2008 Spring Gathering of the Tribes

The biannual event at Chuck Pippin's was held over the Memorial Day Weekend. New experiences at this gathering were sobering and not so sobering. The non-sobering aspect was me: margaritas and Chimay. Needless to say, I was falling down by the end of the evening on Friday and dinner (which was take-n-bake and should have been a warning to me to eat the curry) reemerged around 2 AM. The morning brought no relief and neither did the afternoon. So here is what I recall for the most part with interpretation based upon photos given to me.

Buzz started Saturday off discussing the finer points of elbows and moved on to cover some of the locks of his system.



I slept, oh, and dry heaved.

Looks like Bobbe covered aspects of Hubud-lubud and other things with a stick.

Poor, poor Sterling

I slept.

Cody went over the government conspiracy to control every American by forcing them to not only watch but also participate in gladiator-esque reality programs.





Cody recently had an article posted here: Organic MMA
I think I may have been near consciousness at this point, but movement caused waves of dizziness as well as nausea, but the retching did not return.

Sterling and Dan presented a solo-training device suspiciously looking like some sort of "hookah…"



I slept some more.

After the day’s session (and me feeling well enough to venture out and take my verbal medicine), we took time to recognize the dedication of some of our fellow martial artists.
First we called out Norm Basile and his wife, Marcia, and congratulated them on their respective rankings that are well earned.



Next, we wanted to show respect to someone that is generous with his knowledge and gracious with his friends. This guy has been doing his art since just after I was born (sorry dude) and has dedicated his life to it. Those in The League of Non-Aligned Martial Artists decided that it would be a good idea to give some props where they were due. Therefore, we recognized Brian “Buzz” Smith as Maha Guru in Maharlika Kuntaw. It was well deserved and I think well received.






The evening commenced with the traditional Potluck and was a good variety as usual. It was a good time and people orbited the house discussing everything from the food to martial arts or just hanging out by the fire. Buddha brought some fireworks and the kids all enjoyed that treat. Another late night as usual and it is all good.







Sunday was started off by Mushtaq Ali Shah and we did knife worked based upon the basics derived from the Kujang.



I applied them with my kerambit trainer as that is closer to what I carry and was trying to modify the movements to its vastly different form compared to the kujang. The principles were there regardless of weapon. I was working out with Anton, a student of Buzz’s, and he can bowl you over in a blink. Very good! My shoulder took a hit while I was with him and James Kohlenberg came and stole me to try and work out some kinks.

Conveniently, James was next up. He did some myofascial release and that was a good thing and I will be doing that to help with some of the things that ail me. James’ session consisted of the active release using a tennis ball or harder and we hit various points on our bodies starting with our feet and moving up to our head with a couple of detours to the arms along the way. Good stuff!

The rest of the post lunch afternoon was made up of various breakout sessions.







Later in the day, Buzz and I had a little private session in the yard and we discussed and practiced two of his principles, “can I have my allowance?” and “what time is it?” I have mentioned this on many times but I need to reiterate that you should go where Buzz is and train with him or bring him to you! Hmmmm…




On Monday, Sterling and I were able to get together and shoot our level 4 tests for Pencak Silat Pertempuran and are looking forward to Keluarga at the end of July. There were more breakout sessions this day as well, albeit fewer people, but that’s cool.

I also had some fun getting tossed by Mariah the Eskrimadiva shooting some spots of a promo video for her.



All in all, I go to hang with a lot of people I admire and genuinely love to be around, so it was a good time. I believe Mushtaq said it best at one point, “this is the most fun I have had at one of these.”


Next time, no booze for me though…

You! You stick with Guinness!