
(With Senior Master Leandro Godoy and Senior Master Fabio Gomes)
When I first gained access to the domain of Baat Jaam Do, it was July 2008. My mind was preoccupied with other matters, and I did not yet understand what it meant. One might have seen me, a year later, debating whether or not to purchase a pair of Baat Jaam Do that were being imported from China. The opportunity was there, but I saw little reason to pursue it.
At that time, my feeling when practising Baat Jaam Do was that I had to force myself to do it. Baat Jaam Do represents a pinnacle in several respects — one of which is the exploration of the Ving Tsun System itself. In cases such as mine, one ends up resorting to resources outside the "Kung Fu dimension" because one has not yet developed the mindset necessary to simply study.
As a result, something very simple completely escaped my awareness: the strategic aspects of the Baat Jaam Do configuration.
It had never occurred to me, even a year later, that understanding its configuration might contribute meaningfully to my study. I ended up acquiring the pair from China at the encouragement of my Kung Fu brother, Vlaidmir Anchieta. With his characteristic kindness towards me, he noted that we did not know when we might next have the opportunity to acquire such a pair for practice.
As I did not yet know how to begin exploring the configuration, that first pair felt far too large for me, and my wrists would quickly ache due to the excessive force I was applying.
This frustrated me deeply; with each practice, I felt increasingly foolish. It was as though one were holding a mirror that magnified all one’s flaws in a given process. That is not an easy thing to face.
I also did not want to complain about the Baat Jaam Do — no one else seemed to — and I did not wish to give the impression that I did not know how to use them.
It was only in 2013, during a study session led by Grandmaster Leo Imamura at one of the residences where my master had once lived, that I saw, for the first time, a slide showing the different parts of the Baat Jaam Do and their respective names.

(Grandmaster Leo Imamura talks about the
configuration of the "Baat Jaam Do", 2013)
There is potential in things, but it is not all of that potential that we will necessarily make use of. Another important point is that, even if the arrangement of something is potentially strategic, it may stand right before us — and yet, if we are not prepared, we will not be able to perceive anything at all.
That is precisely what happened to me on that Sunday morning.
Although the slide was being presented, in practical terms it would not come to mean very much to me in the years that followed.

(From left to right: the one that came from China in 2009,
and the two crafted by Senior Master Godoy)
My subsequent pairs of Baat Jaam Do were made by Senior Master Leandro Godoy, the second of which is the one in the middle of the photograph above. Despite the darkened blade and the wooden handle — both very well crafted — the blade’s shape was skewed.
By then it was 2021, and I still could not grasp how to make proper use of the Baat Jaam Do configuration.
It was as if the Ving Tsun System had a kind of safety mechanism: for certain things, no matter how much you try, you simply will not be able to progress beyond a certain point unless you know how to study. I no longer tormented myself during practice, but I had become stagnant.
Until one day, the configuration began to become slightly clearer. I had been within the domain of Baat Jaam Do for sixteen years by then.
It was at that point, taking advantage of an opportunity, that I spoke with Senior Master Leandro Godoy — just before recording an interview with him for my Vida Kung Fu podcast — about what he thought of the idea of customising a Baat Jaam Do.
My Kung Fu brother, Thiago Silva, was tending to a work-related task on his tablet, and I, sitting with him at a café in Largo do Machado neighbourhood, was able to listen to Master Godoy’s thoughts on my question — as always, very insightful.
A year and a half after that conversation in a café in São Paulo — in the presence of Senior Master Fabio Gomes and the designer and cinematographer Nan Satornlug (photo above) — I received my third pair of Baat Jaam Do from the hands of Senior Master Godoy, because I had bought them earlier this year.
My understanding of how to make use of the Baat Jaam Do configuration has been gradually becoming clearer, seventeen years after that July in 2008. This gave rise to the need for a new pair — one without any distortions, designed exclusively with study in mind.
The Safeguarding Programme is fundamental in allowing one’s Kung Fu to be built in such a way that the practitioner has the chance to appreciate the different stages of the Ving Tsun System over time.
I never gave up.