Coaches Corner

Too often I get the question of what's the trick to beating this or that. And well, my stock answer is this, there is one simple trick to beating anyone in fighting, and that is to work hard. I know this is a mind blowing concept in our fast paced instant gratification addicted society, but its the god's honest truth. If you arent willing to work hard, then you wont be able to become a superior fighter, enough said. It is only through hard work that you are able to build the one thing that all superior fighters have, and that is skill. Without skill, you can learn a million and one tricks, but never be able to win a fight. With skill, you only need one technique and you can be dominant.

Now what often happens in less than quality schools (ahem aka mcdojos), is that often teachers try to trick students into believing that hard work isnt necessary by giving them tasks/drills/techniques that while they take a little effort, are eventually easy to learn. For example many schools are fond of emphasizing drilling, and they equate memorization to skill building. Soon students start memorizing drills XYZ, or techniques 456, and perhaps they may even be able to perform these martial dances quickly. Well, hate to say it, if you can get the same benefit from the instruction at that school, as buying their DVD, then you are probably not building skill, and its skill that makes you a superior fighter.

Being able to parrot back movement you see, perhaps a quirky anecdote as to its purpose, and memorize a hundred one drills does not a fighter make. Now a passable dancer, perhaps. But martial dancing is not fighting ability. Instead fighting ability is created when you can think outside the pattern, when you can identify and deal with the un-known, and well this ability does not come from having 101 drills or techniques, but through building strong fundamentals in your ability to identify and deal with such intangibles as range, timing, accuracy, etc... Proper training allows you to work on these aspects, as well as hone your tools in order to take advantage of your work. Proper training gives you strategies by which you can create advantages in range, timing, accuracy while decreasing your opponents ability to cope with these factors. And I hate to say it, proper training is repetitive, difficult, and well often its benefit is shown in fighting ability and not the amount of tricks/drills/techniques you can say you have in your bag.

Its that good old addage, if its too good to be true, then its not. Well if in your training it is too easy to become "good", then you probably arent.

When you are in the gym/dojo/training hall/basement/garage/backyard/etc.... and you are training a combat art, who do you envision yourself fighting? Is it a predictable person, someone whose every move you can forsee? Is it a weak person, someone you know you can physically dominate? Is it a slow person, someone who even at their best, you can run around three times, and hit at will? Do you train to fight small children, or elderly persons? Do you train to fight unskilled people, those without experience? In other words, are you training for the easy fight?

I should hope that your answer to all these questions, at least if you wish to call yourself an eskrimador, arnisador, or kalista, is a resounding NO. As a practioner of the Philippine Combat Arts, we acknowledge that our foe is inherently unpredictable, we do not assume an advantage. If anything, we assume that we may be in a disadvantage, and our training seeks to overcome the odds. We do not presume that our fights are easy pickings, against untrained or unskilled fighters.

Because of this mentality, our training reflects our perceived future foe. Our training assumes is fit, is trained, is experienced. Because of this we train with the sentiment that no matter how tough the other guy is, I must make myself tougher. We seek to take away his advantages. Because of this, we seek other escrima players, to test our skills, and hone our abilities. We seek the challenge and do not sit on the maybes. We are a show me art, that believes not in rhetoric about unverifiable fantasy fights, but cold hard experience in any and every venue it can be found.

So I tell you this, if you only seek to be better than the average guy, then our art is not for you. If you only seek to get on by, our art is not for you. But if you seek to beat the best, to fear no one, and consider what makes the "average" guy cringe with fear, a walk in the park, then give us a try.

Sparring is one of the most important aspects of training in the Philippine Combat Arts of eskrima, kali, or arnis. You do not learn to fight just by watching movies, reading books, practicing forms, hitting the air, or memorizing scenarios. You learn to fight, by fighting. Would you trust your brand new car to your teenage child, without your supervision, if they had only taken the written portion of their driver's test, and had never even driven one mile?

Traditional Escrima training, consisted of the student playing with their instructor, someone who was already an experienced eskrimador. In other words, the student would try and defend himself against his instructor's attack, and if he had progressed enough in his arnis training, maybe attack as well. Or more succinctly, they would spar.

Now just like you would not expect your teenage child to be fine to handle nascar with just a short read of a car manual, sparring at the Philippine Combat Arts Club is not just a man test, where we throw a novice to the wolves. Instead, our coaches emphasize a progressive sparring program, that builds students up in the skill and ability in fighting, so that when they do finally engage in more intense sparring, they will be more than prepared to hold their own.

Sparring also helps instruct a student in the true and traditional practice of the Philippine Combat Arts. Traditionally an eskrimador did not teach by asking his students to blindly parrot movements and memorize patterns, but instead he would teach a student the strategy of fighting. Learning your basics, is like giving you hammer and nails, but sparring is where you learn to use your hammer and nails to build a house.

We emphasize many different aspects of sparring in our club, to help student progress to ever increasing skill ability. From light contact, heavily ruled sparring, to heavy contact no rule sparring. We tailor the sparring experience to the students. From padded stick sparring, hitting with 100% power with armor, to light contact hard stick sparring with no armor, to heavy contact hard stick sparring with minimal armor. Each scenario gives students a different aspect of fighting, and allows a more experienced eskrimador to share with them the benefits of their experience in arnis.

Everyone comes to the Philippine Combat Arts, particularly here in the United States, for various reasons. Some, are looking for an excuse to get outside the house, meet new people, and maybe get a little exercise. Others, are looking to be the baddest mamajama since Jason Bourne. And still others are just looking for a traditional expression of the Philippine Combat Arts.

Well, for whatever reason you decide to try out a training session, only one thing will keep you coming back and help you improve at these arts, and that is love of the art. Now, love the art, doesnt mean you have to sell your instructor your first born child, wash his car using only circular wiping motions, worship a picture of some old asian dude you've never met while meditating on the secrets of the universe. No, love of the art means you love the practice of the art, whether it be at the cheer of some paid instructor, in the privacy of your own home, or to the dismay of every other person at the bus stop.

If you talk to alot of elders in the Philipines, they will often refer to the practice of arnis or escrima, not as fighting, training, but play. They will say they play eskrima, or they play arnis, or they play kali. If they wish to spar with you, they may ask you to play. This method of reference shows something other than the difficulty of learning a foreign language, instead it shows the true joy of the practice of the art.

It is not work to practice, it is not something you need to be forced to do, have hammered into you, or do at the last minute. Instead to love the practice of eskrima, kali, or arnis is joy, something that if only you didnt have that pesky day job, that need to have food every now and then, that you would just constantly do.

So if you ever stop by a session, and wonder why we dont yell at our members. Why we dont bark like a drill sargent, make them do more calistenics than a new recruit in basic training, make people chase carrots (e.g. ranks), its because what we seek to promote, arent phony tough guys, people seeking to have yet another rank to throw in their cacaphony of various martial arts belts, or technique hunters, instead we seek to show people the love of this eclectic art that is the Philippine Combat Arts.

What is training in an authentic Philippine Combat Art like? It is most simple, and yet most complicated. In other words tradional training isnt a game of memorization. There are no 1001 "basic techniques". There is not 50 odd drills. There is no memorizing the arts lineage, worshipping some shrine to a teacher, etc... Instead, there a simple basic that is practiced with power, and there is the exploration of applying this basic in a dynamic environment (aka. sparring).

When you learn a tradional Philippine Combat Art, the bulk of your learning is not learning "techniques" or drills, instead it is learning the strategy and timing, of how to get your simple basics to work. In other words to learn the essence of the art of arnis or escrima, is not to learn some random basic movement, or a simple drill, it is directly imparted into the practioner by someone more experienced in the art, in the sparring ring. It is an experienced escrimador sharing of their actual combat experience to a novice, in the same way in which they learned it in the first place, fighting.

To truly experience a Philippine Combat Art, is to play with an Eskrimador, or in other words to spar. Learning "techniques" or "drills" shows you nothing but the mere surface of the art, but in the ring the core of that style is shown. If you're just interested in learning "techniques" or "drills" buy a DVD, or better yet take up ballroom dance, because in the end, merely being able to mimic "techniques" without the context of real strategy and timing that is only born in the ring, is simply dancing with a tough face.

There are many guys who do this, and they do not follow real tradional Filipino warrior arts. Instead, they seek to impress girls, and fear even fighting small children. True Filipino Combat Arts, are plain to the layperson's eye, but give you the real confidence to fear no one. You do not theorize about your skill in arnis, or eskrima, and talk about what if scenarios of that magical day your skills are tested, instead true eskrima tests your skills every day in training, and gives you concrete answers of whether or not you will survive in combat. No excuses, no questions, no compromises, Mabuhay ang Madirigma (long live the warrior).

In any area free of constant real life strife and risk, what dominates our view of true combat? Fictional depictions. Those images and sequences caught on film or in books. Of these, martial arts movies often depict the young protanganist, meeting the wisen sage, with his long flowy beard, and being taught the secret of martial arts. With these secrets, and the obligatory 5 min training montage in which said hero hits the air alot, gets beat up by said sage once or twice, and then maybe hits some hardcore training device such as a wooden posts, the young hero is now prepared to defeat those villians who with years of real combat experience, somehow didnt learn the one or two mathmatical equation or secret counter that enables our young protaganist to leave victorious.

Well, this kind of view of fighting makes for entertaining movies, particularly for younger folk who have never dealt with challenges, but in the real world in regards to real life fighting, this is what we can refer to as the martial arts lie. Now what is the martial arts lie in more real terms? It is the lie, that with some magical secret or perfect technique, you can skip hard work, actual painful experience (e.g. fighting), and overcome those who have not skipped these steps. It is the lie that tells you, dont fight, your technique is too deadly for sparring. It is the lie that tells you, that you are so effecient, that while in a sports arena you wouldnt last 2 seconds, magically the minute the gloves come off, in the hardcore forge of the street, your hours spent eating donuts will be more effect than the sports fighters hours running. It is the lie that tells you that when you get hit in sparring, its not because you lack experience, because you lack practice, because you lack dedication, but because there is either a mystical 56 counter that would answer all your questions. It is the lie that tells you that because you can mimic a basic movement in the air, and maybe parrot back a reason for doing it, or even better a strategy for using this movement, this is enough.

Well hate to say it, but well it wouldnt be a lie if it were true. There are no secrets in fighting. In the end, he who works harder, who has prepared better, who has more experience monitoring, and baiting will win. This isnt overcome by learning some magical secret technique. Effeciency doesnt make up for time in the ring. Instead, it is laborous, repitive, painful work. It is honing yourself into a human wrecking ball, not just in mind and spirit, but in the flesh. It is by being defeated 1,000 times in the ring. It is by fighting, it is by working, it is by dedication.

For all the flak sports competition gets in martial arts circles, it does give you basic truths in real time. There are no mystical maybes. No ifs ands or buts. There is simply a winner and a loser. In real life or death situations, there is only life or death. True Philippine Combat Arts realize this. They realize that when your life is on the line, you cant wait for maybes, or that mystical 33rd counter or form. Instead, we realize one learns to fight by fighting. We realize one gains strength and speed through hard work. We realize that training montages and secrets are fun for movies, but in real life, it is all about the hard labourous work, developing our tools for use, testing our strategies, and practice practice practice.

For the Filipino Combat Arts, a good tire dummy is the equivalent of a heavy bag to a boxer. It serves to help build many attributes, one of which is consistent striking power. There is a famous Bruce Lee saying that goes, "practicing striking by hitting the air is like practicing swimming on dry land". While there will always be those people who naturally hit hard, for the rest of us mortals, we need consistent practice actually hitting something, to build this attribute.

Furthermore, depending on how you work your tire, not only is it a tool to help develop power, but since proper technique is usually the most effecient movement, and power doesnt come from ineffeciency, striking a tire is an excellent tool to help correcting form. Adding footwork will also help correct, balance, as well as generally movement. Also, once one begins to string strikes together, one learns how to properly set up and execute a striking combination.

In essence, if you havent thrown it against the tire, you are less likely to throw it in the ring. This means, power, combinations, footwork, etc... Not to mention, the tire doesnt hit back, unlike a sparring partner, which allows you to work these fundamental movements in a less stressful environment. Furthermore, unlike a sparring partner, the tire doesnt become injured when you hit it full force 1,000 times in a row.

Boxers punch bags, kickboxers also hit bags, soldiers shoot targets, as practioners of the Philippine Combat Arts we hit tires. We guarantee that our strike will land, and will land devastatingly.

Recently we came in from our usual run before a session and a student of another class asked us if we just went on a run, we said "yes" and they jokingly asked us if we would be now too tired to workout in our session. Not that this is not a valid question and if we had taken the run to the limit maybe another hour plus workout would be daunting but not certainly not impossible. The reason I mention this is that I feel that a great part of learning skills is to be able to execute them to their highest degree. Fitness should have the same focus as your techniques, forms, striking or whatever you are working on. Conditioning is generally what wins a fight all else being equal. Kicks and punches can be executed well once or twice but how about over and over for round after round?

Anyway, as I run down the road to having at least some conditioning that is decent I always wonder what others are thinking in martial arts that don't associate their rankings with fight records or tournament wins. Blade fighting in particular is a tough one to "rank" because there are few tournaments and real fighting with live blades is impractical so you must improvise. Still, beyond the flashy techniques how long do you last in a sparring match without losing your wind?

Some martial arts will say they dont compete, because their art is too deadly for competition. Or that their art was proven in the battlefield, and sports competitions mean nothing.

Well show me a martial artist who says this, and I will say 90% chance that this is a guy who couldnt fight his way out of a wet paper bag.

Deadliness, and battlefields are all fine and dandy. Howeverm a few problems with these excuses exist. First, the guy who proved it in the battlefield isnt you. Living through other people's glory, is like saying, cuz the guy who's style I emulate is popular with girls, I dont need to find me a girlfriend. Really? Since when is some other guy, you? In many educational fields, the study is valid because some guy proved it, but let say lets switch it up, and your field is medicine instead of martial arts. Would you trust a doctor who said, well some other doctor did this surgery, and the patient lived, just because I never did it doesnt mean I cant?

Second problem, is that any guy who says his art is to deadly for competition because competition doesnt allow him to do X, again is a guy who likes donuts more than fighting. Real life combat, when your life is on the line, is stressful. If you cant handle the stress of a competition, where there are rules, people who can save you if things get out of hand, then how are you gonna last when these things are gone. Again, would you trust a Doctor, who didnt do his lab work in school, because his medical skills are only for saving real lives, and not for disecting dead animals?

Simply said, you dont learn to fight, if you never fight. If real life or death isnt available (which hopefully for most of us it aint), then we do our best to come close. And well, in most peaceful lives, this is competition. Modern armies play war games, why shouldnt martial artists, try and simulate their real fight?

However, competition has even more value. It provides motivation and validation. In our club, we dont have ranks. If you are looking for validation, go to a competition, and beat someone. In training, we always hit plateaus. Points in our training, where we wonder what the next goal should be, is this the best it gets? Where do I go from here? Competition, gives us a goal, it lets us know where our holes are that our training mates didnt notice. Competition is how you know what you worked on, really works, and not that your sparring mate just subconsciously got used to you.

Anyways, I dont care if your teacher eats steel and pisses lightning bolts, can you? If you are gonna say your style is the best, prove it. Otherwise, I got me a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, that your teacher told me is absolutely necessary to make you level up to ultimate ninja.

Ever since we started the club we have spent a majority of our warm ups striking the tire. We have been training consistent power, form and movement and the progress has been very noticeable. It's been cool watching members come in with little to no MA experience leave a dull thump in the air when the strike then fast forward a couple weeks or a month and hear a nice echo or the occasional boom from the tire. We now have a tire swing which gives the club a new focus on movement while trying to maintain power in the strike. We have also added another heavy bag to work empty hand power and form.