Now please be aware that am pretty new to Filipino martial arts, and have a very limited knowledge of JKD, and no knowledge of Wing Chun or Silat really. Of these arts, other than Kali (of which I have a few short months instruction) I have only read stuff here and there, seen videos, and done a teeny bit in passing. So if when you read anything here and it seems like I have no idea what I am talking about, you are probably right. It might be I have no idea what I am talking about in the parts where it DOES sound like I know what I’m talking about too. You need to consider me an unreliable narrator/clueless newbie.
All I can say, is I know more about these things after this seminar than I did before.
Anyways, here is the best I can do to describe the seminar itself:
It was at the Trident Academy of Martial Arts in Woodbridge, VA. The Trident school is really nice, with a big open matted floor. They have a boxing ring at the back of the school, and a big rack with a bunch of heavy bags hanging off it. There is a giant American flag at the back too.
Guro Dan Inosanto came across as effortlessly personable and likeable. He seems like a genuinely nice and friendly guy who is really happy to be doing what he is doing. That is pretty much what I expected based on other things I had seen and read before, and I was not disappointed. He mentioned first off that most of the time he does a seminar, the school will tell him what they want him to cover, but the Trident folks had told him he could teach whatever he wanted. To me this seems like they felt their students would be up for anything he was going to show them.
After a warmup, the first thing we did was Jun Fan kickboxing drills for an hour or so. Guru Dan mentioned that slapping could be done in place of the hook in the various combos, listed various arts that do this, and said his Systema instructor taught this. I was surprised that he is learning Systema. The format was we would cover a few short combos, drill them. Then more would be added, we drilled them. Then more added, etc. This section was one of the more familiar things we covered for me, but by the end it was more involved. I was paired up with my Kali/Kickboxing instructor, so it was pretty easy to work through this material.
After this we did trapping for about 2 hours, following the same format of 3-4 short sequences and adding more to each one, and more and getting more complex. I barely had much idea of trapping going in to this, so I was a bit lost. Mike Krivka (A high level Maryland JKD/FMA instructor) was walking around helping people, and was able to get me going on this. He is my instructor’s teacher from a few years back, and is a really nice guy and a great teacher. Basically through both days of this seminar he was there helping me out when I was confused (which was a lot). Great guy and a bunch of his students were also there and were very cool and helpful. They couldn’t have been more helpful, and they really made this seminar even better for me. They were super cool to me considering what a clueless newbie I was with a lot of this stuff.
After lunch we came back and did double stick for a while, then switched to stick and dagger, and then 2 daggers. Like the other parts, this started off pretty easy, and added more and more. This started off in familiar territory for me, but branched out and I am fuzzy about the last part of it. I think my instructor took some really good notes here, he was furiously writing between instructions. This section was the last part of the day and all blurred together for me, but I still wanted more when it was over.
Unfortunately, I had to work on a paper for school once I got home, and was grinding away at that for hours - so I didn't write down any of the stuff we did while it was still mostly fresh in my mind.
On Day 2 my instructor didn't come, so in the morning I paired up with a cool guy named Chris who had done TKD and a lot of Aikido but was new to the topics of this seminar - outside of videos, etc. We did some of what was basically Thai boxing style combos, pretty familiar stuff to me.
Then it was a couple of hours of Silat (all empty hand).
I was able to remember to make some quick notes of what went on this day, so here are some of the things we worked on:
Leg check (to Thai kick) in to Puter Kepala (I believe this is the correct term), same with jab and jab cross combo. Did many variations. Jarring them forward to put them off balance, to make them move their legs to an awkward position seems important to setting this stuff up.
Leg check with rear leg - hand to throat, move forward so your shoulder is outside their shoulder, and rear leg foot sweep.
Same as above, but with leg behind their leg, and clothsline (with back of your arm) to throat to basically make them trip backwards over your leg.
Another variation is getting behind them, with your knee between their knees and "sitting down" while pushing on their leg with your elbow.
Another move was from crouch or ground, high sweeping capoeira like kick to face, and scissors to both legs (Guro Dan called this gunting, the same as in kali).Yet another move was to trap one of their ankles with your calf or heel area, and use other side arm to go between their legs and crumple knee from the back for a takedown.
There was another variation that involved a different scissors type move, but I didn't get that one. I'm pretty excited that I was able to do the two that I could figure out though, for some reason of all the stuff I learned they are the freshest in my mind.
A lot that went on in the Silat section that I don’t really have notes for or a way to describe. There was a lot of improvising going on here. At one point Chris, my partner did something totally different as an ending, and Guru Dan walked up and said “I like that!”. In one of the mini lectures in between practice sessions, he mentioned that you need to be creative and come up with things on your own.
There were a bunch of Trident Academy guys beside of us, and they were able to help us out with the Silat (Mike Krivka and students helped as well). I felt like I was able to get the basic idea of a lot of this stuff, while being completely lost on a few things. Silat is pretty great stuff. In this section a few Silat weapons were brought out – a Kerabit I was familiar with, but there was also a small curved needle-like knife that could be concealed entirely behind an index finger. There was also a “backscratcher” which was basically a leather band that fits over the hand with spikes on the palm side.
After lunch was single stick, and I paired up with Gary (nice guy), who I think is one of Mike Krivka's students, or connected to them somehow. He teaches Silat I believe.
Some notes on what went on here:
Doing a block with the hand behind the stick reinforcing it. Strikes one of angles 1, 2, 3, or 4. Block (with hand behind stick), and return strike (just on angles 1 or 2), which is in turn blocked with hand behind the stick. Clear the stick, by either pushing down or through one lower sectors (4?) depending on which site, and return strike. There was grabbing of the stick, and sticks were crossed, and turned to change the angle of the cross 90' during part of this move.
Further variations had the above, but with a hand checking the forearm to block the stick, which was then cleared and another strike done.
Another further variation had the above but with the stick strike being blocked with the stick being angled up to catch it, which then needed to be cleared (at this point the arms should be tied up).
A move done at the end of all of the above was a "power shot" angle 1, then a very fast palm up/palm down witik, angle 1 and angle 2 (I think). This was called a Tres Personas (father, son, holy ghost).
In another section there was a very fast move done where a when a hand is on your stick hand, you push it back very quickly and then block their incoming stick. This was called something that translates to "numbers" but really means calculation, like you are calculating the time to do this move. This was first demonstrated by Guro Dan at lightning speed. I mean no exaggeration; it was pretty unbelievable to me how fast he was. He slowed down (greatly) and simplified what he was doing. I don't think I can really explain this very well, unfortunately.
Then there was a very short open hand portion that involved in side gunting, outside gunting, or split entry, and had a rolling backfist. There were some open hand strikes to the throat as a finish in this (again demonstrated at crazy fast speed initially), but I was lucky to get the first moves.
Mixed in with all the above were some short talks and digressions. There was an interesting lecture on the history of Silat, how it came from 4 of Alexander the Great's bodyguards. Also, there was a lecture on how there were Aztecs in the Philippines due to the Spanish. How Jean Lefitte had 400 Filipinos in his crew (who all ended up fighting for Andrew Jackson). Also a discussion of how the Bowie knife very closely resembles an older Filipino knife (Jim Bowie had 3 Filipina girlfriends?). All interesting stuff.
I had a good time, learned as much as I could. I'd go to one of these again without a moments hesitation.
All I can say, is I know more about these things after this seminar than I did before.
Anyways, here is the best I can do to describe the seminar itself:
It was at the Trident Academy of Martial Arts in Woodbridge, VA. The Trident school is really nice, with a big open matted floor. They have a boxing ring at the back of the school, and a big rack with a bunch of heavy bags hanging off it. There is a giant American flag at the back too.
Guro Dan Inosanto came across as effortlessly personable and likeable. He seems like a genuinely nice and friendly guy who is really happy to be doing what he is doing. That is pretty much what I expected based on other things I had seen and read before, and I was not disappointed. He mentioned first off that most of the time he does a seminar, the school will tell him what they want him to cover, but the Trident folks had told him he could teach whatever he wanted. To me this seems like they felt their students would be up for anything he was going to show them.
After a warmup, the first thing we did was Jun Fan kickboxing drills for an hour or so. Guru Dan mentioned that slapping could be done in place of the hook in the various combos, listed various arts that do this, and said his Systema instructor taught this. I was surprised that he is learning Systema. The format was we would cover a few short combos, drill them. Then more would be added, we drilled them. Then more added, etc. This section was one of the more familiar things we covered for me, but by the end it was more involved. I was paired up with my Kali/Kickboxing instructor, so it was pretty easy to work through this material.
After this we did trapping for about 2 hours, following the same format of 3-4 short sequences and adding more to each one, and more and getting more complex. I barely had much idea of trapping going in to this, so I was a bit lost. Mike Krivka (A high level Maryland JKD/FMA instructor) was walking around helping people, and was able to get me going on this. He is my instructor’s teacher from a few years back, and is a really nice guy and a great teacher. Basically through both days of this seminar he was there helping me out when I was confused (which was a lot). Great guy and a bunch of his students were also there and were very cool and helpful. They couldn’t have been more helpful, and they really made this seminar even better for me. They were super cool to me considering what a clueless newbie I was with a lot of this stuff.
After lunch we came back and did double stick for a while, then switched to stick and dagger, and then 2 daggers. Like the other parts, this started off pretty easy, and added more and more. This started off in familiar territory for me, but branched out and I am fuzzy about the last part of it. I think my instructor took some really good notes here, he was furiously writing between instructions. This section was the last part of the day and all blurred together for me, but I still wanted more when it was over.
Unfortunately, I had to work on a paper for school once I got home, and was grinding away at that for hours - so I didn't write down any of the stuff we did while it was still mostly fresh in my mind.
On Day 2 my instructor didn't come, so in the morning I paired up with a cool guy named Chris who had done TKD and a lot of Aikido but was new to the topics of this seminar - outside of videos, etc. We did some of what was basically Thai boxing style combos, pretty familiar stuff to me.
Then it was a couple of hours of Silat (all empty hand).
I was able to remember to make some quick notes of what went on this day, so here are some of the things we worked on:
Leg check (to Thai kick) in to Puter Kepala (I believe this is the correct term), same with jab and jab cross combo. Did many variations. Jarring them forward to put them off balance, to make them move their legs to an awkward position seems important to setting this stuff up.
Leg check with rear leg - hand to throat, move forward so your shoulder is outside their shoulder, and rear leg foot sweep.
Same as above, but with leg behind their leg, and clothsline (with back of your arm) to throat to basically make them trip backwards over your leg.
Another variation is getting behind them, with your knee between their knees and "sitting down" while pushing on their leg with your elbow.
Another move was from crouch or ground, high sweeping capoeira like kick to face, and scissors to both legs (Guro Dan called this gunting, the same as in kali).Yet another move was to trap one of their ankles with your calf or heel area, and use other side arm to go between their legs and crumple knee from the back for a takedown.
There was another variation that involved a different scissors type move, but I didn't get that one. I'm pretty excited that I was able to do the two that I could figure out though, for some reason of all the stuff I learned they are the freshest in my mind.
A lot that went on in the Silat section that I don’t really have notes for or a way to describe. There was a lot of improvising going on here. At one point Chris, my partner did something totally different as an ending, and Guru Dan walked up and said “I like that!”. In one of the mini lectures in between practice sessions, he mentioned that you need to be creative and come up with things on your own.
There were a bunch of Trident Academy guys beside of us, and they were able to help us out with the Silat (Mike Krivka and students helped as well). I felt like I was able to get the basic idea of a lot of this stuff, while being completely lost on a few things. Silat is pretty great stuff. In this section a few Silat weapons were brought out – a Kerabit I was familiar with, but there was also a small curved needle-like knife that could be concealed entirely behind an index finger. There was also a “backscratcher” which was basically a leather band that fits over the hand with spikes on the palm side.
After lunch was single stick, and I paired up with Gary (nice guy), who I think is one of Mike Krivka's students, or connected to them somehow. He teaches Silat I believe.
Some notes on what went on here:
Doing a block with the hand behind the stick reinforcing it. Strikes one of angles 1, 2, 3, or 4. Block (with hand behind stick), and return strike (just on angles 1 or 2), which is in turn blocked with hand behind the stick. Clear the stick, by either pushing down or through one lower sectors (4?) depending on which site, and return strike. There was grabbing of the stick, and sticks were crossed, and turned to change the angle of the cross 90' during part of this move.
Further variations had the above, but with a hand checking the forearm to block the stick, which was then cleared and another strike done.
Another further variation had the above but with the stick strike being blocked with the stick being angled up to catch it, which then needed to be cleared (at this point the arms should be tied up).
A move done at the end of all of the above was a "power shot" angle 1, then a very fast palm up/palm down witik, angle 1 and angle 2 (I think). This was called a Tres Personas (father, son, holy ghost).
In another section there was a very fast move done where a when a hand is on your stick hand, you push it back very quickly and then block their incoming stick. This was called something that translates to "numbers" but really means calculation, like you are calculating the time to do this move. This was first demonstrated by Guro Dan at lightning speed. I mean no exaggeration; it was pretty unbelievable to me how fast he was. He slowed down (greatly) and simplified what he was doing. I don't think I can really explain this very well, unfortunately.
Then there was a very short open hand portion that involved in side gunting, outside gunting, or split entry, and had a rolling backfist. There were some open hand strikes to the throat as a finish in this (again demonstrated at crazy fast speed initially), but I was lucky to get the first moves.
Mixed in with all the above were some short talks and digressions. There was an interesting lecture on the history of Silat, how it came from 4 of Alexander the Great's bodyguards. Also, there was a lecture on how there were Aztecs in the Philippines due to the Spanish. How Jean Lefitte had 400 Filipinos in his crew (who all ended up fighting for Andrew Jackson). Also a discussion of how the Bowie knife very closely resembles an older Filipino knife (Jim Bowie had 3 Filipina girlfriends?). All interesting stuff.
I had a good time, learned as much as I could. I'd go to one of these again without a moments hesitation.
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