It's Time To Break Our Brains (At SinawaliFest)

Our school, Kindred Protective Arts, has many, many events throughout the year.

We have seminars (and this year our first full-fledged camp) at least three or four times a year. We have guest instructors, we go to the range for expert firearms instruction, and we have parties and potlucks and even train on New Years Day.

Three times a year, we have what we call our "Internal Seminars".

What makes "Internal Seminars" special is that the price of admission is a shelf-stable protein food donation that we take to our local food bank.

In January or February, we have "After the Fight", first-aid for immediate responders, with the idea to keep someone injured breathing until the real First Responders arrive. If we are going to teach some unfortunate the error of his or her life choices in initiating violence, we at least can keep them together until the paramedics and cops show up, right? Our friend Dr. Kyle Garrison teaches this one and it's always a valuable experience.

In November, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we have "Knifesgiving", our annual knife-centric seminar Mr. Chick typically teaches. Mr. Chick is a Level 10 Instructor in Force Necessary: Knife and gets to do a deep-dive into the rabbit hole on the subject. Everybody loves Knifesgiving.

Last year, we started the third Internal Seminar, which is in my personal wheelhouse, "SinawaliFest".

SinawaliFest is a deep and nerdy dive into the FMA drill called Sinawali. We play unusual patterns, we break up and marry together different patterns we chain them together, and we insert other stuff in the middle. I get to really geek out on the drill that's always been the only one I actually am very good at (and came easy to me), and I get to share it with a lot of other people.

Playing Loop Double Sinawali - AGAIN.

It's SOOOOOOO fun.

We also have Ken Baker of Luzminda Arnis Kali in, and what they call Sinawali is very different than the drills we call Sinawali, and it's always a big challenge for all of us. It's a blast.

At the end of SinawaliFest, our brains are broken, there's smoke coming out of our ears, and we can't believe three hours went by that fast.

And we're doing it again this weekend.

Since I'm teaching at SinawaliFest, I have... plans.

Me, thinking about Saturday afternoon

If you're in the area, you're always welcome (bring some canned tuna or peanut butter with you, ok?)

Does your school do seminars for charity like this? What's some of your favorite seminar topics? Is there a drill you're good at that you love to geek out on? Let us know in the comments!