Today is rest day again, so no workouts, and also a good time to extend carbo loading for my muscles.
Just finished the review of the periodic table of elements regarding properties of elements in groups and in periods. Basically, these categories identify a lot of things but particularly for the groups, it shows the valence electron for an element. For the period, it shows the highest principal shell occupied by electrons. Elements in a group share the same chemical properties while the period shows increasing effective nuclear charge and increasing electronegativity of an element as the element goes further from left to right of a period.
Starting unearthing my old documentation of the Zero martial arts. It was not updated for a long time but basically it captured the early stages of learning the system including the combat philosophies and counter moves.
My journey on the Zero system can be divided into three cycles. The first cycle was the pure Zero that my master practices. The first cycle also introduced to me the simplified strikes of Cinco Teros and speed of Balintawak while I already know and practice Kalis Ilustrisimo for a single short sword, the vital template 3/9 of Sayoc Kali for knife attacks on vital points of the body, and the Navy SEAL knife fighting methods taught by Frank Cucci that is based from Dan Inosanto’s Kali.
The second cycle my master decided to adopt a northern Chinese martial art form which is approximately 400 years old that my father taught me when I was still on the 6th grade and that is peculiar event because both of us are still dumbfounded as to why that specific Chinese martial art form fuses well with the combat application of the Zero system. While the Zero has no traditional form system and is akin to water that without a container has no permanent shape, the northern Chinese martial form has no evident combat application but only a traditional form, yet combining the two is like the perfect marriage that rarely happens. Zero gives the combat application to that northern Chinese martial art and the latter gives the perfect fit form for the Zero.
One subtle thing about the Zero, some of its moves that does not have a counterpart form from the northern Chinese martial art fits well on the southern Chinese martial art that is approximately 600 years old that I also know which I learned formally from a Chinese martial arts school in Binondo in Manila also during the 6th grade.
This was also the time that I have analyzed the geometry of Cinco Teros and how such a compact expression of angles of attack is actually the superset of all angle of attacks in Arnis / Eskrima / Kali. It reduces entropy on information processing during practice and also during combat application which frees the mind of such burden. Then came the adjustments made by my master on my strategy of applying Kalis Ilustrisimo cutting unnecessary moves and made shortcuts so I can live after a sword fight in case my opponent is very good. The speed and dynamics of the Balintawak strikes slowly I adapted. Now my sword figthing skills can’t be identified as Kalis Ilustrisimo anymore, can’t be said to be Cinco Teros, not even Balintawak. The knife system I still retain the one used by the US Navy SEAL but added the combat approach and philosophy from the new sword system. It took the best and important foundations from all of these systems and became a distinct system of its own. I’d still call it Zero.
Now, the third cycle begins, which is tailoring the Zero to a combat operators’ needs.
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