hello TFS/4R/et al,
did not have a chance to check in today until now. working out of a different location just for today only. i hear your 4R, as TFS posted, will archive this thread after a few more replies. definite archive material!
TFS,
i read this last night on the way home. first and foremost, sorry to hear about your mom. she is in my prayers!
so your instructor is teaching systema almost exclusively? i have a friend in the UK who recently started learning systema from VV and sort of chucked the rest of the MA he has learned. he loves it.
"even though I have archiving power, I feel that any archiving on this Forum should be done by Stickgrappler"
thank you, and likewise, i feel and do the same in the other forums. i have the admin powers but will only use them for the boxing and weapons forums.
TFS-
I must say that this thread represents, to me, what's great (and can be great...) about these forums. I would generaly consider myself a minor luddite, but this information is too good to pass up...... As to what I study,for the first ten years I studied mainly Japanese arts, particularly those of a more classical nature. That avenue moved away and I was left kind of searching for a while. For the past ten years I have been studying mainly Filipino and Indonesian martial arts - in particular; Serrada Escrima, Larga Mano Escrima, Pekiti Tirsia, and Kuntao Silat deThouars.
I would say that in the Filipino arts I'm really really good at getting hit upside my head with a stick. And my ability to take a multi-culural beat down in the Indonesian arts is coming along nicely......
Again, thank you for your input and I look forward to learning more from you.
-wt
Stickgrappler,i read this last night on the way home. first and foremost, sorry to hear about your mom. she is in my prayers!Thank you, my friend. Your prayers and thoughts are most appreciated.so your instructor is teaching systema almost exclusively?Nah, I wouldn't say "almost exclusively", for BJJ, FMA, boxing, kickboxing, and Wing Chun trapping are still taught there--the only art that has been replaced by the systema is the aikido. Vladimir has most definitely made waves at Alex's school, though. I actually have not yet been to a single systema class, although I hope to check it out when I go back to Alex's school. In addition to the regular classes, Vladimir comes down to teach seminars at our school fairly regularly, and they are easily amongst the most popular seminars held at Alex's at this point.pelajar,I must say that this thread represents, to me, what's great (and can be great...) about these forums.I agree--this is the kind of thread that shows how good such a Forum can be, and we would not have had it without you, sir! I would generaly consider myself a minor luddite, but this information is too good to pass up......I, too, am generally resistant to technology (the computer I'm using right now was a 2000 Christmas gift from my sister, and yet it literally sat unconnected in it's box for literally months--Ye Lunatic shook me out of my technology-resistant state of mind and sent me on my current path--thanks, YL!). For the past ten years I have been studying mainly Filipino and Indonesian martial arts - in particular; Serrada Escrima, Larga Mano Escrima, Pekiti Tirsia, and Kuntao Silat deThouars.Sounds pretty comprehensive! Interesting that Serrada and Larga Mano came up in this thread before (and Pekiti Tirsia, for that matter...) I would say that in the Filipino arts I'm really really good at getting hit upside my head with a stick. And my ability to take a multi-culural beat down in the Indonesian arts is coming along nicely......LMAO! That's how I feel about what little BJJ training I have--my ability to get triangled is second to none!In all seriousness, though, when I first started with the FMA at Alex's, the biggest thing I had to adjust to was using footwork that was not completely linear. Coming from a pure sports fencing background, I was naturally used to purely linear footwork--up and down the fencing strip. The closest that sports fencing comes to using traverses or sidesteps is the inquartata, and you don't even see that a whole lot these days. Anyway, once I was shown the basics of sidestepping, etc., it opened up a whole new world for me--not only did it allow me to properly do FMA, it also gave me a base with which to work with in reconstructing old Western styles of swordplay, which naturally used traverses and attacks and defenses "on the pass" with regularity. Conversely, I found that my overall fencing training, particularly my knowledge of the basics of saber (which isn't even my main weapon--I'm predominantly a foil guy), came in handy with both the armored stick sparring and the knife sparring. Knife sparring in particular, to me seems a lot like a fencing bout without parries. Every "defensive" action is in fact counteroffensive--stop-cuts--and since there is plenty of stop-cutting in saber, it didn't take much to adjust to that.Again, thank you for your input and I look forward to learning more from you.And again, thank you for the compliments. But remember, like I said about the Spanish/Filipino MA relationship, it's all a "two-way street"--I am learning from you and everyone else as well. Kindest Regards,TFS
BTW guys, check out Steven Lefebvre's thread on the Spanish Conquest of the Phillipines on the History Forum--he has posted excerpts from an actual period Spanish account that is very cool, and it looks like that thread will become progressively more interesting...