In
post 2 about Datu Dieter’s influence I discussed about training at the DAV
Summer camp in 2007 and about witnessing their Lakan testing at that camp. I wrote about this to show that the DAV and
Datu think, teach, and structure their training differently than what I do and
what I have seen here in the states.
Granted now several years after GM Remy’s passing I believe things might
have changed in the Modern Arnis world but at the time I met Dieter and Dan
Anderson in 2003 from my experience seeing students train by way of principle
and not just mimicking technique was for me eye opening, as well as having
things explained as principle based.
Dieter teaching a session on table top or anti pick up defense at the 2007 DAV Summer Camp |
Carson teaching on Tee shirt defense at the 2007 DAV Summer camp |
This
time though I want to switch gears somewhat and discuss more about Datu’s
influence with Hidden Sword. As I
mentioned in my earlier posts about Hock Hochheim, Hock inspired me to train
with both GM Remy and GM Ernesto, Dieter trained with both men as well so right
from the start I could see some similarities in how the DAV structured or did
certain things and how I or Ernesto did.
Another area of common ground was in what I call the self defense
realm. Dieter while he would teach on
the standard Modern Arnis material, he
also slanted it towards the self-defense side of the spectrum. At the Brevard camp in 2005 he covered both
baseball bat defense and table top defense.
At the 2007 DAV camp there was training available; using a Tee Shirt
(flexible weapon), and Dieter taught a session on table top defense. At a seminar we had here at Hidden Sword with Datu
Dieter in 2009, he taught both table top defense and palm stick (ball point pen
defense). At the AKATO seminar (that
same weekend) we did baseball bat and club defense as well as flexible weapon
defense, all in addition to the stick and empty hand work.
My
first experience participating in the table top defense class was at the 2005
International Modern Arnis Summer Camp at Brevard. Dieter offhandedly mentioned about training
in the evening (when nothing was scheduled) and what could be fun was something
they did at their camps which was table top or anti pick up defense. Here is an
excerpt from my observation notes (I take a lot of notes at seminars I attend)
from that brief session.
Dieter at the 2005 Brevard camp and I (fixing to be trashed) |
Dieter pinning uke to table during the Brevard camp |
“Saturday’s training
ended with Dieter teaching a self defense class based for women as if they were
seated in a bar and someone was making unwanted advances towards them. Or if they were seated at a table and they
were attacked. I know some of the
instructors (mainly Dan and Mr. Dee) were probably hesitant since it would require
additional setup and head aches for them (arranging to get the chairs and extra
tables from the lunch hall) but they went with it anyhow. It was an excellent choice on their part
because that was one of the funniest training sessions of the whole weekend. It started off a bit strange since it was
mainly guys and only 3-4 women present, so it made a lot of the guys have to
partner up with other guys, and Dieter wanted us to act like we were coming
onto the other person. So naturally
there were a lot of jokes being made at everyone’s expense. Dieter also started going through assistants
pretty quickly, so then everyone had their turn to come onto or attack Dieter
and get trashed in response. Dieter gave
a pretty good lecture/talk about each one of the techniques and then used many
different responses to the different attacks, including doing things with the
glasses that were around and that very painful.
Things I hadn’t even thought of yet were perfect common sense. Again this was a great way to end a long day
of training when everyone was pretty fatigued and (if the truth be known)
probably just wanted to jell out, but this class really brought the energy back
up and I think made the event even more enjoyable for everyone that
participated.”
Dieter pinning arm with Bicep/Deltoid crush |
Granted my young
students aren’t old enough to be going to bars (most aren’t even in high school
yet) but they are old enough to be picked on in the lunch room and Dieter’s
material here helped me to think about how to present this type of material
(toned down of course) in the future to my students. Likewise the idea of baseball and club
defenses that were inspired by him have already found there way into our
program here, as well as the ball point pen defense.