I went to a weekend rapid arnis seminar a few years ago. We spent a couple of days learning cool and fancy tricks. Being a beginner at the stick, I spent most of my time scratching my head and trying not to take my own eye out. There was a group of people there who were going to try for their black belt on the Sunday afternoon and I was in awe of their skill and the ease at which they could pull off these complicated drills and cool tricks.
Sunday afternoon came round and the grading started. They really were put through the ringer. They went through all the patterns, flow drills and their skill was a joy to watch. What surprised me at the time was when it came to the full contact fighting, none of them used any of the cool tricks or complicated moves we had practiced all weekend, (and they had been practicing for years). The way they were fighting looked much the same as I, a beginner would of been fighting after just learning the basic striking angles.
I’m sure there are gifted people out there who can do all those cool tricks in a real fight and I’m full of admiration for their skill. But, I decided that unless I was going to dedicate my life to stick training (and I wasn’t) then I’d be better off sticking to the basics and learning to do them well. That has also been my attitude towards the other forms of fighting too.
Metz