Knives, sticks and karate...

As I type this week's post I'm sitting here aching from head to toe...

I have a nice little egg shaped bruise on my forehead, right on the hair line courtesy of training knife clash. I also have a graze on the opposite cheekbone and my nose is tender to touch.

My right knee is hurting just below the knee cap for some reason and my triceps are killing me... but it all comes as a result of a good weekend.

What?

"You got beat up and it's a good weekend?"

Not exactly.

You see this past Saturday was the Festival Ng Mga Kapatid in Los Angeles, California. It's an annual stick and knife fighting seminar and tournament that brings together loads of great competitors and fantastic instructors from different fighting systems from all over the USA.

The morning session included 3 hours of stick and knife training with some respected masters of the Filipino arts including Felix Roiles (2 x heavy weight stick fighting world champion). While the afternoon was filled with a truckload of different weapons events, and dozens and dozens of competitors, including yours truly. =)

As I signed up for the sparring divisions I noticed no weight classes - just beginner and advanced for the adults. I then read the events...

- Single blade

- Double blade

- Tactical blade

- Padded stick

- Live stick

- Mixed weapons

Cool... even though this didn't make terribly much sense to me. Although I've never competed in anything other than karate kumite and live stick events, I thought "What the heck!" and checked all the boxes in the advanced division.

This was gonna be fun, even though the ring looked smaller than most bathrooms. It must have been no larger than 8' x 8'. That's not a lot of room to move in anyone's book.

And of course since I broke one of my golden rules and didn't "know the rules before you fight", I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Plus it didn't help that I was called up first. Nobody to watch before me to get a feel for what was being paid and how the matches would be run.

Stupid. Stupid!

No preparation whatsoever - Sun Tzu would be very disappointed.

The referee gave us each a pair of safety glasses and a training blade with the edge covered in chalk so that successful slashes and stabs could be identified on each other.

We bowed and the match began and then a couple minutes later it was all over.

Thanks to 20+ years of competitive karate kumite I was easily able to adapt many of the concepts I teach in my books and seminars , while I noticed my opponent made a lot of mistakes such as becoming emotional and frustrated when things didn't go his way.

He didn't take time to try to figure out what kind of fighter I was, nor pay attention to my strategy. He was just focused on blaming the referee's bad calls and was too busy getting angry.

When we clinched during the match I could sense his frustration. He was intense and was unknowingly giving me the edge.

(Don't ever do this! A savvy opponent will take advantage.)

By keeping a cool head I was fortunate enough to win the first 4 matches against different opponents and in the process figured out the scoring system. You get 4 points for a slash to the neck, 2 for the body and 1 for the limbs. First to 5 points per round wins.

When the buzzer went at then end of the 5th and final match the score keeper announced the score as 3-3.

Great...

That meant the match was going to "sudden death" with first to score, the winner.

Back on the line waiting for a restart and thoughts rushed through my head like a runaway train. What to do? Block and counter? Strike first? Fake then go? Rush in? Switch hands? Go high? Low?

When the match restarted we both waited patiently for the best time to attack, being careful not to do anything stupid. The next thing I remember is going for my attack while checking my opponent's attempted strike and making contact across his throat...

"STOP!", called the referee. "Judges, your scores please."

One red flag went up, one white, with the referee having the final say... 

I looked at the referee and saw that she signaled in favor of my opponent.

Although I'd checked his slash with my non weapon hand and made contact a split second later, the judges deemed his attack as a successful cut to my forearm - 1 point, and that's all he needed to win the match.

(Nice job by the way Ryan! Congrats.)

One division down and 5 to go... this was going to be a long day.

Over the course of the next 4 hours I would get hit more times that I care to remember, see other peoples fingers get dislocated and knees split wide open courtesy of the live stick (not my doing by the way), and the medics carry people from the arena.

On a personal level though I didn't win the single bladed event, I had my revenge in the double blade and live stick events taking gold in both. And one of my students, Mark also took 2 gold and a bronze.

So you see the bumps and bruises were worth it. Not in winning the medals... I couldn't care less. It's a good feeling however, knowing that what we practice and teach in karate kumite (the concepts of clean hitting, timing and distance) can be easily adapted for different fighting systems.

Thanks to the organizers, Gigie Alunday and Rich Verdejo and to the instructors who gave their time to teach. Special thanks to Master Felix Roiles for your continued support.

Great event, can't wait til next year.

Stick Fighting Seminar

I just returned to the U.S. after a two week visit to my homeland, Australia.

It's been 6 and half years since my wife and I decided to move from Melbourne to the southern California and while we've been back several times since, it had been 2 years since we were last there, so we were eager to see family and friends.

I often get asked in the US, "Wow, Australia. How long does it take to get there? I'd love to go there one day..."

The flight from LAX to Melbourne is around 15 hours or so, but this time we had a couple of hours in Sydney before heading to Melbourne, so the entire trip door to door was actually about 25 hours. We left Friday night and arrived Sunday lunchtime, with Saturday vanishing into thin air as we crossed the International Date Line.

The flight itself was fine and the vibration of the engines lulled our 7 month old daughter to sleep. She barely made a sound for the entire journey, so I guess we're lucky, as friends tell me horror stories of their travels with their little ones.

Anyhow Melbourne greeted us with a sunny spring day, and our challenge for the next couple of days was to adjust to the new time zone. At the moment the difference is 19 hours between Pacific Standard Time and Australian Eastern Standard Time, so arriving lunchtime Sunday was really about 5pm Saturday night PST.

Hello jetlag.

This time the reason for the visit was very different to the last time, in which I visited twice within a 6 week period to say my goodbyes to my father as he went through his final battle with cancer. This time my visit was much more fun despite getting the flu 4 days into the trip. This time I came to teach some stick fighting seminars.

In addition to teaching karate I'm also an instructor for the Pakamut system. It's the original fighting art of the Philippines. You may have heard of it referred to as Arnis, Kali and Eskrima, which are the Spanish names for the Filipino system. You can read more about the Pakamut system here (http://www.pakamut.com/).

In short, the Pakamut system is a complete system most often with stick or knife in hand involving short, middle and long range techniques.

In many way it's similar to karate with strikes, blocks, throws, locks and holds, and yet in other ways it's very different... mostly with it's circular movements versus the linear movements so often taught in karate.

While I've been practicing stick fighting for nearly as long as karate, a couple of years ago I had the good fortune of meeting Master Felix Roiles, head of Pakamut International.

Master Felix filled in the blanks, gave me the rest of the pieces to the puzzle, and now I'm happy to teach the system to anyone who likes to learn and further their knowledge - just like my friend Tim (above) who insisted that I choke him out.

Of course I was pleased to oblige. =)

This is just one simple choke in the system in which the stick braces the back of the neck while the forearms form the triangle choke. Very painful and very effective when done correctly.

Part of the course I taught involved some full contact sparring, which everyone seemed to love. There's something about putting on the armor that brings out the warrior within.

Unlike karate tournament fighting, targets include the hands, arms, body and head. Basically anything that is covered by armor is allowed to be struck with full force.

Think the armor absorbs all the pain? Think again. But for those who think armor is for the weak, sometimes we just spar with head and hand protection - no body armor at all. If you watched shows like "The Human Weapon" or "Fight Quest", and caught the stick fighting episodes let me tell you those bruises are real. And they hurt like hell.

All in all the course was well received with over 60 people attending the two seminars. And I've got to say I had as much fun teaching as the students did learning.

A special thanks to everyone who attended and those who made it possible. Keep practicing what you learned and I'll see you next year for more!

- Jason