Atienza Sama Sama

Balisong

Hey Guys,

I'm just back from the first ever Atienza Sama Sama, which was held on Mt Pocono, Pennsylvania. What a weekend, 3 days of of 14 plus hours a day, but totally worth it.

Friday we started off testing for the long blade curriculum, after which we went through sword evos 1 and 2, and depending on the level, progressed up to the double sword sets for feeder's 1 and 2 for both evos. After this we had a look at the venue for the AK Blade Simulator. It was to be held on 8" wide planks and took a few minutes to get hang of sparring on them while it was still day light. Then we broke in to groups and did some live blade cutting, so guys could see ow hard or easy it was to cut through something, depending on your blade. After a break to get some food, rehydrate and let the sun go down we went back out and started the Blade Simulator competition in the dark which added a whole other dimension to it.

Saturday morning we started off testing the knife curriculum. After this we broke in to groups learning and refining the different aspects of the knife curriculum from the receiver sets including locking, stripping and hitting up to knife on knife and double knife on single knife. In the afternoon we headed higher up on Tuhon Carl's land to have a look at the course for the Gauntlet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqxzRqb1IMY which was going to be run on the Sunday. While up there we took the chance to work on our projectiles, both machetes, knives and combat bows and had the projectile competitions while we were there. After eating and re hydrating we went back out and continued working the knife curriculum. After this Tuhon Carl called us all in and we started working some dexterity and coordination drills, designed to help both sides of the brain work separately and more efficently because the theme of this Sama Sama was to have a weapon in each hand and Tuhons goal was to have as many of the instructors working double weapons by the end of the weekend as possible. Next Tuhon showed us some empty hand sets against a blades opponent, which were awesome.

Sunday morning we started off with the Gauntlet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqxzRqb1IMY . Next we had Tuhon Bong show us some of the Sword and Shield curriculum which along with Tuhon Carls empty hand sets were my favorite parts of the weekend, we went through this working off the counts from the Sword Targeting Chain. After this, those of the group who had brought a compound bow took part in the Combat Archery competition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctgkc2f8 ... re=related . After the competition we started work on Atienza Eskrima, with those of us who knew Stick Evo 1 showing it to those who didn't. We then moved on with the whole group learning the stick and dagger and striking set for the Stick Evo. After this we moved on to some of the combat variations and applications.

This rounded of a brilliant weekend of training for everyone who attended. Thanks to all the Tuhons and Guros who shared their knowledge with us this weekend and I can't wait till next year

yomchi

Sounds like a good course. Thanks for the report

Balisong

It was a great weekend, here's some clips of the 3 days, hope ye enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llgXh_Os7Hk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hze2OaFKb1s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjO3fREcStw

Dave Joyce

Yea, you would have to post vids too, to just piss me off even more. The Laban Sa Banko reminded me of the knife sparring on the rooftop at Sayoc Sama Sama last year:). Just like I thought, looks like it was an unbelievable time and all the Guro's look like they were right on form. Chris B seems to have done very well at some of the events.

Balisong

Yeah Chris did well at a lot of the events, he did the full 5 stations of the gauntlet only missing 1 of the targets at the archery and the machete stations and in a pretty quick time too.

Also Pete and Clint who were the finalists in the Laban Sa Banko looked really impressive throughout the competition even though the planks were iced over.

But it was Puneet and Amit at the combat archery competition that impressed me the most, Puneet ended up winning that event.

It was a great weekend, looking forward to next year already and also to the weekend coming up in April where Tuhon will be working the AK 40" material, it's meant to be a serious weekend