Hi Yoda, So i've been away for a couple of weeks and taken a couple of days to read through threads since I was last trying to escape my working day... It seems that no-one has really asked you about the training you did with the Dog Bros other than digestive? I may be wrong or I might be the only one interested... Anything to say about the following? 1) The Seven Ranges theory, "the triangle from the third dimension", the footwork matrix and their role in the logic of the system. What are the 7 ranges and how do they compare to the usual 3/4 that we all know and love? 2) The Snaggletooth Drill: What is shown on DBMA#3 "Combining Stick & Footwork is only the beginning of this drill. So we've (some of us) seen the vid so what's the rest? 3) The Attacking Blocks Drill and Stick-Clinch. Any cool moves to share? 4) Staff for RCSF and for the street. The 'street' mungers are dying to know... 5) Kali Tudo (tm) Is this basically stick-grappling but updated due to recent interest in Vale Tudo? Anything special stick out? 6) Stretching with the Staff and Stick Something that I'm defintiely interested in and have tried to find out more about. I think this is based on the Dhanda Yoga or something similar - Master Gyi right? Did you cover this in any depth (or in fact I'm still interested in any shallows) as I've not really found out anything other than minor facts i.e. the Bando link. Also I've not actually ever been in contact with anyone that's done this at all. I can sense that you're gonna tell me to save my cash and go myself aren't you? Anyway I would definetly be interested in hearing more about your training in LA and less about the food as I'm trying to lose my post-holiday gut too! Cheers, Dred
i'm not Yoda, but i know the dhanda material is from Dr. Gyi. i had a seminar in which he taught the 4 winds staff form and for warmup we did some dhanda stretches. basically the yoga asanas are helped with the use of the staff. i do not know the specific yoga asana name offhand, but one where your legs are in the bow and arrow stance, to borrow CMA's term, and your arms are together stretched above your head and your head is looking up. the hands are holding the staff with the staff being vertical and touching the ground. it was just an inkling, but maybe Yoda will be able to expound on more. if you ever get a chance to attend any seminar of Dr. Gyi, not just the healing aspects, ATTEND!! edit: i attended a Guro Crafty Dog staff seminar and he opened my eyes on "reverse staff". imagine you had a mop to use. most people would use the mophead end facing the opponent. Guro Crafty taught to use the mophead in the rear. this was sparked when Guro Inosanto said to Guro Crafty that there was merit in reverse staff.
Hmmn nice, StickG! The position sounds like one of the Warrior asanas that I've come across in my limited exposure to Yoga. I'd like to see how the staff/sticks come into it first hand really. I really like Yoga but would like to expereince forms that were more MA-specific and this sounds like just the thing. I quite like Ashtanga as its pretty much all the stretching you could wish for plus a really good bodyweight workout too - I'd like to see it cut down into shorter workouts aimed more at the MA'ist though as I can't often justify 1.5 hours when I could be working on so many other areas of MA's that I'm deficient in. Any enterpising Yoga / MA instructors out there taking notice? Basically we need a Scrapper on the Yoga path.
I had the honor of training with Dr. Gyi for 2 days in Mi. I would highly recommend going & training with him, not only for the yoga, but for his knowledge. He is truly incredible, not just for his age, but for his insight into stickfighting & more importantly, his understanding of the human condition. Peace & HArmony always
Hi Dred -sorry I’ve taken so long to get to this reply! There are two ranges outside of what we traditionally know as long range… Snake Range: This is the range before any contact is made. A much neglected range at which footwork & entry skills become paramount. As I was told as the camp – nobody gets hit at this range – but at this range it is often decided WHO gets hit! The term Snake is used to describe evasive & protective hand movement – it has nothing to do with disarming. Weapon Range: This is where your weapons can make contact but you are still out of largo i.e. hand hitting range. This and Snake Range become more pronounced as the weapons get longer i.e., Staff. There are two ranges inside of what we normally call “Corto” range. Clinch range: This is inside of effective striking range where standing grappling tie ups & Clinchwork occur. Groundfighting range: On the ground. More footwork, more progression to take a guy from never having held a stick before to being able to enter without getting his head bashed. Use of double stick & staff too. Not until I’m more comfortable with the material. Good use of the tight overhook or what they call “The Rico” and takedowns off it Lots of power striking with the emphasis on sustainable pressure so as not to let the guy crash inside the arc of the staff. Specifics of using a light/ heavy staff – blunt/ pointed (i.e. a snapped off broom etc) Kali Tudo (tm) is the unarmed application of FMA principles like zoning & triangulation into the MMA arena. Very cool We didn’t get time to do any of this – but yes, it comes from Dr Gyi. Yep – if you can raise some cash by September you can come with me
Hey Yoda, That's great - thanks for taking the time to reply. I need to digest this all a bit more of course to make any sense of it (boss hovering too close for comfort at the moment). The 7 ranges theory is interesting indeed. Do you see any advantage in splitting ranges up even further? Is this just a way of classifying techniques even further or perhaps more importantly in devising training methods for each range? Thinking of it that way I can see the advantage in that you can work a specific range and attributes necessary for each with some precision. i.e. you might be great at stalking and set-ups in the snake range like Top Dog but lack the techniques for breaking in successfully. You could then spend soem time working specifically on that. As for the weapons range I had never really thought about this before but it seems obvious when considering longer weapons. I need to think about this more and begin some staff-work in earnest. As for the 2 additional corto ranges how does this work? i.e. is it: 1. Snake 2. Weapons 3. Largo 4. Medio 5. Corto 6. Clinch 7. Groundfighting Personally I'm still pretty bad at 3 ranges so this just adds another 4 for me to worry about! Also it funny becasue I've been putting in some work recently to 'blend' the ranges rather than trying to think of them as being distinct i.e. now I'm doing largo techniques, now I'm doing corto if that makes sense? Its been a while since I've watched the DB vids so I will have to get back to you about the old Snaggletooth drills when I can think a bit more. Certainly footwork is high on my agenda thesedays and I have it in the back of my head to formulate some drills from my notes (this isn't somethign we do in isolation and it might be of benefit to me). I've been playing with the hour-glass pattern from the Atinza guys recently and I like it a lot! Once I get some decent drills and practice then I'll start adding in some stick drill (single, double & staff/heavy weapon). I've been neglecting my stickwork of late due to grappling and Thai mania!!!! Sounds like I coudl do with some Kali tudo (tm). I have a friend that wants to compete in Vale Tudo using Kali principles... not sure how his development is going but certainly not as developed as the DB's (I don't hink he even knows of them). Shame about the yoga/stetching stuff - as you know I'm looking for some MA-specific yoga (not so sutble hint to anyone skilled in both out there). One final thing I really wish I was ready for that! Cash is always tight but I think its the skill level that I really need to work on at the moment. Its a long way to go when I probably don't own a 10th of my own intructors stuff! I was wondering as you're a Doce Pares BB do you know if Guro Guba teaches in London? I heard a rumour but can't substantiate it. I wonder if studying a FMA directly would bring me on quicker than the JKD route... I thought you might have some opinion on this as you seem to have done this yourself i.e. JKD + FMA as distinct training entities/paradigms?
Absolutely - it's really opened my eyes to the importance of what happens before contact. I already work at clinch & ground ranges. That's it - yes. Of course these are guidelines only - ranges merge & shift depending on the weaponry & individuals wielding them. In a broader sense there are really one two ranges - fighting & not fighting Sure he does - check out the clubs listing on www.docepares.co.uk It worked for me
Hi Dred, Just hosted GM Guba, and Jim Smith. According to Jim it can cost over £1000 just to join the 3rd Space gym, then its about £5 per class! GM Guba has at least one student there who only joined the gym to train with him - dedication or what? Bill Lowery
Hi Dave, Superb, Danny was really on form. We covered a plethora (good word that) of material - single stick included; amarra; disarms; locking; tres-tres & cinco-cinco: double stick included; twirling; seyes-seyes; otso-otso; diyes-diyes: we also covered tabak toyok (nunchaku for the uniniated); full-contact demo; corto-kurbada. The Friday evening knife course went down very well. Mostly Jujitsu people but some of my regular students too. I had six people grade on the weekend; three white belts and three yellow belts. GM Danny has graded me to 1st Degree Black Belt Ben Creighton (know him?) has moved back to the North East, and with his championship win under his belt, has agreed to help build up the full-contact side of the club, so we'll be looking at the tournament circuit soon ;-). All told an excellent weekend, with a number of questions regarding the syllabus answered. Cheers Bill
Dhanda or Danda is populared by Matt Furrey as "Hindu Push Up's". danda in Sanskrit/hindi means "punishment" which really is... it's quite hard to do it... the excercise StickGrappler said is variation of some Yoga Excercise(basically Surya Namaskar)... {Any enterpising Yoga / MA instructors out there taking notice? Basically we need a Scrapper on the Yoga path.} hmmm i hav more than 8 yrs with Yoga, used to spend time practicing n teaching... now i dont... -TkdWarrior-
Sounds like a good weekend Bill. LOL! Which versions did he fancy this time - don't think I've seen the same ones twice Congratulations! What did that entail? Was it done at the seminar venue or in private? I hope it was as hard as my 1st Degree test was - 4 hours!!!! What did you do for your own Sayaw?
Hi Dave, I'll ahve to review the tape to give exact versions - but it did clear up one question - When it says two versions of these drills, which two do you want?!!!! The grading was done over the three days, so I can safely say it wasn't anywhere near as intense as yours!
TKDWarrior, yes the hindu ones are also known as dhanda, but the term as used by Dr. Gyi doesn't refere to that one exercise/asana. it's taken to mean a group of asanas using the staff to assist in the asanas. asanas is my usage of the term, Dr. Gyi did not use that.
Regarding Dr. Gyi & Dhanda Yoga If I may, some of you had questions concerning the Dhanda Yoga that Dr. Gyi is currently teaching. I speak with a little authority, as we've had him to our place three times now, and have been regulars in Chicago for his seminars at the Degerberg Academy. We also offer weekly classes in both Letha and Dhanda Yoga. There are several systems that Dr. Gyi has shown us at seminars, whether they exist as their own unique systems, or as part of a larger Letha Yoga system is still a topic of some debate among his followers in the Midwest. The systems included: 1. Letha Yoga - Partner based system of stretching, manipulation and alignment. 2. Dhanda Yoga - Solo and Partner-assisted postures which make use of a 4-6' staff. 3. Dhota Stick Massage - Solo and Partner-assisted forms of massage using a thin bamboo rod. 4. Healing Stone Massage - Meditation and Massage practices which make use of a smooth palm-sized stone. 5. Min Zin - This is the Pranayama or Chi Gung aspect of Letha Yoga, which involves different mental exercises combined with disciplined breathing patterns. 6. Longyi Yoga - Which involves the use of a scarf, belt, sarong or rope to assist in the stretches (both with and without a partner). The Dhota routine is quite possibly one of the more useful and directly applicable aspects that we've learned, for use by FMA practitioners, as it can be done with a regular Kali stick (although the bamboo does work better). The term Dhanda means "Staff" in Sanskrit, and this is commonly seen as a metaphor for the spine in most Yoga systems. Throughout the practice of these postures (which closely resemble Hatha Yoga's postures), the practitioner is taught to be conscious of their posture and breathing, balance and muscular tension for the duration of each pose. Dhanda Yoga is taught a few postures at a time at first, then these are linked into a form, with variations for different levels of skill. There are 3 forms, which have recently been recorded for a DVD slide show format. There are also Warrior Staff exercises for developing strength and balance, many of which make use of a partner. These can be amazingly grueling. The Dhanda is also used as a lever and a handle in the Letha Yoga system. If you have further questions about this stuff, let 'em rip. - Moe.
