Training Kalis Ilustrisimo in Paris

What a treat to spend some time learning privately from Guro Fabrizio Filograna of Kalis Ilustrisimo while I was in Paris! He led me through some of KI's Combate General techniques, & I did my best to fumble through them. After watching his videos online, I got to take his 2016 workshop, and loved it.  So obviously, when I knew I would be in Paris, I had to seek him out for more.

We know that KI is a big influence on the Inosanto FMA blend (Regino Ilustrisimo was Guro Dan's teacher), but to get to dive into Tatang Ilustrisimo's material unfiltered was a lot of fun. I got a little of it through Guro Burton Richardson and Guro Keith Davis, but not a whole lot. Next time I'll ask about any differences in the way Tatang expressed it versus Regino.

The techniques he chose for me were excellent. Precise in targeting, footwork, & execution. 15 degrees here, 120 degrees there- it was nice to be held to the details, as well as have it explained & demonstrated WHY it is done that way. The techniques were aggressive & unrelenting, as this was battlefield instead of dueling material.

Thoughts on training- the equipment makes the training. Without the safety gear, you'll never feel the pressure from the blade during the redirects or the pins.  I felt awkward and sloppy, and even the weight of the sword was an issue for me. (Holding the blade extended activated the tendonitis in my elbow, resulting in some clumsy & weak-looking cutting motions, as you'll see in the video).

 Guro Dan always tells us "know the difference between blade material & stick material." In FMA, many times you hear that the stick teaches the blade & vice versa. On a base, gross motor motion level, yes, but once you go beyond the surface, they move very differently.  And I don't have to tell you that a good FMA practitioner should research both.

I highly recommend Guro Fabrizio for anyone interested in researching Kalis Ilustrisimo. He was chosen by KI's archivist, GM Romeo Macapagal to pass on the system, & Guro Fabrizio does it justice.

Here are his California workshops:

Sunday, October 15^th, Butterfield Park in Walnut, hosted by Guro Steve Del Castillo

Tuesday, October 17^th, Pacific Martial Arts, Fresno Hosted by Matt Smith

Saturday, October 22^nd, Huntington Beach, hosted by Guro Ron Reekers

Also find him at:

Youtube: Fabrizio Filograna

Instagram: pg_fabrizio_mansur

Facebook: Fabrizio Filograna

Foreign Language Immersion and Training

So last month I went to Europe (mainly France), and it dawned on me how much trying to speak a foreign language is like training.  I took classes in French in high school, and at UCLA, and really haven’t had many opportunities to practice since then.  I did a quick trip through Europe in 2012 and spent a total of 2.5 days in France.  I guess I did ok, was able to communicate enough to cab drivers and train employees and get where I needed to go.

Fast forward a few years later.  I met my current girlfriend, and found out that she is half-French (US born).  Her mom speaks a mix of French and English to her. On occasion we’ll say a few words to each other in French, but nowhere close to what I would need to become fluent. Before this trip, I asked her to speak more of it to me, but still a few phrases here and there aren’t going to have a long-lasting benefit. Two weeks before the trip I started to watch French movies or put on French subtitles on DVDs. 

On this trip I met a lot of her extended family.  Some of her family speaks a little English, but some of them don’t.  I’m now completely immersed, and only hearing English when my girlfriend spoke to me.  To my surprise and delight, a lot of it came back, and within a few days I was getting through 3 hour family dinner conversations without hearing or speaking English.

Obviously there were many words or phrases I didn’t know.  But after hearing them a couple of times, you start to recognize them.  If I stopped to ask what a word meant, I’d try to repeat it or use it later on.  Sometimes it took a time or two, or other times, I couldn’t remember the word for the life of me.  Three, four, five times I’d ask what the word for “faucet” was (robineille).  It wouldn’t stick. I was hearing it a lot when asking for water, and in Europe you often get asked if you want it sparkling or flat / tap. All I could remember was that it started with an “R”.  Eventually I’d start to remember it with some effort.  Then after week 3, it started to come faster and faster.  

So what does this have to do with training? Whether it’s learning a new technique or dealing with something in sparring, the learning process is similar.  If you’ve never seen a technique or get hit with something new in sparring, it feels like it comes out of nowhere.  You are unable to recognize the cues, or remember the details that go into it.  The more you get exposed to it, the quicker recognition comes.  You still might get hit by it, but now it’s because you couldn’t access the solution quick enough.  If you don’t see it for a while, you’re back to square one. But with regular or constant exposure to it, recognition becomes familiarity.  After familiarity the learning comes execution. Starting to do the technique better and better against a cooperative partner. Once this is done, adding it into whatever flow drill it can work in. Then comes pressure testing in free flow drills at slow and faster speeds.  And last comes sparring and the trial and error of finding out how (or if) it works (or how to defend) against an uncooperative partner.  Many martial arts practitioners never get to this phase with their techniques. In sparring, you might get it to work or deal with it once in a while, often, or at will.  It might get incorporated into your repertoire, it might not. You won’t know unless you research it and go through the process. It might just become one of those techniques you’ve seen that you teach to others.  Which is also beneficial, because as teachers, your job is to provide a variety of techniques since you never know what techniques will work for each student.

It’s just like learning a new word or phrase in a language. Learn a word, recognize it, understand it in context, try using it in simple phrases. Move into more complex phrases and maybe later freely add it in conversation when you need it.  Similarly, social swing dances are improvised, and adding a new move from a class into a social dance has an identical process to sparring.  Except you can’t stop the dance.  But we’ll get into dancing in another post.

Until next time, keep training!