When I first move down to Dublin, one of the first things I made a promise to do was to bring Guru Richard to Dublin. It took alot longer than I had hope, but after 12 years I finally made it happen. For me Guru Richard is one of a few Gurus who I have been blessed by being able to learn from and give me my love of Silat. Not only is Guru Richard a Warrior but also a teacher and man of great insight and depth both physically and spiritually. He is the essence of Silat!
The first experience my students had with Guru was when he made a guest appearance at the children's grading, where 75 kids performed and tested in silat and self defence techniques, covering harimau aspects. Shortly after the test Guru Baharu Paul and his daughter performed a father and daughter silat demo, which show how the connections that silat can bring when families train together. Guru than made a speech to the kids explaining the benefits of silat training in school and family life and that they were the future of silat in Ireland. Shortly after this Guru Richard did a autograph signing and photograph session. The evening was finish off by a small gathering of Guru's in the club, meeting for dinner in my house and been able to listen to Guru Richard in a informal meeting.
Saturday brought unfortunately bad weather, but despite that still just over 50 students attended the seminar from all over Ireland and even one person from America, and it was great to see old friends again. Guru Richard started the day off by teaching Auto response drills to most common street attacks, learning how to move off the center line, breaking and grappling techniques, harimau Elbow and Knee techniques. Guru Richard went into the deep understanding of how to use and overcome fear, and how harimau is the femine science of combat. Sunday was weapon day and despite all the bruises and sore limbs from the day before
students threw themselves into training, learning harimau knife defences and disarms against striking and retraction slashes, understanding the mentality of a knife attacker and how to deal with a knife if caught in the close range of grappling. At the end of the seminar Guru Richard presented certificates to all who train and completed the two days and was amazed at the strong silat presence in Ireland and said that for him "coming to Ireland was like coming home to silat" and that the students in our clubs could always depend on him for future support and help and he look forward to seeing them again in the near future when he returns to Ireland.
For me this was one of the best silat training weekends, I ever had and I want to thank Guru Richard for helping me not only in silat training, but also personally. The past 6 months have been the most difficult I ever had teaching silat. But people like Guru Richard and Guru Felix along with Dan, Alan, Tony and also my family, between you all you have been a rock for me and I would like to thank you all personally for helping me find the passion again. I'm proud of the way the kids performed and were amazing on Friday night and to see the joy and amazement in the students faces at the seminar, makes it all worthwhile. I hope to continue in my work, to bring to Ireland the best Instructors in the South East Asian Arts so you can experience then directly, and continue in my quest to develop Silat in Ireland.
what some of the students wrote about the seminar....
"Great days training, in bits myself fantastic seminar sweat rolling off everyone"... Alan
" Wow awesome days training I'm black and blue now but well worth it" ... Mick
" Thanks for brining Guru Richard over - what a great weekend !"... Dominic
" What a great weekend.. had such a great time.. many thanks to Guru Richard for sharing his wisdom with us"... Cormac
"I'm sore, bruised and in pain. But i've never felt so good. Thanks Guru Liam, for letting us meet and train with yet another world class instructor".. Mathis
"Excellent weekend seminar by Guru Richard De Bordes, I had an amazing 2 days and I may be sore! but it was worth every bruise. Cheers"... Dan
"Thank you Liam and Guru Richard, my daughter had an amazing night and never stop talking about getting her Yellow belt and meeting Guru Richard" ...Parent
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