FMA for 21st century - interview with Jon Escudero

I first met Jon Escudero, a master of Lightning Scientific Arnis, during a martial art training camp in Slovenia, back in 2010. He immediately struck me as a very nice, down to earth person, very easy and agreeable to talk to. However, what made him really gain major respect in my eyes was the way he moves and teaches his style, and especially seeing his students perform. In this case, Jon's students are a true testimony to his teaching skill. Therefore, I though a little bit of interrogation was in order...

OK, let’s start with some brief introduction, i.e. cliché stuff – how did you get involved with martial arts; and then how/why did you end up doing FMA?

The 70s and the 80s were a great era for martial arts in cinema.  Every cliché was pretty much explored.  Everything from Shaolin monks, to ninja and samurai found its way to the big screen.  So I think I just about watched every movie there was with my father.  As a kid growing up, these movies as well as comics and books on fantastic and mythical battles sparked my interest in the martial arts.  There that many schools accessible or reputable around that time so I just took what lessons I could in school as well as fooling around with friends and classmates.  I'll skip to college where training took a turn for the serious.  I was involved in establishing the university Wushu club where I was active for several years until the day I saw the university arnis club perform a demonstration.  It changed my life.  This was this university club founded by Maestro Elmer Ybanez practicing the LESKAS system, a Lightning Scientific Arnis group. It was the speed and power that impressed me.  I've seen many styles in the parks and competitions in malls by then but, this style spoke to me.  

Who were your FMA instructors, and what was the training like?

 The martial arts community in the University was very small so it was just a matter of time until I joined them.  In the university club I trained with different people, but one of those who introduced me to the training floor was Felipe Jocano, Jr.  He was actually my professor in one of my classes in the university.  We struck up a friendship and started training with him and the other guys in the university club.  It was Master Elmers club, but at that time he'd already moved to the US, so I mostly trained with his seniors.  People in the FMA will know them as the younger generation of LSAI  masters.

The group training was very eclectic.  Arnis was at its core, but we'd mix it up with a lot of stuff.  You see, apparently we all came from previous martial arts backgrounds.  I had my Kung fu, while others came from Karate, judo, boxing, wrestling, jujitsu and Muay Thai and other athletic backgrounds.  What brought us together was the stick fighting.

A lot of time was spent at the tire dummy working out various different speed combinations, power combinations with different weapon combinations and other stuff.  Of course the partner training was interesting because the atmosphere was different.  Training was like a jamming session.  You brought what you knew to the table.  We worked our core skills but whenever we thought we were on to a good idea, we tried it out.  We broke a lot of sticks and gear this way.  The group also cross-trained in other activities.  We ran together, got involved in wrestling, boxing , power-lifting.  We didn't concern ourselves with collecting techniques, what occupied our time was training what we knew and making it work. This meant a lot of sparring time and being on the receiving end of many hard knocks.

Eventually, the whole group migrated to the Grandmaster. It was our transition into the GM's methodology.  He exposed us to a lot more material.  He basically threw everything he had at us. We were also some of the lucky ones he took on demonstrations abroad. It was the experience of a lifetime.  The learning experience under him was more than just what you could learn in class.  Many times eureka moments would come from the conversations with him.  Of course watching him teach was one of the best ways to learn, and provided us insights into the development of Lightning.

During one of our conversations in Slovenia, as a response to my comment on some interesting and modern training methods you were employing, you mentioned “giving something in return to the art”. What does it mean, how do you pay your dues, and why would you want to do it?

There are some events in life that can be called life-changing.  Arnis is one of those things for me.  Martial arts is my passion. It is something I cannot see myself doing without.  Arnis has heightened that passion.  It has brought me many experiences and things that I'm very thankful for.  I've met the most interesting people, travelled to amazing places and done some pretty cool stuff, so what's there to not be thankful for.  Arnis changed my life.  So I think that's why I teach.  To be able to share the knowledge, understanding and joy of the art.  I wouldn't be where I am if not for my teachers.  LSAI Grandmaster, Benjamin Luna Lema, and his legacy serve as my motivation.  So I give back to the art by teaching his system, keeping his story and history alive in my students.  Wherever I teach I tell them about my roots.  Whenever I teach someone, I tell them that they're connected to a lineage and legacy and not to just a bunch of techniques.

If I understood correctly, you have a two-prong approach to teaching LSA – traditional and modern/tactical. Could you elaborate on the reasons for this division, common traits and differences? Also, where does the sportive practice of FMA fit in?

That is correct.  It mostly has to do with training mindset.  In a classical curriculum, it is assumed that the student agrees to train in a planned progression of ranks or levels advancing through different technique sets and drills to develop the fighting attributes that the style or system deem appropriate with the fighting philosophy of the style.  It also speaks about the readiness of the student in terms of physical and mental terms to progress to more sophisticated techniques and applications. This is the long term plan.

The tactical class is a concentrated class, something like a high-intensity immersion in techniques with simple mechanics.  In this class we work with the tactical baton, folder and Dulo-Dulo.  We also work hand to hand as well as empty hand against weapons.  The class focuses on short quick techniques that can be learned fast, built on the gross motor sets to bring quick results.  Nothing too fancy, twirly or sophisticated in terms of motor coordination.  Mostly it's the use of repeating strikes at different angles with substitutions such as punches or kicks or other attacks of opportunity.

The funny thing is, in the end, there are no shortcuts.  We somehow meet up in the middle.  Students in the classical class are curious about the dynamic mix on non-standard techniques in the tactical class, and the tactical class sees the value of learning the foundation of the techniques and how it improves their applications and execution.

When it comes to the training methodology, what segments/fields of the contemporary sport training do you find relevant to training/learning FMA, or weapon-based martial arts in general?

I go back to the core attributes - speed, strength and stamina.  Do sports that compliment your training.  It doesn't even have to be a martial art.  Training hard at martial arts can lead to some form of burnout, so sports or games with similar movements can be a welcome break, or even refresh you.  Badminton is one of those sports great for developing agility and smashing power. Table tennis is also great for fine motor development. Sprinting is wonderful for developing linear speed, track plyometrics also develops multidirectional bursts and movement. Doing these drills with variable amounts of resistance and over different durations might well redefine your game.

In mentioning your name with other LSA practitioners (like Bob Park or Shaun Porter for example), they frequently respond with phrases like “excellent methodology”, “good curriculum”, “nice teaching system” and similar. So, what is your take on forming a sound FMA curriculum – what does it consist of; what are the principles and logic behind making it as such?

LSA in general embodies an impressive body of knowledge.  What changed for me though is that I stopped teaching people to memorize stuff.  Instead, I broke things down into redefining why we move the way we do in LSA and show how it does not work against our natural instinctive reactions.  By doing this we are establishing a fighting philosophy or in simpler terms, determining our goal and defining our task (which in this case is ending a fight in the swiftest, most efficient and safest manner available).  Understanding this helps us frame how we learn technique, as well as answer the question of WHY we do stuff.

You have to ask yourself, are you creating fighters or dancers?  What I learned was, you become by doing.  So my classes have more and more involved sparring and this is supplemented by the classical material.  

Logo of Jon's school

You have taught in both the Philippines and abroad. Are there any significant differences between the approach to training among the people back home and in western world?

That is an excellent question.  It is also one of the most interesting experiences I've had. I've learned teaching abroad.  It is easy to take for granted cultural differences and miscommunication can happen a lot of times.  And it's easy to base your expectations on what you are accustomed to as well as on assumptions based on culture. So all in all it's been a very eye opening experience.

The most significant experience, I think, is that you have to represent more than just your style.  In the Philippines it's easy to be very focused and specific to your style because representatives of other systems come in handy readily since you are all in the same country.  Outside, they often do not have this background information, so a lot of effort must be put in to educating them on the differences and similarities, histories, personalities.  Terminologies and language can be challenging to teach and explain.  To me, it's not just about teaching the fighting aspects, but it's also an education in what's Filipino.

What makes a good instructor?

For me it's about balancing the needs of the student with the needs of the style.  Students come for many different reasons.  Health, fitness, love of martial arts, self defense, or national pride.  An instructor should know what experience he's offering and stick to it, put the effort, put his heart into it. A good teacher doesn't teach halfway.

What makes a good student?

Hard work impresses me.  Diligence and perseverance impresses me, sometimes stubbornness as well. Initiative is a good trait to have, definitely.  Being a good athlete is an advantage or having the talent for it, but for me, it's only a plus that they should use wisely.  I’ve seen talented people be overtaken by diligent and hardworking students.

 

Jon and his wife/partner Neta

Where do you see the place and practice of FMA in ten years? Where would you LIKE to see it?

I definitely want to see more FMA in the mainstream. I don't think there's anything wrong with hoping FMA becomes a household word like karate or kung fu. It deserves it's place in the sun. I'm glad that it has been formally recognized as the Philippine national sport. Maybe now the traditions, efforts and contributions of the Grandmasters will get some recognition.

Any closing words?

In closing, I dunno…  I can keep going on and on and on.  But to wrap things up nicely, to me the martial arts is a path, and this road is only as long as you can walk it.  I'll do what I can to promote the FMA, and for as long as there is a student out there, I'll teach.

 

Training to train

The differences between training in/for the sportive events of martial arts and for the self-defense applications are many, some real, some perceived. The opinions on the (dis)advantages of each are many and diverse, but there is one domain which could and should be much clearer and not all that much influenced by the personal attitudes.

At issue is the fitness aspect of training for combat. In sports, this one is pretty much no-brainer; at least the importance of including a proper physical preparation regimen into one’s training. That is, if the practitioner is aiming to accomplish any tangible result. Of course, what exactly is the proper way of doing it for each and every individual athlete is another matter, but nobody argues the significance of doing it. Be as it may, the main framework of that approach is rather clear – train for the demands of the competition!

Roadwork for boxing

But, how about those who train, at least decoratively, for self-defense (or for the street…whatever term you choose to use)? There seem to be two general camps here:

1. Fitness training is very important, but used first and foremost as the mental-conditioning tool;
2. Fitness is irrelevant, because street fights last anywhere from a couple of seconds to half a minute at most.

I have to be brutally honest here – no matter which stance you take, you are missing the point! OK, if I had to take one of those two, I’d go with the former…but let me explain my point of view.

Let’s start with the second group. Even if their view of the typical street fight was exact in this regard (of which I am not all that sure either), there are still a few fallacies that should be removed from the training process. First, you may think that the training time is better used to drill the techniques and scenarios, but the simple fact is that power, speed and agility are also inextricable elements of a technique, and those elements can definitely be improved through good fitness regimen. Second, if your training is supposed to mimic the actual event, then how long should a training session be?

The problem with the first group lies mostly with their choice of conditioning tools and exercises. If one’s main guideline is testing the mental toughness, the exercises used to achieve may not really have much carryover with the technical training. Also, the selection will be either random, or maybe depend on the personal likes and dislikes of the instructor (read – favoring the ones he can do and look good at it).

So, in preparing for street combat (here, I am talking strictly about civilian aspect. The professional field, i.e. army, is another story), what will demand most time and energy from you? Well, the simple answer is – training! You may never in you life time need to put your fighting skills to use in a real altercation, but if you are serious about it, then you will spend hundreds of hours in training anyway.

Not a bad choice - if you know how, why, when...

I first thought about it all a long ago, when someone first noted that “you won’t have the time to warm up before the street fight”. While that sounded right for the first few seconds, it very quickly occurred to me that the street confrontation (or at least it’s physical “resolution”) would not take 90 minutes, while my training session normally do. Hm…clearly I was warming up to prevent the injuries and optimize performance in training, not in the potential event. And that applies to all other segments of physical preparation as well.

Obviously, in order to make training productive, one needs to do certain things over and over again, which requires energy. If those things happen to require some level of speed and power in execution, then you also need some endurance to prevent the technical deterioration as the session goes on. Lo and behold – you need the full scale of well developed physical attributes to make your training count and to benefit most from each and every session you attend.

Good footwork - everybody needs it

Therefore, you would be well advised to undertake some fitness training as well, to accompany the skill work. Aiming to make that fitness component pertinent, start from looking at what are the physical demands of you training sessions. What is the work to rest ratio? Does it include a lot of short and powerful bursts, or more of a steady, moderate effort?

You get the picture. If you do not, there are some established routs you could take to progress, and most basic physical training manuals cover those. The bottom line is, be aware that to make your training as fruitful as possible, it will also require training. Of course, the fitness level demanded from a practitioner of self defense will not be the same as from an Olympic level athlete, but you should not allow yourself to be a rotting couch potato either. After all, all the “deadly, battle proven, street forged” techniques are not going to help you, if you do not have the fuel to run you engine. 

Knowing where you're going

Don’t know about you, but the facet of martial art training that has always raised most questions with me, and to this day many are not fully satisfactorily answered, is how to make the transition from learning the technical material to applying it in real time?

Hmmm?

Obviously, this is only pertinent to those who are actually looking to have a functional grasp of their training, i.e. seeing it as something that should provide a set of tools that enable one to attain a certain goal. I know, I know, many will say “it about the journey, not the destination”… To a degree, it makes sense to me, otherwise I would not have been doing this for 25 years already. Still, I also believe it is essential that the journey should produce some “residual effect” along the way, or maybe useful “side effect”.

Many fighting systems and/or sports, over the course of their development (evolution?), have come up with more or less firm definition of what they are trying to accomplish, i.e. what is the end-goal of the training, performance wise. Specifically, what they want their practitioners to be able of doing. Of course, when these goals are set, it is somewhat simpler to develop the training progression and methodology for achieving it. Please note that I said simpler, which is not necessarily easy.

It seems that the common thread with all those schools and systems is having in place some sort of test to filter the effects of the training through. After all, how else could one say if the current teaching and training methods are appropriate for reaching the desired goal. 

Easier to hit the target when there is one

Unfortunately, some of the systems that seemed to have a lot of potential and be very promising, fail to form a clear definition of what it is they are working on, and as a consequence – they stray away from their “original”, declarative aim. I have been seeing it happen to the world of Systema (not the only one out there, but it is the one I am very much involved with), which saddens me, because not so long ago, it seemed to have been going in the right direction. IMHO, anyway… On the other hand, it may be just a temporary occurrence, because depending on whatever ends up being the definition, the general emphasis in work might be spot on.

The good thing about Systema is that there is always some pluralism understood, so the definition may differ from one camp to another, so the modus operandi will be in accordance to it. For the “uninitiated” it may present another problem, because they will tend to generalize the whole shebang, based on assumptions acquired from seeing/trying one school. Anyways…

The point is, when you do have a solid, well put definition (“wanna be awesome at kickin’ butt” is not a well developed definition, btw, not even by a long shot), you can start experimenting with the specific kinds of drills and exercises that will lead you towards the goal. So far, one thing that I have found out, and many people are somehow managing to miss it, is that not only does each drill have to develop some kind of required ability, but it will inadvertently develop some bad habits. If there is an exercise and training method that is 100% “surefire”, I have not seen it yet.

As a result, you will need other training segments to mend that problems developed or address the things neglected in the previous methods etc.

Just as an example (common in Systema), training the responses to close-quarter knife threats, or holdups in other words, is necessary, but the bad habit developed in the high-repetitions training of this sort is allowing the attacker to enter the distance that permits them to deploy that tactics they are using. The same thing goes for many courses that work on the releases from grabs and holds.

Another common problem, often seen in other martial arts, is working against the attacker that runs and initiates the assault from a distance of almost 10 feet, or along those lines. Yes, that will happen, but you also have to treat the confined space situations, too.

OK, by now you should understand the problem. In some schools, they will try to alleviate it by having a big “toolbox”, i.e. the whole gamut of drills and scenarios, and while it is a part of the answer, there are some criteria to be observed when choosing the exercises, and even more so when deciding on how to order them in training.

Keep in mind that essentially, all our work in combative training revolves around two desired adaptations – increasing responsiveness to some stimuli and diminishing responsiveness (increasing resistance if you like) to other stimuli. The examples of the above may include an increased sensitivity to opponent’s shifting his balance center and taking advantage of it; or learning to cope with (receiving) strikes without yielding our structure. So, we need at least two general pathways in training, to elicit adequate responses.

While not claiming to have a foolproof answer, I honestly think there are some pretty good guidelines I can offer. Having had the opportunity to teach many kinds of subjects (languages in a school setting, bass guitar in 1 on 1 setting, martial arts in groups or individually etc.), some common threads have emerged. First, we need to decide on the importance of the desired abilities and then prioritize. In other words, work on them chronologically – first things first. Of course, sometimes there will be mechanical priorities, which means some things will need to be “under the belt” as they form the physical prowess to then work on other skills.

Common sense, right?

However, as soon as the practitioner starts developing some level of command, we need to add the exercises and/or circumstances to (preferably) prevent the development of accompanying problems or at least make them glaringly obvious, so they do not slip by unnoticed and be left untreated. We then move on to the next segment and recycle the process. While this may sound simplistic, in my view it is the foundation that has to be laid, or else, the training will be jumping all over the place and end up achieving nothing.

Also, the above approach will still require a lot of hard work on the instructor’s part, as one will have to constantly be watching out for the potential potentials and their remedies, ideally with each individual trainee. It will in turn demand a built in “tools” for reappraisal and “re-tuning” of the training process, and it is again instructors duty to either adopt some or develop his/her own means of doing it.

In the end…there is no end! Even the best schools and teachers will always be changing and evolving their curricula and teaching progressions. That is what makes them good. But, only when they have their sights firmly on the defined goal, because only then will the changes be meaningful and progressive. 

Force in time

Over the past couple of years, I have distilled my training/teaching methodology of martial arts to a functional matrix of sorts. Now, to approach the training in that way, it is assumed that the practitioner already has a solid grasp on the technical material, i.e. the requirements of good mechanics of delivery.

Now, the mechanics of delivery may and will vary depending on the tool being used and/or worked against, but being that the purpose of the matrix I mentioned is the tactical use, in the sense of helping a more efficient decision making process under pressure, the specificity of each tool (empty hand, edged, impact...) does not matter, as long as it is a contact weapon. In other words, this may not apply to projectiles.

With all this in mind, I call this approach Dynamics of force in time continuum. That title is not aimed at making the whole thing sound fancier or more "scientific", it just seems to encapsule tho whole approach in the most condensed manner. I hope it will make more sense once you get the rationale behind it.

The first part of the above equation is the dynamics of force. Here, it simply means the three available modes of dealing with the force of the attacker - avoid it altogether; redirect it; stop it. In the terms common for many contact combat sports, it would be expressed as an evasion, parry and a block, respectively.

The second half is the time continuum. In practice, it corresponds to three types of timing one's response to the attack - reactive; interactive; proactive. For example, you can deal with you opponent's punch and then retaliate, you can both strike at the same time, or you can intercept/go preemptive.

	Reactive	Interactive	Proactive
Avoid
Redirect			xxxxxxx
Stop

Hopefully, the above table should depict it in a bit more concise and "graphic" manner. So, according to the basic idea, you take a technique and see how it operates in any of the circumstances that could be described as one of the field in the matrix. You have probably noted that the redirect/proactive field is marked, and the reason is that in my view the nature of the delineated options leaves this one empty...or at least I have not encountered a move that would fit in it. If you do, please let me know. 

Besides serving as a general model of classifying the tactical options for the purpose of teaching, it also comes in handy for the analysis of one's (either an athlete that prepares for a fight or his/her opponent) affinities in sportive matches, and modeling the training to follow accordingly. 

In any case, this is still the work in the process of constant testing and modification, but the outlined shape has shown some promising results so far.

Seminar frenzy

The first half of June was my vacation time, and man, was it rock ‘n ‘roll! So much training and so many seminars in only two weeks give the true meaning to the phrase “active vacation”. Let’s go in a chronological manner…

Lameco Astig Combatives in Holland

On June 1 I flew to Amsterdam for a seminar with guro Roger Agbulos, with whom you should be familiar by now. The seminar was set for Saturday, but I met with guro Roger and his wife Rosie, as well as a new friend Jojo Balinado, the day before. After having the dinner together, we all moved to kuya Roger’s hotel room to talk martial arts, and even have a training session.

Bothering guro Roger with questions :-)

On Saturday we headed off for the seminar, held in Leiderdorp and hosted by William Paardekooper in his Kapap Center. With participants from Germany and Holland, along with yours truly, everything was ready to go.

Guro Roger opened up with his take on empty-handed defense against knife, with special emphasis on sound physics of the techniques shown and on the functionality over aesthetics. The control of the opponent’s knife hand and ways to deal with it was a novelty to me, and it made so much sense that included it immediately in my own training, including the modifications to the methods I had been already practicing and found reliable.

Holdup!

Next, we moved to knife vs. knife work. Again, adamant about functional skills, drills and their applications. Guro Roger covered both forward and reverse/ice-pick grips, and without going into too much details (hard to convey in writing anyway), I will just say that his mode of working the hubud drills has reinstalled my belief in that sort of training, and made me go back to doing it regularly.

Finally, the focus was shifted to working with the stick and its essential qualities – power mechanics, non-telegraphing hitting, distance control and merging the defense with offense. This segment of work, just like the knife, was complemented with sparring sessions, in order to appreciate the functionality of the material demonstrated. Being on the receiving end of guro Roger’s attacks leaves one with mixed feelings – being overwhelmed and inspired at the same time.

Besides being an awesome instructor, guro Roger also has incredibly pleasant personality and a great sense of humor, so I am most definitely looking forward to the next opportunity to train in Lameco Astig methods with the founder himself.

Physical preparation for fighters in Belgrade, Serbia

Among the people who are seriously involved with functional fitness and training for fighting, the name of Steven Maxwell is a household name. On June 7, I had the opportunity to partake in his seminar in Serbia.

The event was somewhat of the surprise and organized as a last-minute kind of thing, but still great. Mr. Maxwell covered a lot of ground and touched upon many topics, ranging from joint mobility, through proper mechanics and variations on common bodyweight exercises, to fight preparation, overtraining and some kettlebell training guidelines.

Working it out

Maybe not everybody got everything they hoped for during this seminar, but if you are something of a training nerd that I am, and did you homework previously, it was a splendid chance to have some dilemmas solved and find a lot of pieces falling into place, regarding the bigger picture.

Being the interpreter for this seminar, I was very glad to interact with the man and enjoy his warm and approachable personality and tireless dedication to teaching. This only reinforced my eagerness to further communicate with Mr. Maxwell for a few more days, as he joined us at our annual training camp that followed (and is briefly reported on next). For me, it meant learning more – proper lifting technique, ways to break through plateaus – and experiencing his world-class BJJ…as well as being privileged to be called “man among men” by such a formidable guy, even if jokingly :-)

The man (on the left) and the wannabe (on the right)

During those few days, I was further impressed with Steve’s openness and willingness to share, both teaching and learning. A man of 60 years of age, in the physical conditions that puts most 20-year olds to shame, with half a century of training experience and yet, so eager to learn more and new things – even if you learn nothing (highly unlikely), you will be inspired and highly motivated to engage in vigorous physical training.

In conclusion, if you ever have the opportunity to take part in a seminar conducted by Steven Maxwell, do yourself a favor and do it.

Training above the clouds, Mt. Kopaonik, Serbia

This was my 10^th time attending this event, and while each and every one was great, this one was special for several reasons. Certainly one of that stood out was the presence and instructional contribution of the guest instructor from Russia, Dmitriy Khakimov. Not too fond of formalities and ego-boosting titles, he insisted on being called Dima, and he came to fill in for his own teacher Andrey Gruntovski, who unfortunately had to undergo a surgery so was unable to come himself.

However, the master certainly knew whom he was sending, as Dima was the absolute hit of this year’s training camp! The school/style he represents is known as Skobar, and it is hard to imagine a better presentation than the one we witnessed for two days. It was very easy to see the direct and true lineage to traditional Russian folk approach to fighting. There many schools of RMA today, claiming lineage that dates back hundreds of years, but with suspiciously modern way of moving and methods of training.

Not so with Skobar. Those in the attendance were able to see and try for themselves the warmups and preparatory moves from folk dances, whipping strikes, pendulum-like body movement, unique footwork designed to work on ice, waved mode of power generation etc. Dima is a phenomenal instructor with excellent sense of measure – he was able to sensibly monitor the mood of the class and switch skillfully from one mode of work to another, thus keeping the trainees motivated, alert and attentive. The material to be taught was chosen adequately, demonstrated and analyzed with care and good pointers, while highlighting the bigger picture and historical context it fits into. 

Dima - small in stature, but a great guy

Like all the other instructors mentioned, Khakimov is an absolute charmer. Always ready to help, join or start the fun, be it singing, dancing, extracurricular stick sparring or having a drink…too bad he was only able to stay for two days. Still, the impression he made was so strong that everybody was left wanting more. That said – stay tuned, we may just as well provide ;-)

Alex Kostic has been the host and the guiding force of this event for years, providing innovative training, brilliant insights and highly motivational environment to train in. This time, it was no different. His take on the mechanics of kicking efficiency and punching effectiveness is ever evolving and improving, so the students always get away with a lot to work and ponder upon after the class. The teaching methodology of Homo Ludens has once again proved successful by seeing almost immediate results even with the people who came to train with close to zero previous training experience.

Alex, the ever evolving martial artist

One of the guys who for sure represent the future of functional martial arts in Serbia, and with bright future before himself, is Stefan Bozic. As talented as they come, hard working and meticulous in his training, Stefan is a true MMA prodigy both as a fighter and instructor. We had the pleasure of learning his approach to the fundamentals of ground grappling, with strong accent on proper body mechanics of moving on the ground, positional control and escapes. Training in the great outdoors can be at the same time humbling and rewarding experience, and it was the case with this session. For the last 15 minutes or so, yours truly provides some insights on the applications of the covered material when having to deal with potentially knife wielding opponent in a ground grappling situation, or being the one trying to deploy the knife when being caught in an inferior position. At the end, everybody was tired but satisfied for testing and feeling on their own the strength of the instruction they had received.

True ground fighting with Stefan

On the last day of the camp, I had the privilege of being asked by Alex to share some of my insights and teach the progression of empty handed defenses against an attacker armed with a knife. Everything I showed was basically a distillation, and sometimes direct application of the things I had learned from my teachers, so there is really no big deal about it. Possibly my “biggest” contribution is the ability to explain the techniques and methods in various ways (most probably the dividends of working as a school teacher for a few years), hence presenting the material to suit the individual learning modes of different trainees. After all, my approach is such that the participants are offered certain guidelines, following basic principles, and then made to play with and discover on their own the strengths and weaknesses of various technical and tactical possibilities. It allows for the dynamic training and quick assessment of the subject matter that was tackled.

In conclusion, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who made this experience possible and as great as it was, including Milan Jerinic for being a great friend and roommate – but special appreciation, beyond words, goes to my beloved wife Mira, without whose understanding and willingness to keep up with my maddening obsession training my life simply would not be even close to being good as it is. 

Are you experienced?

There has been something going around in my head over the past couple of weeks…and it sort of became “materialized” last weekend. A friend of mine Milan Jerinic and I conducted a seminar on some of the fighting principles and methodologies of the Homo Ludens system of martial arts. Like always, the emphasis of out approach is having the attendants experience the material taught and develop as much as possible, and as early as possible, the corporal understanding of the principles and material presented.

While I would say we had some success in attaining this goal, there was one thing that crept up during the work. Experiencing…well, along with all the good things that come with it, there seem to be some downsides too. In short, while it is good to be able and say that one can claim from the personal experience that something does work in real time, there appears to be an inclination of experienced solutions to a problem to become somewhat “dogmatic”. In other words, once a person manages to apply a technique or a movement in real time and under pressure, they tend to start thinking of it as the only solution to that type of problem/task at hand.

Specifically, during the seminar segment that I dedicated to learning about weapons use (particularly in the symmetrical manner), the earlier presented and adopted methods kept showing up even during the drills that were explicitly instructed to use other methods. In the future I will try adding more asymmetrical situations in between the symmetrical ones, in hope of keeping it up bit more “chaotic”, thus requiring departure from singular interpretations.

However, this whole experience (hmmm) led me to thinking about something else – how many methods, drills, techniques etc. have been dropped from training (especially in the so-called RBSD camps) simply because the instructor(s) never came to trying them, owing to the fact that they had tried, and were successful, with something else?

Of course, the reality-based cluster is not the only one succumbing to this occurrence. We have all witnessed techniques that had been discarded as “useless” re-occur in MMA occasionally and with stunning effect. 

Winners!

Some of them have since become widely accepted (eg. high roundhouse kick), while other ones not really (eg. spinning backfist or that Machida-jumping front kick). Could those actually become “normal” or high-percentage if practiced with more dedication and open-mindedness?

Losers?

Even in the systems that declaratively do not have pre-defined techniques (most notably Systema), you will see people reverting back to some favorite answers to the tasks that bear some resemblance. I know, they will say it is due to universal principles that apply “across the board”, but that does not change the fact that they use the same expression of the given principle over and over again.

The question then is when to reach beyond and try new things? How much training in something is enough to try it in a dynamic environment and conclude with some degree of certainty that it is functional or not?

Of course, there will always be the inevitable interference of fluke and lucky shots…but how to recognize and tell it apart from the reliable high-percentage options?

This gets me to the clever words of my friend Noah Gross, referring to how they do things in A.C.T. (Armed Combat and Tactics. If you are unfamiliar with these guys, you would be well-advised to check out their work – a superb group of people that are both brilliant fighters and genuine gentlemen). In Noah’s words: “The most important thing is to keep looking for ways of using old knowledge in a dynamic training environment. You spar and survive – you get experience. You learn a technique – you try to implement it. You didn’t – you go back to the drawing board and look for the why's and the if's and the how's…Bottom up + top down. Knowledge meets experience…”

Noah Gross and Alexander Zhelezniak of A.C.T.

Time to go back to the drawing board I guess…