Batangas Knife Part 6: "Relax Kumpadre"

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I awkwardly tried to summarize everything that had taken place over the past 30 minutes or so. Remember, nothing of value is attained without sacrifice. So in the further pursuit of Knowledge, I offered my own students up for sacrifice. “Tito Jun, can I see what you just did on one of them?!?” Never let it be said that my students are not a reflection of their teacher. The lambs obligingly went to slaughter. For the next 5 minutes I got to observe Tito Jun working them over, one after another. But no more blood was spilled.

Watching from a third-person perspective didn’t give me any more insight into his technique. I could neither see nor follow anything he did. His use of footwork, range, targeting – even the way he held the knife was very different than anything I had seen previously. In spite of what he told me earlier about not being a ‘martial artist’, Tito was without question a Master of his craft. It was raw, real, and I admit…terrible.

Suddenly from the doorway, came the unmistakable howl we all had come to know so well: “JEFF! WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?” It was the featured instructor for the weekend. His hands were on his hips and he was using his command voice. That would have been another ‘Kodak moment’ – the looks on our faces as my students and I felt like had been somehow been busted – standing there like gaping fools holding our training knives.

Tito Jun (no knife in his hand now) cool as ever, just smiled and called out “Relax kumpdare, ka Jeff and his students were just trying to teach me that great drill you were showing!”

One more post to go!