Airyu

Kalis Ilustrisimo Seminar review

Friday March 12th :

After his San Jose leg, Raymond flew in to Manchester NH for another three days of intense training. After a nice dinner, Ray and I headed over to our school (www.Bujinkandojo.net) for a an update on new evolutions to the Kalis Ilustrisimo, FFS. Ray is a “hands on” teacher and as we covered the new material, he would drill it one on one, until he knew it was installed, and then we would hone it in sparring. This short session lasted for 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Saturday March 13th:

The seminar started with a review of the basics of Kalis Ilustrisimo, FFS. This included:
a) Fighting position
b) Grip (we were working on reverse grip material)
c) Non-telegraphic striking (aka. THE CANNON)
d) Footwork
e) “Elastico” movement
f) X – block (no it is not the Karate X block...)
g) Baiting and feints

The second part of this seminar was on the two handed ‘entrenching tool’ method that Raymond has been teaching to the military. Of course during this whole time, Raymond demonstrates one on one with all the attendees. This included several sparring matches as well as drill enhancements. After a nice dinner and some shopping, we headed back for another 3 hours of drilling and sparring with Raymond a small group of participants.

Sunday March 14th:

As the last day started up, Raymond wanted to ensure new material would be presented to repeat attendees, as well as a review of material covered the day before. So, we started off with a review of:
a) Non telegraphic striking
b) Footwork
c) Forward grip of the blade
d) Several countering methods including the single hand tap, blade tap (lead and rear hand, blade containing or not)
e) More baiting/feints, as well as new counters

We then moved on to Bandana/Flexible weapons approach vs a single blade attack. Of course, this lead to more sparring with all of the new material. As well as a final wrap up of the two handed method vs the knife, in various sparring matches. Later that evening after a great Chicken dinner at my home, Raymond shared some old videos of Tatang Ilustrisimo, training with Raymond, as well as a live machete practice session with Tatang and Master Diego!! Awesome footage!

For those who haven’t attended one of Raymond’s seminars, I highly recommend you try! You will definitely come away with real world applicable material!

Gumagalang
Guro Steve Lefebvre

www.Bujinkandojo.net

For more information on Raymond please go to : http://www.users.bigpond.com/finehoned/