Dog Brothers Kali Tudo ™: The Running Dog Game---
Kali Silat vs. The Guard
By Guro Marc “Crafty Dog” Denny
In 1998 there was a big internet brouhaha about “Where’s the trapping?” I always felt the question a fair one. As I wrote at the time:
“Lets us begin by avoiding overstating things. We need to remember that in the current environment that a lot of this stuff continues to work. When I was in Brazil in June 1992 I showed Renzo Gracie the video from Paul Vunak: "Headbutt, Elbow, Knees". I have the ringside video of Renzo’s next vale tudo fight in which he drills some guy he gets in the corner with this precisely this structure.
“It is also important to remember that MANY situations that one might be in are quite different from the cage. How many people would want to have to close on concrete against a guy with good fast savate feet in cowboy boots? Yeah, it can be done, but some of you are going to get seriously zipped in the bladder. A straight blast might get you through a barroom ruckus to the door better than a single leg takedown/side control/arm bar. Many bouncers and others with lots of experience swear by trapping. So in my opinion we should not get carried away with the "Where-is-the-trapping?" stuff.
“Still, there is a legitimate question in all this. Little of what we see today is the way it is taught in many Jun Fan/Wing Chun or Kali/FMA classes and , , , it is important to honestly raise this question.”
END QUOTE
I also felt that the question had an answer—that the material was valid.
Allow me to begin my answer with an anology: In engineering, different types of strength are distinguished: compressive, tensile, shear, fatigue, etc. (I hope that any engineering people amongst our readers will be kind with any technical corrections of what follows.) My understanding is that compressive strength is the ability to bear weight. For example, you can put a lot of weight on concrete and it won't crumble. Tensile strength is the ability to withstand a pull. Think of the metal cables of a suspension bridge. Why aren't they made of concrete? The answer is that concrete has lousy tensile strength and easily snaps when tested in this way.
Against the fighting structures used in the 60s and early 70s JF/WC trapping structures worked. As Muay Thai came in this was less so. And as BJJ came in it seemed even less so. It is as if the BJJ question tested the tensile strength of concrete. Concrete is strong, but not in that way. The challenge, as I see it, is the equivalent of learning to put "rebar" (those metal rods that are laid out and tied together in a gridlike pattern) in concrete; something is need to provide tensile strength.
Before continuing, I’d like to clarify the terminology a bit. To my present way of thinking, “trapping” is simply a subset of Kali Silat striking and so for me the deeper question is where is the Kali Silat striking? We have heard the assertion of Kali and the other FMA that the motions of the empty hand are like the motions of the weapons—and again the infuriating question comes, “OK then, why is it not seen in the Cage?”
In my humble opinion, the answer is this. Although there are many people skilled in the drills and skills of the FMA (which are sometimes mocked as “tippy tap martial arts and crafts”) the key point is that most of them have never used these skills in the adrenal state. The only skills most people have used in the adrenal state are based upon boxing and Americanized Muay Thai tested in increasingly vigorous sparring that eventually becomes combat sport. Thus, it simply is no surprise that when they find themselves in a fight they use these skills and do not turn to their Kali Silat skill sets! In short, what we do, what we experience in the adrenal state is the deepest learning of all and as such it has a very strong tendency to supersede skills trained without adrenaline.
This also answers the question why I at fifty six years of age and counting I dare to seek to be someone who leads the way in establishing the validity of the Kali Silat idiom of fighting in the Cage. Of course the obvious logic is to leave it to some young lion to prove the theory with his deeds as Royce Gracie shocked the larger martial arts world with the advent of the UFC—I know that! The reason that in my humble opinion I remain relevant is that I HAVE hit people with sticks and these movements to me represent success in the adrenal state and I rely upon them in my own sparring. Combined with my many years of training under Guro Dan Inosanto (including as a private student) and other of the finest FMA, BJJ, and MMA teachers in the world, I believe this enables me to convey the necessary understandings to those who will actually step into the Cage.
Naturally the question arises whether any of our Kali Tudo ™ is relevant to those without extensive FMA type weaponry training and the answer is yes, but I must be candid. The mission statement of Dog Brothers Martial Arts is “To Walk as a Warrior for all your days”—and this means a lifelong path for the dangers of the real world, not just those of young male ritual hierarchical combat. This means we seek a system that uses the same underlying idioms of movement, regardless whether there are weapons and regardless of the numbers involved. This is precisely the point why Dog Brothers Martial Arts develops the subsystem of Kali Tudo ™ so we can use the same idiom of movement both with weapons AND empty hand AND to test our way of fighting empty hand in the adrenal state without concerns or pretensions that what we do is “too deadly for the cage”. In short, the highest levels of Kali Tudo are achieved by including weaponry training. There is no avoiding building the foundation. Those of you who put up the walls before thinking about putting in the wiring, when the sun of youth goes down you may find yourself in the dark. Conversely, those of you who put in the wiring without building sturdy walls and a watertight roof will may find yourself wet from a rain of blows , , ,
So how did “the Running Dog Game”, which is the subject of Kali Tudo ™ 2 come about and why is it the subject of the second DVD on this subsystem of ours?
In the aftermath of the aforementioned internet brouhaha of 1998, I began searching for my answers to the question presented. About two years later I had my first answer in something I called “The Running Dog Game”.
The RDG had its genesis in an unusual guard pass I learned from Renato Magno, BB in Machado BJJ, Pan Am BB Champion, and much more. In essence, it involves passing the guard, and perhaps snatching a foot lock, while running over the guard players head. Given my penchant for odd humor, I nicknamed the technique “the Running Dog” which in leftist-Marxist lexicon was a perceived calumny heaped upon the less powerful who benefited by aligning themselves with the capitalist class. It seemed humorous to me to embrace the insult of both my right wing “free minds and free markets” perspective and my doggy nature.
As I explored in the horizontal world of the ground how to best set up the Running Dog, I began to recognize reference points originally installed in my previously vertical Kali Silat (and Jun Fan Gung Fu) training. Very interesting! There were lots of successes, but also lots of getting arm-barred and lots of getting backswept. With further exploration, I developed “the Running Dog Posture” and developed a special exercise (which is shown in the DVD) to develop the physicality to maximize its capabilities.
So, in summary, what is the Running Dog Game? It is:
a) a way of standing up inside the Guard so as to establish the RD Posture
b) with the RD Posture established, the following options exist:
1) the signature move of the RD Game matrix: The RD pass over the head, either taking a foot or hip lock, or simply
standing up first and punting his head or taking controls from north-south. Typically the RD is facilitated by Kali Silat striking.
2) Kali Silat striking to knock out/TKO;
3) Kali Silat striking to “the Rico Kickover Heel Hook”;
4) Kali Silat striking to shucking the legs over to standard MMA type side control/knee on belly positions;
5) Kali Silat striking to shucking the legs over to Silat type leg attacks.
One of the key insights that opened my understanding was that a goodly part of the challenge of applying Kali Silat striking was facilitated by the fact that the because the Guard player had the ground behind him he found it much more difficult to move away from the traps, destructions, double timing and triplet timing strikes of Kali Silat. That is why this material is ideal for the second DVD covering our Kali Tudo subsystem—it is shockingly easy to apply against many people. Of course, nothing works against every one! Once this understanding is in place, the next step will be to apply it standing-- both in open range and clinch.
In 2000 I showed the RD Game to my backyard group (with drive by guest appearance by Top Dog) and filmed it as a “Vid-lesson” for instructors and private students of the DBMA Association. Some of this footage now appears in “KT2: The RD Game”. It was precisely because of the efficacy of the material that I held it back as a bit of a “secret weapon”. My reasons for changing my thinking in regard to secrecy are for a separate conversation on some other day. For the moment it suffices that in some regards my thinking has changed and that in September of 2008 I visited my good friend and hero Dogzilla and the Hawaii Clan of the Dog Brothers where we shot the current incarnation of the RD Game , , , as well as some other things that will appear in KT 3 and KT 4
So there it is: DBMA Kali Tudo (tm): The Running Dog Game.
The Adventure continues!
Guro Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny
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We hope to have "The Running Dog Game" out by the end of February. We will be taking pre-orders soon!
