DLP DVD #5 – Fireside Chat

[John]

A lot of history and discussion of the art and how to progress through to Guru Muda. Great stuff. 2 hours worth of video spanning decades, featuring a TON of forms, applications, and demos by Maha Guru Gartin's peers, as well as his own son.There was so much info in this DVD, it is a deal to purchase.Now I think I stated my purpose in watching the DLP DVD's right now is to enjoy them and get familiar with them, before in-depth study, note-taking, and practice. Sorta like reading the Cliff Notes before reading the book, to see what areas/points require a lot of focus. Hard to do when the information in these videos are so dense.Maha Guru Gartin does a lot of LONG kembangans in this video...empty handed, with keris, and with a machetes. To me, this is gold. Kembangan is your free-form expression. What do you think comes out of that, when you're "flowing"? From personal experience, unless I make it a POINT, its not the stuff I never practice. You ain't gonna see the Roger Rabbit or Robot when I do kembangan. Don't know them. You will see the forms I practiced though. That's where the magic is in these clips. Some folks may only see a lot of waving hands. I see the parts of the forms and training movements he practiced THE MOST. Are they repeated? Then he practiced those moves a LOT. Which means that someone who's been doing this for almost as long as I've been alive, has found a LOT of value in them. I'll never be able to memorize all of the forms in the AKTS catalog, but if I see its strongest proponent showing me what he practices and does the most, well that's darn good advice.Same with when he takes to the blades and does his Kembangan. What are the angles of attack that he uses? What levels are the slashes at? Where is the thrust? Which moves show similarity in his empty handed kembangan? Vice-versa too? What were the deltas? Gold.As a father with a child ABOUT the age of Maha Guru Gartin's when these videos were taken, it is pure joy to see the arts executed with some passion and enthusiasm from the young. I gotta start learning this stuff so I can teach my son. You're also treated to expert peers of Maha Guru's doing Monkey and Mantis, with forms and applications a plenty. I'm cutting this review SHORT, because I have so many more videos in the DLP to watch. But this has plenty of info, and probably a VERY good portion of the AKTS curriculum to boot (speaking as an uninitiated person). It would take chapters to do this video justice in an honest review. But suffice it to say, I enjoyed it very much. A+ again.John

[Author]

Posts