup techniques from Silat. I forget how many times the attendees gasped and wowed at what was being shared with us, both in terms of Guro Daniel's talent and the effectiveness of the techniques.

It was a privelage to attend a seminar by a martial artist who is not just skilled and knowledgeable but also very down to earth and humble.

Thanks again to Steve Gaulton and everyone at AMC Leeds for organising and making the day that much more enjoyable.

See you in class!

Guro Daniel Lonero Seminar

To celebrate their 5 year annniversary, AMC Leeds will be hosting the phenomenal Guro Daniel Lonero on the 29th and 30th of september 2012.
Daniel is a Pro-Shooter in Shoot Wrestling under Sensei Yori Nakamura, a full instructor of Muay Thai under Ajarn Chai Sirisute, a full instructor of Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Arts, and Silat under Guro Dan Inosanto, and a Silver Glove in Savate under Professor Nicolas Saignac.

Saturday 2pm - 6pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Cost:
Full weekend: £80
Single day AMC: £45
Single day other: £50

He is a VERY skilled and knowledgeable instructor. 

Let me know in advance if you're interested in coming along to either day.

Silat Seminar

Hi Guys, I will be attending a Silat Buka Lingkaran seminar in Birmingham on Saturday October 13th from 12:30 - 16:30

Chief Instructor Alvin Guinanao will be covering:

- Rope training developing speed and agility
- Takedowns with ground finish
- Recovery from throws and takedowns
- Defense from Turtle position
- Dynamic striking from the ground



The cost is £40. It should be a great day of training, let me know in advance if you're interested in coming with me.

Core Essentials

As the title suggests, must have tools that we'll be using on the pads... it gets really tasty when other things gets mixed in.
As the post suggests, this is just the basic outline and many things can be added to develop a wider range of skills for these strikes offensively and defensively. Have a play and see what you can mix in and have fun!

I'll hopefully put up a video in a week or two.

jab

double jab

jab cross

jab cross hook

cross hook cross
hook cross hook

See you in class!

Heaven 6

The description below is for Heaven 3 on right side, mirror the same from left for full 6 count.  We will add things like entries and variations in later classes.

Beginning with left arm chambered under right, the strikes are: right forehand labtik, left backhand labtik, right backhand witik chambering under left arm.

Triangle footwork should be utilised so you have the right leg leading when chambered on the right and the left leg leading when chambered on the left. Male and Female triangles can be used interchangeably transitioning on each 3rd strike.

See you in class!

Guntings

Doble Baston/Espada y Daga

Abierta vs angle 1: left hand over right
Serrada vs angle 2: right hand over left
Abierta vs angle 3: left hand over right
Serrada vs angle 4: right hand over left
Abierta vs angle 5: left hand over right

The give back/counter allows for the switching of one hand over the other. We will expand on these in upcoming classes to explore options.

See you in class!

pak sao to kenjit

A quick video to recap techniques from yesterdays class. Thanks to Waqas for assisting and apologies for the audio/video quality and background noise, I'll use a better camera for the next one!

 

see you in class!

Silat Harimau Langkawi

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to visit a place as beautiful as Langkawi, Malaysia.

I have an interest in the Far East and South East Asia for obvious reasons, and wanted to visit Malaysia for several years. Whilst there I met Pak Tam Din, a master of the Harimau style of Silat.

Harimau is Malay/Indonesian for Tiger and Silat Harimau is one of the oldest styles of Silat. It is practised all over the world and has been featured in films such Merantau and The Raid. Silat Harimau employs clawing and gauging techniques and covers stand up, close quarters and ground fighting as well as weaponry.

Pak Tam Din is currently 51 and has been training in Silat since the age of 9 and has had over 40 teachers in this time. He has several hundred students in Langkawi and makes regular trips to Brunei where he teaches the Sultan's brother.

We talked about Silat and martial arts and he was kind enough to demonstrate some basic defences, he also showed me some of the many bladed weapons he owns including a Japanese bayonet and a pair of Sais that have a scary number of knife dents in them from training at high intensity! (marks on your weapons are better than on your body!).

It was a great experience to meet such a talented and giving individual and made the whole trip that much more memorable. I don't have many pictures or videos to share as time was a limitation and after all, it wasn't a photo shoot but an introduction.

I loved the country and Malay culture and intend to go back at some point just to train with Pak Tam Din.

I would like to sincerely thank Pak Tam Din for his hospitality and kindness and again for the awesome club t-shirt he gave me as a gift, I will wear it with a smile every time.

Terimah Kasih!

Improvements

Empty Hands

Recently we've been dealing with the cross and the hook in our empty hands classes, individually and mid comination. We've used basic slips and parrys as well as techniques from Panantukan (Filipino Boxing).

Everything we do in class is being used in sparring, polishing up the fundamentals. More of the same to follow in the coming weeks with some trapping being introduced.

At the moment the main things to work on are head movement, maintaining a good base whilst applying circular and lateral footwork getting into position to hit without staying in front of the opponent.


Weaponry

In the stick classes we are focusing on the main angles of attack and defenses against them as well as improving our strikes and combinations. We spar regularly and will be building on flow drills in the following weeks.

Working the main strikes from the Cinqo Teros drills we've been doing at the start of each class is a great way to improve your strikes and stick control. Remember to use your core and hips, the movement is just like a cross and hook for a lot of strikes. Remember to stay tight especially on the angle 2 strike, don't flail or extend your arms out too far, the further your hand is from your core the weaker it is and as I like to say... It is the hand that controls the stick.


See you in class!

Understanding Trapping

Here are two a great, inspirational videos by two amazing instructors discussing and demonstrating the effectiveness of the trapping range in JKD.

We have been covering elements seen in the videos and will continue building things as we go.

Sifu Paul Vunak

Guro Rick Young

See you in class!