Sama Sama 2007

By Guro Steve Lefebvre

This past weekend another fantastic Sayoc Sama Sama event was held in beautiful St Cloud Florida. Over 100 practitioners came from Sweden, England, Ireland, and all over the United States and Canada to spend three days of intensive training in Sayoc! Here is a brief overview of some of what went on during this massive FMA event!

Friday June 29th

 As always the SKSTA had planned and put together some surprise “Hidden Agenda” events that any practitioner could opt into if they wished to challenge themselves beyond the normal realms associated with the martial arts. This year several individuals went toe to toe with living dinosaurs in the “alligator wrestling” event. I am sure that there will be quite a few stories coming out from those who participated!!

 Many of the participants were arriving throughout the day and at registration it was a great opportunity to catch up with many old friends and introduce ourselves to the new faces that keep growing and growing at each of the Sayoc events. After signing in, many of us began preparations for Saturdays events, but a few had another opportunity thrust at them “Katipunan” testing. I won’t speak about what went on during that late night event but congratulations to all who went through the trials and passed a grueling test!!

Saturday

 The call for line up was given and I was amazed to see how many participants there was going to be during this years event, Tuhon Sayoc personally welcomed everyone and had us all begin our day by attending a Medical Management review with Guro Travis Downing to start off our day. Guro Travis, went over the basics of the newly introduced Med Pack Kit, as well as an overview of how to stay safe during the intense heat of Florida! Over the coming days, the temperature hovered in the 90’s with humidity, so it was going to be imperative to stay hydrated and take many breaks to cool down during the day.

Immediately after this introductory training, the various ranks were split out to work on either the current requirements for Apprentice and Associate levels, or to work on the new 36 count knife fighting drills. These drills were each developed by the various Tuhon or Full Sayoc Instructors. Then each drill was worked and trained with an Associate Instructor for many (and I do mean many) hours until it was properly installed. These drills each have there own special “flavor” which was clearly evident as students were shifted into our groups to begin to learn this material.

 As lunch break was called, everyone headed over to grab some fantastic Barbeque to tank up the fuel again for the coming hours on the field. Break times are definitely a great time to catch up with everyone as well as to just take some downtime and to catch up on your note taking. With so much material being presented around the field it takes team work to even scratch the surface in getting it all down.

After the lunch break, another staple at Sama Sama was put into the line up, the “Melees”!! These are group events with many various scenarios put into the pitched battles. Each melee had a different strategy put into place to keep us all challenged, and I think we all had way too much fun in these events! Training continued with more review of curriculum and the new knife drills. This took us up until dinner time and traditional Filipino food was brought out for fantastic feast!

This year a very special event took place, an Ascension Ceremony. This was to recognize Tuhon Sayoc inheritance of Sayoc family arts, as the oldest living Sayoc family member. This was an awesome event to be a part of, with the Tuhon’s, Full Instructors, Associate Instructors, Apprentices, and right down to the newest members of the organization participating in a symbolic passing of the knowledge to each other. At the end the announcement of Tuhon Sayoc’s official title Pamana Tuhon (Inheritor). Also, Tuhon Sayoc’s wife, who supports and drives the organization at many levels, is now recognized as Pamana Silak Tess Sayoc. Something that Tuhon Sayoc speaks about each time we meet is the essence of the “family”. The wives of each Tuhon support each of us and are recognized by the title Silak (meaing to unify/complete), as well as the wives of all Instructors now hold the same rank as their partners in order to show the respect for their commitment to our growths and achievements in Sayoc. A momentous time for those present and something that will be spoken about for a long time to come.

Sunday

Again the heat quickly rose to the 90’s again which added a little more pressure to everyone who started the testing process for new levels of Apprentice and or Associate level Instructors. Quick draws (under .40sec from the holster), blade toss- quick draw and holster, as well as review of curriculum kept many of us busy for several hours. Never mind that the knife drills were being taught, reviewed and demoed for filming. So that’s not enough, let’s add in Whip certification and re-certification, a little Atienza Archery practice with Tuhon Carl Atienza, a fantastic FMA demonstration from Grand Master Fred Lazo (who came in to teach and demonstrate his art to us) an another special event, the Atienza Ascension ceremony!

Two Ascension ceremonies over this weekend showed me the growth and development of both of these arts as well as the breadth and depth of the knowledge being passed down from our elders/seniors in these arts. Tuhon Carl, Tuhon Darryl, Tuhon Allain and their wives were recognized as the senior members of their families and family arts by the dedicated Atienza, and Sayoc practitioners. Again this was another event I felt privileged to be a part of.

We broke a little earlier than on Saturday due to a huge thunderstorm rolling in, for a long dinner and then it was back to the field for individual stick fights and the throwing competition/obstacle course run.

Another late night, but well worth it!!

Monday

For the final day of Sama Sama, more and more individuals were training with the various instructors in new curriculum, reviewing current material or even working on the newly introduced knife drills. There were still several individuals who had to run through the Associate/Apprentice testing requirements, as well as several more to work on their Whip certification, but the day wasn’t over yet! A fantastic opportunity to work with the Sayoc Tactical Systems group was presented, which definitely was packed with coverage of firearm safety as well as very specific tactical drills for those involved. Awesome instruction from the STS special guest and teams!

During the day, there were several organizational meetings with Tuhon Sayoc and the senior members of the SKSTA to discuss the new promotions, upcoming rank structure change and to continue to plan for the future explosive growth of Sayoc!

After a weekend like this it is hard to leave, but all good things must come to an end and so the door to Sama Sama 2007 finally closed.

I look forward to seeing you all there at Sama Sama 2008!