I wanted to share my experience at the seminar at
RiSu Martial Arts Academy who is run by Guro Rich and Guro Sue. They hosted Sayoc Kali's founder and creator Pamana Tuhon Chris Sayoc. They also had a handful of top level instructors to teach at the two day seminar.
I was only able to attend Sunday's events so I will only comment on that day. We first started working some drills that were presented the day before. I was paired up with
Guro Alfred, who teaches in Albany, NY. He was showing me the techniques to defeat the tap (parry). Another technique that they covered were ways to use your opponents own blade to disarm themselves by hitting their own arm with the blade. Nice information to know.
PT Chris later showed Receiver Grips. He explained how it was only a drill to show different ways you can take your partners blade and have control. It's like a flowing grip drill... you are flowing from one grip to the next. Each grip has their own target to hit too.
Guro Nick Sacoulas assisted in sharing this drill.
We switched gears after that and had Tuhon Ray Dionaldo from
FCS Kali. He showed his 5-count long blade template (not sure the official name). He featured a feeder and receiver having their own shots or parry's. Their was a technique that the feeder swings the blade to his back. I didn't understand that move until Tuhon Ray explained that he would show why it's in the drill. He had one guy in front and one guy stand behind him. He showed us the application of that technique. Cool! Apparently, you can perform the drill with one or two training partners. Somthing to think about when in a mass attack scenario.
Next one to share was Tuhon Carl from
Atienza Kali. He taught from the Apacolypse/Bolo (like a long Bowie knife) blade targeting chain. He added projectiles (blades from the rig) to the entries within the drill which made it more exciting. The projectile was done prior to the attack, but can also be done during or after the attack (projectile, then go on to the next person).
Tuhon Raf was also there at the seminar. PT asked that everyone place all the blades (training or real) in the front of the group. He later had Tuhon Raf share with us the reasons for each design in different blades. Each blade has a specific job or character. What is the blade used for? Each blade was made for their specific use.
Pamana Tuhon later showed another blade to blade technique which knocks the blade out of your partners hands. Luckily, no one lost a finger or hand. We ended the seminar with a question and answer session. There were a few interesting questions...but I don't remember them all. Sorry guys! Although, there was one major theme among most of the questions that I noticed. What makes your kali art different when it comes to the mental training aspect? That was a good question, because it's an answer that can not be simply answered at a seminar. You have to go through the training, because it's more than training applications. You could apply it to your business, relationships, and life.
Paman Tuhon approached the question by showing two guys facing each other. One was armed (feeder) with blades and the other (receiver) wasn't. PT later told the receiver, what would he do if he didn't have hands, how would he defend himself? Later, what if he didn't have arms to defend himself?
The demonstration above is part of the mental training called L.O.T. (logical order of thinking) training that goes with being an instructor of Sayoc Kali. Training your thought process while keeping your emotions in check to be streamlined to problem solve. Not just in martial arts, tactical training, but in life. This is just one part of the training in Sayoc Kali.
Overall, the seminar was a good overview of what Sayoc Kali is like. Keep training!
