Guro, Sensei, Sifu. Sabom. All those titles have but one meaning – Teacher.
Honestly, this never even crossed my mind. The realisation that this is now a real thing only set in when I got my 4″ red stripe last year.
And it scared the hell out of me.
I started martial arts when I was 15. I stayed for 18 months doing high school TKD before I moved here.
Got slack for a few years, then did Ninjukai Taijutsu for 7 years. Yes, I still have the card that says I’m a ninja.
The buildup to this grading was mentally the hardest; it reminds me of my first ever martial arts grading: I have never graded to an instructor level before. The weight of the title, for me personally is not something to be looked upon lightly.
When anyone walks into a martial arts school, they will without a doubt, check out the instructors first Do they know what they are doing? Is this school worth my time, money and effort? When I wear this black shirt, do I have what it takes to represent this logo and the AMAF name? Those are the questions that have been bugging me for months.
My “martial arts upbringing” has been a very traditional one. Learning martial arts back home is a very different cultural experience. There is a massive emphasis on toughness, discipline and respect. You want to dish out hits. You better know how to take them too. If you are slack in class, expect a swift kick in the guts. And if you are late or God forbid, forget your belt. its knuckle pushups and running laps until the instructor has had enough of it.
What I learned from there though, is a ton of resilience, discipline, patience and respect. And I am still convinced we were the toughest and fittest high school students on the planet.
When I moved here, naturally I went searching for schools with similar styles and was very surprised with how different things are. Arrogance caused me to end up doing nothing for the next 3 years.
That is until I joined Ninjukal Taijutsu when I was 19. I enjoyed the holistic approach of physical and spiritual development. 7 years on and I end up leaving because shift work got in the way. Working security in nightclubs and then the casino kept me sharp and occasionally our team trained together and picked out things from different styles. We had people with various backgrounds. Karate, Jujitsu, MMA, BJC, Boxing, Krav Maga and other systems. There was even a Kyokushin sensei who was a direct lineage from Mas Oyama.
Then I got fat. My martial arts journey now moves into a phase where I was trying out moves from Tekken or other PlayStation games in the backyard with friends
Fast forward a few more years and I tore a disc in my lower back. For the next 6 years or so l was Quasimodo – the hunchback of Notre Dame. Can’t stand up straight, can’t sleep properly and some days the pain is so bad I can barely move. GM Mike, when I say I understand how you are feeling, I mean it. As a martial arts enthusiast and practitioner, | had to accept that there is a very real chance that I may never be able to do what I love the most.
It wasn’t until 2018 when I finally found a specialist who could fix me. After watching videos of Doug Marcaida for months, trying to emulate what he is doing I realized that I have no Idea. So I looked for a Kali school.
l used the kids as a test bed – watched how the instructors here teach them. After watching the adults class I realised that yes, these guys know what they are talking about. Great atmosphere, no ego (this is a big thing for me).
And now here we are. A little bit of blood, lots of sweat, but never shed a tear (except maybe when I got poked in the eye), From AMAF | learned that there is a lot more to martial arts than what I thought I knew.
Yes the sticks and espada y daga stuff are cool and the concepts I have learned from the physical drills are very useful and improves my ability to defend myself and those | value, but the most valuable of all I learned the value of leadership. I learned how to be a great training partner. I learned the value of NECWAS & PCP. Chunking I learned how to impart my knowledge to others in an effective and positive manner. This translates to my daily life as well as work life:
Thank you GM, for imparting your knowledge and bringing me up to this level:
Thank you Guro Smilee, for sacrificing your time, your pain and patience in helping me and polishing up my technique and positioning.
Thank you to Senpal/Coach/Kasama Blake for putting up with me in his MT classes and helping me push my limit,
Thank you to all the Guros, Kasamas and the rest of the team, both Kali and MT for being such amazing training partners and reminding me that I still have lots to learn.
Last but not least, my lovely and very patient family, for their support. My lovely wife, for her patience and understanding that I am not home because I am off doing what I love to do and having to spend her days off at home because I can’t see thanks to the eye injuries. My boys, for picking up the slack when I am too tired to do some of the house chores. Thank you.
