Review of Guro Carl Atienza in Ireland

Dave Joyce

Just thought I'd give you guys an idea of what was covered during Guro Carls recent visit here. He was here to teach a seminar on self protection in NUIG on Tuesday and Thursday, teach the Irish Atienza Kali training group (8 hours of instruction over two days) and Balisong and myself had to get in as much private classes as possible over the week. Course in the college went as follows:

The seminar in the University here in Galway was on Tuesday and Thursday night from 7-9pm each night. We normally run a Muaythai class on these nights and Guro Carls seminar was catering for those that normally take part in that class along with guys from our Academy also.

Guro Carl first explained the weapon (Trapo that is or rock in a sock), how it was made and basically how it was used. He also stressed that people should be VERY aware of the potential damage this weapon can do. The first night (Tue) was spent mainly static working the weapon and learning how to hit correctly to begin with and then learning how to strike with power. Some of those present seemed to enjoy hurting each other with a perverse sense of pleasure. I suppose I should point out we were using a sock which was knotted on one end but you could still feel a nice bit of power in what your partner was doing!

On Thursday night Guro Carl quickly revised the Tuesday night session and moved into deploying the Trapo from various draw points on the body, as well as striking in combinations or multiples. We practised deploying and striking and then moved into using Trapo against various forms of attack, such as someone striking with a fist or kick or shooting in to a takedown. Everyone present really enjoyed (maybe a little toooo much) the seminar and both nights were a huge success.

Saturday 28th: The group started of with a few minutes of hourglass footwork adding the variations that they knew. After a few minutes of this a couple of new variations were introduced to the group. After they were warmed up Guro Carl introduced them to heavy weapon training, going through correct form and body mechanics. Once they got the hang of this they then moved on to switching hands and Guro Carl explained and demonstrated how the switches were also draw points for your blade.

Next was the last kill exercise utilising the first section of sword evolution 1, after a few minutes of doing this exercise with their trainers they swapped them for padded sticks and continued the exercise with a bit more intent and actually try and hit your opponent. The first day ended out with Guro Carl having a light spar with each of the training group members and analizing their fighter types and a brief introduction to the mass attack exercise. One of the first phases of mass attack is forward rush with each of the attackers using just one particular strike. Obviously, the group were trained in reverse mass attack stratagies to understand how the group attacks effectively.

Sunday 29th: The second day started out with some more heavy weapon training to warm up and led into some special weapons training. The group were introduced to the AK Trapo or Rock in a Sock (which some people took to very quickly), they started off with some striking patterns and went on to using the weapons to deal with attacks such as punches, kicks and someone shooting for a takedown. After the break the group covered projectiles, with a quick introdution and demo from Guro Carl, helping to explain the effectiveness of projectiles by throwing a live blade into a pices of sheet metal from a car. A good demo in the power of a projectile. The guys practised at half rotation, full rotation, half rotation draw and thrust and then two man half rotation throw and the second man thrusts. Guro Carl also stressed that to be good at projectiles all its takes after inital instruction is lots and lots of practise and practising with all forms of stuff. He was even throwing training SWORDS! All in all it was another excellant week and we can't wait for his next trip in April.

pma-ire

Sounds like we missed a blast Dave!

We hope to catch you in the near future!!

Dave,

Hope this doesnt sound like a stupid question and its probably irrelevent but Im trying to get the image in my head.:)

To spar safely with the trapo you used a sock and stuffed it with other socks to give it weight and then tied it? Sounds interesting.

Cheers,

Colum

Michael O Leary

Hi Dave,

The seminars sound great. Quick question though! As both Guro Carl and the Sayoc clan both teach Kali, how come you are representatives for both? Is there a difference in their approach which would give you a more complete experience with weapons and if so what would that difference be?

Best regards,:)

Michael O'Leary
www.wingtsun-escrima.ie

Millionaire

Thats a real interesting seminar.

I know very little about Kali and related arts , and they must be good if Dan Insonanto incorpoarted them into JKD. (I did see Vunaks video on Kino Muay ..the art of biting which is from Philipines)

I would imagine the rock in the sock, would follow the same patterns of attack as a Kali stick???

And I am guessing if one was good with stick , then sau balisong work could following similar patterns????

Dave Joyce

To spar safely with the trapo you used a sock and stuffed it with other socks to give it weight and then tied it? Sounds interesting.

Well there was no sparring as such and we just used the tied/weighted sock to practise technique/deploying the weapon and Guro Carl just showed us how you can make one up in a hurry and emphasised you are never really unarmed and this is one of many improvised weapons.

The seminars sound great. Quick question though! As both Guro Carl and the Sayoc clan both teach Kali, how come you are representatives for both? Is there a difference in their approach which would give you a more complete experience with weapons and if so what would that difference be?

To answer VERY generally, Sayoc Kali works a lot of short blade (although the system trains long blade and a lot of other weapons) while Atienza Kali works long blade and mass attack (one of their specialities) although they also teach combat knife and hand assistor amoungst other improvised weapons. I was already training in Sayoc Kali and met Guro Carl, Darryl and Allain when we were helping to train some Navy SEALS from Dev Group in Virginia Beach in December 2004 and their long blade and especially mass attack stratagies blew me away (I can tell you the SEALS were well impressed too!). Both systems compliment each other and I'm just extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to train in both. I am the training group leader for Sayoc Kali in Ireland and Ballisong (Aran) and myself head up Atienza Kali in Europe. People don't realise the potential of this system yet as they have only started to teach openly since 2002, and are only starting to get recognition in the States.

I would imagine the rock in the sock, would follow the same patterns of attack as a Kali stick???

And I am guessing if one was good with stick , then sau balisong work could following similar patterns

Trapo was devised to be an improvised weapon which could be deployed if one found oneself outnumbered or facing weapons. Guro Carl explained to us that his Dad the late Edgar "Butch" Atienza refused to carry an Every Day Carry blade (which was legal btw) and instead always carried a Trapo and used to devastating effect. If you get a chance Gerry have a look at the downloads on their site www.atienzakali.com

Musashi

Dunno how I missed this, must have been while I was building this PC?
Sorry for missing this one and to PMA but he knows how it is when you have a sick child on your hands! Cheers mate!
Hope to get up to Dave sometime and to train some Kali. Hope ye enjoyed the class lads!

Roper

The sock thing sounds interesting Dave. Would have liked to have seen it in action.

In the same vein, I got into a taxi a few years ago around the time there were a few taxi drivers being attacked at The Foxhunter in Lucan. I made an ill advised joke like "bet you're glad I didn't ask to go the Foxhunter". With that the guy decided he'd show me his self defence weapon should anyone try it on with him. It was two snooker balls in a football sock! I even remember that it was a Newcastle United sock, guess he got that cheap:)

I didn't know there was someone actually training with this improvised weapon though!