Concept vs. Technique

J

judge

Joined
Dec 20, 1999
Messages
584
Yesterday I had the pleasure to attend a Latosa Escrima seminar with Grandmaster Rene Latosa and Master Bill Newman.
Rene Latosa is someone who very much stresses the importance of basic concepts that make certain techniques work. We did a lot of exercises that at first glance seemed to be childish, yet were designed to sharpen the feeling for the basic concepts like balance, speed (timing, distance), power, focus, transitions etc. Also, basic techniques with emphasis on correct body mechanics to achieve optimal implementation of said concepts were practiced.
What are your experiences/thoughts with/on conceptual versus technical training?

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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
 
Concepts go hand in hand with techniques and vice versa. Without the techniques, all you have are nice ideas. Without the concepts you can never grow beyond the techniques.



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"I am not, really."
 
Judge, that's cool, Bill is probably one of the few of Rene's instructors I haven't met. Have you ever seen Rene's book?

Concept training or circular/spiral method isn't for everyone. I think it takes longer but leads to more quality as you work on new things that lead to old things and work through some progressive drills.
 
Smoke,
Bill Newman is now the European head instructor for Latosa Escrima, and I think he´s been awarded the rank of Grandmaster by Rene. He´s a cool guy, a little strange sometimes, but funny. And he definitely knows how to fight, he projects a very intense aggressive feeling when he´s switching into fighting mode, while looking like a retired British coal miner (no offense intended!) at a casual glance.
I do have the reprint of the original issue of the "Phillipine Martial Arts Society Escrima" book that was published by Rene, Bill and Keith Kernspecht, interesting but not very extensive.
I really like the way Rene Latosa is pushing conceptual learning and correct basics. You see even the most basic techniques in another light if you start to analyze and optimize them conceptually, and you can apply your feeling of concepts on techniques or fighting styles you have never seen before, rating them for their efficiency. A powerful assessment tool.


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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron

[This message has been edited by judge (edited 06-30-2000).]
 
Cool. I ask about the book because not a lot of overseas folks have it, some of them have asked me for a copy. I have a reprint too, to be honest most of the moves in the book were taken out. Rene is also in the new Bruce Lee book (forgot the title) with Inosanto.
 
Funny, my reprinted version seems to be complete, it´s dual-language (English/German), 110 pages, European A4
format. It was reprinted in 1999 by Kernspecht´s publishing house, I think it was a limited edition. Even the old ads from 1979 are included.

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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
 
I'm sorry, let me be clear.
My copy is complete but the moves in the book ARE NOT the same moves I learned. The style evolved a bit after the book was written.
 
Oh, that´s what you meant. Yeah, the things my sifu is teaching are somewhat limited compared to the moves Latosa and Newman sometimes show, but that´s only natural. I do think too that Latosa evolved his style quite a bit since publishing the book twenty years ago; if not, he´d be dumb and lazy, doing the same for two decades without improvement.
The moves in the book are very often based on zoning/distance, and do seem more concentrated on attacking the weapon/weapon hand. I learned to focus on aggressively attacking the head, when possible. Just one bit of example of what I think differs.

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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
 
Donna, I was just glad to train with him and his crew.

BTW, he gave you some interesting advice when you became a moderator remember? Watch out for politics.

Some of the weird drills he made us do were basically reality checks. Ex. hitting while cross legged or standing on one foot. Roof blocks while sitting down with your opposite hand.

Back to point.
Conceptual/spiral teaching isn't for everyone and isn't exclusive to FMA. A lot of folks here train like fighters, training often to develop skills and attributes. You mess up, you learn from it.

Contrast with technique/linear learning. You learn a lot of things and hopefully get a large arsenal of techniques for a lot of situations. A lot of times it's "this technique vs this attack in this situation" which is fine for some folks.

Some folks like this instead of concept because they feel that they have a move and that they can move on to learn something else. Whereas in a concept class, there's a lot of "You could do this or this or skip this making sure you do this." It's not blunt and to the point enough for some folks and can really throw off a video review.
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[This message has been edited by Smoke (edited 07-04-2000).]
 
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