Hock Fightin' Words Talk Forum

One time awhile back, I had a old-timey karate black belt, system head, guy, tell a student who was both with him and me, say...

"Hock has no finesse."

Actually coming from him, that was a good compliment. His definition of finesse is not one I aspire too.

Beauty and ugly is in the eye of the beholder.

Hock

Re-certification?
We need to see rank holders and instructors about once every year. Or some reason why we can't. (I am very flexible.)

People listed on our instructor pages on our website, are active certified instructors. There are people not on the list that have attained various ranks to include Black Belt levels ranks in the last 20 years, but for whatever private or professional reasons, they are not recently active within this organization. They take up golf!? Have kids? Etc. They still possess these rankings, they are just not listed here on the active-duty pages. Hock is constantly improving and honing the material, as well as checking on the instructors and their progress. If he doesn't see them for a long period? They simply fall off the active-duty list.

Want back on the list? Just Attend a seminar.

Hock

Drama

to reread

To reread...

They Are Just Exercises!

You know I really hate releasing short video clips. I do only because I must. I have seen numerous mediocre instructors take rabid advantage of YouTube and internet videos these last few years and by video clips alone, gain considerable popularity and business. So, infrequently, we add some video clips to the Force Necessary TV page.

But, the clips are always criticized and quite often by arrogant, young and old knuckleheads and idiots. Once a clip is up? It never ends. Sure enough the other day, some smug know-it-all saw a brief clip of me doing what he called “hubud,” and articulately expressed his concerns in long paragraphs about how the drill was missing “distancing” issues. Dear viewer, Hubad IS a close-quarter drill. That is what it is. It exists right there. Complaining about "Hubud" distance issues is like complaining that there is no running while doing push-ups. There are other drills for other distances. There are even drills for changing distances. But guess what? In that 420 second "hubud" video clip? I did not do all 150 of them. Context, context, context.

The ignorant viewer cannot grasp the context. As Don Rumsflied said, (quoting some other famous guy ) "There's what you know, what you don't know, and what you don't know your don't know." Sometimes the context is bigger than the education, sometimes bigger than the brain. And speaking of grasping - the exercise he saw was my infamous grab drill. The very idea is, when close up, to create fast, powerful grabbing hands and also to counter grabs, all in a flurry of fast-moving arms. You can do the exercise, as we do, on the ground also. It is not a kick boxing drill. There is no distance changing in this exercise. Dear viewer, there are other exercises for developing kick boxing…at that kick boxing distance.

First off, “Hubud is actually HubAd with an “a” not a “u.” Hubud with a "u" `means “naked above the waste,” in Filipino Tagalog. Hubad is one of many, many skill developing exercises. It is actually only a thin slice of a much longer skill progression, but many Americans and Europeans don't know this, and many have glommed onto one part of it, as if that “block, pass and pin” motion is the only part to practice when doing Hubad. There are actually about 6 or 7 in a whole chain of a block and strike study. That one, popular “block, pass and pin” version/slice is way overdone by many practitioners. This alone probably causes much of the criticism from the ignorant window-watchers.

As a result of this small-minded ignorance, the so-called “flow drill”…that very title alone…has gotten a bad name in the martial marketplace. Picked apart like video clips like the F.D.A. picks apart cures for cancer? But, these are nothing but simple, small exercises about small, thin slices of a fight, nothing more than an exercise like jumping jacks or push-ups. While some martial artists pick on certain flow drills as “dead drills”, or whatever, they never pick on simple push-ups or sit-ups, or wind sprints as being incomplete, or “the wrong distance” etc., etc., or for being detrimental to the cause of overall, physical strength, coordination and speed improvement. All sports have isolation drills, isolating and developing steps.“ Try to wrap your head around the bigger picture. They are ALL exercises.

So, to the instructor - first off, do not overdo these drills! You will just become a fancy dancer. The combat scenario is king. Secondly, when and if you do them? Take my advice, get into the habit of calling them "exercises," not “flow drills.” This will screw up small-minded criticism of what you are doing. If anyone says anything, remind them it ALL an exercise. Just like a dead lift or push ups.

Yup.
Like in college. It s better to do the courses in order, but no one does. No one really can.

I hope people will keep track of their stuff. You know usually they do. Unless someone emerges from many years ago and can't remember. That happens.

Last year, 2012? I saw over 2,000 people. I made 9 instructors. NINE! Promoted less than 300 people in various ranks. Probably 400 or 500 more of them are on the path and wanted to, but the timing and the outline wasn't right.  In 2013? Only 7 people. Many deserved the ranking but the structure of my seminars are not conducive to this.

There had to be a better way. I think this is it. In the end, they all catch up.

Hock

Sounds like a winner for the folks...but a potential paperwork nightmare for you! Tracking students progress can be difficult enough even when they do the courses in order. I've always enjoyed doing the courses in order and ensuring I had those key, fundamental skill sets down before I progressed to the next level.

As always, I'll be hoping for the best! You just never know what might work until you actually give it a go! 

SFC Testing - We Are Now The College Approach

Simply put? Now, you do not have to take our modules in order. You can complete course levels out of order.

I am already scheduling seminars for 2020, my 24th year on the road.  In some circumstances, I may only return to a city around the world in a year and a half now, not every year. Worse, complicating the mission, I really am consistently asked for rank progressions and instructorships. Squeezing all this in, IN PROMOTIONAL ORDER for each person, is just about impossible to schedule.

Every single thing I teach is a course we have. We have 7 courses. Hand, Stick, Knife. Gun. CQC Group (which is the combination of the hand, stick, knife and gun courses) PAC/Filipino and Police Judo. But the core and most popular courses are the hand, stick, knife and gun programs. Four main courses.

Though there are ten levels in each course, the tenth is a big test, so there are 9 levels of study in each course. That's nine times four. 36 levels. 36 modules. Granted the modules are short and simple, but they take time to do, to teach and get to. Getting to them all, for everyone gets harder and harder each year. In a perfect world, like the perfect college schedule, you would start with "Subject 101" and proceed in perfect order, on through the "Subject 400s." Ever done that? Who do you know that has? It is next to impossible.

When folks go to college, they do the best they can. They take the subjects and classes that are open to them at the time, wrestling with both their schedules and the college-scheduled offerings. This means a college student may actually start in class "Subject 105," rather than "Subject 101" because the 101 class is full. (I actually took all my senior level business courses first!. Yes! As a night student no one seemed to care. So I took "401, 402- on up." Took the others later as I could get them.) And fact is we are not even a real "college-college." We are just some certification courses, some training courses. We are not even a martial "art." So, you can achieve out of order.

Complete any three levels? You can become an instructor. Instructors can teach ANY SFC level material, but only promote people in the levels they tested for. Any six levels? Any nine levels? And so on. Another simple way to put this, if on any given Sunday I teach Knife 6 and you complete it successfully? You can get official credit for Knife 6, even though you haven't finished knife 5. We'll all catch up with everything you in the end.

This will facilitate more people to achieve what they deserve this way, given our constricted opportunities.

Some courses have prerequisites. Seen this before? "Must Take Class 301 Before Class 308." Fortunately, in my practical/tactical course modules, these subjects are not brain surgery or rocket science, nor are they fancy, difficult katas, high jinks or high kicks. They are simply basic, simple things spaced out over time, because not all things can fit in level 1 or "101." Plus we expect people will already be working with their local instructors, have the training videos, and also have experience (most folks I see, have experience) in a variety of systems and schools.

So now, simply put? You do not have to take or test for our modules in strict order. Nice if you would? Best if you would. But like college, you can complete course levels out of order.

And, of course, you can simple train in all of this for knowledge only, never taking any tests at all. The choice is always yours.

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