...'The Summer's Goooooone...'

This summer has been busy as heck and I have had no time to update this blog - since my last post. Things aren’t any less busy now, but anyway:

* We promoted 3 well deserving individuals to the rank of Instructor (Guro), and one to Apprentice Instructor (Lakan Guro). Congratulations guys. You sure as hell earned it.

* We strengthened ties in various ways with our brethren in the United States, Europe, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

* Cikgu Omar Hakim and I recorded another Silat Kuntau Tekpi podcast by popular demand. Omar will hopefully have it up soon.

* We wrote and produced an official student manual with Rules and Regulations, History, Terminology, Lineage, and Protocol for our club.

* We accepted an unprecedented number of beginners this summer, and it looks like everyone is hanging in for the long haul.

And most importantly - we are teaching less and less. What this means is that every year or so, we are constantly revising our curriculum to include less ‘material’. The challenge is to produce a fully competent practitioner in a shorter period of time. It can be said that our Craft is not based on techniques, but rather on an understanding of theory and crucial body-mechanics. Therefore we have greatly stripped down the syllabus to address the core requirements, allowing the student to develop faster - plus there’s less stuff for us teachers to have to remember!

Alas, on a sad note, it looks like starting this week we will be back to training inside (damn!)

We have a busy fall lined up. I’ll try my best to keep everyone posted.