2009 IMAF Inc. Camp Review

[MJS]

The IMAF, Inc camp in Cromwell, Ct is under way! It started today, Aug 7 and will run until Sun, Aug. 9. I thought I'd post a day to day review of what was covered. I'm not going to go too in-depth, but I will give a basic rundown.

Friday Aug 7: Camp started at 6pm sharp. Master Chuck Gauss started things off with some siniwali drills, including double stick, and 2 vs. 1. Various entries and a few locks.

For the second hour, Master Earl Tullis took the floor. I first met Earl in Chicago, during a camp at Ken Smiths school. I was amazed at his teaching then, and I'm still amazed today. Earl is very technical, so he went back to the basics, and had us working on some of the finer points with some of the left/right tapi-tapi drills. Its really amazing what a little tweaking can do.

The 3rd hour was with Master Jim Ladis. Single stick work/tapi-tapi, focusing on the 6,7,5,12 strikes. He taught about 3 or 4 different variations off of that.

I think everyone in the room was surprised that the 3 hrs. had gone by so quick! The energy was high though, and everyone was looking forward to day 2.

 

[MJS]

I'm going to combine days 2 and 3, due to the fact that I was very tired last night, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think that my fingers, especially my ring and little finger on my right hand, would have been much use to me last night. LOL.

Day 2:

Brian Z. started off the day with some trapping hands. Empty hand tapi-tapi drills followed. We progressed to some locks, throws, etc. off of punches.

For the first hour of session 2, Brians friend Larry, from NH, worked on the 1-12 disarms. I had heard alot of good things about Larry, so I made it a point to work with him. Larry had mentioned the importance of taking your training up a notch, and training your material with a bit more aliveness to it. He called me up to demo with him. At a medium speed, he simply kept doing the # 1 and 2 strikes, and then told me to do my disarm, whenever I was ready, on either strike. Very big difference from the usual way its done, due to the fact that the stick is still moving, its not stopping, and things don't go as planned. It turned into more of a lighter version of a Dog Bros. event, as we ended up grappling while standing, for each others stick, and ended up on the ground, where I had his elbow planted in my face. Good times!

Earl took over from there, working more on the finer points of the left/right tapi-tapi drills. He kept stressing that we all know the 'drill' but instead of going at normal speed, break it down slower, really looking at the finer points.

Jim expaned more on the left/right stick work, showing quite a few different variations of locks, etc.

Chuck did some work with the lock flow. About half way thru his session, I was his uke, and it was probably one of the most painful sessions I had! LOL! One lock he did, had my back against the wall, with him locking the above mentioned fingers. I have to say that was by far, one of the most painful locks that I have had done on me in a very long time. I couldn't tap fast enough, and it literally felt like they were going to break if he cranked less than an inch past what he already was. More good times but painful at that!

Chuck also did some ground work incorporating some BJJ as well as Modern Arnis ground work.

Brian did some knife work. He stressed that if we really wanted to get good on our knife control, disarms, etc., to use a more realistic training blade, rather than the typical large training knives that are usually used. Unless someone is attacking you with a large kitchen knife, chances are its going to be a smaller blade, thus making it harder if not impossible, to do an actual disarm.


Day 3:

Earl started the day with more left/right drills, again, with more emphasis on the finer points, which IMO, really made a huge difference. Brain focused on this as well, and Jim finished up with more knife work.

I also had the pleasure of meeting a Martial Talk member. I invited Fangjian, aka Jon Leonard, to be my guest for the Sunday session. It was great to meet and put a face with the name. Jon is a great martial artist and I hope to have the chance to workout with him again in the future.


All in all, it was a fantastic 3 days! The energy in the room was high and everyone walked away with something. I had the chance to meet up with old friends, who I usually only see at camps, as well as meeting new ones. I'm sure the Prof. was looking down at us and smiling.

 

[fangjian]

I had the pleasure of being invited by MJS to this gathering, and it is always wonderful to meet other eskrimadors. I had a great time, and look forward to the next one. Thank you to everyone there.

I will be having a Balintawak workshop in the near future ( Aug-Sep) at my place. I will post the date shortly.