You're called a Guru? When a new student enters a class, one of the things a student sometimes gets confuse with at the start is the Term "Guru" this word sometimes summons up images of a monk like figure, who lives in a completely holistic world, free of all the trappings of a modern society, a place where money, work, family, stress etc doesn't exist for him. Some students sometimes place this concept of their own making onto the role of the teacher, and then get upset when he or she cannot live up to that role, often expecting more of the teacher, then they themselves would prescribe to do. 

However in our art the word Guru is used to describe the manner in which a student is taught. The concept of my and my seniors who teach, is instead of giving intensive technical instruction, the student learns and develops through combat experiences. At the beginning, the student simply has to copy, what he / she is shown and then as he / she becomes more confident, they can bring their own expression to the techniques. By learning through combat experiences, the student will develop greater skills, which they can use in a rapid changing environment of the street. They can adapt quickly if a technique doesn't work, and move to another, because they face that problem in class. The student learns to think and be constantly interacting with danger presenting itself.

This concept of learning at the start, can be very hard for some adults, who are used to be told what to do, and not have to think themselves, buts its the core learning ability of children, and something which we push away to the deep inner core of our brain as we leave childhood behind. To understand Silat or Kali, all we have to do is go to class, watch and repeat and with a good teacher, he will guide you, in times when its needed and in others he will let you learn by your own mistakes.. So if your concept that the Guru will be like the image below, you may be disappointed as you won't find that in our class. But if your concept is the Guru will be a ordinary person like yourself, who will help you to the best of his abilities by creating the best learning environment for you, then the benefits from training will be great...We have weekly classes for Children, Teenagers and Adults if interested, send me a message or call / text 087 9956569

An interesting concept that society has towards violence, that it is ok for a woman to be violent towards a man, and even maybe even funny or amusing. Violence is wrong no matter who uses it. 40% of domestic violence in relationships is towards men, who often feel not able to reach out for help because of embarrassment. We need to change as a society that any violence is unacceptable, and lay down the foundation, where men of all ages including young teens, can approach and be supported  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3PgH86OyEM. .

A project (Sea of Fusion) that started almost 18 Months ago, is now just a few days away. When I started my Silat journey, just under 30 years ago, the idea was to develop an Association, where people of all ages and ability could come together to train and learn the South East Asian Arts of Silat and Kali. We have never turn anyone away from attending our classes, and everyone no matter their skill level or ability to pay, were always welcome and help. That is something which a few students in the past should remember, there were accepted openly by me, when they ask to join, and given every opportunity to learn, and I along with the other teachers always tried our best. I have always believe the art should be open to all, and everyone treated equally. We now have the largest silat kali group in Ireland with just under 300 members of all ages training weekly at one our classes. We have introduce Silat and Kali to just over 4,000 teenagers in the past year In schools, and youth clubs, giving them their first taste of these beautiful arts. We have programs where age no matter what it is, is not a barrier to learn, nor is money. And yet all of this was done, without receiving any Government or fellow club support. This is a testimony to the great students and teachers in our group.

The Sea of Fusion Festival was my concluding gift to the South East Asian Arts and Community in Ireland, before I move to my new role inside the Association (which I'm very excited to be doing, and allowing others to take up my existing role) I wanted to give a gift to the community in Ireland who claim to teach these art. An opportunity to come together, share, train and experience these Arts together in an open brotherhood. The festival was open to all teachers, who wanted to teach, the door was open to all students who wanted to train. From my own expense, I paid and invited over some of the best teachers in Europe and America, teachers who have never taught here before, so that the festival would have something for everyone. I would love to been able to bring more for this festival, but I was limited, in money available. The festival has been share in the media continuously since Sept 2013. The event has now students coming from 3 corners of the World, well wishes and beautiful messages of best wishes from teachers of different styles from over 40 countries have pour in, wishing us the best for next weekend. Mail like this are heart warming. So it was sad to see at different stages over past couple of months(and this will be my only negative moment) to see Irish students who were attending the festival, being contacted and being asked not to go, and encourage to go to other seminars, and other students calling me, saying they love to go, but their teacher would be offended if they went. I call this small group of guys now the ABL (Anything But Liam) lol To tell a student they can't go, is putting your ego ahead of the students benefit. At the end of the day I have always kept an open door. My goal is for the art to survive for the next generation.

Anyway that enough negativity, as the Event is happening and its going to be a fantastic weekend of Martial and Brotherhood fun. I'm so looking forward to meeting some new brothers in the Art and to train with great teachers. I would like to thank the various Martial Arts groups who are attending. I do want to thank Alan Walsh and Paul Nally for the help over past couple months in Lucan and Paul Casey in Firhouse, who all help take the class work load off me, so I could focus on getting the Festival organised. I like to thank Paul Byrne for his work on the festival website. I like to thank deeply Domhnall MacAodha, Robert Scott and Denny Hughes for the great help they giving me in their support of this Festival, without these 3 it simply would not have happen. Finally my good wife and son, who share my joy, but also hear me moan, but most of all sacrificing the time with me, so I could make this happen, and believing in me and giving 100% from the start. Nothing like this has ever been done before in Ireland, and I glad I had all of you guys to make this happen.

Now my final demand, for all of you attending the Warrior camp and Festival and Culture Evenings, you simply have to do one more thing.. Have Fun.. Laugh... Share.. create new friends and develop a little bit more as a Warrior and don't forget the chair for Denny lol See you all next week !!!

You Can always Run by Guru Liam

Running is the answer many Instructor’s come up with, when it comes to giving advice on how to deal with an attacker, who using a weapon, especially a blade. While this advice is very true, and practical, it’s definitely not a strategy that will work all the time or even the majority of times.

Way to often, styles of the New modern Martial Arts claim the upper hand by saying, we teach all 3 ranges of Combat Striking / Grappling / Ground Fighting and proudly proclaim that’s all you need. These 3 ranges do work together very well, however if you add in the Knife Concept, suddenly the mix doesn’t work so well. The knife (Blade)/Stick (Blunt) concept changes everything. While before, a student may condition them self to take hits, wrestle to submission etc… they can’t condition themselves to take the damage a weapon will inflict. In a split second, you could be facing losing your life. Many of the techniques and concepts which sit very comfortably with the originally 3 range mixed, now can put you in a position where, there actually putting you into true danger, by increasing your chance of getting serious damage, by making stupid mistake / or false conception of how to deal with a blade.

So what is the answer to Knife Defence that is given by these group, well it usually follows the following common responses on social media. 1. You Don’t need Knife Defence, as you won’t get attack with a blade. Well that’s not really true, a lot of young males who get involved, in serious aggression usually may have to face a weapon of some sort. 2. What we do in empty hands, can simply be translated to a weapon response. Yes that’s true if you’re system that you’re learning has come from a weapon system like Silat or Kali. These system specialise in weapon defences. If your training system hasn’t got a proper influence from a weapon system, then what you are using won’t work as effective as the theory, you have work out in your head. 3. No defence is needed, just get the Hell out of there. That is 100% correct, don’t mess around with any silly Martial Arts technique, get the hell out of there, fast and keep running. So what’s the problem with that piece of solid good information? Surely everyone knows that, and will Run or would they?

I regularly teach teenagers during the day at schools, and so when we get to this point of Self Defence training, where we doing Knife defence, when question of what they would do, they usually give the answer of running away. I say “Yes, that correct, but how fast can your Mother Run, or younger sister, or maybe imagine in a few years, your 3 year old child, how fast can they run? Would they be able to out run an attacker? What about if you were in a lift? Or in a close room? Or standing at a urinal? Or putting your shopping into a car? Or maybe you out with your girlfriend/boyfriend and you’re face with this danger, or the both of you going to run at same time? Same directions? When real true fear and shock hits you “Usually by this time, the realities of needing to learn some knife defence skills / concepts might hit home. Thinking you can always run, is simply denial of the true facts, about realities of weapon attacks.

 If you learning a Martial Art for Self Defence you need to find a teacher or a style that understands the concept of a blade or blunt weapon, and how it can truly co- exist with all the other ranges. You need to learn the core essentials of the how to deal with a weapon attack, and try to think how can you not just defend yourself, but also your love ones. If you’re claiming you learning an all rounded, all range Martial Arts and not learning weapon defence, as you don’t believe it’s needed in a modern society, with increase violence is needed. Or if you believe that running is answer to everything, than I truly wish you the best with that thought. Nothing new needs to be re-invented to learn weapon concepts as these concepts already exist in Silat and Kali.  In these arts, all ranges, all possibilities, all situations are thought out and the student is develop to learn through training experience, to best equip him/her for the street.

I hope this article might give you some food for thought. If you like more details on what we do send me a message or e-mail guruliam@hotmail.com