November 24, 2004
Stick-to-itiveness seminar
Martial art students perfect stick moves using Filipino Kuntaw weapons
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With blurring speed and striking efficiency, Brian "Buzz" Smith can disarm, disable and disconcert any would-be attacker.
A student of the Filipino martial art of Kuntaw for more than three decades, Smith demonstrated a range of moves Saturday to nearly 20 students during a Kuntaw Weapons Seminar.
Held at the Northern Martial Arts Academy in Traverse City, the seminar drew students from his academy as well as from other martial arts schools in the area. Smith targeted students at other schools to give them experience with weapons such as the characteristic 28-inch bamboo sticks as well as wooden swords and knives.
"We're saying if you haven't got a stick in your art, come here - we'll be glad to teach you," said Smith, who learned Kuntaw while stationed with the Navy in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. "We'll be doing weapons seminars monthly."
With assistance from his students, Smith drilled attendees step-by-step through moves sporting titles such as Hitchhike, Where's My Allowance and What Time is It. (The names reflect the main motion of the move.)
Whether using weapons or not, the essence of Kuntaw is positioning and thinking over muscle and power.
"The harder they try to hurt you the more they hurt themselves," Smith said, between high-speed demonstrations of counters and moves. "I don't want to use muscle against muscle, I want to use leverage and sneakiness to get my opponent."
Smith, who has taught Kuntaw at Northwestern Michigan College for 22 years, encouraged attendees to practice each move with both hands.
"When you learn something with your offhand, you actually have a better defense," said Smith, a native of Gaylord.
Learning to use both hands is just one facet of the flexibility that Kuntaw instills in its disciples. The overused saying of 'thinking outside the box' is a daily truism for Kuntaw practitioners, who do not revere a series of ritualized moves and countermoves. Instead, any repetition during practice is merely a foundation that promotes appropriate responses to an opponent.
Sort of a martial arts improv.
"On the streets there are no rules, so you should learn to cover all possibilities," said Smith, noting that Kuntaw's adaptability prompted its selection as the form of self-defense taught to United States Senators.
Calling Kuntaw a conceptual art, Shann Vander Leek of Traverse City said learning the postures while maintaining a flexible mind is her biggest challenge. Vander Leek has been studying with Smith at the Northern Martial Arts Academy for just over a year, her first experience with martial arts after years of interest.
"Everything is not just done one way, it is how you would flow, how you would handle this situation or that," she said. "Fights are so fast you have to think on your feet."
Ultimately, however, the martial arts mindset embodied in Kuntaw trumps the various disciplines or accessories.
"It doesn't matter what weapons you have; as long as you've got the flow, you've got it," Smith told his students.
Balancing the cerebral with a physical challenge lured Nate Bynum into the study of martial arts.
The Kingsley resident has studied Tai Chi for years and began learning Kuntaw about 18 months ago. He termed Tai Chi a 'soft' martial art, noting that it does have a martial element. Kuntaw's forms are reminiscent of Tai Chi's postures, but the underlying improvisation of the Filipino discipline are vastly different.
"Kuntaw is learning to improvise," he noted, adding about martial arts in general: "We're in such a mental society, it is nice to do something to integrate the mind and the body."
The Northern Martial Arts Academy will host a Bo Staff Seminar on Saturday, December 11, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. For more information, call Brian Henry at 946-2709 or 929-1342. The academy will also host an open house on January 22 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.