My Weekend in Martial Arts: November 11th to November 12th 2006:Guro Dan Inosanto!

“Look Lun, it’s him!” I said to my brother excitedly as we came down for breakfast at a hotel in Edinburgh
“Erm Who?” Lun replied
“Dan Inosanto!!!!”

But before we even get to this part this was the trip that nearly wasn’t. It was most definitely a last moment thing and therefore I did not mention this trip on my previous blog. I also forgot to mention this to the students at the last Warriors Eskrima class but emailed them to tell them Lun and I wasn’t going to be teaching on Friday. There was no ulterior motive for not telling them where we were going, we sincerely didn’t know whether we were going or not due to the recent events regarding our Uncle. However Mum insisted we go in the end (as long as we could get back!).

We almost didn’t make the whole trip because the train in front of our train hit a cow which delayed us for about 2 hours to add to this surreal scenario a man in a chicken suit was walking up and down telling jokes (all for a good cause plus keeping the passengers amused while stuck on the train).

The surreal theme continued into the next day as we saw Guro Dan Inosanto getting some breakfast from the self service area of the hotel restaurant in which we were also staying in. I did joke with Lun the night before “Maybe he is staying the same hotel as us” and it turned out he did. He was sat with Rick Young who was the host and a man who turned out to be Guro Dan’s assistant called Joel Hart. We didn’t really want to disturb them eating their breakfast as we thought it might be rude to interrupt.

Eric his wife Amanda, Chris and Sahid all from Steve Powell’s JKD class picked us up from the hotel. As we were made our way to Leith Academy we saw Guro Dan, Rick and Joel get into a car, our first thought was to “FOLLOW THAT CAR” but decided against it because we had a Satellite Navigation in the car anyway and would have looked very suspicious.

AT THE SEMINAR

Lun and I approached Guro Inosanto as he was looking at his notes and when to say hello. He was extremely warm and friendly and thanked us for coming. He taught some cool stuff stick and dagger, stick, empty hand, I can’t really go into everything because there were a lot of drills. The thing that I also loved was listening to the history of the Philippines. The stories of how his father brought all the feuding Filipino Californian communities together which led to Dan Inosanto by so many different Eskrima instructors. The way Filipino’s were unjustly called “Warlike and Barbarian” by invaders just because they defended their country was also explained to us. I find all the history fascinating about Filipino Martial Arts, I could just sit in a seminar with Guro Dan just talking about the history and then one seminar just training. I love hearing history from a view point from somebody that experienced things first hand rather than the propaganda history that we are sometimes misled to believe. During the break we spotted someone with a Warriors Eskrima T Shirt on. His name was Russell and was an instructor from Weston Super Mare in Somerset, ironically near my girlfriend Elaine. It was cool to talk to him and he had nothing but good things to say about Krishna Godhania. We also recognised a few other Martial Artists attending.

Later that night Lun and I went with Steve Powell’s entire group to have a dinner. I go on record and say that Eric and Chris are two of the first English guys I have ever went to a restaurant with who knew what they are ordering (Roast Duck and Char Siu with rice) taught to them by Steve Powell himself of course. We spent the evening discussing the seminar and having good food at this restaurant in Edinburgh called the Great Wall.


DAY 2

Speed, the speed of Guro Dan Inosanto at 70 is phenomenal. The day before Guro Dan showing us a move that started off with a sweep and quickly into an arm bar. My jaw just dropped, if he is this fast at 70 he must have been more phenomenal at my age I thought to myself. Joel Clark was his tall teaching assistant who was very friendly and helped us out a lot. I noticed him Joel doing Capoiera moves as well during the breaks and we had a short discussion about that art. Joel is pictured below.


Again Guro Inosanto talked about the history and also showed us some awesome silat moves. The underlying theme of the whole seminar was finding what was best for the individual. It’s not the style that defines the use; it’s up to the individual. There are so many other things that happened at the seminar that Dan explained or shown, my only regret is not gathering our fellow instructors from my Warriors Class to go but like Guro Dan said “Its up to the individual to see what fits best for themselves…”

Special thanks to Eric and Amanda for giving Lun and I, a lift back to Manchester. I also like extend my thanks to my parents, Steve Powell who introduced us to JKD, Krishna Godhaina whose Warriors method kept our interest up in weapons and Lun who made it all possible. Below is a group picture with Guro Dan Inosanto

This weekend was a tremendous honour to meet Guro Dan Inosanto, one of my Martial Art dreams comes true.

Thanks for reading
Kit