Haven't Been Blogging...

...for months now. I just didn't feel like it. Its been a rough year. I had bouts of pneumonia and pleurisy, and shingles. Perenially tired. Financial worries. PTSD issues that I'd managed to dodge for quite some time caught up to me. Things are looking a bit better now, and I'm feeling happier and a lot more optimistic than I have in a long time.

We'll be moving down into the Portland Metro area at the end of the month. That'll take a big chunk of time off my daily commute, plus save on wear-and-tear on the car and fuel. We expect to cut our rent by several hundred dollars a month, which will translate into paid-off bills and money in savings. We'll also have much easier access to services for our son, friends, shopping, and entertainment.

On the martial front, I haven't been very active. My stamina was shot after the illnesses and its been slow to return. I have been doing a lot of looking and reading and thinking, in regards to the martial arts. I've been in contact with a number of people in the silat community, both here in the States and overseas, especially in Malaysia. I'm looking forward to completing this move. I'm starting to practice again on my own, working to get in shape. Cimande and harimau silat, primarily. Some baji quan foundational exercises, and some kunlun quan. When we get settled in down south, though, I am going to start up a study group and see if I can get a group of people together to train and learn from one another, work with some of the distance training that's out there. I'm also going to be trying out the Kunlun Awakening process with some of Max's people in Portland. I think it will be a good thing.

I have a number of articles I'll be writing and posting on here in weeks to come. There will also be information forthcoming on the Portland Study Group once the move is behind me.

Burmese Fighting Arts

We're living in an exciting time for martial arts researchers. The internet and electronic media formats have opened up the whole world to us. Here is a neat video clip of demonstrations of Bando. It contains various styles, from the traditional to the more modern and showy. It's worth watching all the way through, since the really interesting (in my opinion) is nearer the end.

The Indoor Yang Family System on the Internet

This is a little off-topic, but:

I have just started another blog in which I will lay out the forms and other material in the Indoor Yang Family System:

http://indooryang.blogspot.com/

I have so far put up the first section of the Little Nine Heavens form. I should be able to put up one or two movements each day.

I will still be publishing the books. This will give you the opportunity to work with the material before the books come out, and it will help me to sort out any errors, missing information and to find which areas need clarification.

So far I have published the Wise Hammers form book. It's available from Lulu.com, and also for a much better price from Plum Publishing.

Muay Thai Chaiyuth

By Mas Jonty

Here at the Golden Flower Warriors' Association, we have been spending some time researching the traditional martial arts of Thailand recently. There's some fascinating material that has become available recently. It may offer the "missing link" between the disparate elements of the SE Asian martial arts -- especially between the fighting arts and the sport arts.

I'm currently studying a series of DVD's that go by the name "Muay Thai Chaiyuth". The last word is usually spelled "Chaiya", so I was delighted when I stumbled upon these videos.

Above is a screenshot of one of their more extreme postures, from a sort of "peacock dance" performed traditionally before a match. Below is a shot of one of their training sequences, which match Muay Thai but also could come from Okinawan or Chinese arts.

I'll be posting more as I break down and analyze the DVD series.

Traditional European Martial Arts: Jogo do Pau

For a long time, everyone has looked to Asia for martial arts, but there is a growing interest in local martial traditions all over the world. Here is a German documentary on the Portuguese art of Jogo do Pau. A stick-fighting art with its roots in the Middle Ages, it has been attracting attention and gaining respect in recent years. If I'm not mistaken, it may be a derivative of combat with the Medieval greatsword. Be warned...the clip is in German. For those who are interested, here is an English language website with some information on the art. Wikipedia offers information and links. This is the English version of a Portuguese website. The Dog Brothers are taking an interest in the art, and there are a video and book available, as well.

Rules and Fighting: The Paradox of Martial Arts Training

Here is a problem that is faced in every martial art:

1) At some point, you must train realistically (e.g. full-contact.)
2) Realistic fighting is dangerous, so you must either risk serious injury or develop rules.
3) Rules change the nature of fighting.
4) At some point, the practitioners forget that their rules-based fighting isn't real fighting.

Brazilian Jiujutsu fighters (who should be respected for their dedication to full-contact training) forget that outside the ring the ground is a bad place to be.

On the other end of the spectrum, Chinese wrestlers, knowing that the ground is death on the street, set rules so that you lose the fight as soon as anything knees or above touches the ground. For an Indo fighter like me, knees-on-the-ground means that I have two more ranges to fight in before I hit the ground.

Western boxers are famous for breaking their knuckles the first time they punch someone in a bar. Judoka are lost without lapels to grab. Karateka are easily defeated by a little grappling and stalking. Have I left anyone out?

What to do? The obvious solution is to keep reminding ourselves that we are playing. I make a point to use the word play quite a lot in my teaching. I play the sword and spear, we play sambutan, etc. The Filipinos have a word, Labanlaro (I think), which means "Cubs Playing". The idea being that tiger cubs, for example, play with each other more-and-more -roughly until one of the yelps, and then they separate and start over. Then the mother tiger drags home a slightly-injured wildebeast, and they take turns trying to take it down under her watchful eye, all in the safety of the den.