Unarmed Demonstration
About the Videos
Recently, during the course of taking some photographs for an article that will be published in the summer of 2009 in the Russian knife magazine, Prorez, several students of the Warren Budokan and I were able to use a school building and its grounds as a setting for the photographs. We had two or three digital still cameras to record the photographs, along with several knives, an ASP baton, and a handgun along to use as props for the photos, as the article will deal with the defensive use of small bladed knives. Of particular interest to the Russian author, Dmitry Samoylov, who is writing the article was how to use such blades against someone dressed in heavy or winter clothing.
After spending a few hours completing photographs to document five separate defensive scenarios, and while getting ready to pack up our gear, someone mentioned that we had two video cameras along with all the other gear and asked me if I wanted to film something for the Albo Kali Silat website. Since I happened to have an Emerson Combat Karambit trainer (the blue handled, folding, training version of the excellent and highly recommended Emerson live blade) and Greg, one of my students, was willing to play a bit in a real world, tiled hallway rather than on a nice padded mat in a martial arts training school, I agreed that it was an excellent idea.
The video displayed here is a composite that I put together from the images captured from the two video cameras. One of the cameras was set up to catch a side view of the hallway, and was set about five feet off of the ground on its tripod. The other camera was set to catch a long view down the length of the hallway, and was located a few inches off of the floor to film from a low angle. These two angles and heights gave some interesting perspectives to the motions captured. Often, I found that some motions were best captured by one camera, while others were best depicted by the other camera. I decide to put the video together so that the defensive motions depicted would be shown with one camera, then the next section of video would depict the exact same defensive actions, but from the point of view of the other camera. The only time that I deviated from this method was when, during the course of two series of motions, I moved out of the field of view of one of the cameras, so that about half of what I was doing was not seen by this camera. I did not use that cameras viewpoint, so there is only one point of view for these two series of actions. You will notice, when viewing the video clips in question, that in one clip, one of the people filming says that I am out of view and I stop and then ask the other man filming if he still has the image. When he says that he is capturing the motion, I then continue and finish the action.
I did not edit the audio. You will hear a few comments from the students watching the action and from the men filming it. Perhaps I should have put this series to music. Unfortunately, the music that I think would go best with this series of video clips, at least in my mind, is something by Manowar or Cruxshadows, and I am not going to infringe on anyones copyright or intellectual property without their permission. Since I do not have the permission of either of these bands to use their music on my website, I left the soundtrack as is.
The action depicted in this series of video clips was not scripted. I gave Greg the Emerson training knife and told him to attack however he wanted. I also told him, the people doing the filming, and the group watching the action, that I would be defending using Albo Kali Silat empty hand skills, that I would be doing a lot of low level (leg) attacks, and that there were going to be a lot of throws and takedowns. I moved pretty slowly throughout this series, mostly at about 50% speed, though I slowed my motions or occasionally paused between motions a bit so that the viewer could see and appreciate some of what I was doing. I did go a bit faster than 50% on a few motions, especially during the two sections of this video where I launch a flurry of palm and fist strikes. Nothing here is over about 75% of full speed, and most is far slower than that. In general, please note that, in these video clips, Greg is falling on hard tile floors while wearing no protective gear. I slowed throws and takedowns quite a bit so he did not get injured. I also did not, of course, follow completely through on the many motions which would have resulted in joint dislocations or destructions. Please note the use of open palm and elbows in these videos, both of which can be incredibly powerful tools in real combat. Also, most especially note how I use my knees to not only strike Greg, but also to disrupt his balance, buckle his knees, and twist him, so that he is in an awkward, unbalanced posture much of the time. This video is not very polished, and the action is sometimes not centered in frame, but I thought it might prove of interest.
As always, I will attempt to answer any questions, time and work schedule permitting, anyone has regarding this video, other videos on this website, or regarding Albo Kali Silat in general. Refer questions to: Tuhan Holloway. Thank you for your interest in Albo Kali Silat. I hope you enjoyed the video.
Tuhan Holloway, April 2009
