Summer's Over

It’s that time of year again! You could be headed back to college or this could be your first time away from home with no one’s rules to follow buy your own. You’re excited and nervous, scared but invigorated. This exciting journey can be full of fantastic memories and discoveries, IF you stay diligent about your personal safety. For you upperclassman, this is a good review of what you’ve been doing, right?

The following are a few simple rules to always keep in mind while you enjoy the next four amazing years.

• Drink responsibly. If you follow any of these rules, follow this one. You make yourself a very accessible target when you are intoxicated. Always be aware of your drinks –  even if you are drinking water or soda – an open drink is easy to drop something into.
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• Be aware of your surroundings. Texting and wearing ear buds also make you an easy target. Watch, listen and be in the now. Know where you are and be sure to stay in well lit, well traveled areas.
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• Secured buildings are secure for a reason – YOUR safety. Not to mention all the other people in the building. For that reason, do not leave outside doors propped open and make sure the door closes behind you.
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• Keep your own door locked as well. Even if you will only be away for a short period of time. Leaving your door unlock opens up your personal space and everything that is in it.
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• If your phone is not automatically equipped with ICE (In Case of Emergency) hot buttons, set it up manually. Most authorities know this is a common practice and will first look under ‘I’ if they need to get in touch with someone due to an emergency.
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• And last, and certainly not least, always let someone know your plans. A friend or a roommate’s knowledge of your whereabouts could help find you if you happen to go missing.

Be safe and be well!

KSMA Summer Jam 2012

The Kapatiran Suntukan Martial Arts 2012 Summer Jam was a success! Terry Trahan, co-director of KSMA and leader of KSMA Denver made the trek with two of his students, along with several of my students as well as a couple others who heard about us attended also. The first day started off with Terry discussing and having us spend time in his Pikal methodology. This was good to participate in as it ties and blends in well with what we do locally as there are similar roots. The fundamentals help reduce telegraphing movement and encourage closing in. It’s the subtile movements that can be difficult to learn, but Terry has a way of loosening up those learning from him to get them to understand.






My first session was a drill we call Nick’s Stick which is a modified medio sumbrada using two sticks which I took back to largo range. This is one of a few drills we use to help understand how to use each hand independently of the other. Aside from being tools of blunt force trauma, the movements of the sticks translate to other tools or empty hands and we also could see the way they integrate well with the Pikal Terry showed just before this session.


After lunch, we kept the fun rolling with a session with hubud with switches and their applications within that. It was a good exploration in taking things outside the drill. An aside - if you have a number of drill-like components in your system, you really should look at busting out of that in ways that break the rhythm and allow you to move in on control the situation. Once the cognitive aspects of the principle movements are established, time to see what else you can do with it. Try it, you’ll grow.




Terry then led us through some flow sparring. This is always an eye-opener for some and a workout for all. The biggest hurdle most have to overcome is actually going slow. It is a great way to feel and understand how you move and how your opponent moves. We were all pretty spent. Johnny head-butted me in the nose...still hurts to blow it. Nice one, Johnny.  


That evening we had the hanging out time that has become such a regular feature of these gatherings we can’t think of not having it. Food, a little libation and good times all around. Sunday morning (usually a struggle but not this time - guess we are mellowing some) Terry and I began what became pretty much an all day lecture. Terry and I touched on the legal term, “self defense,” preclusion along with Means, Opportunity and Intent, your responsibilities, the OODA loop, E&E, and the realities of an attack. All of those were fleshed out pretty well through the day along with some medical things and the “check yourself jurus.” As a break from all that, a few guys from another school in the area came by and show us a small bit of what they do in the samurai arts (thanks for walking all over us, guys! If you were there, you’d know what I mean).


Sunday evening was mediocre cajun food and then hanging out watching Metal Evolution episodes from VH1 Classic - a really good series by and by. Took Terry down memory lanes with that - always a good time.




Who is in for the next one?

Bad "Good" Habits

We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.

Achilochus, Greek soldier  - circa 650 BCE

When you are training and practicing, you want to establish tools. Tools you want to be able to call on if you should ever need to use them. This takes time and dedication. Our training includes one-on-one work with a human partner. While we, of course, do not want to hurt each other, we do train as hard as necessary. After all, going all out every class would lead to attrition from injury. On the flip side of that, sometimes we are too nice, and this can lead to bad “good” habits.

The primary example of this involves helping someone up just after you have dropped them to the floor. Sure, you want to play nice and help your training buddy, but stop and think about what you are establishing in your head. Do you really want to help the guy who was trying to assault you back up? As much as you may want to assist, let your partner get themselves up.

Another example is not trying to hit your training partner. This develops an avoidance to actually hit if you need to. When you are training, regardless of what level of intent you are using, have that intention to hit. Swing like you mean it at the intensity level you are working at. You can only hinder the learning for both you and your training partner by pulling your attack.

Will you get bumps and bruises? Sure. But you know that’s par for the course in what we do. Can you pick yourself up after getting knocked to the floor? Yeah, that builds character. If, as Achilochus stated so long ago, we are going to fall to the level of our training, let’s make that training what we need it to be.