Hi All,
I met Bruno a few years ago, through a silat list (he was interested in getting my teacher from KL over to Sth America). Then, a couple of years ago, he was in London and we met in person. (I always think it sounds really geeky to admit to having met someone through the internet
but Bruno is very cool
).
By trade I am a German teacher at high school, but Bruno's German is better than mine, despite my being able to fool Germans into thinking that I am a German! That is only 1 of the 8 he speaks. I remember mentioning to him that I was learning Bahasa Melayu (Malaysian) and he replied: "That's cool, but the problem is you can't really swear in Malay, not like in Russian!" Obviously, his language skills are awesome, but his knowledge and skills in MA are off the charts!
The little bit of Garrote Larense that he showed me was very cool, and very different from eskrima (say like the difference between Karate and Wing Chun) even though they use a similar weapon. DB training always emphasises the need to defend the head, by contrast Bruno made it clear to me how vulnerable your balls are to someone who is really adept at a rising, vertical strike. (Somehow, you know that you might be able to take one or two to the head- it is made of bone afterall - but I, for one, do not like the idea of blocking a stick with my genitals even once!
)
Obviously, I highly recommend training with him - I've been trying to get him to come back to England for the last few years.
All those who attend the camp - have fun.
Jon
PS - Hi, Bruno