Hi everybody, I am interested what weapons is everybody training. I do basics, single and double sticks, single and double knifes, long and short, staff, Sarong, Bullwhip (started only recently) and empty hands. Bladed I use a Ginunting Trainer. Also I have a Karambit, but I train very rarely with it. Ah, and I forgot the Palmstick. How about you?

At first glance, it seems great that we have close to 90 members in our community, but the not-so-great truth is that only a small handful of members actually engage and contribute. Moreover, it's almost exclusively those members who have upgraded to either the Premium or VIP tiers who do all the engaging and contributing. Funny... It's as if they invested something, so they want to get something out of it... Imagine that. I've invested something, too... and I definitely want to get something out of it - so, I am going to ELIMINATE the FREE STANDARD TIER as of June 15th. If you are currently a Standard-Tier member, you will need to UPGRADE before then to remain in the community. At the end of the day on Monday, June 15th, I will run down the list of community members and remove anyone who has not upgraded.

We're getting the Online Class dialed in. Tomorrow, we be doing it slightly differently - using the Skool "call" option as opposed to the Skool "webinar." Fingers crossed that this different option makes it more organic. Also, as pretty much everyone agreed, it's important to keep your microphone muted unless you're needing to respond to a question or ask one yourself. That should minimize or eliminate any feedback issues. Beyond the Online Classes, though, what can I be doing/providing to incentivize the community members who are presently on the free Standard tier to upgrade to Premium? As you might imagine, I ask for a very simple and pragmatic reason –– If this platform can serve as a source of income for me, that incentivizes me to turn more time and attention to it. And I would not have started this community if I didn't want to do that. So, with the understanding that I do, indeed, want to bring more value and benefits to you, the community member, please let me know exactly how I might best do that. I added the option of taking private online lessons the other day and I'll teach the first on Thursday. Again, I have the school space 24/7/365 and I can have a student or two present to demonstrate with, so if you're halfway around the world from me and you want to learn, get a training partner and share the cost of doing privates with them. Joe Hyams - the author of Zen In The Martial Arts and a former private student of Bruce Lee – trained privately with me (exclusively) for 20 years.

@Mark Mikita Yesterday I (for those that don't know me I am the bald guy) decided to work on the drop stick line closure for the #4 angle yesterday from sumbrada. This was brought up in the class the other day. I can't say I was having any issues with it but I still wanted to take a closer look at it with my training partner/student Mike. Here is a video clip of us both performing the line closure. Mike was having a bit of trouble with the timing. We did work on it before filming and it did improve. What I seem to do is wait for the attack to be initiated, then I close the line. If I close the line too early my assumption would be it could be used against me. Is my thinking correct? What could I do to improve my technique and feeding to Mike? What could Mike do to improve? Thanks!