It’s been a month since I last blogged as a lot has been happening.
First I want to start with a brief memory of master Luther Secrease. It’s been a long time since I last visited Luther’s school, 1989 to be exact, and that was for an escrima seminar by Serrada master Sultan Uddin. Though he’d assisted grandmaster Angel Cabales many times over a number of years, this was Sultan’s first time on his own. Since I was local, Angel called and asked me to drop by in case Sultan needed any assistance, but when I got there, I could see he had things well in hand.
As for Luther’s funeral, it was memorable for a number of reasons. What everyone says about black churches is true; they do have the best music! The church band was a well-seasoned group of three keyboard players (acoustic and electric piano and organ), guitar, bass and drums, plus several professional singers showed up to perform gospel and soul, and a 15 year old kid who did a long jazz saxophone solo that would have made Roland Kirk proud.
In attendance was an all-star gathering of top martial artists from Northern California, including luminaries like grandmaster Byong Yu, Al Reyes, Al Colavito, Sam Montgomery (a champion fighter and former teammate of Luther’s) … the list could go on and on, as the overwhelming majority there shared Luther’s deep passion for the martial arts. Even the minister was a black belt student of Byong Yu!
Later at the graveside service, the minister made a special request for all the black belts to gather to one side. Reflecting how the military gives a 21 gun salute to fallen veterans, he said he’d like to start a new tradition amongst us martial artists, and so he had the black belts (at least 30 went to the cemetery) get into horse stances to give a 21 kiai salute, with a strong punch for each kiai. It was a moving send-off to one of the finest teachers and fighters the Bay Area has known, and I hope this does catch on as a tradition in the martial community, sending off our own in a style that can be appreciated.
Meanwhile, in the last blog I mentioned taking stock of my life and making some changes. With the weeklong hypnotherapy training session a time to be deeply reflective, and framed on either end by the deaths of two influential martial artists, I decided the time had come to act on idea that had been floating around for the past year, so I proposed to the woman to whom I’m now married! Things indeed happened rapidly once we agreed to seal the deal, and within a couple of weeks we held a small ceremony along the Bay Area shoreline at the spot where we first met. Everything fell into place, from old Kenpo compadre Bob Ernst doing the ceremony, to the unexpected appearance of Tom Meadows, my good friend from the U.S. team at the inaugural 1989 WEKAF championships, who just happened to be working nearby in Richmond for three days!
The only snafu was the engraved wedding rings we ordered from Ireland didn’t arrive. Apparently U.S. Customs decided they were a security risk and confiscated them, or so we think. The U.S. Post Office has been typically unhelpful. While the tracking number on the registered package tells us the rings arrived in the U.S. at 2:25pm on October 2, 2008, the post office says that the package can no longer be tracked with the number that provided that information. I was given a Customs number to call, which got a recording saying if I was calling because the Post Office had provided the number, that was a mistake because Customs doesn’t track individual packages it seizes, and a notice would be mailed to the sender in about 30 days (hasn’t happened yet). I contacted my congressman; I even emailed the White House. No rings arrived for our wedding, so we had to use others. Today I got a call from a postal customer service person who gave me a number to call to start a trace on international shipping. I called, and they said they couldn’t do a trace; it had to come from Ireland, where authorities there have already stated that since the package had arrived in the U.S., it was out of their jurisdiction. Aside from this bureaucratic comedy of national security proportions, things have been great.
On the escrima front, I was invited by master Darren Tibon to join a demo for halftime at a Golden State Warrior’s basketball game, but that has now apparently been pushed back to Filipino Culture Week in March. The occasion is the NBA is going to retire the jersey of the first Filipino who played in the NBA to their Hall of Fame. I believe this is Raymond Townsend, a UCLA point guard who was drafted in the second round in 1978 by the Warriors and who played for four years in the league.
I don’t mind this getting pushed back, as I have some young kids (9-14) whom I’d like to bring to the demo, and they can use the extra time to improve. I know Darren has invited some other groups to participate, to put on a strong performance, and I know how hard Darren’s guys train. Tonight I got a call from him that they actually broke one of my sticks! They’ve had it over a year; when Darren said he thought my sticks were unbreakable, I laughed and used my standard line, that the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable. Still, I continued, how many rattan sticks do you think you would have destroyed instead of using this one? About 50 he replied. That sounds about right to me!
Closing notes: Here is an upcoming event on the blog calendar. In less than two weeks, on November 15, grandmaster Bobby Tabimina will be doing his last Balintawak seminar before returning home to the Philippines. I have tremendous respect for his abilities and style of escrima. If you can train with him, it’s a memorable experience, and a skill set that is a valuable contribution to anyone’s repertoire. This will again be in Hayward, California, and it must be pre-paid by November 11.
Finally, for those who can find it, the January 2009 edition of Inside Kung-Fu has an article by Chris Suboreau and Steve Magness on Sonny Umpad’s escrima system! It’s great to see how Sonny’s students are working to continue his legacy of Visayan Style Corto Kadena.
Showing posts with label Balintawak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Balintawak. Show all posts
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
September Seminar Calendar
There are two excellent seminars scheduled here in the San Francisco Bay Area for the third weekend in September. On Saturday the 20th Bobby Tabimina will be having another seminar in Hayward. If you remember my post from the earlier event, this is something that should be of value to anyone interested in extreme close-quarter combat.
The next day, Sunday the 21st, there will be a Pedoy/Derobio seminar in Vallejo. To my knowledge, this is a first for this style to be presented here in this area. My own experience with Derobio was a few years ago in Albuquerque with Dan Medina, one of Pedoy's top students, and it left me very impressed with the system. Many techniques in Derobio look like Serrada but are very different in application, flowing with the attack rather than blocking them. This is a very reasonably priced seminar (as is the Balintawak) so here's a chance to check out something special!
For anyone up in New England, Guro Peter Freedman has several events in New Hampshire, including a demo on Sept. 6, a cookout/multi-style teach-in on the 13th, and a law enforcement "surviving edged weapons" seminar on the 24th.
Check the calendar (right hand column) for details on these events!
The next day, Sunday the 21st, there will be a Pedoy/Derobio seminar in Vallejo. To my knowledge, this is a first for this style to be presented here in this area. My own experience with Derobio was a few years ago in Albuquerque with Dan Medina, one of Pedoy's top students, and it left me very impressed with the system. Many techniques in Derobio look like Serrada but are very different in application, flowing with the attack rather than blocking them. This is a very reasonably priced seminar (as is the Balintawak) so here's a chance to check out something special!
For anyone up in New England, Guro Peter Freedman has several events in New Hampshire, including a demo on Sept. 6, a cookout/multi-style teach-in on the 13th, and a law enforcement "surviving edged weapons" seminar on the 24th.
Check the calendar (right hand column) for details on these events!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Tabimina Balintawak seminar review
Yesterday I had the opportunity to experience another outstanding escrimador, grandmaster Bobby Tabimina of Tabimina Balintawak, the last direct protege of founder Anciong Bacon. “Sir Bob”, as his students call him (and he often calls others “Sir ___” as well) is an example “par excellence” of a word I coined awhile back, “intentity”, combining intentionality and intensity.
An imposing presence, he paces back and forth with the restless energy of a tiger, making eye contact with everyone as he moves up and down the line. His teaching methodology is a provocative mixture, ranging from discourse on psychology to physiology while sprinkling in humor to engage his audience, but just as quickly as a summer cloudburst he can rachet up a fierceness that is undeniably impressive.
The core of this teaching is developing the reflexes to handle extreme close range combat. Defense is paramount to surviving, and once basic counters are understood, the training rapidly advances to random non-pattern based counter-for-counter feeds. As students’ reactions improve, the pace and intensity continually increase. This is one-on-one training, because these are skills that can only be “installed” (as he likes to say) under stress, so the skill and control of the instructor are vital components. This, too, is the reason they train with tapered rattan, because the lighter tip reduces impact for the strikes that inevitably occur.
This summer has opened fresh vistas for me, from Ron Lew’s stick lock-flow to Bobby Tabimina’s reflex training (interestingly, both Ron Lew and Bob Tabimina have trained with Cacoy Canete). Humbling though it’s been, there is a refreshing sense of renewal in encountering new puzzles to unlock. Bruce Lee described a punch as a question that asks if you know the answer. Well, the masters at the top of the FMA food chain, especially from the tried-and-true Visayan systems, aren’t just asking questions, they’re presenting curriculums for a PhD in combative science. I may have a long way to go to get there, but I know that the journey will never be boring!
An imposing presence, he paces back and forth with the restless energy of a tiger, making eye contact with everyone as he moves up and down the line. His teaching methodology is a provocative mixture, ranging from discourse on psychology to physiology while sprinkling in humor to engage his audience, but just as quickly as a summer cloudburst he can rachet up a fierceness that is undeniably impressive.
The core of this teaching is developing the reflexes to handle extreme close range combat. Defense is paramount to surviving, and once basic counters are understood, the training rapidly advances to random non-pattern based counter-for-counter feeds. As students’ reactions improve, the pace and intensity continually increase. This is one-on-one training, because these are skills that can only be “installed” (as he likes to say) under stress, so the skill and control of the instructor are vital components. This, too, is the reason they train with tapered rattan, because the lighter tip reduces impact for the strikes that inevitably occur.
This summer has opened fresh vistas for me, from Ron Lew’s stick lock-flow to Bobby Tabimina’s reflex training (interestingly, both Ron Lew and Bob Tabimina have trained with Cacoy Canete). Humbling though it’s been, there is a refreshing sense of renewal in encountering new puzzles to unlock. Bruce Lee described a punch as a question that asks if you know the answer. Well, the masters at the top of the FMA food chain, especially from the tried-and-true Visayan systems, aren’t just asking questions, they’re presenting curriculums for a PhD in combative science. I may have a long way to go to get there, but I know that the journey will never be boring!
Friday, June 01, 2007
June updates
A reminder that tomorrow is the Mata Sa Bagyo potluck picnic in Pittsburg, Ca. This is open to the FMA community in general and the Serrada community in particular. I'm hoping people will attend what is becoming an annual gathering, which bring me to ....
... something I've discussed here before, which is the lack of support for so many events happening here in the NorCal FMA community. Last weekend there was a Balintawak seminar in Pleasanton, a town conveniently located between the East Bay, San Jose and central valley communities such as Stockton and Modesto. Once again there was an astonishing (to me) lack of turnout. There were about a dozen members of the Tabimina Balintawak club that sponsored the event, and there was me.
Sorry if I'm preaching from a soapbox here, but for years I bemoaned the lack of events such as this in our region, a chance to see top instructors from related arts sharing their knowledge with the rest of us. Over the past year or so there have been many opportunities to attend events like this, but participation has been so sparse that the promoters are now shying away from the effort involved to make these happen. Besides posting on my blog calendar, I also directly emailed nearly 50 people about this event, letting them know there was a steep discount if they mentioned my blog. Of those, exactly NONE showed up. For $50 they could have had 5 hours with grandmaster "Nene" Gaabucayan of Teovel Balinatawak Arnis; for $10, the cost of a movie, they could have watched.
This was an excellent seminar with a top instructor. I often say an event like this is a success for me if I learn one thing new. By that definition, last Saturday was more than just a success because I picked up a few good ideas. It's too bad nobody else has the time or desire to do the same.
For those who live in S.F. or on the peninsula, a reminder that there is a two day Richard Bustillo seminar this weekend. If anyone from here attends, let me know. I'd like to hear about it, and maybe it will relieve some of this sense of futility about such events.
... something I've discussed here before, which is the lack of support for so many events happening here in the NorCal FMA community. Last weekend there was a Balintawak seminar in Pleasanton, a town conveniently located between the East Bay, San Jose and central valley communities such as Stockton and Modesto. Once again there was an astonishing (to me) lack of turnout. There were about a dozen members of the Tabimina Balintawak club that sponsored the event, and there was me.
Sorry if I'm preaching from a soapbox here, but for years I bemoaned the lack of events such as this in our region, a chance to see top instructors from related arts sharing their knowledge with the rest of us. Over the past year or so there have been many opportunities to attend events like this, but participation has been so sparse that the promoters are now shying away from the effort involved to make these happen. Besides posting on my blog calendar, I also directly emailed nearly 50 people about this event, letting them know there was a steep discount if they mentioned my blog. Of those, exactly NONE showed up. For $50 they could have had 5 hours with grandmaster "Nene" Gaabucayan of Teovel Balinatawak Arnis; for $10, the cost of a movie, they could have watched.
This was an excellent seminar with a top instructor. I often say an event like this is a success for me if I learn one thing new. By that definition, last Saturday was more than just a success because I picked up a few good ideas. It's too bad nobody else has the time or desire to do the same.
For those who live in S.F. or on the peninsula, a reminder that there is a two day Richard Bustillo seminar this weekend. If anyone from here attends, let me know. I'd like to hear about it, and maybe it will relieve some of this sense of futility about such events.
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