Comtech Stick Fighting Vol.1-2
This new series covers all the basics of Filipino stick fighting the Comtech way.  Vol.1 covers Single Stick Techniques and Vol.2 expands your arsenal with Double Stick Techniques. (78)
Read More About Comtech Stick Fighting V.1-2 HERE
 

Comtech Sword & Dagger Vol.1-2
The sword & dagger or espada y daga is considered one of the highest level forms in the Filipino martial arts, and now for the first time James Keating has put this material on DVD for you.  This 2 volume set teaches you everything you need to know about the sword & dagger to add them into your art or expand your skills. (78)
Read More About Comtech Sword & Dagger V.1-2 HERE
 

Advanced Sumbrada
If you think you “know” this drill check out this DVD,
it will blow your mind with variations on the “motion tree”! (39)
 

Integrated Balisong: Practical Butterfly Knife Tactics
Pete Kautz shares how to develop combative skill in opening and closing the balisong at real speed while doing complex freestyle drills with a partner.  By adding layers of pressure and resistance to your training the most simple things become complex! (24)
 

The Blade Walking Exercise Parts 1 & 2: Single & Double Sword
Text & Video Copyright Pete Kautz 2015

Filipino Blade Walking Drill Part 1: Single & Double Sword

Mabuhay (Welcome) to this week's Training Tip, which continues the Filipino Martial Arts theme for the month of May with part one of a two part video on an exercise called Blade Walking.

This exercise is not one that I was formally ever taught, just something I started to do years ago. But that's the way the Filipino arts are. We all get certain basics but then it is expected we will take them, experiment with using them in different ways, and come up with new ideas based on our observations.

As I have said many times, the aspects of the FMA are like little seeds. A piece like the upwards figure eight might look insignificant, something you can learn in a few minutes and say “Got it, what's next?” But it's significance will grow and blossom with time and care. To some old-timers, perhaps it was their whole fighting style – no matter what someone would try to do, they would counter with that upward 8 style (Ocho Ocho).

One thing that inspired this was something Professor Remy Presas said to a group of us at a meal during one of the week-long camps out in Michigan in the late 80's. His advice was, “If you want to make the stick a part of you, you need to hold it all the time, and learn to keep it moving (twirling / fanning). Maybe you're just sitting on the porch in the summer talking to a friend, or taking a walk, but you always have the stick in your hand and are developing the movements.”

So, living remotely like I do, walking with a stick or two, or a sword or two, has long been a common practice. As those of you who've been here know (and as you'll see on the video clip) the dirt road past the foot bridge is a quarter mile long and a perfect spot for this training.

The idea behind Blade Walking is simple, just walk and cut using your basic angles and patterns. The basic pattern is the same as the rhythm of walking, 1-2, or diagonal downward forehand and backhand strikes (the downward eight, or the X shape, however you want to think of it).

What you immediately find is that while you first were taught to step and cut on the same side, and this is important to understand and use appropriately but it is not how we naturally walk. No one walks while extending their right hand and right foot, then extending their left hand and left foot. Try it and find how awkward it is, especially if you have to move quickly or run while cutting.

To move with speed and balance we must extend the right hand and left foot, then the left hand and the right foot, just like we do normally when walking or running! Or, in the case of single sword if you are right handed, cut 1 as you step left, cut 2 as you step right.  As I mention in the video, be sure to lift your feet and not scuff them along the ground.  The lift does not have to be much, but avoid any foot dragging or shuffling while doing the exercise.

Interestingly, in researching the Wing Chun Double Sword form many years ago, one of the biggest inherent differences in the way it was done by several different experts was not in how they used their hands, but rather how they stepped. It was this same issue of stepping and cutting / thrusting when moving forward and backward. Some schools stepped and cut on the same side while others stepped and cut with the cross sides like I'm saying for the Blade Walking exercise so they could move more quickly.

Some days when doing the Blade Walking I'll work using one hand on the way down and the other hand on the way back. Other days I'll work walking forward one way and then walk backwards on the return, even doing it sideways one way and then the other.

Filipino Blade Walking Drill Part 2: Double Sword

Now, in the first video we discussed the 1-2, 1-2 motion of cutting in relation to your stepping. This also holds true in the case of double swords. The pattern now becomes 1-2 right hand, 1-2 left hand, and so forth as you walk. Of course this can be started on the left side as well.

Once you start into this motion, you will notice that depending on where you break the count, what starts as 1-2 right hand, 1-2 left hand can also be thought of as 2-1 left then right hand, 2-1 right then left hand.

Try this for yourself right now in the air; imagine you have swords and make the 1-2 right, 1-2 left cuts and pay attention to the count. Once you have that, keep going and feel how it's “the same but different” when thought of as the 2-1 with alternating hands. If this is difficult to understand in the written form, of course refer to the YouTube videos for clear visual demonstration!

You will need to have these two patterns down for the next step which is adding in the upward slanting blocks and then countering. With double sword you can do this exactly the same as in the single sword or you can chose to use both blades together for defense. This will utilize the crossing and uncrossing of the double swords in what is known as Crossada Style.

Just like when doing Blade Walking with the single sword there are many variations in steps that can be made. Walking can be done in any direction, front, back, to the sides, while turning, etc. Another option on double weapon days is that sometimes I'll carry a second set on my back and switch from long to short, or to long and short blades as a pair (Espada y Daga) for the return.

As always, if there's interest in more on this let me know and maybe we'll film some more video about different aspects of the exercise!

All my very best to you,

Pete Kautz

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