ESCRIMA CONCEPTS SPECIAL TRAINING, AMSTERDAM 14.-16.11. 2008

SCRIMA CONCEPTS WEEKEND, 14. - 16. November 2008 AMSTERDAM

Master Steve Tappin and his son Wayne came over one day earlier as usual.
This was due to Peter and I asking them if it would be possible to get an extra trainings day.
Thanks for taking the time and making it possible!

On Friday we started off with some single stick figure eight drills. We followed up with double sticks, stick
and knife, knife and empty hand / unarmed techniques for distance, power and movement.
The drills were very useful as they teach the body how to gain power while hitting and recognize dangers
and how to avoid them. Strategy was also very important as you can't just go ahead defending attacks
without thinking, or even attacking without plan. It will bring you in big trouble and untrain you.
Another big aspect was targeting. Can you really hit the target with power behind it (when it moves and
while you move) or will it be just another powerless hit. Can you change your footwork and can you bring
locks on? What we needed to do is to ensure that the body was in the right position so that we could do
our things (hitting, controlling and positioning the body).
This would be more than enough as we would find out very soon.

On Saturday we continued with the things we have done on Friday.
Master Steve explained us how to use weapon concepts and bring them or better how to apply them into
unarmed.
He couldn't stress enough how important it is to control your body with movement, which gives you more
time, space and control to do it to your opponent.
Single and double stick concepts can be used also for the unarmed.
Figure eight combined with splitting the energy allows you to manipulate the limbs of your opponent and
position his body for the follow up techniques.
Another important thing brought to us was how to break the flow or the power. It was very important to
understand how we can interrupt somebodies flow by just changing the position of the body in the right
direction. Elbow discipline combined with figure eight and other concepts would be used all the time.
With the exercise of stabbing from different angles we would learn how to move and being aware of the
other weapon. This would bring us into position for follow up attacks or control techniques.

Sunday was all about gaining the power out of the body movement.
Each step combined with tipping down the power, body weight pivoting and timing would shock the
opponents body and open him up for attacks.
Again Master Steve educated our body with drills. Single and double stick drills as well as the unarmed.
This all also combined with the figure eight and splitting the power concepts.
After learning and using that power with weapons we put them away. It is amazing how easily the same
concepts can be used in the unarmed and how easily the limbs can be shocked and controlled.

It is not easy to describe the complete seminar on what we did. We did way more then described above.
Those are only the things that my brain and body could remember. The rest was luckily recorded and it
will be used before every training. This gives us the opportunity to repeat all the exercises and educate
our bodies for the right movements and change the way of the common thinking.
This Escrima brings the fighting arts to whole new level.
I know it is hard for the brain to except this facts but in the end all is in our own advantage!

We will train hard until the next seminar. Promised!
Talk to you soon,
Ivo