wes tasker
06-14-2008, 11:14 PM
This is another article I wrote detailing the training pedagogy of Pekiti Tirsia as I see it. Mileage may vary, and please use your imagination with the diagram where arrows connect the Basics to Drillsand Techniques - a two-way arrow connecting Drills and Techniques - and arrows connecting Drills and Techniques to Sparring.... Thank you.
The Four Corners of Pekiti Tirsia Kali
“The test of truth which I advocate is the idea of a whole
of knowledge as wide and consistent as may be. In
speaking of system I mean always the union of these
two aspects, and this is the sense and only sense in which
I’m defending coherence.”
- F. H. Bradley
A martial art can be viewed as effective (using whatever criteria one wants…) by looking at two aspects. The first is technical content and the second is the training method in which that content is then put to use. It is very common for a combative martial art to become ineffective due to the loss of the training methods. This can occur due to any number of reasons (advancing martial technology, transformation into self-development, incomplete transmission, social change, etc.) – but one reason that is prevalent is that the outward form of technical movements, forms, drills, techniques, etc. are relatively easy to practice and learn over time; whereas the training methods that make them effective usually involve sparring, contact, and risk and are therefore likely to be discarded first. Especially by people who do not need the art to defend themselves.
From my own experience, I have seen this happen to both the Chinese/Indonesian art of Kuntao and the Indonesian art of Pentjak Silat. Both arts have systems that contain devastating catalogs of techniques, strategies, principles, mechanics, etc.; but have suffered in the last 50 years from a loss of the training methods that made them so effective. What are left are forms being practiced with immense potential by people who lack the keys to make them work. On the flip side, we are witnessing a “post-modern martial arts” movement that claims to start from training methods and then plugs in disparate arts and technical content to fill the gaps and uses athletic conditioning to hold them together.
The title of this article comes from the idea that Pekiti Tirsia Kali still maintains a very effective and broad range of technical content and a four-fold training method of gaining effectiveness. These four areas are: Basics, Drills, Techniques, and Sparring. Each of these four areas can be further subdivided into three aspects (yes I know, it adds up to 12 – purely an accident I assure you….). In a complete outline it looks like this:
I – Basics
a – footwork
b – weapon handling
c – combining
II – Drills
a – static
b – variables
c – combination / lead-in
III – Techniques
a – standard
b – variables
c – essence
IV – Sparring
a – symmetrical
b – asymmetrical
c – fixed
Figure I illustrates the idea that Basics inform both Drills and Techniques – which in turn inform each other. Drills and Techniques then in turn inform Sparring. A more detailed explanation follows.
Basics consists of footwork – how to move, gain position, and generate power, weapon handling – how to properly use a weapon (whether it’s the hand, single stick, double stick, etc.) and then how to combine them effectively. This sets the foundation to be able to then properly do Drills and Techniques. Drills give you base skills out of motion as well as the idea of technique-counter-recounter. Techniques explore the “what-if” factor in a more static environment, but give the practitioner the breadth where the Drills give the depth. One can then start applying the varying “ideas” learned in Techniques within the more dynamic environment of the Drills. As an example one practices the three sets of Solo Baston Contradas Techniques within the Drills of 1 & 2 Sparring (with Seguidas added for set III) and the Contradas Passing Drill. The three sets of Solo Baston Recontras Techniques can be practiced within the Drills of 1 & 2 Sparring and Segang Labo.
Drills themselves can be practiced in three different ways. The first way is static, which simply means the standard method of doing the drill (not standing still without footwork…). The second way adds variables, once fluency is gained in the static method of the drill, which makes it less predictable. These variables must, in the beginning, be covered within the purview of the drill. Lastly, one should then start combining drills and flow from one to another as a variable happens that takes one out of one particular drill into another. There is no greater example then the drills of 64 attacks. A practitioner should be able to flow from any one of the 10 drills to the other as the situation dictates:
1) Four Wall
2) Umbrella
3) Tapping on 5, 8, & 9 (dakup y punyo)
4) Chekete and Echekete
5) Break-in & Break-out
6) Segang Labo
7) Outside Tapping
8) 7 Attacks
9) Clock System
10) Florete
Techniques can also be practiced in three ways. The first is the standard version of the technique. The second adds variables. For example; what to do if the opponent’s second baston strike in Espada Y Daga Set I Contradas I is a two rather than a one. The third way to practice the techniques is a natural outgrowth of playing around with the variables, which is to discover what the “essence” of the technique is. Discovering what the technique is really teaching permits the outward form of the technique to take on myriad appearances while still holding true to its essential principles and concepts.
Lastly, Sparring’s three categories are symmetrical, asymmetrical, and fixed. In symmetrical sparring both parties start aware of the other and then go, much like a duel. Asymmetrical sparring is basic self-defense scenario training, where you try to simulate as much as possible a random attack and/or fighting circumstance. Finally the sparring can be “fixed” which means that there are rules about what can and cannot be done. An example would be solo baston largo sparring where the only permissible target is the stick hand and arm.
These four aspects function as a synergistic whole. If one is missing, the whole system falls apart. Without Basics the whole thing just plain won’t work. If you leave out Drills then your Techniques have no intermediary form of expression and will not readily appear in Sparring. If one leaves out Techniques, then the skills from the Drills may appear in Sparring, but will have a finite amount of expression without the breadth of Techniques showing possibilities. Lastly, without Sparring of some sort, the Basics, Drills, and Techniques exist in the abstract with no proving ground and dynamic form of practice in a non-compliant atmosphere.
Pekiti Tirsia Kali has great breadth in its technical content, matched only by the depth of its training methods. Only by engaging the integral whole of the four aspects of Basics, Drills, Techniques, and Sparring can one truly mine the vast potential that exists in the system – and not leave it to be a style devoid of use and dynamics collecting dust on the shelf of once-great-systems lost in the timidity of style collection rather than style application.
Figure I
Basics
Drills Techniques
Sparring
The Four Corners of Pekiti Tirsia Kali
“The test of truth which I advocate is the idea of a whole
of knowledge as wide and consistent as may be. In
speaking of system I mean always the union of these
two aspects, and this is the sense and only sense in which
I’m defending coherence.”
- F. H. Bradley
A martial art can be viewed as effective (using whatever criteria one wants…) by looking at two aspects. The first is technical content and the second is the training method in which that content is then put to use. It is very common for a combative martial art to become ineffective due to the loss of the training methods. This can occur due to any number of reasons (advancing martial technology, transformation into self-development, incomplete transmission, social change, etc.) – but one reason that is prevalent is that the outward form of technical movements, forms, drills, techniques, etc. are relatively easy to practice and learn over time; whereas the training methods that make them effective usually involve sparring, contact, and risk and are therefore likely to be discarded first. Especially by people who do not need the art to defend themselves.
From my own experience, I have seen this happen to both the Chinese/Indonesian art of Kuntao and the Indonesian art of Pentjak Silat. Both arts have systems that contain devastating catalogs of techniques, strategies, principles, mechanics, etc.; but have suffered in the last 50 years from a loss of the training methods that made them so effective. What are left are forms being practiced with immense potential by people who lack the keys to make them work. On the flip side, we are witnessing a “post-modern martial arts” movement that claims to start from training methods and then plugs in disparate arts and technical content to fill the gaps and uses athletic conditioning to hold them together.
The title of this article comes from the idea that Pekiti Tirsia Kali still maintains a very effective and broad range of technical content and a four-fold training method of gaining effectiveness. These four areas are: Basics, Drills, Techniques, and Sparring. Each of these four areas can be further subdivided into three aspects (yes I know, it adds up to 12 – purely an accident I assure you….). In a complete outline it looks like this:
I – Basics
a – footwork
b – weapon handling
c – combining
II – Drills
a – static
b – variables
c – combination / lead-in
III – Techniques
a – standard
b – variables
c – essence
IV – Sparring
a – symmetrical
b – asymmetrical
c – fixed
Figure I illustrates the idea that Basics inform both Drills and Techniques – which in turn inform each other. Drills and Techniques then in turn inform Sparring. A more detailed explanation follows.
Basics consists of footwork – how to move, gain position, and generate power, weapon handling – how to properly use a weapon (whether it’s the hand, single stick, double stick, etc.) and then how to combine them effectively. This sets the foundation to be able to then properly do Drills and Techniques. Drills give you base skills out of motion as well as the idea of technique-counter-recounter. Techniques explore the “what-if” factor in a more static environment, but give the practitioner the breadth where the Drills give the depth. One can then start applying the varying “ideas” learned in Techniques within the more dynamic environment of the Drills. As an example one practices the three sets of Solo Baston Contradas Techniques within the Drills of 1 & 2 Sparring (with Seguidas added for set III) and the Contradas Passing Drill. The three sets of Solo Baston Recontras Techniques can be practiced within the Drills of 1 & 2 Sparring and Segang Labo.
Drills themselves can be practiced in three different ways. The first way is static, which simply means the standard method of doing the drill (not standing still without footwork…). The second way adds variables, once fluency is gained in the static method of the drill, which makes it less predictable. These variables must, in the beginning, be covered within the purview of the drill. Lastly, one should then start combining drills and flow from one to another as a variable happens that takes one out of one particular drill into another. There is no greater example then the drills of 64 attacks. A practitioner should be able to flow from any one of the 10 drills to the other as the situation dictates:
1) Four Wall
2) Umbrella
3) Tapping on 5, 8, & 9 (dakup y punyo)
4) Chekete and Echekete
5) Break-in & Break-out
6) Segang Labo
7) Outside Tapping
8) 7 Attacks
9) Clock System
10) Florete
Techniques can also be practiced in three ways. The first is the standard version of the technique. The second adds variables. For example; what to do if the opponent’s second baston strike in Espada Y Daga Set I Contradas I is a two rather than a one. The third way to practice the techniques is a natural outgrowth of playing around with the variables, which is to discover what the “essence” of the technique is. Discovering what the technique is really teaching permits the outward form of the technique to take on myriad appearances while still holding true to its essential principles and concepts.
Lastly, Sparring’s three categories are symmetrical, asymmetrical, and fixed. In symmetrical sparring both parties start aware of the other and then go, much like a duel. Asymmetrical sparring is basic self-defense scenario training, where you try to simulate as much as possible a random attack and/or fighting circumstance. Finally the sparring can be “fixed” which means that there are rules about what can and cannot be done. An example would be solo baston largo sparring where the only permissible target is the stick hand and arm.
These four aspects function as a synergistic whole. If one is missing, the whole system falls apart. Without Basics the whole thing just plain won’t work. If you leave out Drills then your Techniques have no intermediary form of expression and will not readily appear in Sparring. If one leaves out Techniques, then the skills from the Drills may appear in Sparring, but will have a finite amount of expression without the breadth of Techniques showing possibilities. Lastly, without Sparring of some sort, the Basics, Drills, and Techniques exist in the abstract with no proving ground and dynamic form of practice in a non-compliant atmosphere.
Pekiti Tirsia Kali has great breadth in its technical content, matched only by the depth of its training methods. Only by engaging the integral whole of the four aspects of Basics, Drills, Techniques, and Sparring can one truly mine the vast potential that exists in the system – and not leave it to be a style devoid of use and dynamics collecting dust on the shelf of once-great-systems lost in the timidity of style collection rather than style application.
Figure I
Basics
Drills Techniques
Sparring