Day Six CFIC
I’ve been referring to the days by number for so long it seems that I think I’ve maybe lost touch with the real world. I haven’t looked at the news and have hardly spoken to anyone that’s not on the course, so Day Eight (Monday) will be a shock. It was also a shock today when lots of weird people invaded what has become my territory…
Today started off with working on tactics. The goal of the lesson was to work on ranges, and how to be underestimated. In simple terms – it’s about how to look like you’ve got a short reach. This ties in with the fakes that Eyal has been teaching us, and they are a good way to set people up for a heavy strike in sparring. It’s all in the turn of the body. If you kick or punch without turning your hips or torso the strike range is short. Attack your opponent up with a couple of these short strikes (they will miss) and then as they get confident and move in unleash your full range strike and wipe them out!
After we had played with these tactics we shifted over to some light sparring. Helmets and gloves on, we were given the task of hitting your opponent in the faceplate and groin using whichever strikes we could and not getting tagged back. This sort of fighting is more of a game than anything, but you have to concentrate on using fakes to outsmart your opponent, plus it was good to move around and it turned into a little competition. Get more hits on your partner and they get press ups. I didn’t lose any rounds but I still did the press ups – you don’t want other people getting stronger than you!
After this Ole took us for another lecture on the effects of mental training on fighters. He covered a range of subjects from what different tools exist for mental preparation and combat mindset/fighting spirit. He also spoke about different historical projects that attempted to increase soldiers fighting ability such as the Jedi Project that was the inspiration for the film, The Men Who Stare at Goats. If Ole is ever offering a talk near you – go. He a great speaker and covers some very interesting subjects.
Once we finished the lecture we moved back down to what has become our workplace/home over the last six days. It was full of people! I knew there was a seminar open to our higher grade students on the Saturday but hadn’t realise that Saturday and day six were the same thing. Any way the seminar started off with some of the basics we’d been covering during the course, ranging from slow fighting, using some of the teaching processes we’ve used through out the week to pad work using basic strikes and then building up to hitting using multiple simultaneous strikes which we then used as entry techniques against a partner. After this Eyal made us do the thing I have least enjoyed this week. On day two I mentioned the gang fight where half the group got semi naked (I’m old fashion so I think being shirtless is public nudity…). Well today was a repeat on the grand scale. Never have I seen so many tan lines or ‘good-idea-whilst-drunk’ tattoos! It would make the worst calendar shoot ever! The horror of having so many sweaty bodies in close proximity was too much. I fell back on good old fashion hit and run tactics so as not to get involved in any grappling – I did have a close encounter with an armpit but with so much motivation my preventions were sharper than ever! Jon will be getting the bill for my therapy.
Lastly I’d like to say congratulations to Ceri Phelps (G5) and Gerard Barnett (G5) for passing their teaching exam and therefore completing the course. They had to return to west England – sometimes referred to as Wales (;-) couldn’t help it) – due to the grading taking place there, so they were tested a day early. They are always a welcome addition at any training camp as the lads are always up for a bit of banter and a laugh as well as being some tough fighters.

So that’s a day done and I’ve still got to get prepped for my own exam. All to the memory of Tibor rapping along to Kanye West on the drive home and now for some bizarre reason I’ve got Sisqo’s Thong Song stuck in my head 🙁
Good night, Sam
