Developing your game

I remember something Guro Dan Inosanto said at one of his fantastic seminars I attended, where he was talking about techniques and having options. He said "You can have a 1000 songs on your iPod but only listen to one at a time".

The JKD mentality is one of efficiency, "do more with less" I've heard Guro Bob Breen say many times over the years.

With these things in mind I've recently been using a couple of analogies and examples about technique collecting versus learning via techniques. The first one will ring truer to those of us that still remember making our own mixtapes with 90min audio cassettes! We have a large music collection, maybe 100's of albums yet come back to the same few songs all the time, we go through 20 albums to make a playlist of 20 songs. We have experienced many to choose a few.

In much the same way you could be at buffet (sorry for those of you cutting weight or just starting that diet!). You pick up your empty plate, start to make your way through the buffet and try a small bit of everything on offer. Once you've tried it all, your second plate has less variety but more of the things you enjoyed the most.

With our training we try different things, train a range of different drills and techniques to meet different eventualities. Along the way you find things that really work for you and you keep coming back to them, this is how you get better.

It's very hard to pick everything up and get better at all of it together. You're shown different techniques in class where you try them out and drill them, pick the one you liked most and came easiest to you and practice that. Build on it, start looking for it in different situations and in sparring - it's a testing ground, you're safe, it's not a fight!

Soon you'll start to see your game improve, you've just added a tool, a weapon to your arsenal. Once you're comfortable, start concentrating on something new, something to support what you've just picked up! You had to listen to hundreds of songs to find the ones you keep coming back to and when you get bored of even your favourites, you seek out new ones or go back to give others another try. Now you start doing more with a few.

This is what Bruce Lee meant by absorbing what is useful and discarding what is useless. What is useful to one person at one time may not be to another, what's useless at one stage in your development may become useful later.

We don't go through techniques for the sake of it, there should be purpose to everything we do.

Lastly, I want to add that we are what we strive to be. Whatever it is you want in your life, keep working on it day by day, and you will have more of it in your life the more you strive for it. You will succeed a little bit each day and who doesn't want success?

See in you in class, Oss!

FAQ and Class Information

If you're visiting the blog or just stumbled upon it and want to know more about training, the below details should help. There will be more material coming in the next few weeks to help with what we cover in the classes so come back soon!

WHEN & WHAT:
Kali (Stick Fighting) on Fridays at 19:00 - 20:00.
These classes consist of warm ups, attacking and defending, flow drills, sensitivity drills, techniques and sparring (including light or fully armor).

JKD and empty hands portions of the FMAs on Saturdays at 12:00 - 13:00
These classes consist of warm ups, pad work, footwork, kicking, kick defense, boxing, trapping, sensitivity drills, combos, finishes and sparring (including multiple opponents). The classes are great for all levels.

I run a 3+ hour workshop every quarter to focus more on specific areas to supplement the overall training we do, these usually take place on a Sunday.
 
WHERE:
The classes take place at the Fulinkazan MMA Gym, which has excellent facilities.

HOW MUCH:
My classes are included in the gym fees and timetable.

WHAT YOU NEED:
All you need to start are a pair of shorts/tracksuit bottoms, a T-Shirt and an interest in Martial Arts.

The gym provides training and sparring equipment, though I always recommend getting your own.


There are many aspects of what I teach and Martial Arts in general, you won't see everything in just a couple of classes but you will get a taste. Get involved, join the team and remember to always have fun!

See in you in class, Oss!

3 Count Sombrada

Hi Guys,

Because it's difficult to catch the movements mid flow, here's a few stills illustrating each position of the 3 Count Sombrada.

 I inside sweep against the angle 1 attack, I will follow it with an angle 4 strike

 My partner retreats his leg, with a palm down drop stick to counter my angle 4

I roof block another angle 1 he hits with after his drop stick defense

 I attack with the angle 1 and my partner defends with the inside sweep and angle 4

I counter his angle 4 with a palm up drop stick, notice I don't have to retreat the leg in this variation

My partner roof blocks my angle 1 attack

Sombrada drills are flowing and continuous, much like a circle it becomes difficult to determine where it starts and ends. As you can see from these stills there are a few attack and counter attacks that repeat in a loop. Once you understand each shape and position it becomes easy to flow and determine how you can start a Sombrada drill as there is more than one way.

See you in class guys, Oss!

Trapping workshop June 30th

Hi guys,

I'll be holding a 3+ hour workshop at the end of the month where we'll study how to trap, pin/immobilize your opponents arm to clear a path to hit!

We'll cover follow ups including how to set up traps as well as move from trapping to grappling. We'll also cover the straight blast that Vitor used on Wanderlei back in the day!

A fantastic resource for all things striking, there's a great write up on Fights Gone By about trapping and its use in Boxing and MMA.

Here are some of the techniques we'll be looking at, nothing fancy because the fancy stuff doesn't always work!

When:  12:30pm, Sunday June 30th

Where: Fulinkazan Gym, 114 Sunbridge Rd, Bradford, BD1 2NE

Open to all ages and levels

Cost is £15

See you in class!

Developing

Last week I had a marathon of Martial Arts, roughly 10 hours of training with the legendary Bob Breen at the Breen Instructor Camp over two days which was fantastic.

Being someone who doesn't like missing opportunities and always wanting to make the most of everything, I had also arranged a private training session with none other than CFS founder and Head Instructor, Guro David Onuma.

I've spoken before about how important it is to have a skilled instructor and to make the most of their teachings, on Sunday morning I walked in to the gym and started some warm ups and had a catch up with Guro David and got started with some Panantukan and trapping padwork, we then moved on to grappling and finished the session off with a light roll.

The thing about training with masters is their skill to teach you things when you are barely aware of them, Guro David had this way of letting me do things while rolling that increased my positional knowledge and overall movement, I've felt this before when sparring on the feet as well and it's a testament to his skill and knowledge and one of the many things that makes him as good as he is.

I am extremely proud that Guro David promoted me to Apprentice Instructor Level 1 in both Jun Fan/JKD and Filipino Martial Arts. This was completely unexpected and I thank him for all the time he has given me over the years and all he continues to teach me.

Oss!