Salesforce sent me to Melbourne, Australia for a week of training, and I was very lucky to get a chance to train with extended family at the Melbourne Budo Academy in Fitzroy, quite close to the CBD.
The Academy is run by Sensei Jon Marshall, a 6th dan in Yoshinkan Aikido and oriental medicine practitioner/teacher. He is highly ranked in other styles as well and has been a martial artist since childhood. The Academy teaches a variety of Japanese martial arts and there's something (many somethings) for everyone.
If you can go there, DO. It a MUST destination in Melbourne.
In our brief 90 minutes session I chose to explore the links between Kali's empty hand movement (Kadena De Mano) and aikido, a topic I introduced at Peaceful Warrior Camp in Thailand earlier this year. It is an area very dear to my heart since it is where I first began to connect my own Japanese martial arts lineage to Kali and build the basis for "my flow".
I was lucky to have a room full of very high-level aikidoka, and their deep commitment to what they do was immediately evident. They move with power and conviction, and that is the hallmark of both great students and a great teacher.
We started with the basic pattern of hubud lubud, a common drill used in FMA to build hand speed and coordination. There are many, many versions of this drill. The one I showed is similar to the video in the link above (final elbow control using pak sao instead of c-grip as they do). In the FMA, this drill is done with a variety of empty hand attacks, with blades, sticks and just about anything else. For simplicity we stayed on the right side.
From this framework, we drill to improve speed and smoothness until the flow is an endless cycle with an established timing and rhythm between the partners. Then, we can start to find openings and entries. My use of this drill is based on the classic aikido drill 手の取り (te no tori or "taking hands") which is again closely related to Hakka/JKD's chi sao or "sticky hands".
Some of the flows we introduced included hijishime variations, Juji nage, ikkajo, ude garame, shiho nage, shomen iriminage. While in Kali Majapahit we use hubud as a framework to explore a lot of different styles including not just Kali but also Silat and Hakka Kuntao, in this short seminar I wanted to really demonstrate the fact that this drill can include entries for many classical Yoshinkan techniques as well.
Since RYA closed over two years ago, it's been some time since I crossed hands with well-trained Yoshinkan artists. Here's what I found:
1) Big Movements, Big Power
We worked hubud lubud from Yokomen Uchi, a common aikido strike. This kept us from having to explain FMA striking angles. In Yoshinkan, this hit is a big one with a full step. It comes in hard with all of shite's body weight behind it. This is good flow practice for FMA people to experience passing that power from hand to hand in hubud. Fighting is about finding the optimum balance between strength and speed so that we move quickly but also can contact with authority.
2) Squaring Up
In Hubud Lubud we tend to stand with our hips square to the opponent, which makes it easier to get all weapons (especially left side hand/knee/feet) quickly involved. For us it is a corto (close range/CQB) drill. In aikido, it is more common to turn and present the side of the body. This certainly adds hip rotation, but sometimes at the expense of delivery speed. Something to consider.
3) Everything is a Weapon
In FMA, we use nearly every part of the body. Any striking surface can be leveraged to get a viable weapon onto the attacker as quickly as possible. This includes elbows, knees, head, bicep, tricep, calf, shoulder and a host of others. In aikido, the strikes are standardized to punches and sword hand (shuto) so there is some interesting study in how to use other body parts within the same techniques. In showing the classic FMA lever takedown, we did variations using both the hand and the leg to get the same result. FMA "adds spices" throughout the techniques, and there is always a place for an elbow, knee, headbutt, forearm smash or other add-in to help uke remain compliant if needed. Yoshinkan has powerful atemi as well, and I am a big advocate of their use.
4) On Playfulness
FMA are usually learned through two key steps - drills and playing. In the drills we get the basics and see some examples. In playing, we experience the technique from both sides and put it into a wide variety of situations to see how to adjust it for the many variables that exist in martial arts expression. For us this is critical since fights can happen under a diverse set of circumstances, needing changes to distance, timing, power or footwork based on terrain, available weapons, number of opponents and so on. The playing is where we own the technique and make it part of our natural movement.
5) Attacking the Structure
In my Kali (Guro Fred, my teacher, spends a lot of time on this as well) we are principally concerned with how to disrupt the structure of an attacker. This means seeking control over the head/neck/spine at the earliest opportunity and using them to minimize an attacker's strength and balance. For every aikido technique, there is a similar process of taking uke's balance. It is important to study these points deeply and fully understand the objective of each technique in terms of learning about the human body and how to control it. "We move from strength to strength, balance to balance and move our opponents in the opposite manner from weakness to weakness."
6) Explore and Discover
These were my magic words to the class, encouraging them to go deeper and find their own connections. The martial arts world is rich and vast with plenty of opportunity to find fresh new ideas. I also appreciate the consistency and dependability of Japanese martial arts training, but I like it best when balanced with a Beginner's Mind and fed plenty of new information to absorb and apply.
7) It's ALWAYS about the People
Such wonderful, friendly, people. Although Sensei Jon and I had never actually met in person before, he was incredibly open, kind and accommodating. His students are busy professionals, but also charming and kind. They have built a lovely Budo community there and support each other's learning and growth. The positive energy in the Academy permeates the space. I felt warm and happy at all times.
Melbourne is a beautiful city with classical European architecture, great coffee, a love of outdoors/sport, and top-shelf martial arts. It was a tremendous honor to be able to share my life's work with my family there. We'll meet again for sure.
OSU!!
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