Happi I would love to see a video of you and your kata in action. I think it would be very educational and informative.
Maybe someday when I get drunk, lol!
------------------------------------
This may be out of topic but for those who might be interested with Tribal MA and would like to get some idea...
Personally I find the techniques in the movements (dance) very different from katas because it looks more like aborigines doing their war dance. Our closest are the Aeta Tribes but my province is far away from the Aetas and still there are similarities.
The difference between katas is that katas are systematic and any practitioner can learn the movements, skills and techniques easily with practice. Tribal dance is more on being one with nature and is more free flowing and often the techniques are not obvious and is more easily done when the practitioner has finished chewing some roots, drank some homemade liquor or has smoked some weird leaves. This will help loosen up the practitioner to go in a state of trance but doing it too much causes the practitioner to do funny stuffs like a stoned hippie dancing in circles, hahaha!
My grandpop teachers introduced me to some mountain guys who regularly goes down the mountain for trading and to get their car batteries charged (batteries for radio and TV). These guys carry their load on their shoulders and walks for days to go to the village. Though they may have radio and TV, they are still very much isolated. These are the people who was kind enough to share with me some of their skills over a box of shotgun shells. My grandma basically came from one of those tribes. When I was young I saw grandma doing similar movements with her itak (machete).
Though it may not look much compared to katas, I highly prefer doing it than katas because of it's hidden benefits. My old teachers said that the main point and benefit of doing this is to set the mind for hunting or for manhunt and the body just follows automatically. The guys said that it is not the dance but the imagination of the kill that when it is time, mind and body moves as one. It is like image training plus the will to kill. They said that one must put himself in the the scenario of stalking, attack, covering tracks and last is evading.
My son accidentally caught me doing this one time when I was messed-up and he wanted to learn it. I showed him the basics and taught him the idea. He is half Filipino-Japanese and could not imitate how I moved (probably cultural differences???) so I told him to just do whatever feels easier. Since I trained him with CQC-FMA and since he was taking Judo that time, his was a mix but the good thing is that he really excelled during his next Judo competition. He just walked in and just started strangling his opponent. That day he strangled 3 opponents and was able to K.O. two. There was worry on the faces of his Judo instructor, his opponents and the parents and I got a little worried too because his eyes looks different and his movements are very direct and brutal so I told him to ease off. Usually for Judo that the players will try to throw each other but my son just rammed them down and immediately started strangulation. Effective but dirty...That is the big problem with the dance/meditation because it makes the person effective but violent. I've heard that he is not practicing it now because it messes up his mind.
You can also do it yourself, you can imagine that you are stalking a target, attack and evade. You can also do it by imagining that you have multiple targets, you attack then you evade. The secret is that your every hit counts and that you are not just pounding but you are finishing the job with every single attack. Move and imagine that you are one effective warrior and your main purpose is to hide traces and bring their heads home and that will complete your war dance. Remember that the dance doesn't end up after your attack. You have to drag, hide or dispose of traces to complete the dance. In ours, there is this movement where we drink our prize... but you should not go this far I guess
It is very different compared to modern MA where the katas are finished after delivering the strikes...
I haven't tried the dance/meditation for self defense purposes but I sure that it also can be done but I don't know if it will be as effective for SD because it really messes up the mind... Watching modern tribal dancers though they may look organized and good are okay for entertainment but if you really want the real thing, watch some film of real aborigines war dance and you will see that the modern tribal dance lacks the mind for the kill and are mostly just shaking their booties
Practice it and be one with it but remember to stop when you feel that it is starting to mess you up.
I'm talking only about my experiences with Traditional FMA that I know of and not the popular FMA. Remember that old FMA's purpose is for finishing the job and evading and not much for show
The practice and the idea has been passed and done by our ancestors... it worked for them, surely it can also work for us.
Please remember to add whatever music that you are comfortable with and it doesn't have to be tribal.
