Top 3 FMA drills?

Hi Nick,

Get to ask you a question - cool!

What are your 3 favorite FMA drills in terms of either strengthening fighting attributes or in terms of direct translation to effective techniques?

And why?


Thanks,

JK

Bloody hell, nothing like a toughie to get things started...

I'd say knife passing to build up fluidity, reactions, and de-sensitize one to the blade....sumbrada - going as quickly as possible into the free flowing versions with inserts etc - for spontaneity and a drill where 3 guys stand outside you and another guy practising one for one sumbrada with a knife...at various times anyone of the guys on the outside can jump in and become the new aggressor, which teaches you not to just focus on the guy in front of you.

Hope that answers the question.

Nick

PS: Keep in mind I still consider myself more or less a neophyte when it comes to all things FMA...I need a lot more work.

Genuine question.

Have you ever used a stick in a real situation and if you have or hypothetically did/would you use it FMA style OR just try to crack open their melon (or break wrists) ala baseball bat swing?

Yep,

Had a huge fight one night (on a night off from the club where I worked) with a bunch of Vietnamese. I was visiting the club down the road with a few bouncer mates out with their girlfriends. Some zipperhead tried to get chesty with my mate so he whacked him and they all left.

About 30 minutes later the club is closing and we're planning to go to a "chew and spew" to eat. Outside "tojo" hears a whizzing noise and looks up to see a shuriken has buzzed by his bonce. He yells out, (we were further up the road) and we turn to see about 30 of these jackasses running at us from across the road near the parking lot, armed to the teeth.

I said to the guys there's weapons in the strip club so we sprinted the hundred or so yards up the road and I booted the front doors in and started doling out the lumps of two by fours we had planted everywhere. All armed we returned to the fray.

As I came round the corner there was two big groups going at it, one of the slopes was waving a chain round keeping some fellas at bay and I ran in and belted him, two hand style as in a katana cut (I had done no FMA at that time and didn't know it existed), across the swede and he went down.

The tide turned rapidly at this point as we all waded in armed which these gutless little bastards didn't like. I hit 2 more the same way and then the "boys in blue" started rolling up. I dropped my lump of wood, bolted round a corner and found the back delivery door to the club open, and zipped in there to lay low in a closet for a while. I eventually exited when all the footsteps and yelling had subsided.

The next day my brother came round wanting to know if I was alright because he heard on the news that "tojo" was in the hospital having been stabbed (he thought tojo was an alias I used and didn't realize it was a mate of mine) Jaffa, a Navy guy who'd hang with us on leave had been stabbed as well. Cops found the knife that did the damage down a sewer grate.

I also found out from the girls who'd stayed around to testify that the cops locked three of the chows in the back of a paddy wagon with 2 police dogs sicing them on them with cries of "get the rice a risos" as apparently the canine officer was a Vietnam vet who didn't like the fact these guys regularly ate dogs.

When they got to the station they gave it the usual "we no speekee english" routine and I have no idea whether they were ever charged with anything.

Personally I don't like using weapons in fights and would rather use my hands and feet because there's always the issue of what do you do with the thing if it's not actually needed...so, no, I haven't used one since studying FMA but I would now use FMA techniques and not the katana stuff, given the length of my asp is closer to what I use in FMA and not like Excalibur as the 2x4 was.

Nick

I just just wondered since I was watching one of my friends training yesterday and it looked nothing like when I saw him in a fight with a long(ish) weapon.



I distinctly remember him just repeatedly whacking the head region Fred Flinstone stlye.

2 x 4 is a great tool, its effective and biodegradeable

I think that boils down again to how long has he been training in FMA and how much of that training was pressure tested? Those two are going to make a big difference.

We talked about this on another thread...I know some guitar players who'd go to pieces if you put them on a stage in front of 20,000 people...do we say guitar playing doesn't work?

Nick

Have you seen the Dog brothers Nick? I remember seeing some of their training sessions and how litle it resembled a 'martial art' once they got going, every turned scrappy and they missed often, this really showed up i n the slow mo...

I know better than to say that makes their worse, but I think they do a lot of pressure testing and such in their training.

JK I look forward to working on some FMA with you in a couple of weeks

Jan wrote:I just just wondered since I was watching one of my friends training yesterday and it looked nothing like when I saw him in a fight with a long(ish) weapon.



I distinctly remember him just repeatedly whacking the head region Fred Flinstone stlye.

2 x 4 is a great tool, its effective and biodegradeable

Dont forget fighting on a street (in a non-pre arranged fashion) is different to fighting in an organised competition with rules for scoring (eg some are point scoring, useful things like blocking and locking and gunting and takedowns might not score you points.

Jag,

Yes, I've seen them. Listen, nothing will ever replace a real fight except real fighting. The problem with what they're doing is things like fighting with rattan (they're training weapons...using them is akin to learning to bare knuckle fight while wearing boxing gloves. Real fighters in death matches use hard wood. You do not get hit multiple times with hard wood and keep going just as you do not get hit as many times with bare fists as you do with gloves)

They wear fencing masks so guys get hit on the head (with rattan) and are able to continue in to grappling range. All the FMA serious players I know who watched it just laughed. With a hardwood stick and no fencing masks that one shot on your skull would have crushed it like a coconut.

One idiot out there actually practices blocking your shot with the fencing mask so he can get in close and grab you. What muscle memory do you suppose he's developing for the street?

Lastly, when I practice my angles of attack (and they're all I ever use on Force on Force drills...just ask Slacky) I'm practicing to use them on untrained herds of the unwashed and not fellow escrimidors. How many criminals, gang bangers and n'ere do wells are running round your city? How many Filipino grand masters are running round? Who are you training to defend against?

Nick

Nick

Thanks for that mate I do agree that you need to train to fight. With the video I mentioned I have to say wasn't impressed because it was like a pair of cats going at it. They slowed it down in the middle for effect and you saw just how badly their technique was buggered through fear of being hit.

The only thing that redemed them in my eyes was the knife defence video I watched later by them which seemed a bit more sensible.

Myself I did come to the opinion that they were idiots and what they did amounted to macho antics while being incredably poinltess at the same time but I didn't want to say that without more knowlege of the subject.

I was doing escrema the other night (I'm not sure that's the one that the DB do it might be kali but its one of the FMA) and he though it was funny how I swung my stick over head like (ew discovered later) a boken from my stint with the british kendo associaition.


I got to ask though Nick. Do you advocate training with hard wood without protection equipment? Lets say you did want to train to have a bash with other stick fighters would you think it was ok to go at it with hard wood and without pads?

I know I'm going to get shot down for that question (I"m regretting it even now) but I'm interested in your answer.

PS so you think the Dog Brothers are a bunch of idiots then?

AXE
Jagunco

Jagunco wrote:
I got to ask though Nick. Do you advocate training with hard wood without protection equipment? Lets say you did want to train to have a bash with other stick fighters would you think it was ok to go at it with hard wood and without pads?

To jump in...



Thats using rattan sticks in a competition, too brutal for training by far.

We spar with padded sticks, hockey mask and gloves - they sting and leave red marks but dont bruise.

maybe he just got a beating cos he's a lard arse

Jag,

No, I don't think the DB are idiots...but I don't agree with some of their findings. As mentioned, they're all agog at the fact that so many fights end up grappling but I think they missed the point that in the real world those fights were without fencing masks and fought with either hardwood weapons or blades.

As I mentioned, you will find a different "truth" in fighting if you punch with gloves on as people will take punches that, had they been bare knuckles or with brass knuckles on, they wouldn't have survived.

Training wise...no, I don't advocate hard sticks. I can learn a lot about gun fighting using simunitions...I don't need to use real bullets. Same with FMA, padded or not, rattan is a great training aid. Just as with empty hand training the occasional full contact round is ok, doing it all the time though scrambles your brain cells. So, I'd do nine rounds padded up, and the occasional one without just to make sure we weren't coming up with "truths" that weren't realistic.

One really needs a referee in these sessions who can determine what the response to the rattan shot should be...so sometimes he lets you carry on and other times he'll determine that your limb is now hors du combat.

Nick

Cool. I'm glad at what you said about the hard wood question, I still feel a bit daft asking it nothing ventured.

Myself if I do a bag workour I normaly leave the gloves off for the last few rounds to condition my hands, I think thats in line with what you're saying correct me if I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Alas training in capoeira I don't really get hit that much... at all in fact. I'm pleased to say the group in SF do in fact advocate hitting people who don't dodge, but me being a stranger no ones hit me yet (its not fair).

Will be at JK's this afternoon so will learn a little morre of the excrema non contact or with pading on hopes.

Thanks NIck