Sometimes I think that combination 13 is a sort of silly ‘extra’ in the SK system. Why include one ‘belt’ technique along in a (bloated, but that’s another story) group with 107 other empty hand responses to a step through right hand punch? I just had a great conversation with Jesse Dwire of Dragon-Phoenix martial arts about how he’s improved how he did 13 lately, and it paralleled my experiences with it as well.
Some folks might remove it, as it’s a distracting detail, a one-off, almost a party trick. That would probably be a mistake. I know it seems strange given my penchant for blog posts that could essentially be replicated by a filter that just substituted ‘Trim!Simplify!’ over and over again for whatever I went on about that I’d want to keep this blip that doesn’t fit in with the rest, but here’s why.
It’s a doorway, and a hint at some roots. First, combination 13 appears virtually identically in the beautiful book Lua: Art of the Hawaiian Warrior. I’m not certain that’s the whole story, but it is nice to see. It’s a hard book to get your hands on, but it’s a real beauty.
Now as one of 107, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Why do one technique? However, if you trim the redundant combinations, it becomes a significant part of the repertoire. One of 25 is 4%, small but significant. Think of it as a reminder to do variations of uses with flexible weapons. It’s a bookmark in the training syllabus that says, “Spend some time on flexible weapons”. Just get some knowledge of the principles and apply from there.
Here’s a trailer for a seminar in Italy, but it replicates many of the Kali / Silat techniques I learned. I have no idea about the person teaching the seminar, but if I were in Italy, I’d certainly check it out.
http://www.saratogafestival.com/schedule.php
This is a seminar that I have been attending for 3 years now. if you look at one of the first sessions on Sat. you will see 2 instructors giving a seminar on flexible weapons – If you go to their bio’s you can see that are on two totally different ends of the spectrum from their backgrounds.
I will have to say the only reason I could improve it was because of my lack of knowledge about the weapon in the first place. I had different training on the belt, but never the snaps that I have learned recently — Break any boards with your belt yet Matt?
Jesse
Not yet…but you know it’s on my ‘to do’ list now.
One of these years I’ll make it to the Saratoga festival, but I always seem to be up there on the wrong weekend. I like the ‘Team’ approach they are taking this time. I’ll be at Northeastern for the last session of a class that weekend. Sadly the meeting was rescheduled from early Feb.
Great post Matt. Last time i was in LI one of Shihan’s students went over belt techniques with us and it was amazing and similar to the video you posted. He and i were speaking afterwards and I showed him some belt stuff i had learned from a kali instructor i know and we had a blast. We both now wear belts that slip off easily… Next time you are doing a single stick kali routine replace the stick with a belt that has a good buckle on it…this would not be a good time to forget about that live hand movement …thanks Matt and Master Dwire
kinda makes you look at the ‘sash’ system in kung fu a little differently, no? đŸ™‚