In a detailed class on position, leverage, footwork, angulation, breathing, natural weapons, and application, Guru Santiago Dobles shows Guru Bruno Cruicchi how specific footwork of PENCAK SILAT CIMANDE GERAK SATRIA SHAKTI can be effective in combat. The law of gravity and cement always applies.
Professor Bruno Cruicchi gave a seminar in the weapon and empty hand arts of Venezuela on Sunday, July 13, 2008. This workshop was organized by Guru Tony Torre of the Miami Arnis Group, ( http://miamiarnisgroup.com/ ) and took place on Miami Beach overlooking Biscayne Bay. It’s nice to train with talented people who are also good friends, surrounded by palm trees, balmy weather, ocean, sail boats, and incredible scenery.
I had the good fortune of attending a morning segment of a Bram Frank seminar that was very close to my home. Bram is an instructor to my good friend, Tony Torre, who makes his living as Bailbondsman and Head Instructor for the Miami Arnis Group. ( http://miamiarnisgroup.com/ ). I was familiar with Guru Bram’s knife designs and I was anxious to see them employed in person.
The seminar started as informally and genuine as possible. Bram said, " It’s BRAM! " when addressing him. The focus is on improvement and the installation of a thinking and performing methodolgy. Bram explained the use of tools and how impact tools and edge tools are present in our lives and that they are supposed to make life easy and have mulitiple uses. You should understand the idea of using the right tool for the right job. He began his presentation with an impact tool made out of plastic. He covered what is possible, then,.. what is probable. What followed was a nice dissection of action, reaction, complience, destruction, reasonable force, and options. Bram’s teaching skills are as highly honed as his "tool" collection. The primary blade, refined by Mr. Frank, is the Gunting, which means "scissor". This is one of those words that are conceptual in the sense that students use a foreign word freely to mean many things. This is not uncommon in martial arts and too much time is spent on forums arguing about this crap. The Gunting is both an impact and edged weapon that can be adapted to a continuum of force. It is an adaptable, well thought out device. It comes in a edged version, training version, and impact version. They are color coded and also have "Braille" so you can tell what you are grabbing in low light or no sight conditions.
The purpose and application of these "Bram Frank Methods" are best learned or absorbed from Bram himself. He is constantly on the seminar trail and he will be coming to a city near you. His methods are tested and updated by LEO and Military around the world. The feedback allows for upgrading, adaptation and sometimes re-thinking. That’s called growth, and growth is what YOU will get by attending a Bram Frank seminar. http://www.cssdsc.com/
If I had to send you to a far away place, with nasty people who wanted to kill you,… even on the plane to that nasty place,.. and I could only give you indirect advise and not personal instruction, I would give you The Essential Ray Floro DVD set. It is not that complex, it does not have a tool for every occasion. It just has the right tools for the right occasion.
For those of you who do not know Ray Floro, let me give you his background. He is a Filipino martial arts practitioner who lives in Australia. His voice, or methodology has been heard around the world. His background includes Okiniwan Karate, Modern Arnis, Balintawak, Lameco Eskrima, Illustrisimo Kalis, and Western Fencing. Mix in a health dose of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with John Will, and a flavoring of Aussie street methodology by his peers in Oz, and you get an eclectic warrior. He teaches the Australian State Police, Special Forces Teams, and many other Special Response Units. No mystery here,.. photos and letters of recommendation are all over the ‘net. What is unique is what he teaches them,… VERY few techniques. Ray’s idea is to see how few techniques it takes to deal with every situation. To summerize his methods,.. Ray’s whole system is to get the utmost out of the minimum.
Many of us have been bugging Ray for years to put his thought process on DVD and let us get more of a glimpse of his fighting methods than YouTube allows. Well,… He finally did it. He produced, "The Essential Ray Floro". Ray managed to cover tremendous amounts of material in a slick, professional manner. The DVD is divided up into lessons, much like if you were a personal student of Ray’s. He takes you through footwork, angulation, striking patterns, fakes, improvised weaponry, empty hand vs blades, and blade vs blade. He actually spars the patterns and shows the methods vs aggressive force. Of particular interest is Ray’s use of improvised weapons which may be worth the price of the entire set. It’s just that good.
This DVD set gets the highest rating from Physicalstrategies.com. In fact look for future collaborations between Floro Fighting Systems and Physicalstrategies.
WHEN YOU’RE A COP, SAMBO PRACTITIONER AND THAI BOXER, YOU NEED A KNIFE THAT GETS THE JOB DONE.
This blade is no longer available, but is designed with the FloroFighting mentality in mind. That would be Pikal or IcePick Grip, use of both edges, and a handle that looks like it’s upside down. It also moves well into the cross block or "X-Frame" that is a component of the system.
Check out Ray’s new DVD’s on www.FloroFighting.com
Tom Furman has been involved in martial arts and conditioning... Read more.
