The Hound of the Wolf

For the strength of Pack is in the Wolf, and the strength of Wolf is in the Pack -Rudyard Kipling

Monday, February 23, 2009

A day at the Hybrid Yaw Yan gym

After playing the cashflow board game sponsored by pinoymoneytalk.com, i decided to visit either the Muay Association of the Philippines (MAP) office or the Hybrid Yaw Yan gym. The intention is to inquire about the training programs (including rates) they are offering. I opted to visit Hybrid Yaw Yan at the Annapolis, Cubao. I decided drop by to the future office of Trim Tab Technologies which is just on the adjacent street.

The Hybrid Yaw Yan is a martial school which teaches Yaw Yan (Sayaw ng Kamatayan or Dance of Death). Yaw Yan is a filipino martial arts developed by Grand Master Nap Fernandez and has closed resemblace to Muay Thai. Finally, upon reaching Hybrid Yaw Yaw's gym, I saw the fighters doing workouts and sparring sessions in preparation for an MMA competition this Saturday.

Coach Henry Kobayashi, Hybrid Yaw Yan's founder and head coach, discussed the basics of Yaw Yan and how different it is from other martial arts. For one, Yaw Yan does not have a kata or belt system. He also demonstrated some basic punching stance in Yaw Yan. The rest of the time was spent in watching competition videos of Hybrid Yaw Yan fighter.

From what i observed, the Yaw Yan attacks are lightning quick and unexpected. Yan Yan is a striking martial arts but Hybrid Yaw Yan was able to infuse other disciplines in their regimen such as wrestling, grappling and submission moves. This makes the craft MMA-ready. Yaw Yan is also a practical martial arts intended for personal self-defense not just for competitive matches. Vicious holds, head banging strikes with a Filipino twist.

Kudos to the Yaw Yan fighters, kudos to Pinoy martial arts.


PS: I just learned Sunday morning that Kru Robert Valdez, MAP president, was killed over a shooting incident inside his office. Big loss to the Muay Thai community in the Philippines. RIP Kru Robert and thank you for putting Philippines in the international Muay Thai map.