photography courtesy of Gopal Dhillon.
March 2018 workshop
Saturday March 10th, and despite a last minute change of venue due to the recent snow, we had a fantastic day with our best turnout ever.
Having been so impressed with the Rapid Arnis workshop I’d attended (see previous post) I was really keen to structure a workshop day just like they had. So I have to give credit to the likes of Pat, Jon and Andy for the idea of having a series of workshops during the day led by different senior students. This gave the day intensity and pace. The quality of the instruction, as well as the amount of training attendees did, were both also improved by this timed scenario. I’m also really grateful to Lennart who came from a great distance to experience our attempt at what he was used to as an RA practitioner.
In this post I’d like to give you a glimpse and summary of each workshop.
SESSION 1: 30 mins martial yoga - Sanjam Kiriya Varyam led by me:
In this session I wanted to start the day with a taster of the exercise regime which is found alongside SV. I’ve called it a martial yoga - this isn’t a strict translation of the term Sanjam Kiriya. Though I think martial yoga is helpful in that what we do have the classical postures found in general Yoga. The key difference is that we are more dynamic in using them and obviously the aims and objectives are geared more to martial arts. The key objective is to produce a firm symmetrical body type which is an ideal balance of power and agility. I teach a weekly class of this martial yoga on Monday nights in Handsworth, Birmingham.
SESSION 2: Correct distance and misalignment by Asante Hunter:
Having trained with Asante for close to a decade this was the first chance I got to see him teach. Asante should be credited mostly for how well he has taken what we’ve been taught in SV by Gurudev and distilled it into formal documented form. With his engineering background, and prior martial arts experience, he has thought deeply about the mechanics of SV and thus in this session was able to expound a clear and precise message for all to take away. His session was essentially a series of well thought out exercises which culminated with an understanding of how to strike (with a stick in this case) from a position where you are out of reach of your opponent whilst in range of striking them. A nifty trick to say the least! It got some confused looks to begin with but the proof was in the doing which then led to the classic nod of approval.
SESSION 3: Joint locks and correct structure by Mugermach Singh (Mugz):
Again, though having known Mugz even longer than Asante, this was the first time I really got to see him teach too. Mugz really is the go to guy when it comes to structure and intricacy. Having studied and trained in SV longer than I, he has a vast knowledge of this art.
In this session he focused on the skills found in the 2nd of the classical SV forms called Shesh Naga - the thousand headed snake. In combat terms he showed us the structural alignments required to perform efficient joint locks. This skill set, and moreover this combat form, is one that many students of SV find quite difficult and abstract. I think many martial artist would agree that applying your knowledge of joint locks in real combat is very difficult. It’s definitely one of the instances where the ideal training and the real combat applications can be too varied.
So for these reasons it was all the more impressive and useful to us all that Mugz was able to give us the insights into understanding how we can bridge this gap.
SESSION 4: Parrying and suppressing by me.
So it was down to me to finish the day on a positive note. Luckily for me the pressure was off as the day had gone so well and many had commented that they were already happy it had been worthwhile.
My session focused on the the idea of parrying and/or suppressing an oncoming attack. But the aim was also to give a glimpse into the first three combat forms - which also represent three distinct combat scenarios/strategies/body structures, just through the lens of this skill set.
Firstly building on some simple evasive footwork Mugz had covered we swiftly moved onto the first form of the wild boar, Varhar. The idea here was evade and smash through any guard or strike with a narrow thrusting movement.
Second was the snake as taught by Mugz. Here the idea was to parry but then suppress by wrapping/trapping a limb.
Lastly I showed two applications of the multifaceted bird style Garuda. Here the key ideas lay in the body structure in order to get the body's vital points out of the way. This form also allowed for the most powerful of parrying/suppressing motions covered.
All in all I honestly couldn’t have imagined a more successful day. We will definitely be doing more!
Many thanks to Jvala Singh from manglacharan.com - check out his superb YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Vpu0_N16vF1trGS73KSdA
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