Meet our Student Matt

Meet our Student

I'm rolling out a new feature where we meet our students by doing a little question and answer.  This week we meet Matt Lattin.  Matt is a mainstay of our club.  He assists me during both the Broadsword class and the Self-Defense class and acts as a feeder with  the other guys in our Women's Self-Defense seminars.  Matt is a Dog in the Dog Brothers and will most certainly be a full Dog Brother before too long.  Matt's focus may not be to learn every nuance of every drill, but his heart as a fighter cannot be questioned.  I've seen a lot of growth from Matt and I look forward to seeing what his future in the Martial arts holds. 

I reached out to Matt, asking these questions and this is what he replied with. 

Time at Blackbird:

I think a little over 3 years. 

Hobbies outside of Kali:

Outside of kali it is other sword fighting martial arts lol. If we are talking non martial art hobbies i would have to say i do a lot of restoration projects. My favorites restorations tend to be taking old tools and bringing life back into them. 

Other Martial Art Experience:

Starting at 18 i did a few years of MMA. That was a pretty intense dive into my martial arts journey doing 8hrs a day for 5 days a week. After getting a knee injury i had to take some time off and ended up moving onto other hobbies and interests. Then several years ago i was asked if i would be interested in full contact medieval armored combat with rattan weapons, that led to my learning rapier fencing which is what inevitably led me to blackbird where i found the perfect mix of everything i liked. 

Favorite weapon to spar with:

While not particularly exciting i am a big fan of single stick lol. I enjoy being able to crash and do a disarm or takedown if i want to. But really i'm usually up for doing whatever else my partner wants to do. 

What you'd tell someone who is in their first month:

I would probably suggest to train both the right and left hands from the start when working drills, certainly at home. This way you will be proficient in both, when you advance to using two weapons your offhand isn't miles behind, and you can extend your training sessions without roasting your dominate hand's shoulder. This will also make sure you don't develop muscular imbalance. This also helps when you are in the middle of a match and someone cracks you right on the elbow, wrist, or fingers that you can seamlessly switch over to the other hand and keep going. 

What's your coolest memory in the club:

Honestly is when we travel. I really enjoy getting to hang out in the car on the way up joking and talking with everyone on the way up, then go spend an afternoon fighting strangers and meeting new people in what has always been overwhelmingly positive encounters. Then to load back up into the car and once again for the drive home where we talk about our fights, what we saw in each others fights, complaining and joking about our ailments and welts we received and hopefully dished out. I feel there is something to be said about the bonding that happens with those who have suffered the same experiences with you. While it doesn't strictly have to be through martial arts, i think anyone and everyone could really benefit from going and having these types of experiences.

I think this is a great snap shot of what it's like to know Matt.  He's fearless, hilarious, and just like Myself and the rest of us, maybe a little bit weird.  But that is what makes our community here at Blackbird so great.  We are all different...  coming from different walks of life, backgrounds, and are all on our own journeys, yet at the same time we are dedicated top making ourselves and our training partners better. 

Thank you Matt for taking a little time to help us get to know you.