Remembering Russian House in the Philippines 2019

Russian House in the Philippines

It has been a lot harder to find time or energy to write about this camp, i was distracted toward the end of the camp and the early part of 2019.  Most of this was written on the plane on the way home, and then, sadly,  it just got put aside until now.   

Anyone watching the previous trip will have noticed that I resorted to shorter social media posts just to keep in touch toward the end of that excursion. 

Thing is RH is a serious training experience with many different types of training taking place, and the only time one really has to themselves would be after dinner, and that assuming that one decided to separate from the group, which not many of us are doing because its just too much fun to spend time with the folks we are training with.

Due to my seminar in Makati last year, I missed the first four days of the camp where the focus was on Balintawak.  Judging by the fervour of those that were there however, and having seen the video, it was a pretty amazing time.  some of the highlights included seminars by GM Nick Elizar, Gm Bobby Toboata,   Especially exciting to see was the instructor testing of Alexander Pisarkin, who earned his stripes that day in a very literal way.  The testing basically involves being pushed through the many patterns and traps of the Balintawak system by each of the instructors present.   These guys do not make it easy for their hopeful peer, those hits, disarms and locks occur with regularity.  The GM’s take a turn with the prospect too, its a humbling rite of passage and Alex did an exemplary job passing the test.

On the night that I arrived the above sessions were wrapping up and an awards ceremony was being prepared.  The food was awesome, and the company was fantastic.  Those who know me, know i am not comfortable in social settings in general.  For many very positive reasons, that didn’t seem to be in play with this group.  There were several speeches made by the local dignitaries, talking about the value of martial arts tourism in the Philippines and how happy they were that we were there.  Our table was becoming fast friends, Russians, an American / Colombian, a Bruneian, a UK / Pilipino and couple Canadians and an awesome Australian.  Together we were devastating the hotels supply of Tanduay, straight and often as directed by our Russian drinking coach, Igor.  Our festivities were getting intense when the GM’s started calling each other up to the podium.  Something big was about to happen.

When all of the GM’s present were lined up at the podium a short speech was delivered by GM Rene Tongson.  He spoke a little about what it takes to become a grandmaster, that it wasn’t only about the training but about the contribution one makes to their community.  Thus with the power of a group comprised of GM Toboata, Celestino, Elizsar, Tongson, Cassio and Maranga, Felix Cortez was awarded the title of Grand Master of the Philippine Martial Arts.  His surprise at this announcement was genuine and complete. I watched his face go from shocked to emotionally moved.  It was a great moment for me, to see this extrovert have a suddenly quiet speechless moment.  We called for a speech, and he gave one that I strongly identified with.  Felix is not one to build a case for trophies or frame for his certificates and diplomas, but this recognition by this room of Grand Masters will be an exception.

That night we moved to the roof of the hotel and continued our drinking and socializing while Cebu celebrated the lunar new year with an amazing fireworks display.  For our group, we also imagined it a celebration of the work that had been done so far, and a tribute to the beginning of the next sessions.  It was an amazing way to start off the camp for me.  Great folks, good times and the next morning, travel to Bantayan Island.

A surprisingly upbeat and amusing three hr ride in a cramped mini bus brought us to the South Eastern most port of Cebu Island and the port that would launch us to Bantayan.  The boat as it turns out is a recommissioned WW2 landing craft, turned civilian ferry.  The ride there is full of laughter and beer and the sights of the islands passing to open water.  Way off on the horizon our destination is slowly resolving.  It takes a little under an hour and a half to make the journey.  On the other side there are a couple Jeepnys, the add hoc and highly customized busses of the region, waiting to take us to the Budyong beach resort in Santa Fe.  Also awaiting us are a short line up are a couple of T-shirted dignitaries to tax us for landing fees and environmental fees.  It is hard to say if these were legitimate collectors or not, not everything in the Phillipines is clear as that, not to me in any case, but we paid and got on our way.

The ride through town was kind of exciting for me, the whole place is maybe 12 blocks of residential space with a small restaurant and club district that can’t be more than a total of three blocks in size.  It was a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of Manilla and Makati.  The resort itself is in a walled compound open to the beach and sea, with a central open air building with good wifi and a bunch of bungalows with basic amenites, bed, bath and airconditioning.  While the setting was rather ideal for enjoying the beach, it lacked shade, something i noticed immediately as we were going to be training many hours of the day.  Initially the resort did not seem prepared for our arrival.  The first day meals were, not something I was excited about, sea weed and fish heads with rice did not give me confidence that this was going to be an enjoyable experience.  Also, there was no coffee for our first breakfast.

I spoke to Alex, and our unflappable host smiled and reminded me that we were in the Philippines.  It wasn’t long after that, I noticed Alex and his team talking with the owners of the place, by the next meal, service and the quality of the food had increased substantially and the author began to relax a bit.  Truth be told, I had already been away from home 30 days at this point, I had hoped that the Russia house experience would be as much a break from the intensity of the previous month of training as I hoped that it would be a spring board to my resuming full training and conditioning.  I wasn’t myself at the beginning of the camp, but seeing that things were being managed and that the stay was going to come up to the standards that I have come to expect from this event, set me at ease.

That day a group of us rented scooters and went exploring.  No training was planned as it was a travel day and folks needed to get situated, so it was a perfect opportunity to get the lay of the island.  The ride was fun, if a little hectic, not all of us were riders, and the majority of us who did have experience, were not familiar with riding as a group, or for that matter, in the Philippines, where traffic signs and laws are more of a light suggestion than something people obey.  We found some nice spots to stop and take pictures, and saw a number of interesting little neighbourhoods, lost some of our group who set of on solo adventures, before the ride got “interesting”.   One of the bikes broke down, to top that off, all of us were running out of fuel and from the best intelligence we could gather we were 7km out from the gas station close to the resort and 5km from the next one in the opposite direction.   All of the bikes were rented to us with less than one bar of fuel on the meter.  We stopped some passers by and received some curious advise.  A woman who took the time to try and answer our questions about fuel suggested that we ask the shopkeeper across the street if he has any.

We had not noticed the shop.  I was basically a shack with diamond grid fencing for windows, but if you looked past the dust, sure enough there were convenience items hanging inside, and if you squinted at it long enough, there was a gap and sitting there was the shop keeper.  We asked for fuel and to our surprise he asked how many litres we needed.  We initially bought 2L, handed over to us in two pepsi bottles full to the cap with the red petrol.  Sadly this did not get our broken down Scoopy Scooter back on the road, not the best first ride experience for Alvin Ginano.  However the fuel did get our four remaining bikes back to 1/4 tank of gas, enough for us to get back home.   We called into the resort to tell them the issue and were asked to sit with the bike until someone came for us.  This did not seem like a great idea, the sun was getting low, we were not familiar with the island yet, we didn’t know at that time that it is a very safe and benign place, and we simply didn’t want to waste our time.   We let them know where we would be leaving the Scoopy, and continued our journey with one bike riding 2 up.  It was amazing, on several occasions after this. to discover that the guy that rented us the bikes, Eddy, was able to find us, literally at any time, wether we were on the road or parked for refreshments.  We got pulled over not ten minutes later by the owner of the rental bikes and asked for the key.  Later Eddy found us while we were having beer and asked us about the bike.   He was everywhere we were, whenever he had questions for us, and it was significant and funny enough that it had to be written into the story.

One of the reasons Eddy had to find us several times is that the broken down Scoopy Scooter was not where we left it, tho we locked the steering column and took the key.  It was, we were told, eventually found, parked in a different location on the main highway.  The other reason is we had an accident that we refer to as the Stuntman Trials.  As we were making our way back to Sante Fe and the resort, we passed a basketball court.  I saw the missed shot and watched as the ball bounced across the road in front of myself and bounced off a wall on the other side of the road.  The rebound came back out onto the road behind Jonathan and  lodged between the front wheel and the fairing of our third rider in the pack Alex.  I watched in my mirror as the bike lurched and twisted under him, handlebars turning hard right and hinging into the road.  By the time i checked ahead and  turned my head to return to the spot, he was on his feet having executed a perfect shoulder roll.  I got to him first and looked at him standing there a blank look on his face.  “you ok?”

“Ya, Im fine.”   He said quietly.  I checked him out, pulled is backpack aside, turned him around checked his legs, exposed in shorts…not a mark.  I looked at the bike and picked it up.. the handle bars were twisted.  I looked at him again, seriously, not a mark.  Everyone was making comments, Alex threw the ball back to the kids on the court, none of them approached us or even commented.  “I’m good”,  Alex called out to them to a negligible response.  We got back on the bikes, this time I took up the rear so i could see if there was and damage or wobble to Alex’s scooter.  About a minute later he started laughing, a deep belly laugh, an infectious laugh, we were laughing the rest of the camp.   Stunt Trials complete, Alex Ormaza will be making it to the finals with total repair expenses at 25.00 usd. 

That night we all went out on the town, left the bikes behind because, well, this is Russia House and Alex Pisarkin and Felix were leading the march into town.  There would be some drinking ahead, and there was, and it was awesome.  Turns out that even those of us who don’t drink had a great time out.  It was another opportunity to let off some steam and get to know our camp mates.  Tomorrow the training would begin, tonight we would party with our friends from many parts of the world.

The training schedule looked something like this.  At 6:30 am we would hit the beach and train SBL with Alvin Guinano.   Breakfast would be ready by the time we finished at 7am and then we would have an hour before the next class.  Early on Maul would take the late morning class, tho that would later move to the sunset 5-7pm time slot.   GM Felix Cortez also shared the late morning time slot with GM Tongson over the course of the week.  After lunch we would have a few hours of down time to rest and digest and generally hide from the heat of the midday sun.  At 3 pm we would resume classes, three of them back to back until 7pm.  Early in the week we would work with Noman Elizar of Nicklestick and later with GM Macachor or GM Nonoy and a few times we had the pleasure of working with Sonny Sisson who would teach us how to look visually appealing during demos or film work.  Rather than try to describe everything as it happened, I will try to give a sense of what it was like to train with each teacher in their respective speciality.

Alvin Guinano is a teacher focused on the conditioning necessary for western body types to adapt to movements that come much more naturally to the rural Indonesians who, historically, developed his particular style of Silat.  It is a big reason I value his work so much.  At six foot two inches tall and weighing in at some 240lbs,  moving dynamically, close to the ground is definitely not my strong suit.  Fortunately Alvin has put a great deal of thought, research and development into exactly that issue.  Each day we started class at 6:30am seeing in the sunrise with the animal movements of Silat Buka Lingkaran and moving toward the applications of punching, kicking and the signature body weight drops of this art.  On the second day we had a bonus training session before dinner, this was a conditioning class, containing all of the movements and transitions essential to learning the system.  As the week progressed these postures and transitions became the entries, takedowns and finishes we would practice in the morning sessions.  Alvin’s sessions also included multiple opponent drills to accentuate ones sense of readiness and to teach us to maintain awareness rather than over focus on one opponent or one technique.  All in all the week of training had a clear and simple progression that I am looking forward to practicing at home.

Maul Mornie used his days of training to make sure that the students had an excellent grasp of the basics of Silat Suffian Bella Diri.  In his seminars, he always asks for the first hour and a half for going over these items.  He is passing on the art, so the essence of how and why and SSBD practitioner moves the way that they do must be conveyed before he can deliver the more overtly exciting aspects of his system.  In this setting, Maul took the first three days to look closely at referencing and footwork.  It is my experience, that no matter how much time I spend on the basics with Maul, that I always get significant value out of doing more.  He is so detail oriented, that the foot placements, preparatory positioning and lines of force can always be tuned just a little more.  I was very pleased to spend most of the week as Maul’s assistant, regularly supported by Jonathan Pang.  Toward the end of the week Jonathan had to take all the falls as I had an unfortunate run in with a rock, hurting myself to the point where I couldn’t safely do it myself.  After the days of basics, Maul proceeded to deliver the percussive off balancing, sweeps and throws of his unique form of Silat.  It is always fun to listen to a group of students in one of his classes as the ooooh and aahhh during his spectacular demos.

Norman Elizar taught Nickelstick Escrima, in the afternoon.  A form of Balintawak, this stick boxing and trapping system is known for its high speed and high pressure drills in extreme close range.  Norman is an excellent teacher and a formidable practitioner, i have worked with him before and each time I enjoy the level of athleticism and precision he brings to the art.  These sessions with Norman reminded me how much I enjoy this training.  I had the pleasure of working through most of the drills with high level students of the system who were able to get me through, not just the lesson plan, but the drills that connected to the techniques we were learning as well.  Many thanks to  Igor for the challenge,  pressure testing and for filling in the blanks for me, I learned so much more than I would have without your generous sharing.  I am looking forward to the next time I get to work with Norman and / or his father GM Nick Elizar in this system.

Always entertaining and impressive, GM Rodel Dagooc would show and guide us through volumes of combos and grapples from his system of Modern Arnis each afternoon.  His sessions focused on explosive combinations from single and double stick to intricate grappling flows from disarm opportunities and reversals.  I assume that Rodel fans around the world love his high energy demos and unrestrained wit.  There was  a great deal of laughing during this training.  Partly at his humour as also at the unlikely hope, of retaining the majority of what you are being shown.  What at first seemed an overwhelming burst of information, was repeated throughout the week and took shape.  In the end I really like what GM Rodel shared with us, and I feel like i saw the shape of the lessons and can take a lot of it with me.  I look forward to seeing Smoking Sticks Rodel Dagooc next time I am in the Philippines.

Abaniko Tres Puntas is the life work of GM Rene Tongson who not only has preserved his form of Arnis, but also developed a very large following world wide.  In fact he had a camp of his own running simultaneously with the Russia House camp.  For two days our groups came together to learn under his direction.  Abaniko Tres  Puntas is an art of the blade and while we trained with sticks the focus was on cutting and thrusting as one would with a sword.  Early drills focused on achieving a safe entry range for attacking the incoming weapon arm and followed with combinations that took advantage of the disabling of the original attack.  The material that we were shown on both days first sword and then knife followed a very simple and consistent  principal of suppressing the attack while covering followup threats.   I am very glad to say that I have these lessons on video and plan to practice them at my school.  This is another one of those FMA offerings that fits very well with my work of late, and I can’t wait to integrate it.   I will certainly work with this instructor next chance i get.

GM Felix Cortez taught us a few times this camp, tho he was suffering from a severe injury to his elbow.  Filipino Combatives as he titles his work, is an evolution from his earlier days with many well known instructors.  Felix is a fighter and an excellent teacher, his work is exactly the type of training that one requires to transition from technical training into fight preparation.  I love his classes, his work fits well with what I do.  Simple counting systems and drilling from a set of 12 angles broken into three counts.  The lines are full swing, full power moving from chamber to chamber with strong footwork.  The drills emphasize timing and acknowledge the variety of functions for each stroke, wether it is attack or a defence depending on when it happens relative to the opponents movement.  If you are a stick fighter, or coach stick fighters you want to give this training some study.  In principal and practice, its just really good stuff.  I will be using what I’ve picked up in my fighters prep class, back home.

GM Nonoy Garrucho was very reserved this year, which seem to me to intensify the overall tone of his sessions on knife fighting.  He had very clear goals for development of basic skills for proper aggression and placement for entering against an opponent.  Once he saw the students grasp the basics, he began to look at the longer chains of events that could result from the refrences we gained from the basic lesson.  I’ve worked with this teacher before and was impressed with the knife flows.  But this time there was a quiet patience I hadn’t seen before, it made for a shocking counter point when he suddenly burst into dynamic motion smoothly transitioning to ground motions very much reminiscent of but different from the silat Ive seen.  I am looking forward to the next training session with GM Nonoy Garrucho, see what the next surprise is?

Later in the week we were joined by GM Celestino Macachor, an unassuming and fun loving gentleman is a tireless seeker of the truth.  It isn’t surprising the GM Macapagal  insisted that I meet and train with this man.  Co-author of Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth, GM Macachor is another instructor who lights the way for us to see the difference between the historical facts and the legends of FMA.  Here you have a man who spent years traveling to the regions of great FMA legends to see where the oral traditions of the elders supported and did not support many of the great myths of the art.  Turns out, a lot of people were not happy with having a factual study of this type published, and so we get to meet this fine man, years after he has washed his hands of the politics, anger and resentment that came from revealing the truth.  His martial art is Estokada de Campo, a variant of Eskrima de Campo, Eric Olavides’ personal expression of Jose Caballero’s De Campo 1-2-3 Orihinal.  This is one of the few if not the only eskrima system specializing in the largo mano or long range.  Training personally and within the group to gather the basics of the system we see a clear use of measure to achieve hand disabling attacks to set up finishing blows.  This system is unique in the way that it uses tightening orbits of the stick tip to achieve multiple hits at long range. Its thrusting focus is very reminiscent of western fencing.  In a few short hours I saw how this very straight forward system will be of value to myself and my students, and I look forward to learning it fully and presenting it to my community in the years to come.

Antonio Tejero, taught Tira Binta Eskrima… Tira Binta means strike when able and while the system focus more on long range, thrusts and takedowns also has corto to largo mano ranges.  I particularly enjoyed his presentations and paid very close attention as I was very aware that his offerings are heavily influenced by his law enforcement experiences.  Any one who has followed my career knows that I am drawn to instructors with law enforcement and military experience.  Antonio has had this experience in spades!  We talked some about his career and at times about some of the more desperate situations he found himself in.  When you know folks have survived, and more, survived with their attitude and humour in tact… you just want to pay a lot of attention to them when they share what and how they train.

All and all the camp was brilliant and my only regret is the way I found myself distracted toward the end and after the event.  That said, I am happy to share this recounting of the experience and I am looking very forward to the 2020 event which i will be attending in a couple of short weeks.

The 2020 camp is to be the 10th Aniversary of Russian House in the Philippines and I know that Alexander Pisarkin has put a great deal of effort into making it a very special experience for all of the practitioners in attendance.  This camp filled up almost immediately with the last space filled weeks before the event.  I look forward to sharing the knowledge that is shared with me when I return home to my students in Toronto.