The Salsa Connection

I have just come back from my first experience dancing salsa!   It was during one of the magicmatchparty.com events that I rarely attend, but was intrigued by the prospect of learning how to do some latin dance (something that my sister had always suggest I try out).  

It was a wonderful time, but what was most striking from a martial-artist point of view was how similar the physical teaching layout was to combative art.   The emphasis on how important it was for the leader to be the one responsible for all the actions of the couple reminded me of Sayoc Kali's feeder-based mentality.     The importance of the "frame" reminded me of structural concepts hammered into me in JKD, Wing Chun, and Kali, and all martial arts in general.   Without the proper frame, the energy and communication between the partners is lost.

The instructor was mostly clear on how to perform the various manuevers.   He used the classic teaching of a base form, and then added variations upon the form.    Many of the classes in the academy I train at use that format to instill proper mechanics, yet simultaneously exposing students to enough variation to make the motions unique to the themselves as single person or as pairs.

Rotating through various pairings with several women, there was a different energy and synchronization with each one.   Sometimes it worked, sometimes it just didn't.    Adaptability became paramount for success.  

Combat arts have you sense the energy of the opponents so as to disrupt their structure.  Harmonious dancing arts have you sense the energy in the same way, but it is channeled towards preservation of a mutual structure.   

Who knew that a Salsa class would awaken such ruminations?

Whoa.

It's been a long time between blog posts...  just on a whim, I'm posting again.

I've taken on an IT job that has considerably helped my financial situation, but at the same time really cut down on my training.   At the moment, I only train 2 days out of the week, for 2 hour sessions.  Once a month, I train Atienza Kali for a 3 hour session on top of that.

But, a new class schedule is coming into play later this month that will allow me to be at the academy for 4, possibly 5 days out of the week.   Of those days, one will be dedicated mainly to assisting in Phase 1 classes.

It's been a very dark time for me, but the future is starting to get a bit brighter.

I love the crew..

... that I train with... It's a good bunch of guys (and the occasional gal) who make training fun and while at times spirited, rarely dangerous.

This past Saturday, I had the wonderful opportunity to do some live blade training at Tuhon Carl's place with some members of the PMA AK training group... nobody got seriously hurt, in fact, it was just one scratch that was quickly patched with a bandaid on one of my colleagues.

Imagine the control and the cameraderie that brings out...

It's days like that which make me realize I can be truly blessed.

After being sick as a dog the past week, I'm finally on the road to recovery, though my new job tests that rebound at times...

I'm hopelessly behind on some of the JKD material from this block, and need to catch up at some point. There was a clinch lock flow from an attempted shoot that I totally missed the past two weeks. Back when I was training nearly 4 or 5 days a week, it wouldn't have been a problem, but now every miss is critical. When I'm in better health, I think things will get a little back to normal.

Kali class was rather mixed... one of the difficult things about Kali is that there is a lot of possibilities to counter even just one of the attack angles. The class structure is difficult to navigate if they are just blitzed through like some of it was today, and I think a number of people, including myself, got a bit lost.

Guro Dan Inosanto will be coming in two weeks... I look forward to attending that seminar.

Wow, the week went fast.   I guess work does that sometimes.  

Thursday night training was rather easy, which was good, because I was pretty exhausted.   The Sayoc Kali class got back to the basics of funnel tapping.   It also was the first time I got to do Transition Drills with my friend Andrew, who is new to Sayoc training...  He did well!   It's always interesting to feel the different energy and flow with different people during Transition drills, because they're all unique.   

JKD class assistance went well... I think most of the class is starting to understand 3-count sumbrada.   

Howdy!

So tired... working this new job has its challenges, and I haven't even started doing the real stuff yet...

But managed to make it to tonight's Inosanto Kali class, and worked more sumbrada and stick-switches. Guro Nick has been having us go at the heavy bags lately, which is great for conditioning.

Had a sort of emergency fill-in as an assistant at tonight's JKD class afterwards.... was a bit tricky, since we were trying to teach basic 3-count sumbrada. It tends to fry brain cells for a bit, but they (Phase 1) is starting to get the hang of things.

This day-after habit is starting to become the norm... :P

Last night was Sayoc Kali training. As Guro Nick was away for the weekend to go for his RKC Kettlebell certification, we started with Transition Drills until Guro Agapito arrived. As usual, he had us doing knife-vs.-knife Panantukan combinations while wearing goggles and using mini-trainers for safety. What was a twist was he had us take turns facing off against 3 opponents sequentially, using the same combinations as they attacked. Then he had the instructor-candidates Len and Tom go through the drill, but now it was more dynamic, simulating a multiple attacker "randori" sort of flow, with random attackers performing single attacks with no letup.

Assisting in the JKD class was rewarding as usual, as one woman was saying "You're so encouraging!"... it's my teaching style, and for myself I usually find students respond quicker and stay in a discipline with positive criticism rather than negative.