You spin right round( like a record).

Kind of a sill title, but for those of you born around the same time as myself can appreciate the pun.

In this last month's BBC we covered spinning attacks. Immediately some people's minds go right to one side or the other. Either you are in a Kali mindset and go towards Moharas(circular attacks) or you lean towards the empty hand application and visualize spin kicks and backfists. Well guess what; I covered it all. Those that sat home on a Saturday missed out on some really fun material. And if you think that you can not do these attacks I have this video for you.

Those of you that know Randy personally should really feel ashamed now.

Now why would we want to use a spinning attack in the first place. Let's start with the first answer: power. Power is generated by rotation, and a spin is a rotation. Think of your body as a rubber-band. When you twist a rubber-band up it gets tight, but when you release the rubber-band...all that energy is releases at once. The body behaves the same was. When we twist to start a spinning attack we are storing energy, and when we unwind we are releasing that stored energy or power. Here is Cory demonstrating a spinning side kick.

Notice how hard Cory can kick. He could just stand in front of the pad and side kick, but he is able to generate more power with the spin.

Next are a couple shots of various spinning attacks.

Spinning backfist:

Spinning Elbow:

Jump Spinning Crescent Kick:

Spinning Heel hook by Miss Alana. She hates being videoed, and you can tell.

Now on to Kali. Spinning in Kali is a bit different. Normally when dealing with weapons, especially bladed ones, it is not a good idea to turn your back to an opponent. The idea behind turning in Kali is to assess potential threats around you. While spinning you can get a 360 degree view very quickly and decide whether to continue with the current opponent or peal off to a different one.

To start with we need the foundation of spinning with a weapon.

This drill helps to attune the muscles to the spinning movement and to train the hands and body to move with it. Two shots are delivered on the same line, but the second can be delivered with much more power.

After this drill we move to the basic building block for double stick spinning, and/or Moharas, BBB or Backhand-Backhand-Backhand.

This stick combination is part of the double stick families which include Heaven, Standard and Earth and also IBB and IBI. Now the fine motor skills of the body start to work together to weave a furious pattern which buys time to turn and assess what is around you.

Finally we capped the day off with a four corner drill. This drill allowed the students to use the BBB pattern to peal from one person to the next- and it just looks damn cool.

Those that have been to any Guro Inosanto seminar will know that he likes acronyms. One that personally sticks out to me is DELTA: Demonstrate, Educate, Learning(mode), Training(mode), and Analyze.

• Demonstrate starts with the Instructor: I have to be able to demonstrate what I want to teach.
  
• Educate: I have to be able to convey a clear message, or line of attack, on what I want to teach. The next two are training "modes".
  
• Learning mode is slow methodical training: we are trying to get the muscles to do something they may have never done before.
  
• Training mode is when we pick up the pace. The muscles know what to do; now we are moving to a real time pace.
  
• Last is Analyze. This is the heart of what JKD is all about: how does this work for me and can I actually do it well enough to make it useful?

Not every technique is going to work for everybody, but as instructors we need to be able to demonstrate anything. We need to be able help students flesh out their own personal JKD, and we need to inspire them by showing them things that they may not think they can do at the point they are now. But with everything, time and training will make many things possible.

SBG

Grappling Survival

First off I would like to thank Guro Chuck from Westchester Martial Arts for teaching a very informative Black Belt Club this last weekend. Grappling in not one of my personal strong points and any help in this area is much appreciated. Basically the concept for the class was grappling survival: how not to get crushed in whatever position you find yourself in.

Guro Chuck started out by laying down two guildlines for grappling: don't lay flat, and don't flail your arms. Laying flat gives you very little ability to counter and flailing arms tend to get broken.

So starting from back control, we want our hands in close to our body and stacked on one side or the other of our face. Daniel and Robert here show the basic position: Daniel being on back and Robert showing the hand positioning.


As Daniel tries to chock Robert, Robert's palm out hand will pull Daniels hand that is attempting to chock. Notice Roberts left hand on Daniel's right(the chocking attempt hand). As Daniel attempt to chock on the other side, Roberts right hand will move to the other side of his face and pull that arm and his left hand will goto the side of his face. Basically what we have now is a reverse hubud.

Next we add a "butt-walk" to this. The butt-walk allows us to get below the line that he can effectively chock us on. As we hubud, we force ourselves downward by walking our butt out of their grip. Again we are just looking to survive and make it harder for our opponent.

To finish up with back control we added the knee dive. The idea here is to aim for the knee, dive over it and turn into our opponent. Here Cory and Jim will show you the basic idea.

Again we want to keep our hand and arms in tight. Once we are on our side we want to push our hips out over their shin so we can turn towards them.

After back control we moved to mount. Mount was a simple concept: framing. Basically we apply the 2 rules that Guro Chuck layed down at the start: arms in and not flat. To survive this position we want to roll to one side. Whichever side we roll to we want that elbow in the mat: left side/left elbow, right side/right elbow. With us on our side we will clasp the wrist of the opposite arm; this arm will be wrapped across our stomach. This frame is then forced into our opponents hips.

This next video will show a transition from mount to knee-on, but if you take notice of Guro Chuck's hands you will see the basic framing position.

Next we will move to cross body. In cross body we again want to turn into our opponent. We want our far arm wrapped around us while our near arm will be hooked on their bicep. Here Guro Chuck shows the basic arm positioning.


This video shows Jared and Randy free rolling just with the cross body techniques.

As you can see from the video, Mr. Randy is using very little energy to counter Jared: as it should be. If we spend a lot of energy to stop or counter an attack then we will have less to throw our own when the time comes, but if we can force him to use his while we conserve ours then we are in a much better situation.

For those that made the class I think we can all agree this was a valuable set of skills to add to anyone's game. For those wanting to gain that little extra edge on the ground then come see me when you have a chance and we can go over these drills.

Again I want to thank Guro Chuck for taking time to conceptualize these skills for us. As he said there is no set standard, only a concept. And to show that not everything was sweat and tears: here's the youngest Warriors Way International Student demoing with her Dad: Keep those arms in Nikki!!!

Conditioning Training

Some of you know of my affinity for Capoeira, and that I enjoy the physical demand required. What I've learn though is that more is required from my body then I have th ability. So what can I do to correct that? Hours of training the gym? Maybe not. This is an excerpt from a book called Capoeira Conditioning by Gerard Taylor.

The Fat-Burning Power of High Intensity interval Training

In a three-week study conducted at McMaster University in Canada by Professor Martin Gibala, twenty-three individuals were thoroughly tested for different fitness regimes. one group cycles for two hours at a moderate, easy pace. The second group did 10 minutes of cycling per training session, including a few 60-second bursts. The third group went flat out for just four 30-second periods, interspersed with a 4-minute rest between each burst.

So the differentiated training was of a two-hour duration for one group, a 10-minute duration for another, and a 2-minute active duration for the third.

At the beginning, each participant did an 18.6-mile cycles time trial, and they concluded with the same at the end, to measure and compare the progress after three weeks. The results were all exactly the same. Despite the huge training time difference, everyone had improved to the same degree. Further, their VO2 Max (the rate at which their muscles absorb oxygen) had also improved by an identical amount. Gibala concluded: "Short bouts of very intense exercise improved muscle health and performance comparable to several weeks of endurance training."

The type of training Dr. Gibala was testing is called "high-intensity interval training" (HIIT). Today, more and more fitness-minded people are realizing that short, intense exercise sessions are the way to go for the best return on a training investment. An important paper, by Angelo Tremblay and Claude Bouchard, was published in 1995 and came to similar conclusions as those of Professor Gibala. Over a six-week period, a "sprint" cycle group dropped over three times as much body fat as a slow, aerobic group. This was despite burning only approximately half the calories during the active exercise. The aerobic group did 45-minute workouts five times a week at a steady medium pace. The high-intensity interval training group did only 30 minutes (including warm-up and cool-off recovery) three times per week. yet they burned off triple the body fat.

Why is it that HIIT works so effectively? It is because of a state known as "excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption." In practice, you ave a much higher post-exercise metabolic. rate following the intervals. In 1996, a University of Alabama study found a higher rate of metabolism (meaning calorie and fat burning) even 24 hours after a high-intensity interval training session. People who want to retain muscle bulk but lose fat love HIIT because it has the effect of increasing calorie consumption dramatically without using muscle as actual fuel.

The is one provisp here. It is that HIIT works far more effictively for poele already in good shape. Aerobic training is great for building initial stamina and endurance. So the rule of thumb is: take it easy. Build up your fitness with regular 15- to 30-minute sessions and then experiment with some all-out mega-energy bursts of 30 seconds' duration every few minutes (for example, four flat-out 30-second bursts embedded within a 15-minute training session). This will kick-start the ecess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect.

Note: When we talk of a mega-energy burst, we are in reality saying work flat-out, peak intensity for 30 seconds. Half a minute may seem like child's play, but once you've experienced 30 seconds of no-holds-barred exercise bedlam, you'll never knock it again.

So what does this mean for you or me? Basically we after we build a good fitness level then we can cut our conditioning training time down by training hard. With conditioning time cut down this frees up more time for other things: technique, precision, timing, or family and friends.

For anyone that has been to a Guro Inosanto seminar has heard him talk about maintaining what we have, and how it gets harder as we get older. If we can maintain a "good" fitness level then we can train at a higher intensity level, and free up the precious commodity of time.

My plan for the next month will be to experiment with this higher intensity level to reach a personal fitness goal. Hopefully this will be the catalyst I need to help in performing some of these fancy capoeira techniques. Wish me luck.

SBG

PROMOTION!!!

Today I accomplished one of my personal goals and that was to become an Associate Instructor under Guro Dan Inosanto.

Goals I feel are important in life. If we do not feel progress then we feel our life has become stagnant and we become complacent. Students as well as instructors hit walls in their training. The thing that separates people is how they deal with those walls. Some will chose to quit; the wall is too high to go over. Others will see the wall as a challenge, and work harder to get over it.

What type are you? Are you setting attainable goals? Are you achieving them? If you are not then what are you doing to fix that?

Remember that Warriors Way is a network of people and that you are never alone. If you are having problems with anything- there is always someone that you can turn to that will help you. Quitting is never an option. The only time we quit is when our body tells us to; we never tell our bodies to quit.

SBG

Armor Making

So if you notice there is a link to a site called The Ring Lord. For those that are not familiar with the site they are a fabricator or chainmail and armor equipment to make your own armor of the such.

I've been "weaving" for several years now and am better than a beginner, but maybe not near an intermediate level yet. I've taught myself the basic weaves: 4:1, 6:1, 8:1. I've made 3 complete armor projects: 2 coifs with mantels and a mail shirt.

One thing that drew me to chainmail was that it was the chosen armor of the Moros.


A lot of the armor was taken from fallen Spanish during the Spanish occupation. Metal work was not a strong point of the Filipinos, at least not as strong compared to the Spanish, but they were very resourceful. Many times the helmet of the Moros was nothing more than a hollowed out coconut, and generally you will not see much armor pertaining to the legs since some Moros fought from a crouched position.

The preferred mail weave of the Spanish was the European 4 in 1.


This was the pattern that I learned first, since the others are just a tighter version of this pattern. Not a difficult pattern to learn, but can a little frustrating at times. After you get the hang of it it is not too bad.

Well now I am up to a more challenging project: scales.


I've been working on this for a while and can tell you that it is a far cry from chainmail and is much higher on the frustration meter. I've completed a patch of about 5 lines of 15 scales and am about to pull my hair out. This process is similar to chain, but is easier to lose track of and tangle. The tool used is not the highest quality and needed some tooling before I could use it.

In total I have 4000 scales and 8000 rings which should make an entire shirt-with any luck. If and when I complete it I will post pictures of the completed shirt, but until then wish me luck.

SBG

Technique

tech⋅nique

  /tɛkˈnik/ Show Spelled Pronunciation –noun

1. a way of doing something, especially a systematic way; implies an orderly logical arrangement.
2. skillfulness in the command of fundamentals deriving from practice and familiarity; "practice greatly improves proficiency".
3. the way in which a (usually skilled) process is, or should be, carried out.

So why is technique important? Technique, like the definition suggests, is the skillful use of fundamental skills.

The basics are not just a jumping off point for an art, but are a foundation that needs constant attention and fortification. There is a reason for rehashing the basics more often than doing more complicated things: skill sets need to be constantly polished or the motor skills can be lost. Grandmaster Tony Somera tells us that the Giron System is really found in the basics: the warm-up drills. If you can master these skills then the rest of the system will be much easier.

Obviously techniques vary as much as systems of martial arts do, so what works for one system may not work for another. Let's look at the first definition: a way of doing something, especially a systematic way; implies an orderly logical arrangement. What this says to me is that even though another system may have a technique their way of doing it is tailored to the system structure; they have a logic progression to get to the same answer that fits their needs.

Let's take the round kick for instance. Almost every system has some form of it. Now let's put that tool in two systems: Muay Thai and Harimau Silat. Muay Thai has a very powerful stand up round kick that no one can argue is very effective. Now let's look at the ground system of Harimau. For one how do you throw a round kick from the ground, and better yet how effective can it be? I can tell you that the round kick in Harimau is just as powerful and effective as that of a Thai Boxers, if the technique is sound.

Technique is not there to bore or limit you; it's there to help you. Technique allows you to efficiently perform the tasks laid out by the system structure. I can kick hard, but I have invested time in learning how to do it right. There's a difference in a kick that sounds good and one that is good. I perfected my technique, not by kicking as hard as I could, but by actually kicking slower with exaggerated movements. Eventually the movements became less exaggerated and more natural, and with time I felt real progress with my performance.

When it comes down to it it's the simple stuff that you will always fall back to. The cool, complex stuff is only when someone is taking your picture: coolness points. In a pressure situation you want the most ingrained techiniques to come out, which hopefully are the basics. You will be hard pressed to get that one cool technique you worked on three weeks ago to suddenly surface during a confrontation; most likely if someone punches at you you know what you will do? Hubud. Just think about it.

Doing the basics can be tedious at times, and flat out boring the rest. As an instructor it can be a challenge to come up with ways to trick students into doing something they really do not have the desire to do. Since hubud was mentioned before lets take it as an example. Hubud in the shell form can be done by most blind-folded, upside down and half asleep, which is how most high ranked student end up doing it. You can tell my the deer-in-headlights look on their face. How do you make it more interesting to those students without detracting from the ones just learning it? How about you turn out the lights? How about go outside in the gravel and dirt? How about pack everyone together in a small space? The options are really limitless; we just need to be inventive from time to time.

In the end if it's important to you then you will invest whatever time you have into perfecting it. If you want to hit harder then you will work at perfecting you punching. If you want to be the best stick fighter then you will have a stick in your hand at every opportunity. If you want to be the best grappler then you will roll with anyone that you can find. Being good is not something that wil happen overnight. It will come with hard work and dedication, and learning the techniques laid out by our instructors and the instructors who taught them. Be patient and keep hitting away. Eventually you will topple whatever obstacle bars your path.

Guro Chad

I'm here

Well it's up, but still in transition while I figure out all the nuances of blogging. Enjoy the music, and please be patient while I add more stuff.