Thank you All for Today's Turn Out... and the pebbles grow...!

My mind is in a little of a blurred state, it's been a long last 48 hours for me,  I had to work a Saturday shift yesterday (solo), and worked extended hours, and to top it off I'm On call for work, however despite all of this I indulged myself in a late Saturday night session of FCS Kali with our Manong Rich, Bernard, my son, and myself up in Temecula, then we drove back early this morning for Group Practice.  It was worth it, anytime I can learn from someone that has great experience and knowledge, and whom I respect more and more as I get to know him, it's worth it in more than my words can explain.  Mng. Rich gave us some drills and exercises to practice and we quickly introduced then in Group Practice this morning.

First a couple of apologies, to my drill partner Jesse this morning - a thousand apologies for the errant stick blow to of course of all  the worst places on the arm the funny bone!  That taught us two lessons, firstly the giver needs to be a little more careful, and secondly the receiver -be ready for anything.  Although for the rap tap on the knuckles from my stick, that was yours, that'll remind you to practice your side wall block!   LOL! Although Jesse, you have an awesome redondo, very powerful!  If it's any consolation, somehow I got a knuckle/hand bruise from holding the stick while you were practicing your strikes.

This morning we stressed some more foot work drills based off the male-female training formation. Over the weeks and hours of practice I'm feeling my footwork being much better than when I first started, but still plenty of room for improvement.   The more and more we practice the stick drills and hand to hand drills, the more I fully understand how critical the footwork plays into everything, this was evident  as I practiced with partners today, and I hope those newest in our Group see the light in this.  Correct foot and body positioning help create your defensive and offensive postures by creating those openings or creating the personal space for block.  With the rhythmic beat of the carenza drums, it's easy to feel the the foot work drills as seemingly light and elementary, but it is a lot more demanding than it appears (how many of us were breathing heavy after all the footwork drills?), for some it is a martial arts resemblance of a Zumba step, and while this may make the drill fun, we are really looking for the ready warrior, cat like movement of a predator, so mind that thought for those who were at practice today!

I forgot, my second apology for the group and my blog readers, we forgot to take a group picture today, it was another good turn out and we were very pleased to see returning faces and some new ones.   First a big welcome back to Glenda, Paulo, and Jeremy, with busy schedules and commitments the last couple of weeks they were able to make the session this morning.   An equally loud shout out to Gustavo, Daniel, Angelo, Elma, Jessie, and their son JR, glad to see we haven't scared you guys off, great to see the commitment to learn and support FMA!  Finally a great Welcome to first time visitors Rico and his son Nico.   Bernard, Ed, Tony and myself Thank You for checking our club out and what we have to offer, we're hoping to see a continued return by all 15 of us!

... and the pebbles grow...!

Maraming Salamat,

Erwin G.


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