Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Rama: Drawing concealed By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
THOSE lightning-quick sub-second draws people see athletes perform during matches or in training videos are made possible by constant practice and the proper rig.
Constant practice is important because it leads to a refinement of the draw stroke. And, as we established in our last piece, refining the draw stroke – eliminating all excess and unnecessary movement in executing the act—is the key to speed.
In turn, getting the proper rig is important because some holster designs force the shooter to perform excess movements to get the gun in the clear.
Competition or race rigs are especially designed for ease of draw.
The good ones lock the gun in place via a mechanism that engages the gun at the trigger guard. The mechanism unlocks only when the gun is pulled up. A special lever is engaged to keep the gun fully locked in place if the shooter is away from the firing line.
Duty and concealed-carry rigs are a different matter altogether.
Duty holsters are designed with retention at the forefront. On the other hand, concealment rigs, as the name implies, is designed to keep the gun hidden and retained. Ease of draw, while still a very important consideration in designing these two kinds of holsters, takes the back seat.
Ray Abad, the visiting Chief Range Officer of the American Shooting Centers in Houston, is in Cebu this week and, I have been told, will hold a firearms safety and proficiency training seminar on Saturday at the King of Kings Sports World and Resort office in 318 Sikatuna St., Zapatera, Cebu City.
Draws from race rigs and from concealed-carry position are among the topics up for discussion. Those interested in attending are required to register.
Inquiries may be phoned in at 2538411-8412.
JUDO. A thick legal document that needed to be digested for the following day’s front page kept me from meeting the last column deadline. Thankfully, the news cycle has eased up a bit. Thus, Stage Five is back in circulation.
And, fortunately enough, this is just in time to receive the latest development from Manila, where three separate Judo competitions were held by the Philippine Amateur Judo Association (Paja), and where judokas from Cebu scored three big ones.
The tournaments were all held in one venue, the Tutuban Mall, and progressed from the second to the fourth of the month.
Athletes from Cebu began the harvest last Friday, during the Philippine National Individual Juniors Judo Championship. Team Cebu, a combined delegation of athletes from the Cebu City Judo Club and the University of Cebu Judo Club, fielded three players, and one—Vicente Fernandez III—clinched the bronze in the minus 60 kilograms category.
The following day, Saturday, Team Cebu clinched another medal at the Philippine National Kids Judo Championship, an open event for athletes 13 to 15 years old. The delegation had one entry – Joaquin Fernandez – and he clinched the silver in the minus 55 kilogram category.
Last Sunday featured the main event—the Philippine National Individual Judo by Belt Championships. Team Cebu’s lone entry, Brian Canillo of the University of Cebu Judo Club, took the bronze in the minus 55 kilogram category.
Paja’s Cebu City Coordinator, Atty. Vicente Fernandez II, said the athletes trained hard for the event and had to be sent as one delegation to avoid having to spar with each other and getting halved in the first round.
Nevertheless, two athletes from the delegation were forced to face each other in the minus 60 kilograms match of the Juniors championship.
MORE JUDO. Speaking of juniors, Fernandez reports that Judo is attracting more and more people, just a few years after the Paja chapter here got revitalized.
A lot of the attraction, he admits, comes from the continued popularity of mixed martial arts matches, where ground fighting is an effective strategy.
Fernandez said Paja has put up a satellite dojo in Barangay Canduman, Mandaue City, calling it the Canduman Housing Judo Club.
The club began as a project of Pastor Nap Mondia for Canduman Housing Project kids aged between seven to 14-years old and has grown in size to a pool of about 40 athletes, thanks to the support of residents and the Mandaue City Government.
The kids practice in the club from Monday to Thursday, or whenever there is a session, but go to the Cebu City Sports Complex on Fridays to cross-train with some members of Team Cebu City and the University of Cebu Judo Club.
Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, Fernandez said, has facilitated the use of a government bus to ferry them to and from the Cebu City Sports Complex for free.
