under the moonlight

Guro Rocky blogs a bit about Kali seminar Wednesday night. And everyone is still wired and giddy.

Kali seminar is like having a family party, but a party where you might see folks you haven't seen for a while, and you meet their families and kids and wives/husbands. Oh but then you pick up sticks and weapons and you go spar with your cousin and uncles and aunts. Yeah, it's like that.

Tuhan holds monthly seminars where he covers a specific weapon. This month was backhand knife and backhand cane. Guro Roland said bringing a cane onto a plane is legal. OK maybe I can't get away with it just yet, but he's faked it.

Kali seminar everyone is invited. You can even bring friends from other styles. The Guros with classes encourage their students to go. It's fun, you get to interact with people from the different schools. They move differently sometimes, but in a familiar way.

A string of white lights rims the patio roof, a few garage lamps, a near full moon bring more light to the backyard, yet the multiple bodies of 20 people create shadows, where your eyes betray you. Everyone is paying a bit more attention. Tuhan divides the students amongst the various Guros/Guras in attendance. Students get to learn from someone other than their regular teacher. They get a different perspective on the same thing.

Oh, but people just can't wait to see the Guros/Guras go at it. It's where we all get to see the fighting at a different level, a higher level, that just takes your breath away. Forget Ultimate Fighting, forget pay-per-view, forget what you think you ever saw in the movies. This stuff here, will make you speechless.

We each have our different style, became good at different things, prefer different ways of moving. But there's always a bit of Tuhan in each of us. I've been in Kali for 10 years. The other teachers have seen me go from the young college student who'd never picked up a stick, to a young woman on the verge of marriage with her own classes and students. We know how each other moves. So, when we come to spar it's even that much more challenging to try to "get one in" on someone who may know you perhaps more than you know yourself. At the same time, we're able to take more risks, go for the "deadlier" stuff because 1) we don't mean to kill each other, and 2) the other will try to catch us, compensate for us, when we err. We have given up our bodies for the sake of each other's learning. There is a trust, a respect, and honor we grant in doing so.

Essentially, when everyone is told to sit down. Tuhan will call folks to the floor. He'll tell them what weapons to use and how many people you'll go against. Sometimes it's one, or two, maybe three person multiple attack. Sticks then openhand, knife, staff, sword. Doesn't matter. Defend knife open hand. Staff against stick. Someone will be sent to attack you.

The students of course are always excited to watch the Guros/Guras go at it. There's a bit of friendly competition. They want to know how good their teacher is. They want to see what they are capable of that only sparring at this kind of level can produce. They want to watch the techniques that come out and think, "I want to do that one day!"

I remember in class years ago, when we would watch Guro Rocky, Guro Marcel and the other guys spar with themselves and with Tuhan. I remember watching and saying to myself, "THAT! I want THAT! I want to DO THAT!" There is no way to describe "THAT." You just feel it in your heart, you know. And it makes you train more because you are driven for that thing.

Frankly, our students want to beat us one day. They might not admit it now, but they do. I can see it in their eyes. They calculate how much longer, what skills they think they might need to get to that level. I know, because I still do that myself.

A few of the students get to show their mettle as well. Sometimes they spar each other. More often they get sent out to be the "punching dummy" the attackers for the Guros/Guras and Tuhan to do the techniques. "Punching dummy" is not a bad gig. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The thing about the Guros/Guras is how effortlessly precise all of them are. We are very good at what we do: the weapons, the kicks, the punches, the locks. Which doesn't mean we still don't have alot to learn, because usually, Tuhan will then step in and show us, indeed, there is much to learn.

While the Guros/Guras feel their students watching them, the students in turn want to go out there and do something good. They want to perform well to show their teacher and everyone else how much they've learned. My students tell me this. They tell me of the pressure they feel of wanting to do well, to represent not only themselves, but their peers and their teacher. They want to do me proud.

Afterwards, there is time to chat to catch up on people's lives, eat some snacks, see pictures of their kids, learn about the travels they've taken. It's funny really. For as intimately as I know how many of these people move, I know very few of their last names. I only know most of them by their first names. We find out which students study under which teachers, how long people have been studying.

When they return to their classes, the students compare notes, replay the "spectacular" moves they witnessed, "Did you see him drop? Did you see when he flew across the room? SWEEEEEEEEEEET!!!" They try to compare themselves to each other, to the Guros/Guras, to Tuhan. Figure out what they need to improve upon.

One of the new students who has not yet gone to seminar is listening to all this and asked about padding or armor? mouthpiece? helmet maybe? I tell him no, we don't use any of that. It's not necessary. We don't rely on the armor or padding to protect ourselves, we rely on each other. We trust that they will bring us to the brink of breaking a bone only to bring us back to safety. We trust that we will stop short from driving a blade past the skin. We respect the power of our weapons, the power of each other. Everyone watching out for each other, taking care of one another. No amount of padding, no number of rules can guarantee one's safety, so we don't believe in them, but what we do do, is believe in each other.