Giron escrima seminar at Muay Thai Academy

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, or Northern California for that matter, this is a very rare opportunity to get exposed to a fairly closed system of escrima, the dominant Filipino style of fighting. Giron Escrima maintains a pretty small community of practitioners, most of them based in the Bay Area and central valley regions of California. Bahala Na Original Grion Escrima Federation is the governing body that works to strictly maintain this system in its purest form.

The system's founder, Master Michael Giron learned from his father, Leo Giron, who had proven this style of escrima through his experiences fighting the Japanese during World War II. Leo passed on his real world lessons of jungle warfare to his son, Michael, who carries on the tradition.

The seminar will be held on April 30th at the Muay Thai Academy International in Santa Clara, CA. This also happens to be where Daniel Sambrano and I both teach. And, no, we do not make ANY money off of these seminars. We rarely, rarely bring in outsiders to instruct clinics at the Muay Thai Academy for a number of reasons: quality control is probably at the top of that list. If you're into escrima or arnis, or if you're just interested in exploring other martial arts, this is a great opportunity. Here are the grizzly details:

Date: Saturday April 30, 2011
Time: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm please arrive at least 15 minutes early. Late arrivals will be beaten.

Location: Muay Thai Academy International
1500 Norman Ave
Santa Clara, CA

What will be covered:
- Practical application of blade concepts
- Close quarter combat knife techniques
- Defense against knife attack (armed & open hand)
- Vital disabling, striking targets
- Practical daily training exercises

Cost:
$55 for early registraion
$65 for walk-ins

There are only 35 spots available for this seminar. RSVP with Jacob Ragsdale
jacobsiunim@yahoo.com

You can also RSVP on Facebook if you're too lazy to open up your email client. But you'd have to be rediculously lazy...

Drinkng and knife fighting doesn't mix

A recent article in the Telgraph reported that knives, and yes, swords were used in 58 per cent of all homicides in Scotland for the period 2008-2009. What more, the article ties Scotland's drinking culture to the marked increase in murders by blade. This correlation between the murder rate increase and alcohol consumption certainly put to rest my curiosity concerning sword-related deaths.

Here are a couple key take aways from the story:

- More than 80 per cent of victims were killed by someone they knew and 41 per cent of those accused were drunk or on drugs at the time of the crime.

- Hitting and kicking someone to death was the method used against 10 per cent of victims, with eight per cent poisoned and a further eight per cent struck with a blunt instrument.

- Five people were strangled, three were killed by fire, two were shot and one was drowned.

- The profile of victims and those accused of killing them showed men in the prime of their life most likely to be killed by another male fitting this description.

- The statistics also revealed that 30 per cent of those accused of committing homicide were drunk and six per cent were on drink and drugs.

Knives, straight blade razors, and other improvised blades are easy to conceal and can be carried into most social establishments (bars, pubs, night clubs). A guy with a knife doesn't have to be a kali expert to inflict severe injuries, and no amount of testosterone can shield you from a knife attack. My advice, based on my own experience, is to check your ego at the door when you head out for a night with the guys. Ignore the impulse to puff out your chest and bump shoulders with random guys that you pass on the street. It's not worth it. You certainly don't want to piss off a drunk, sword weidling Scotsman!

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/7300139/Record-knife-killings-in-Scotland.html