Maul Day 1

There are several reasons I prioritize training opportunities with Maul Mornie.   First is the thing that drew me to SSBD silat in the first place.   The movement, crisp and clean, with dramatic affect and undeniable precision.  The reason I keep coming back is that the man has excellent character and it shines through in everything that he does.  The entire experience I have had in the SSBD community has been a reflection of that character.  Maul prizes good attitude, training discipline and skill above almost everything, except fun.  Good humour and good times are always a part of any SSBD training I have attended and that carries on to all the extra curricular activities that tend to be a part of the training.

Today we had two sessions, both at athletic facilities of unexpected size and quality.  In the morning we covered the basics as we always do, and though it is the one thing you can always expect at one of his seminars, it never leaves me wanting.  Even though i have been pursuing this material for years, having Maul tune up my basics is always welcome and it gives us the opportunity to get to know the group a little bit.

The afternoon was awesome.   We trained in a stadium with minimal lighting, it helped me to imagine it wasn’t so very hot, and of course we had lots of room for the group.   Maul, though he denies it, has very strong lesson plans.  Perhaps this is a testament to his teachers but i find that his structure for teaching is always inspiring.  I would estimate that eighty percent of the seminar today was focused on two techniques and the methods used to enter in to achieve the required positioning.  I actually found it quite frustrating, because i kept thinking I knew what i was seeing but, had a tough time getting clean results.  Fortunately Maul is attentive and persistent and by the time we were into our first partner change he had me tuned up to see the essence what we were doing.

Maul presented us with two entries, one inside and one outside of the attacking lead.  He then showed us how to sweep and how to cross to the other side of the opponent.  Ultimately we ended up with 8 techniques or 4 that we were able to affect on either side either because of the way the partner fed the attack or by our choice, manipulating the attacker to the desired position.  I get so excited about this kind of class structure, It is inspiring because Maul will choose a couple of simple techniques and thoroughly explore their application and then, just when you are getting into it, he shows you how you can use the principals to lego together a whole bunch of other techniques within the same principal.

The day ended with introductions to the teachers who will be leading our training later in the week, and that is sure to be exciting stuff, but its time to get ready for a trip up the river and a meeting with the tribes people who live there, plus some more time training with Maul.  SSBD has really changed my life, expanded my horizons…lots of it is the training, but so much of it is watching and learning from Mauls example and being inspired to travel and train and pursue my own journey.  I am thrilled to be here…. more to come…

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