(James and I practicing knife template)
Today James and I went over some Level I and Level II stuff, but with
a strong emphasis on practical training. So we first warmed up with
some Sinawali. Starting with Heaven 6, then Heaven and Earth (Standard)
6, and finally Earth 6. I hope I have those terms right. lol. We did
each a few times and slowly speeding up as we went. We tried to make
sure that our stick and hand positions were right while still keeping up
with the beats, and without tying ourselves up.
From there we went into 1-36 of 64 Stick Form. Did that a couple
times and after went into our defenses. First we did just the defenses
alone to make sure we had the motions down and then went into practical
defenses. So one would feed from any of the 8 basic strikes for the
drill, while the receiver would defend, or at least try to defend, with
the proper technique. We kept on getting hit on certain strikes so we
stopped to examine what happened.
For instance I kept on reading his knee strike wrong. At times it
looked like it was going to be a high strike, like a say angle number 1.
So during the swing I would try to check his strike for angle number
one and halfway through his swing it would change and swing down to
angle number five. Or he would swing and it would look like he’s going
for angle number three and again, half way through his swing it would
change up and swing down to angle number five. “Maybe I’m feeding
wrong.”, he said. For this drill being at the beginning stages, maybe,
but then again in a real fight these kinds of swings will happen. So how
can we better read these types of swings?
In martial arts or for almost all sports for that matter, you are
taught that certain body parts will tell you where something is going.
For instance the waist will tell you which direction his/her body is
going; their shoulder will tell you which arm is going to be in motion.
The problem we saw with this was that when a longer weapon was in play,
like a stick, it didn’t tell us where the swing was necessarily coming
from or going, especially if the weapon were chambered, be it behind the
back or under the arm.
So what could we use as a better reference point? Well when dealing
with knives we track the hands. Where ever the hand is going the knife
is going. So we tried tracking the hand. Nope. I still got hit. Don’t
get me wrong , I was able to track the swing better by seeing the hand
placement. It told me a lot. I was defending way better by tracking the
hand, but the problem was with the mid way switch. The hand didn’t
always tell me he was about to switch it up. I just happened too fast.
So if the shoulders don’t tell us enough, and the hands don’t tell us
enough, what could we use as a reference point then?
So we went at it a few more times and this time I was able to defend
against his knee strike and it hit me. I tracked the tip of his weapon.
It told me everything about the swing and since the tip is what has the
most travel, it showed me the most. I didn’t have worry too much about
the hand position at that point. Combining the tracking of both the hand
placement and tip travel was the best bet though. Add the tracking of
the shoulder to tell us which arm will be at play and the tracking of
the waist to tell us where he/she was going to be coming from or going
too, and you have something pretty solid. So now the question is, does
all of that take too much away from the live hand?
So we added a knife in the mix. At any point James would deploy his
knife and go in for the kill and I would have to see if I could defend
properly. We got started and he attempted two to three strikes. Then he
went for angle number 2, deployed his knife, and went in for a stab. Now
keep in mind that while going for angle number 2, I could not see his
live hand so I couldn’t see that he was deploying. Nevertheless I was
able to defend against his knife as well, but the knife attack came from
up high so I was already in position to defend for it.
So what if the knife attack came from low? We did the drill the same
way starting with a few strikes and then attempting to deploy the knife.
Again I was still able to defend and better yet create space. We went
back and forth a few times so that we could both have a chance to try it
out. Not perfect, but better than where we started.
Another thing that I ran into during this drill was what to do if I’m
already in motion and he goes in for the sak sak? For instance, I’m
moving around and go toward him in a left angle. This actually assisted
his sak sak because I was going right into it. I couldn’t shield
properly, it was too late, and I couldn’t change my footing mid way
through my step. So I thought maybe I would Aboniko it down and away
from me. It kind of worked. James said try adding in the push that we
use in Level I knife tapping along with the Aboniko. So I tried that and
it was better.
We still need a lot of work on this, but we’re getting better. We
just have to keep practicing it so that we start to develop proper
responses. Then we can start to incorporate counters and follow ups so
that we can reverse the rolls from receiver to feeder. But baby steps
first.
(James showing me a new knife template)
After that we went into knife tapping and knife transitions, when to
change from standard to Pikal, and templates. This portion went
smoother, at least for me it did. But I have to admit that I suck at
swtiching from standard to pikal and back. My swtich is slow, at least
for me it is, but I guess it will improve over time.
Finally we went over hubad, but with more emphasis on our left since
we train so much with our right. We were both getting all tied up. So we
would slow it down and try to point out where we were making mistakes.
I need more practicing with my left anyway.
Anyway it was a fun practice. ItsYoBoyFlex and I’m out.
http://www.itsyoboyflex.com/2014/03/07/fun-day-friday-practical-training/
http://www.itsyoboyflex.com/2014/03/15/funday-friday-excuses/ 
http://blog.frankiefoto.com/2011/12/windansea-beach-san-diegos-surfing-jewel/
