the Way of the Turtle

6th Annual Saratoga Martial Arts Festival
Saturday and Sunday, April 1 & 2, 2006

Saratoga Martial Arts Festival info

I had four goals going to SMAF this year -

learn a couple of new techniques - this one can be tough, because so much is covered at the seminars that by the end of the weekend I'm typically in overload and can't remember much of anything. So rather than trying to remember everything new I did, I wanted to have just a few things that I could add to my repertoire.

learn some new principles/ideas (or variations on principles/ideas I already know) - I think this is actually easier in some ways than remembering techniques, and also more important, because if I have the principles, I can potentially build or adapt my own techniques using them.

get to seminars being taught by instructors I wanted to see in the past and didn't - one of the toughest things about events like SMAF is that there's always more to do than there's time to do it. Last year there were several times where two seminars I wanted to attend were going on at the same time. So as difficult as it was to miss seminars being taught by instructors that I know I really enjoyed in the past - I forced myself to do it.

HAVE FUN DOING MARTIAL ARTS ALL WEEKEND! Woo hoo!

Things were structured a little bit differently this year. On both Saturday and Sunday morning, there were seminars being taught by teams of instructors addressing a common topic, and then in the afternoon each gave a longer seminar individually. Sunday also featured a 2 hour long session on some sort of weapons work. On the plus side, this allowed us to both get a taste for a number of arts and get more in-depth work with one particular instructor. On the minus side, it seemed like there was less to choose from, I guess because the same people were teaching in the morning and then later in the afternoon. But it did fit in well with the overall theme this year, which was looking for the similarities and differences in how various arts approach the same issues.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1

Energy Drills of 4 Styles - This was the first of the team-taught sessions, with each instructor covering about 20 minutes of material. Our group had Instructor George Ilyadis first. Instructor Ilyadis is a Jeet Kune Do stylist, and he covered some JKD concepts of striking and how they relate to sensing energy. He did an excellent job presenting it - it's quite different conceptually from what we do at AMAI. Next up was Dr. Jerome Barber, a kenpo-arnis stylist. I was very impressed by Dr. Barber's demonstration last year, and even more impressed by his discussion of why it's important to have martial arts events like SMAF. He taught us a Filipino energy-sensitivity drill much like Chinese push-hands - I really enjoyed his presentation, and decided I would definitely attend his seminar in the afternoon. Our third instructor was Sifu Jiang Jian-ye, who has a wealth of knowledge about a wide variety of Chinese martial arts. He did variations on push-hands with us; unfortunately, given the time constraints he had very little time to actually explain what we were doing. The final instructor was Sifu Sharif Bey, a Hung Ga stylist and another instructor whose energy and willingness to share knowledge really impressed me last year. Sifu Bey taught us a Hung Ga energy drill which was a lot of fun, and he also gave us an incredible amount of information about Hung Ga training methods.

Sifu Jiang Jian-ye

Sifu Sharif Bey

While I was in the first seminar, Guro Doug Marcaida gave a seminar on Pekiti Tirsia Kali, a Filipino martial art. From what I saw of Guro Marcaida later in the day, I definitely want to take one of his seminars when the opportunity arises! (Yet another example of the difficulty in making choices at SMAF!)

Guro Doug Marcaida

Kata to Combat - this was another of the team-taught seminars, with an emphasis on translating movements and movement concepts from kata into effective self-defense techniques. Our first instructor was Sifu William Luciano, who teaches Pai-Chia Chu'an (Pai Family Boxing), a Chinese style. Sifu Luciano taught us the beginning movements of a Chinese form and explained some of the self-defense principles behind the movements. After that Kyoshi Joe Mansfield, who trains in Okinawa-Te Ryute Renmei. His focus was primarily on using simple, natural movements to defend yourself, and he also explained how similar movements can be found in most style's katas. This theme was continued by Sensei Tony DiSarro, an instructor in Kosho Shorei Ryu Kempo. Sensei DiSarro showed us how simple, everyday movements like shaking hands or brushing your hair can be combined with proper body positioning to be used as practical self-defense. The final session was taught by Sifu Mark Cardona, of Wan Yi Chuan Kung Fu. Sifu Cardona taught us several moves from a Chinese tiger kata, and also explained the application of these movements. At the very end he treated us to a demonstration of several other animal styles, giving us a chance to see how different approaches are used to achieve similar goals. Having done this seminar, I came away wanting to take another seminar with each of the instructors (Sifu Cardona is the only one I've worked with before.) They all had a lot to offer and were excellent at explaining the concepts behind their arts. Saturday afternoon I would get the opportunity to work with one of them; hopefully next year I can take seminars with some of the others. (I'm seeing a common theme here... more! more! more!)

Sifu Bill Luciano

Kyoshi Joe Mansfield

Sifu Mark Cardona

Knife Defense with Dr. Jerome Barber - Admittedly, this session was a tough decision, since Sifu Sharif Bey was doing a seminar on Hung Ga Chin Na (joint locking) techniques. But I knew I wanted to try a session with Dr. Barber, and I was not disappointed. We started out with a sensitivity drill designed to help us deflect attacks with little or no applied force. We then extended this to deflecting knife attacks. As we were doing so, Dr. Barber spoke at length about some of the concepts involved in defending against a knife, such as deflecting attacks in ways that won't bring the blade across your own body or leave you open to a weapon in the attacker's other hand. After learning to deflect the attacks, we then worked on following up with locks, strikes, and stripping the knife. He also spent a while talking about legal implications of knife defense and using biomechanical cuts (cuts designed to disable rather than kill an assailant.) At several points, he assisted my partner and I with techniques by demonstrating on me, and his control was excellent - despite multiple kicks to the knee, take-downs, and joint locks, I never once felt that there was any danger of his injuring me. (I believe I even got filmed being beaten up!) Overall, an EXCELLENT seminar taught by a master teacher. (And one which has me even more enthusiastic about possibly attending Dr. Barber's Buffalo Martial Arts Summit in July!)

Dr. Jerome Barber

Timing and Anatomical Power in Kosho Ryu Kempo with Sensei Tony DiSarro - I had wanted to get to Sensei DiSarro's seminars for the past two years, but there was always something I wanted to do even more in the same timeslot. The short session with him in the morning was intriguing enough that I decided to take his afternoon session (a tough choice - I also wanted to do the seminar with Sifu William Luciano - maybe next year!) Sensei DiSarro built on the basic concepts from the morning session - (1) using natural motions and body positioning to defend yourself with as little force as possible, and (2) making physical contact with your assailant in a relaxed, non-threatening way to avoid triggering an adrenaline response in them (ie. take them out before they know what's hit them!) Sensei DiSarro taught in a fairly relaxed way but managed to convey quite a bit of information in the time we had with him. His uke, Sensei Ted Tanaka, was also very helpful in both sessions - he has an eye for detail and an way of explaining things that just makes sense to me. (He also just plain has fun doing martial arts, which makes it fun to work with him!)

Sensei Tony DiSarro

Zenbu Ryu Jujutsu with Sensei Gary Lewis - The last sessions of the day were taught by instructors who had never presented at SMAF before, and I decided to try some jujutsu (another tough choice, since the other seminars were on aikido and Emin Boztepe's style of Wing Chun - I really enjoyed the aikido seminars I've done previously, and I'm particularly interested in the Boztepe system!) Sensei Lewis teaches at Kinderhook Tae Kwon Do, and the first thing that stands out about him is that he is a BIG fellow. The second thing that became very apparent was that we were fortunate that we weren't his uke's - those guys were taking a real beating! Most of the techniques we did worked off of a shoulder grab/lapel grab/single-hand push to the chest, and the variety of techniques that he built off of the initial move was incredible (if only I could remember more of them!) By the end of the 90 minutes, my hand and wrist were throbbing from the constant grab and torque that started out each sequence. Unfortunately, all the up and down aggravated my right knee, so I had to take it easy for the last half an hour or so. Some very cool techniques, and I was impressed with the fact that when Sensei Lewis assisted us with techniques his control was excellent - I initially was worried I would get slammed and cranked like his uke, but that was not the case. All in all, a great (if somewhat strenuous and slightly painful) way to end the first day!

Sensei Gary Lewis

SUNDAY, APRIL 2

Defense Against Bear Hugs - this was the only team-taught session on Sunday, with a focus on how different styles deal with bear hugs, both from the front and from behind. Our group started with Shihan Barbara Dawes. Shihan Dawes' primary style is Shin Ki No Karate, which combines her training in Okinawan Ryu-Te, defensive tactics, and arnis. Her primary apporach for our session was in practical application of basic kata movements in self defense. Her moves didn't always focus on bear hugs, but they were interesting and effective all the same! Next up was Master Dominick Violante, an instructor who I worked with both last year and the year before - and who has impressed me greatly both with the quality and depth of his knowledge and with his teaching ability and open-mindedness. Master Violante focused on aiki techniques for escaping from bear hugs - the sorts of techniques that look like they have no reason to work but then prove to be very effective, when executed correctly. Most involved subtle shifts in body weight to disrupt the attacker's balance and grip. Don't know that I'd want to try any of the movements against someone out to clean my clock without a lot more practice - but this session reinforced my belief in the effectiveness of aikijujutsu and aikido. The final session of the morning was taught by Sensei Michael Campos, founder and head of Zen Do Kai International. The techniques were very practical and combined striking with a variety of jujutsu-style movements; I was also impressed by Sensei Campos' teaching methods. Perhaps I had an advantage of sorts in that we had an odd number of students, so I ended up paired up with Sensei Campos' assistant! In the end, as much as I wanted to do another session with Master Violante, this portion of the morning helped me decide to take Sensei Campos' seminar in the afternoon.

Shihan Barbara Dawes

Master Dominick Violante

Bokken kumitachi with Sensei Ted Tanaka - Next up was a 2 hour session that I'd been looking forward to all weekend, first because the focus would be on sword and bokken kumitachi (something I've been trying to incorporate into my own sword classes) and secondly because the class would be taught by Sensei Ted Tanaka, who is not only an excellent teacher but also a lot of fun! This session was long but a lot of fun, as we moved back and forth attacking and defending with our bokkens. One of the most interesting aspects was getting a chance to do two short sword kumitachi - I'm familiar with several long sword exercises from various books and videos but had never seen any short sword exercises before today! (Now if only I could remember the movements!)

Sensei Ted Tanaka

Self-Defense Against Club Attacks with Sensei Michael Campos - the last seminar of the weekend, and another tough choice, because all three of the morning instructors had interesting things to present. In the end I decided on Sensei Campos' session, both because I had wanted to do one with him in the previous years and because I'm very interested in self-defense against club attacks. This was a great way to wrap up the weekend... the techniques Sensei Campos taught were not that complicated (so I might remember a few of them) and he also explained the principles behind how they work. We covered single-handed strikes to the head and body, back-handed swings, and two-handed swings (like a baseball bat.) All in all, informative and a lot of fun!

Sensei Michael Campos

So, another year at SMAF has concluded, and the question is - did I accomplish my goals? I think so... I came away with a few techniques which I'm going to try to incorporate into my knowledge base, and a few concepts and principles as well. I also took classes with three instructors I'd been interested in from previous years, as well as short sessions with a couple of old favorites. (Of course, this may just mean that the decision-making for next year's seminars will be even more difficult, since I would gladly do another class with any of them!) And I definitely had some fun in the process, and hopefully gave the instructors and students there a good impression of instructors and students from AMAI.