In our school year, every class must give 100% to achieve genuine growth. There’s still time to move ahead and make progress. I divide the year into two terms: January to August, and September to December. After forty years of experimentation, I’ve found this structure to be the most effective. It allows my students to develop real depth in the arts I teach. Each year builds on the last in a continual upward spiral of practical knowledge.
The goal is constant improvement—raising the standard a little higher each year.
With thanks to Steve Bartlett for the chart photo.
I taught something important in the sword class yesterday. It was a drill and a must-have movement. I initially dismissed this until looking at some of my 2005 Spanish short sword notes. Doble Carrera, or what we call Flamenco footwork, in our system.
The ability to move is enhanced if you are already moving, even if it’s on the spot.
I taught a lot more. I showed how this blends perfectly with our Sera. It also blends well with Sera with a K, and my unique Spanish knife research and study.
I have been thinking lately that at 60, each lesson I teach is my last. They need to be great to convey the art.
Thanks to Fabrizio Mansur Filograna for posting on his channel. Worth subscribing to if you are interested in sword fighting.
Our Values As always, we keep to our core principle: we train people who are honest. They have integrity. They also have a sound mind. That’s what makes this community special.
With the revamp of our website, we have received several queries about the Pencak Silat system we teach. I do not teach Bukti Negara or any branch of Serak from the USA. I have been a private student of a branch of Serak from the Netherlands since 2015. My guidance is under Gillvan Van Ham. He has taught me Serak, and I am currently studying Sera with him. This system integrates well with my previous martial arts and practical experience.
I teach a system focused on practical self-protection in a modern environment, which has proven to be very successful. For our Serak, I employ a modern training method. This method incorporates 21 Jurus and Langkah. It also includes their applications. We also use the KORA fence positions for self-defence, which blend seamlessly into our Pencak Silat.
The testimonials from my students speak highly of the class and my teaching methods. You can find them on this website. I foster a supportive environment that promotes student development, engagement, and, if desired, prepares them for future roles as educators.
Our training group was a private research group. Lately, we have switched to a small group setting. This allows others to try this beautiful art. Our class curriculum resets every January and September. During these times, we explore the fundamentals of our art. This gives our students more depth each year, and the students’ skill set spirals upwards.
If you are interested in more information, please contact me on the about page of this website. You can also reach out to join our group or training hubs.
My students and training partners know that since I started coaching martial arts, I have had two main interests. The first was combat sports. I coached boxing, Muay Thai, full-contact stick fighting, and also MMA as a sport.
Self-Protection Instructor
My second area of interest has been self-protection. I have moved on from my former specialist roles. Now, I mainly help members of the public to defend themselves in their local area. My current group class investigates the arts we study. It explores how best to teach them. Additionally, it focuses on how to keep my students safe in their environment.
There are always mentors you come across in your research. I have not met Stan in person. Still, by watching this podcast, it’s very clear he has a lot to offer.
This is a really great podcast. There is a lot of gold dust and wisdom in this one. Please take the time to watch it and follow Stan’s Instagram, go and train with him, etc.
As a teacher and a practitioner, I utilise a few drills to road test what comes out in an ambush. You can use this drill for any aspect of your arts; we always go straight into the drill cold.
The video below is a mixture of the drill and a post-drill review. It’s very much worth hanging on to the end for the review. Honestly evaluating your performance is always a must. I had an absolute shower of a first round. We have not trained with short swords for five weeks. We have also not sparred for a month or so. You can see the challenges. Not good enough, but now I know I must up my game and also how to get back there.
The aim is to see what comes out and how long it takes. You need to get the correct mindset going. You should be correct from the first moment. Often, you must work yourself in to sync. This is an issue. First contact must be right. If not, you are behind the curve of the action and get taken out.
Feel free to use this in your own teaching and let us know how you got on. Train safe.
If you like and follow our research and training, you may like to join our private discussion group. Here we can answer questions and discuss KORA and the arts we have researched and taught for forty-plus years.
Wondering if our training group or private lessons are for you, feel free to join and lurk a bit or ask questions.
During today’s class, I covered our absolute beginner knife defence, introducing the worst-case scenario: you are in range, do not have your guard or fence up, and the stab is on the way. The defence worked well and stood up to a little pressure testing.
We found it hard not to revert to the last year and a half’s martial arts training. This proves that our new method of training is working, and the mud is sticking.
I then taught two hours of KORA Pencak Silat Sera(K), looking at striking, closing and most importantly, what our attitude should be. I showed how we perform the knee strike from the Spanish arts, which becomes a disabling kick.
One of the outcomes was a reminder that when you close, you can be counter-grappled, in this case, an unscripted single leg. This is especially true if you stand tall and fail to drop lower as you move in.
The outcome is that we agreed we need to step up our grappling training again and put some work in. I will also begin to teach my Vale Tudo/MMA ground game, adapted to our context.
All in all, a great class, where I got to prove a lot of my teaching concepts.
We are halfway through the coaching year, and things are going well. Firstly, in January, I changed the way I teach to give my students the intention training I have been working on for the last few years, plus, after reading The Art of Practice by Laido Dittmar, I changed the format and running order of my lessons.
Since my group class is a recreational martial arts group that focuses on practical self-defence and a lot of my students’ time will be spent training either alone or with their personal training partners or in our training hubs. I have changed the class format to the following: Skills and then homework.
Homework is like training, not compulsory, but it is a great idea to avoid getting your head caved in if someone assaults you.
Since we are dedicated to preserving the martial arts of Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and European martial arts. I have been teaching separate classes as follows: We offer tuition in the following arts for self-defence, Kickboxing (Savate with a Basque flavour), MMA, Grappling (Lutte), as well as sword, dagger, and impact weapons such as sticks. We also provide specialised instruction in KORA Pencak Silat.
I have come to realise that each art that I teach is part of one art; each component enhances and informs the other parts. Therefore, over the next six months, I am going to teach the whole and only offer separate private classes if someone would like to study, say our flavour of Savate.
Our flavour of Savate and Lutte is a great example of an art that was dying or dead by the time I stumbled across it in 1986. This was partly because it’s hard to learn, painful in the same way ballet is, and it was driven underground due to the political situation. Some people also just kept it for themselves, not willing to share outside their inner circle.
For many years, I offered a small portion of our Savate as just a boot kicking module; it is only since the post-pandemic that I have offered it as a separate class to my group.
Going forward, in the Saturday 10 am class, I will be teaching my Dagger, Pencak Silat and grappling systems as one whole in a safe progressive manner under the label of KORA Pencak Silat.
Group class will look like this: 0900 KORA Sword and Dagger Class taught by me.
1000 KORA Pencak Silat and grappling taught by me.
1100 Class led by Xin, normally advanced Pencak Silat and some CMA.
I will continue to offer my private lessons to fellow researchers and anyone interested in learning the individual arts. Some people prefer private instruction, and that is cool.
In any of the above interests you, please get in touch.
Richard Killick
OSONS
Sailor Steve Costigan by Thomas Gianni – Book jacket art for “Fists of Iron: Round 2”
Killick Off Road Arts 