Blueprints for Success

Filipino martial arts differs from "traditional" Japanese, Korean and even Indonesian/Malaysian martial arts in many ways.  One of the most obvious is the lack of forms or "kata" in FMA.  We do have a wide variety of drills, but most FMA systems do not have forms or "kata" the way they are usually seen in other traditional fighting arts.  Forms were historically used as blueprints: a way of preserving techniques and transmitting them to larger groups in a consistent way before the advent of detailed texts and manuals.  We know the origins of many kata from various styles of Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, Aikido, Judo, Wing Chun and even some styles of Silat (Jurus) and yet we do not clearly know the origins of many of the old, traditional kung fu katas, for example.

In FMA, we tend to use patterns or templates as a way of illustrating key concepts, but rarely with the idea that they are a fixed format for fighting.  These templates or patterns show a basic combination, and can then be "flavored" with other guntings/strikes, set ups for clinches/take downs/throws/chokes/strangles, or even modified to be done with a variety of different weapons including sticks, knives, karambits, scarves and so on.

Recently, Tuhon Kit Acenas of Kali Mundo visited Tokyo to conduct a joint seminar with Guru Maul Mornie of Silat Suffian Bela Diri - both experienced masters at the highest levels of their respective arts.  They worked in combination, taking turns teaching their two different styles (PTK and SSBD) from the same basic template.  Tuhon Kit referred to it as a "platform" and I really liked this expression.  A platform is a starting point or foundation, on top of which other structures can be built.  Over the course of a fantastic training weekend we built a lot on top of the platforms that Tuhon Kit and Guru Maul kindly shared.  My own teacher, Guro Fred, uses the term "solutions" and I like this very much also.  "Solutions" suggest more than one single possible answer, and include the idea of creative and dynamic problem-solving.

I often see students doing their best to exactly imitate the movements they see in a platform.  This is important, especially early on, since we need to train the eyes to observe the various important parts of technique - footwork, hand position, weight shift, kuzushi, atemi, irimi, distance.  At some point, however, we must learn to go beyond, to build on the platforms we are given, and to take them in new directions.  This is the basis for discovering our own "flow".

In summary, it is important to respect the form/pattern/drill/template, but not to the extent that we become a prisoner of it.  Use every drill fully, wring out every last drop of knowledge you can, but then break apart, break through and extend/expand beyond the limitation of it so you can achieve actual mastery.  Use the platforms as foundations to build on, but keep going until the knowledge from them becomes universal and applies to everything else you do.

FMA contains a lot of bodies of knowledge including single/double sticks, several systems of empty hand self defense (striking, kicking, locking, throwing, boxing, grappling), knife/karambit, staff, tomahawk, scarf/sarong, and other improvised/specialized weapons to name but a few.  At first these all seem like disparate sets of understanding, each very different from the others.  In the end, after years of training, they all become one big "knowledge lake" and blend together seamlessly.  In my case, after 10 years of Kali and almost 40 years of martial arts study in total, I feel like things are coming together and becoming part of a common core body of knowledge I can share with my students.  I could not have reached this point simply by mimicking the movements of others.

Keep training.  More importantly, keep learning, growing and exploring.  Eventually it will all come together.

"Obey the principles without being bound by them." - Bruce Lee