Recreational Violence, Fall 2014

Instructor Bio, Tim Anderson:
Tim began Combatives training in 1994 under Frank Cucchi and Pat Trey where members of Seal Team Six trained in JKD Concepts and Filipino MA. After about a year he then moved to Maine where he began AMOK!, a blades system, training in it for the last 19 years under PO Tom Sotis. Tim has an additional 17 years in Bowie and about 14 in Tomahawk. Tim currently teaches seminars and workshops on Knife combatives with his family system of Infiniti Blade Koncepts along with Dirty Boxing and other empty-hands techniques.

 

Instructor Bio (only partially made up and imagined), Ken Pfrenger:
Ken began his martial arts carrier early, at birth, where his mother claimed "he came out with a shot of Jack, smoking a cigar, and carving his name on my belly." He then progressed to regular dust-ups with his siblings, all of which he won before even completing potty training (at the age of 4 months). In his early adult life, he took his natural fighting ability to a Filipino martial arts school where he quickly impressed the instructor and progressed through the ranks until he was teaching classes for the school. This led his interests to wrestling and Boxing. Continuing his interest in martial arts created in Western Civilization, Ken began study of historic Irish stick and cane fighting methods, eventually founding Cumann Bhata, the "Stick Fighting Society." Ken has been a regular guest instructor at Western Martial Arts seminars for the last 20 years, teaching at The International Sword Fighting and Martial Arts Convention (ISMAC), CombatCon, and Western Martial Arts Workshop (WMAW) as well as numerous single events. In 2004, Ken founded an annual Western martial arts weekend seminar which came to be known as "The Recreational Violence Weekend."

Ken is the authorized Navaja spanish knife fighting N.E. Ohio representative under Maestro James Loriega. Ken has been a leading member in research on Celtic large axe fighting methods, including the Lochabar Ax, and has been a pioneer in the resurgence of pre-Marques of Queensberry Boxing styles.

At his own school, Ken continues to teach martial arts of Occidental origin including Boxing, Wrestling, and Sambo. The weapons curriculum at his school includes various cane systems, focusing on Irish methods, knife work from Bowie to Navaja, sword systems such as Military Saber, Shaska, and "singlestick," and ax methods from Lochabar through tomahawk and to Carpathian Mountain Ax.

Notable words of wisdom from Ken include, "just hit him," "pointy end goes here," "there's lots of chewy martial arts goodness in modern boxing," and "Kirk has a beating coming."

(Actual note from Ken: "This is all fairly accurate My write up would have been boring, factual but definitely not as entertaining.")

 

The event went pretty well. Modest turnout for such a short advertising cycle. The instructors liked the venue, owner, and the area.

Had several students travel from at least 1 state away. Thank you to them for making the haul.

Nice to have the local students as well. It's easy to ignore something in your back yard because, "well, I'm here and I can go another time."

Good job to all.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

I had a great time and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Did any of the video come out?

 

Looks like I got some vid for Ken's class, most of Randal's, and a little of Tim's. The video quality looks extra-crappy. Very "static-y." Probably a combination of the cheap camcorder and the wrong settings because I still don't know much about using it.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

Missed this post somehow. I would definitely like to see some Bartitsu in action that's for sure.

 

» Where can I study Bartitsu?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Battersea-Bartitsu-Club/247252935288854?sk=info

I haven't trained with them so I don't know where they're "at" martially speaking, but here's one of the clubs.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

Thanks, I will check that out.

 

Finally got around to posting my review of the event.

 

Great blog! Sounds like you had a really interesting time. Your reference to the walking stick jogged my memory. My old instructor used to teach walking stick defence and it was a little like kali. About 12 basic strikes and parries. I considered teaching it to people in retirement villages but like most great ideas I come up with, I've never got round to it.
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