Sparring is the name of a type of training in martial arts. In the corporate world, the term has come to be used for a certain form of meetings which are for sharing expertise. The heads of industries has a short moment each to present a problem to the other participants, and they, with their different skills and experiences, can then discuss and try to solve it.

The art group Okynnes has taken the concept of Sparring into the art world. At each Sparring session an amount of people get fifteen minutes each that they can use however they please. (You are not limited to discuss art, or even to discuss at all – you may want to show a short film, try out a performance, or just throw out a question and listen to the other participants’ replies.) When your fifteen minutes are over, what ever goes on will be interrupted and focus is shifted onto the next person’s fifteen minutes.

The Sparring discussion form has turned out to be a good way to create dynamic conversations revolving around art. When the topic and focus change after each quarter of an hour, most people are able to stay focused, the time is just long enough to get the most important things said, and short enough to endure when you find the subject utterly uninteresting

At the second Sparring session in Stockholm, held in Hus 28 at the Royal University College of Fine Arts, we devoted 15 minutes to each of the following subjects:

• Ideas and useful contacts for putting up Flash Mob Musicals, and how to frame and exercise such a thing.

• The end of party politics and future politics in general. Quite a lot about Göran Hägglund and his People of Reality.

• The battering of, and our sympathies for the toy dinosaur Pleo, human and artificial consciousness, and a little about copyright.

• Contextualizing works of art in gallery spaces – excessive, and boring, descriptions versus leaving the the viewer empty handed.

• Jagobombo – the Human Ape, a fantasy Robinsonade written in the future, and the “deliberately bad” as an expression.

• Mockumentaries and real, but unbelievably weird, documentaries, and conspiracy theories about the stuffed lion at Gripsholms castle.

I’m having a shit day. I couldn’t get sleep last night and when I finally did, I didn’t sleep well. I woke up just before 7 for Yoga, had breakfast and went back to bed before private with Samart.

The private session was rubbish, I seemed to have forgotten everything, even how to punch. My hands we just not cooperating, I couldn’t get my punching right at all, and it was frustrating. He didn’t seem to be as happy as usual either, or maybe it was just me being in a bad mood, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as usually. My roundhouse kicks, however, were better today. Usually, my roundhouse kicks have been quite rubbish. It must’ve been that 2-hour Thai massage on Saturday, which loosened up my thighs and hips.

My trainer taught me few new techniques: catch leg, pull head down and kick the supporting leg; tap uppercut and elbow; block hook, pull head down and knee; clinch and take down. And I have already forgotten how to do them.

The afternoon class wasn’t much better. I shouldn’t have gone at all and go for a run instead. But I had nothing better to do and I didn’t want to waste another day doing absolutely nothing. In the technique class we practiced another impossible combination: jab, teep to the leg, “superman punch”, teep away when opponent kicks, low kick the the front leg, punch to the stomach, hook and uppercut elbow. Oh yeah, I’ll use that on someone when I’m back home.

I was sparring again with the Indonesian woman, and she was trying to hammer my thigh again (she bruised Swedish girl’s legs really badly earlier). So, I thought, I wasn’t going to have it and punched her a little bit harder. She didn’t like it and decided to go crying to the trainers that I went too hard. Come on! She’s an adult, not a kid. Maybe it was a bit harder than 20% power, but it wasn’t that hard. So obviously, I was told off by the trainers and told that sparring was finished, go hit the bag. And I did, I was so annoyed!

Luckily, “Lola” asked if I wanted to have couple of rounds with her. So, I had 2 rounds of sparring with her, which were good. My blocking is definitely getting better, just need to get those punches and kicks through as well.

After sparring they told us to take off hand wraps and go to the ring for some clinch work for 20mins. I wasn’t happy about that, as I hadn’t had my rounds on pads yet. I asked the trainer and he said no. Grrrr… That’s not what you want when you’re already having a bad day. Then it was the usual, 200 knees, 100 teeps and 100 elbows on the bag, plus 200 sit ups, including hitting the stomach with the medicine ball, and 100 press ups. Training certainly didn’t make me feel any better. I wanted to cry.

Yesterday, I was looking forward today. Today I’m just fed up with everything.

I have sometimes mentioned on the boards that I am good friends with a gentleman named “Ama Guro Billy Bryant”, a very talented martial artist who, in my opinion, was the East Coast version of Bruce Lee. You will meet people who either bad mouth him or love him to death, and every time I talk about him I get private messages and emails asking his whereabouts or to tell them more about him. He is something of a phantom martial artist these days, but one that nearly everyone will agree was a great martial artist and fighter, so I’d like to talk about him a little.

I first met Billy around 1983, in a tournament in Philadelphia, PA. I was fighting in a plain black Karate gi representing no one (I was 13 and had loyalty issues with my martial arts teachers), but I had a Filipino flag patch on my uniform, which caught Billy’s attention. (Now that I think of it, that patch has introduced me to several other masters, including Master Apolo Ladra, GM Don Bitanga, and many more.) While Billy was interested in meeting my grandpa and talking FMA, I was more interested in picking his brain about point fighting because I admired his fighting style. At that time, Billy was in his late 40s and was quite dominant. At that time, he was going by the name “Jabba”, and representing Chinese Kenpo. He never talked about who he learned from, but I remember asking him for matches (as I did Billy Blanks, Leroy Superfeet Taylor, and many other great fighters I looked up to) and remarking that he seemed to have kicks as good as the Tae Kwon Do fighters–which he answered that he also had a Black Belt in Moo Doo Kwon (or some other Korean style).

Years later he ended up living in the Washington, DC area, and had visited my school several times, attempting to learn from my Jow Ga Sifu, Master Dean Chin. Sifu refused him as a student, saying that he did not trust him (as my Grandfather said as well). Billy came back several times, worked out with some of my Si Hings, impressed everyone, but was never allowed to join. I would run into him occasionally at the tournaments, and each time I saw him I learned techniques and strategies that I would work on until the next time I saw him.

To say that Billy’s quick lessons influenced me was an understatement:  I use to this day nearly everything I’ve learned from him, and when I spar I envision him and mirror his fighting style.

In 1986 I won my first division as a Black Belt Adult and was handed my first $100 prize money. Billy was there to coach me, and talked to me about using competition martial arts as a form of income. I have to say this, when he was around I was more confident and for some reason almost always placed high. He spoke to me at that time about learning Arnis–which I knew well, but had little interest in teaching–from GM Remy Presas. We promised to get together and compare notes about what he knew vs. what I knew. He asked me at that time about forms, and I informed him that I didn’t know any and he said he would teach me some. We did not talk about FMA much after that until 1988, when I left the country to visit my Dad in the Philippines. Billy had me go to Angeles City to look for Luis Amador Oliverez, his Kenpo teacher.

I ended up staying in the Philippines for two years to study with Boggs Lao, Ernesto and Roberto Presas, and two other gentlemen whose names I have forgotten–one taught only Espada at Daga, and the other taught Hung Gar. Billy and I communicated via letter every month, and I reported on the lessons I learned, and my failed attempts to find Kuntaw similar to what I was learning at home (all I could find was Karate/Kuntaw), and searching for “Kali”.

When I returned to the US in 1990, I immediately hooked up with Billy–who by that time had become a student of my Si Hing Raymond Wong and had learned quite a bit of Jow Ga by then. Billy had a school in the Annapolis, Md, area and had forged a good reputation for his fighting and forms ability. I returned to the tournament scene, but had more of a taste for kickboxing, as I had kickboxed in the Philippines and liked it better. I joined a boxing gym (Palmer Park/Ray Leonard gym) and started working more on boxing skill, while working for a Tae Kwon Do chain teaching sparring classes and doing sales part time. Billy by this time was knee-deep in his FMA, and was all over the seminar circuit. He often introduced me to colleagues from the circuit, whom I found to have very poor skills despite being arrogant and cocky because of who they were learning from. He confided in me that Jeet Kune Do people were into Bruce Lee and his concepts more than they were into fighting skill. But they were good for attending seminars, and Billy actually made a nice income teaching them. So he befriended and complimented everyone even when he thought they were lousy martial artists. It was here that I developed a bad taste in my mouth for the video tape and seminar market:  everywhere I looked, I would find poor skill combined with a lot of certificates and name-dropping.

In 1992, I began teaching at Bolling Air Force Base Gym with the curriculum that my Grandfather and I had devised together. Billy thought my curriculum was too light, and encouraged me to “fluff” it with “filler”, as he found that most students liked to be spoonfed and wouldn’t pay for training the same skills night after night. I tried some of his ideas, but always came back to the original method I planned to use.

In 1993, I opened my first commercial school with a dear friend of mine, Terry Robinson, who was a pioneer from the 70s in the bareknuckle scene. Billy gave a lot of good advice and donated equipment to get me started. He made my first flyers and taught me how to do it myself. I used his wording and found it very effective. Shortly thereafter, I found that one of his students, Kenneth Willis, grew up 20 yards from where my family lived in River Terrace, Washington DC. Kenny was a boxer who studied Eskrima with Billy, and only learned fighting from him. Kenny was my second greatest influence, as he was highly critical of Billy’s ideas, despite admiring him so much. I later moved to Baltimore to open my second location in Reisterstown, and got back on the tournament scene in that city. Billy had introduced me to some serious powerhouses there, and I trained with these gentlemen, who mostly made up their own systems. Some things were striking:  all where African American, all had excellent skill, and all were trying to make their mark in a community dominated by Asians, commercialism and racism.

I had some disagreements with Billy, but none were bad enough that we couldn’t get past them. But but in 1997, I had offered to host Nene Tortal for a seminar in Baltimore, and it led to my last disagreement with him and I never spoke to him again… except for a few times I had called to see how he was doing. Our conversations were very short and contained none of the sage to student intimacies they once had. Last I knew, Billy was back in New York and confined to a wheel chair after a vehicle accident and some personal tragedy.

I was one of those people who knew Billy very closely, I knew his dirt, and I knew his struggles, but it does not bother me that I could not contact him anymore. What amazed me was how many people come to me, not knowing who I am or who I am to him, and offer rumors (some true, some untrue) that attack his character. To tell the truth, if we are talking about a great martial artist, we sometimes look at his personal life and judge his ability or validity as a teacher based on what we know or hear. Bruce Lee, most likely cheated on his wife with Betty Ting Pei, used Dan Inosanto to run his business when he was no longer interested in teaching for a living, and smoked marijuana. Steven Segall is a liar and and asshole. Maung Gyi is a phony veteran and lied about the origin of his martial arts. Others, are drunks, are bad with their money, have false histories, are jerks, has huge egos and small “manhood” complex… but what about their martial arts?

The fact is, Billy was human, but he is a good man (if he is still alive) and I really don’t care to hear about his faults, nor do I wish to share with people I don’t know. As a martial artist, he was one of the best and he influenced many great martial artists to become better. I emulate him when I fight, and he’s never made any movies. I also happen to owe my career as a martial artist to him, and that says a lot.

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There are those who believe that the Filipino arts are not aesthetically pleasing enough to attract students. At least, not enough students to pay a two thousand dollar lease.

But it isn’t always about beauty, or fads, or marketing, either!

In the FMAs, we offer many reasons to study:

• a good, strong form of self-defense
• it can be a great workout, unlike the workout of many other forms of fighting
• we teach fighting skills much faster than many other styles

Can the arts help a kid get good grades? Can an FMA school be a cheap alternative to After School Day Care? Can it be set to music, like Tae Bo?

Man, I should slap you for those questions.

The Arts are in their own niche market. A book I once read told me that if you have concerns about the competition in your industry’s market, eliminate them. And what better way to eliminate competition than by carving your own niche in the market–where there IS no competition? It was recently noted on the discussion boards (at www.martialtalk.com/forum) that most cities have no full-time FMA school, yet every city boasts at least a few hundred FMA students. Wouldn’t it make sense, that the only school in town would be able to pull in a good portion of those students? Especially the ones who caught the FMA bug!

And this isn’t counting the potential students who crack open the Yellow Pages to find a place to teach self-defense and/or martial fitness… and stumble upon the FMA school. Sure, it don’t look like Jet Li’s fight scenes, but here are the benefits of studying the Filipino Martial Arts, sir…

It isn’t always all about slick marketing and mixing arts with more popular styles. Many times, we just have to do a better job relating to the needs of our public. I’m not referring to press releases and newspaper clippings, but simply to advertise the benefits of the arts we teach and then explaining what we do when they walk through our doors. After all, it isn’t much different from the challenges of Kung Fu Sifus in explaining why he doesn’t teach Monkey style Kung Fu or jump up into trees, and why the Tae Kwon Do Sabumnim explains that he is not teaching Karate and is not called a Sensei. Part of the recruitment and sales process is education, and that will make a huge difference in whether or not a school sinks or swims.

I believe that most martial arts students really don’t have a preference in what style they study, given a proper education while searching. They just want to know that they will either get in shape, or learn to defend themselves, or will be a muggers worst nightmare. The Filipino arts can provide those benefits and more. The question is, do you have the ability to put your style in front of enough people to pay the bills?

And this brings me back to the subject of how to run a school. I don’t believe enough attention has been given to the how, and this is why most martial arts schools fail–not just the Filipino schools, but martial arts schools in general. As the saying goes, “A Black Belt in the Dojo, but White Belt in the Office”. It isn’t a question of what style is marketable, just like the question of whether fighting ability depends on what style you practice. If that’s the case, then every hard core school would be broke, and every Tae Kwon Do school is making a ton of money.

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Shoes in the martial arts world have, typically, never really been fashionable. As a kid, I remember being able to get  a pair of “kung fu shoes” at Alpha Beta (old school grocery store) for about a $1.99. But never were they something that everyone here in the U.S. was rockin’. I’d see them around every once in a while, especially in less affluent communities.

Back in the day, you could get these and a loaf a bread for $2.50...

These were cool because these simple cotton shoes with a hard plastic sole were the same shoes Bruce Lee would wear in his films. These were also the shoes all the kung fu fighters in the old school Shaw Brothers flicks were sporting. Sometimes you could find these with hard white cotton soles. Even though all of the film stars wore them, these shoes are horrible to train in. The soles have no grip and even less foot support for demanding quick action foot movement. You were lucky if they didn’t fly off executing a kick.

Today’s version of these old school classics are stylish, yet remain as simple as the originals.

Old School Re-Do.

This goes for most other martial arts shoes as the big names like Nike, Puma, and Adidas, have all jumped into the martial arts shoe game with their version of foot support for the practitioner. For the most part, kung fu shoes or martial arts shoes never really made a fashion statement or their mark in pop culture until now…

Here’s my review of these new school kicks…

For Tai Chi

This is a simple white canvas shoe with a  slim rubber sole. The laces add overall support and the padding around the ankle is helpful but could cause some irritation if worn with a low cut sock. These aren’t usually worn by martial artists doing tough training. These are for Tai Chi and moving meditation practitioners. I remember seeing old people in Hong Kong wearing these types of shoes up early doing Tai Chi and playing chess in the park. Perfect for the retirement home…

Sticking with the canvas shoe..this is the Feiyue.

Universal Shoe

Feiyue is probably the most identifiable martial arts shoe out right now. This is a rugged canvas shoe with a medium sized rubber sole. The grip is superb on these kicks. Once they are broken in, they feel like a glove on your foot. This brand is based out of Shanghai, China and is easy to find all over, especially in Northern China. The extended lacing system provides incredible foot support for all intense training exercises.

Hi Tops aren't recommended for training.

The flexibility and comfort that Feiyue provides for martial artists, allow for long training sessions without discomfort. As mentioned, the rubber sole provides exceptional grip for all surfaces. The only downside to these kicks is, over a few months practitioners can expect to see the rubber detach from the canvas as the glue on these tends to fade. Feiyue doesn’t have the best Quality Assurance as they are mass produced. Martial artists can find these usually around $15 U.S, but if you’re in China and know how to say “Tai Gui le” (that’s too expensive!) you can get these for dirt cheap. Two pairs for $40 Kuai. (That’s about $5 U.S. a pair).

Gaining popularity outside of the martial arts community.

Feiyue has stepped outside of their martial arts roots and have been producing a casual shoe for civilians. They have been gaining momentum in France and of course the Asian market, but I have yet to see them in abundance here in the states.

Good looking. Definitely not for training. This is a kick it shoe.

Next up is Rubber Duck.

Same as the Feiyue.

This is the Rubber Duck version of the Feiyue. In fact, it is a Feiyue, but with much higher Quality Assurance. Minus the stripes and a well glued on sole. Here in the states they retail for around $45 U.S. For some odd reason they are heavier than the original Feiyue which is extremely light. Martial artists and civilians can get these in Navy, Army Green, Grey, Black, and White. I believe Rubber Duck is based out of Denmark, but don’t quote me on that. I got these from a friend of mine who is a rep for Rubber Duck. I have yet to give them a proper training session.

Sewn on label instead of stripes. Your choice.

A good light weight summer beach shoe?

Steering away from the canvas, let’s take a look at the leather martial arts shoe. First up, Nike.

Sleek, but any good?

This is a leather martial arts shoe with a thin rubber sole. Medium to heavy in weight. This shoe is more for the mixed martial artist, Greco-Roman wrestler, boxer or kick boxer. High ankle support for quick movement but difficult to perform lower stances. Hi tops generally take away from the flexibilty and range of motion the ankle demands for a lot of traditional martial arts maneuvers. Standard lacing system provides great foot support. Nike may have dropped the ball on this one as far as functionality goes. I wouldn’t recommend these for long training sessions as there is not much air circulating in and out of the shoe. The sole is more for indoor training, so grass and dirt are out of the question. I’d say this shoe is more for the weekend warrior and not the daily practitioner.

More functionality from Nike.

Here’s something with a little more versatility from Nike. A leather shoe with a smooth rubber sole with some grip on the bottom. The laces on the side are short, which is nice for sparring but offers less support for the ball and toe region of the foot. The wrap over flap is useful in sparring and bag training but can pinch at the front of the ankle during low stance work and depending on how tight the shoes are tied, could pinch all the time. Low cut at the ankle for good range of motion. Horrible design though. They may look narrow but once broken in, without that lower lace support, it will feel like you’re wearing a flipper instead of a martial arts shoe. The side lacing system is popular on their soccer shoe, not sure why they imported it into their martial arts shoe.

Adidas…

World Class, but do they work?

Here is a really lightweight leather shoe from Adidas. Nice upside covered lacing system, great for sparring and bag work. Narrow toe design. And a really thin rubber sole. Almost too thin. The sole on this shoe is its downfall. There is simply no grip. During sparring practice it is very easy to lose focus on your opponent because you’re trying not to slip and slide on your planted foot during a kick. Soft cushion around the ankle, low cut for more movement. Simple overall design and good stitching placement at the toe for low stance work. This leather breaks in very nicely and grips the foot. The only problem is the sole…Too thin and too slippery. For indoor use only.

Patent leather, not always a good look.

This is basically the patent leather version of the Adidas shoe above. Although the grip on these is a little better. Still an indoor shoe and for those practitioners who do demonstrations and competitions this would be ideal on a mat. Flash is cash, as they say in the strip clubs. But flash or shine on a martial arts shoe only says one thing about its wearer, looks are more important than usability. The leather is a bit thicker on this model as it is slightly padded. An OK training shoe but not sure it could endure months of hardcore training indoor or outdoor. Pricey as well.

Firepower Shoes.

Um...

The Firepower brand is ususally known for its punching equipment, gear, and bags. I wouldn’t consider them a shoe giant in martial arts by any means. This shoe is basically a cheap knock off of the Adidas. The sole has sharp edges which is not ideal for any martial artists, as most martial artists use all parts of their feet in combat and training. I would make the effort to save a little more money to buy a better quality shoe than settle for these. If you take you’re martial arts for a joke, it’ll come back and haunt you.

Last but not least, Puma.

Puma - Providing International Flavor.

Puma has a nice leather and rubber sole shoe. The overlaying flap is secured by a hook and loop. This makes for an unorthodox style of comfort and support. Padding on the top is good for sparring and bag training. Little comfort around the ankle as the rim is padded slightly. Sleek design, similar to their driving shoe. Different texture grips on the bottom for security on one or two feet. Not necessarily an outdoor shoe, but I don’t have any reason to believe that they wouldn’t hold up. Traction is important, which this shoe has. The tightness of the leather design and extra padding could lessen the room needed for the foot to expand during performance.

Generally, you’re going to want a shoe that is versatile and is comfortable. If you train daily and for longer than average hours, I would go with a canvas shoe. Canvas provides comfort and breath-ability. Canvas is lightweight and durable. Grip is also important, especially on a mat. If you train indoors for a short amount of time, I would go with a leather shoe. The thin rubber soles on the leather kicks works well on gym floors or polished surfaces.

Really study your training regiment and ask yourself what is ideal for what you do. Every shoe offers something unique.

Martial arts shoes have come a long way since the old kung fu movies and are now specialized and highly fashionable. These are just a few I decided to review, there are numerous styles by a number of manufacturers. Do your research as always.

-MR

]]> http://filipinofightingsecretslive.com/2009/12/05/sample-empty-hand-training-session/ Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:18:57 +0000 thekuntawman http://filipinofightingsecretslive.com/2009/12/05/sample-empty-hand-training-session/

I was asked for a typical workout for my students by a potential student, so I thought I would share what we do here.

The student that called was inquiring about my “empty handed Eskrima”, and I have no such thing. The Eskrima I teach is strictly single stick and single knife, and I teach Kuntaw for empty hand (along with several weapons) aside from Jow Ga Kung Fu. I separate the styles I teach out of respect for my teachers, although I do have preferences (a matter of taste and personal attributes as well) in what I teach and how I teach.

We incorporate warm-ups with punching and kicking drills. Unlike many teachers, I do not have a 15-minute warm-up period where we only do calisthenics and stretching. I do believe, however, in stretching lightly before getting started; but on some days we go straight to punching and kicking. I know what the experts say about warming up before working out, but if you were attacked on the street, you would be thrust into a “workout” and not given time to warm up. And in 20 years, we have not had injuries due to this.

I work with sets with our punches and kicks. This means, I do not do one set of 10 front kicks per leg and then go on to one set of 10 round kicks, and so forth. Instead, when we practice our front kicks, we do 2 – 3 (or more) sets of front kicks and the sets will be between 15 and 50 reps each leg. This will give our students more time to develop the skill of kicking, rather than just arbitrarily running through drills to get to the next exercise. For this reason, in a typical class, we may only practice two or three kicks per session, but in total, we will have performed a hundred or more of each technique.

I treat the punches the same, but in higher numbers. Whereas we may only do 50 kicks per leg, per kick–we will execute hundreds of punches. Both empty hand styles I practice are primarily upper-body styles, so we emphasize the use of the hands and arms and spend more of our time on them. One important thing, though–we rarely practice our punches and strikes standing still. I believe in moving while striking, even in practice (especially in practice), so that the fighters will have better mobility while using the techniques we practice. We will do them standing still on occasion, like when I am using the punches as a warm-up. However, most of the time it will be in a fighting stance, with some sort of footwork pattern assigned to it. After that, we will do exactly the same thing with combinations and techniques.

One side note:  power and accuracy are impossible without footwork. Because of this, we always incorporate it.

We will spend time “trying out” the techniques on each other, or on mitts, as alive practice is extremely necessary to learn how to use the techniques mindlessly. When I say “mindlessly”, I am referring to the ability to use the techniques without use of the memory… in other words, as a second-nature reaction.

Occasionally, we will spar for the duration of a class, but only when I am confident the students understand the set or group of techniques we had been covering over several classes, and I feel that they need time to absorb the skills into a “second nature”. For my advance students, sparring is a part of every class.

Finally, we close with physical training. I believe strength training should come at the end of a class, when students are the most tired. This is where their courage is built, and their strength is challenged the most. I would rather have them practice techniques while fresh (therefore practicing correctly) and train their muscles while exhausted (therefore pushing their muscles more than ever). I look at the physical training part of class to be strength training, so the amount of fatigue we experience is immaterial. This is the best way to develop strength; pushing onesself to near-exhaustion.

There really isn’t much to our training methodology besides these few simple steps. Like I always say, it ain’t rocket science!

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Let me answer this question with the short version, and then the long version.

The Short Version: YES.

The Long Version:

I have been hanging around MartialTalk discussing whether or not a full-time FMA school is possible… and whether they are needed, bad for the art, blah blah blah. If you check it out, you may notice a few feelings getting hurt, insecurities coming out, and things of that nature, but the conversation and feedback is pretty good. But at the same time, it is also pretty sad.

There seems to be the belief that the Filipino arts cannot survive in a commercial school, unless it is a side dish to something else. There are several reasons why, but the most bothering of them all is that teachers of the art believe this–and it is reflected in how they treat the very arts they teach. In most FMA teacher’s resume profiles, the Filipino arts are just one of the arts they do and are often just “sticks and knives” to them. Even the ones who do empty hand use another style for their main form of empty handed fighting. Because of this, I would say that the only way the Philippine arts will survive commercially in this country are (1) as watered-down martial arts, or (2) as a specialty, niche art to be given up on DVD and in one-day seminars.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I would like to offer my advice to those who would like to take a stab at making this art a full-time job and career:

1. First, you must have good skill at the art. There are just far too many mediocre martial artists and fighters representing the FMAs–as well as other arts–and no one will stand out who does not leave behind people impressed with the art and the artists. If you want to do this full-time, develop your basic skill and train until your palms bleed and your forearm swells up. This is the first rule to success in the martial arts. Good marketing and slick sales speak only gets you so far…
2. You must be committed to staying on the path of promoting good Filipino Martial Arts. This means having the discipline to add “After School Karate” and “Sticks and Kicks”, just to make a buck. If your mission statement is to promote solid, traditional FILIPINO Martial Arts, anything that does not drive that direction is working against your mission. Don’t do it. Resist the easy money and build on your passion.
3. Study Sales and Marketing. Learn how to promote and persuade. If you don’t like doing, get someone who does. But a business with no sign is like a car with no wheels. It’s just sitting there. This, I believe, is where most martial artists fail. Nothing happens until you make a buck. You can post Youtube clips until you’re blue in the face, but you have to drive traffic towards your classroom.
4. Decide if you will have an empty handed program or not. You don’t have to have everything, trust me. I don’t see Boxing gyms adding weapons and kiddie classes, and I don’t see Fencing academies trying to figure out an empty hand component. But whatever you decide, make sure you have done the research and that you have a solid, strong program available. Too many FMA people are still “exploring”, and they don’t have that “master’s expertise” aura about them. Be a true expert at what you do, and decide what type of expert you will be. Nothing will kill a business faster than having a bunch of people believe you are not one of the best.
5. Get yourself a good business plan and a website, along with a good cheap location. You do not have to be in an expensive location, and you don’t have to be in a extremely busy location. But with good advertising, reputation and website, you will draw students. You should also have a place that is affordable!
6. You must either have financial backing to keep you floating until you arrive at success, or you must have the drive to keep going until you get yourself there. I have seen many good martial arts teachers fail because they lacked one or the other. Does this mean I have never had financial problems? Of course not, I have moved out of expensive shopping centers and taught in parks until my enrollment allowed me to get back into another commercial location. I have lived in a hotel with two young children (I was a single father for 6 years) while teaching and working a low-paying job at night (and sneaking my babies into the job) before “breaking through” to full-time teaching. Believe me, I am not a very educated or smart man–my wife proofreads, edits and even rewrites everything I post here–but I will do this art until I die. And I will always have a school. If I can do it, I know you can. But you have to have the fighting spirit to see yourself through the difficulties and the faith to know that you will succeed. Too many martial artists do not, and so they end up tap-dancing in Tae Kwon Do schools for $75 a pop and certifying beginners as experts to make ends meet.

Of the FMA masters I have met that have made a decent living with their arts, none have a college degree, and most speak poor English. By our standards they should not be successful in the art, but they are. Take a good look at what you would want to remember you did when your life passes before your eyes, and if you would have rather have spent it teaching the arts, pursue it. The Philippine arts are as valid as any mainstream martial art, and there are possibly millions of people who want to learn it. Be one of the teachers ready to take them in when they are ready to train.

Thank you for reading my blog. And if this article interests you, you may be interested in my first book, Making a Living with Your Backyard/Garage/Community Center Dojo, available for purchase on the Offerings page. Good luck!

I’ve been training a lot this week and haven’t got enough sleep. I’ve been up in the mornings for yoga at 7, because my body has been so stiff and my muscles needed losing up. Usually, I have something for breakfast, fruit, oat meal, muesli and yogurt or scrambled eggs in a microwave after yoga and then I go back to bed to sleep for an hour or so before training.

I’ve started having private training sessions with a trainer called Samart. He is lovely. He’s such a happy person (like most of the Thais). He’s taught me to block, which has always been my weakest link, and he’s improved my balance, which consequently helps blocking: if you have “no balance”, it’s impossible to block. Everytime I do the same mistakes over and over again, he’s patient and corrects me. Everytime I do things right, he’s happy and he laughs. When he teaches me new, cool stuff, he laughs afterwards and says: “next time maybe not remember”.

Things I need to remember to do:
- keep the leg straight when kneeing and pull the head with hand
- keep the front leg straight and twist from the leg on upper cuts
- keep the body straight and use shoulders and twist from the legs when punching
- keep the body straight when kicking, twist from the hips, don’t turn the foot when stepping and keep on my toes
- keep the supporting leg straight on front kicks
- bring the hand back for protection

It seems to be impossible: don’t twist your body, keep your legs straight and at the same time turn your legs when you punch or twist your hips when you kick.

I’ve had some issues with sparring as I’m still not very confident with it and I can’t block (I got my leg bruised when sparring with this tiny Indonesian woman, Tui). My trainer was so lovely after sparring on the class the other day, saying that I’m already doing much better and my balance is better.

After every training session with him, I just feel so happy. I just love training with him.

It’s addictive: Thaiboxing, Thailand and the people

“How long before I am able to defend myself?”

If you are a Martial Arts teacher, you are probably asked this question at least once a week. I know I am!

It is a normal question for the martial arts student. We get several types of martial arts student in my school, and some of these guys are unique because my school is primarily an FMA school:

• those wanting to get in shape or lose weight
• victims of a crime who just want martial arts skills
• victims of a crime who did their homework and are searching specifically for the FMAs
• former FMA/JKD/Modern MA students
• people who worry about self defense
• those who saw “Ong Bak” and confuse anything from SE Asia with that stuff Tony Jaa does (LOL)
• recent Black Belters who want to add FMA to their resume
• Filipinos who want to reconnect with their heritage (and non-Filipinos who like Filipinas)
• martial artists interested in fight competition

Regardless of why they come to the martial arts, most students really are curious about how long it will take before they can use it. Then, of course, we get the occasional “when will I be able to take on ten men?”

Seriously, I have heard some instructors consider this a question posed by the misguided and ignorant. I beg to differ; along with wanting to know how long it takes to achieve instructorship, most people want to know how long their journey will be. And as teachers, we owe it to them not to respond with some vague, vapourous answer. At least for those of us who have been teaching for a few years, we really know how long it takes to develop self-defense skill and should reply with something realistic. Of course, there are many factors that will determine how long. There will also be the question of “define ‘learn to fight’.” Are you referring to just some punk on the street? Or a seasoned streetfighter? Or empty handed versus an armed opponent? The truth is, if a student has learned to inflict damage, has learned to counter an opponent’s attacks, has the physical ability to do it, and the mental fortitude to handle such a task… then that student can defend himself. You as the teacher must guide his training to that point as quickly as you can, as soon as the student has undertaken study with you.

One of the things we see in the business of the martial arts is the assumption that students will be with us long-term. I believe this is why there is such an emphasis on certification and rank; there is the purveying belief that giving students goals to achieve will make serious martial artists out of those not cut out to be them. But this is not true. While I agree that some people are psychologically and genetically predisposed to excelling in fighting arts, there have been many people who overcame the odds to become great fighters because of plain old hard work. Hanging a carrot on a stick may work for a while with some (like children), but not everyone is ready for the blood, sweat and tears it takes to perfect this craft. And to push a full curriculum on students who have yet to prepare for this journey is an injustice, as not everyone is here for that. The truth is that most students will not be with us long, and in order to make their time with us worth the money, we should give them real skills that they can use as soon as possible and save the “attributes” stuff for the ones who will commit for the long term.

In other words, we should teach our students how to kick a mugger’s ass within 3 – 6 months.

Really, it isn’t that hard. Teach a guy how to ball a fist, how to train his fist to use it without injuring himself, how to inflict injuries on an opponent, give him the strength and physical ability to hurt someone with those techniques, and then, finally, give him opportunities to try it out under pressure. I say:  he should be ready to spar within a month, and sparring with some skill within 3 months, and feel like he can wear a guy out within 6 months. And this is empty-handed as well as with weapons.

Now, I have heard the argument that we should be teaching open hand techniques in the beginning, instead of the fist because the hand is not prepared for fighting while balled up yet. I believe that this is a good philosophy. However, I feel that there is a better reason to teach the student to use his fist and to train his fist so that he can use it:  the fist can cause more damage, and although it takes a little longer to learn, the student needs to have something to show for his training time with you. In my own system of Kuntaw, we traditionally use the open hand more, but because my grandfather was a fist guy (who also didn’t practice langka), I am also a fist guy.

I also recognize that many systems and teachers do not have skills that can be used right away–”right away”, as in “within 6 months”–so teaching a guy to fight within 6 months may seem awfully quick. If you have the desire to add this set within your style, here is the easy formula again:

1. learn how to make a fist and punch
2. learn basic hand conditioning
3. learn power mechanics and vital targeting
4. develop physical fitness, strength and durability
5. teach him to spar, and have him spar until he is confident enough to fight without fear

Within one month your student should learn his skills well enough to spar; at least lightly. After 3 months, he should be proficient enough to pick and land shots, as well as stop attacks. And by his 6 month, he should have sparred enough rounds that he is no longer afraid to spar and confident enough to face whomever you put in front of him. This is a rule of thumb I use, and have been using for nearly two decades. Try it for yourself, I am sure that if you incorporate my timeline, you will see quicker results in your students.

Once your student has developed testable fighting ability, you should then proceed to your curriculums. I believe that what we see in the Filipino arts is the opposite:  we develop curriculum skills before developing actual skills. The result is several generations of martial artists who “know” many techniques, but have either poor ability to apply these skills, or are afraid to attempt application. Developing the ability to fight is actually quite simple, unless we wait too long to develop it. Once you have introduced students to the art without fighting skills, it will be very difficult to teach the fighting skill.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please leave comments!

This is a small set of rules that is universal to fighting styles and formats, and I hope you can use them.

1. Limit yourself to only a few techniques, and then do them exceptionally well. Part of the problem with traditional training is that there is so much to learn, but so little time to excel at them. Martial artists expect to do this art part time and yield full-time results… and this simply only happens in the imaginations of those who practice the arts. I don’t know how many martial artists–especially FMA people–whose upper arms are half the size of my forearms yet they feel that somehow, they are equal to martial artists like me. While it is possible to train only a few days a week and enjoy great benefits, for the majority they will be nothing more than average martial artists. But there is the light of hope for them!  Use this rule and limit yourself to only a handful of techniques, and drill those techniques over and over, each time you practice, and you will see results much faster than the guy who only spends a few minutes a week on each skill he has.
2. Become a student of tactics and strategy. Filipino martial artists in general tend to worry too much about concept and exotic ways to do things. So much so, that they know very little about functional technique and must speak in “concept” rather than putting on the gloves and proving that their theories work. This is the flaw with drilling as a form of skill-building:  few people actually bridge what they are doing in concept with what they can actually do in practice. Instead, I recommend that you spend more time sparring and dealing with what you can actually apply now, and leave the one-day-with-enough-practice-you-could-blah blah blah alone. Study the strategy of fighting and practice how to actually combat certain attacks and how to use them as true attacking weapons. Of course, you won’t be able to train against everything, but at least you will have a small set of skills that you know you can rely on. (Real quick, kiddos! What’s the number one excuse used by people who are afraid of sparring?  That’s right! “Sparring/tournaments aren’t real enough!”  So, why is that a cop-out?  “Because the only thing more ‘real’ is to actually get out on the street and fight for real, and they won’t do that!”) Forget the cliches and just get out there and get as many rounds in as you can. You’ll be amazed at how much you will progress after getting knocked around a few times. Just be patient, grasshopper… skill is right around the corner, so don’t be discouraged!
3. Allow yourself time to develop. Martial artists seem to think that as soon as they learn something well enough to show it, they know it. But true ability takes time to develop and mature. So what, that you’ve been doing the art for 20 years? How many fights have you had? Give yourself some real notches in your belt and then the real learning will begin! This goes for every type of tournament/sparring you do. It won’t happen overnight, though, but hang in there and keep at it, and you’ll be truly functional in no time.
4. Drop the “tradition” in order to keep with tradition.  A man will spend his entire life accumulating knowledge, and by the time he is a Master, will “forget” most of that learning and practice/retain/use/teach only a small percentage of it. Fighters in competition do the same thing: they only use 10% of what they know. This allows them to really develop those things to a very high level. After all, you can never really master everything. So pick which is the most valuable to you, and refine them. Trust me, all the Grandmasters do it.

Please study this article closely, because I believe I have given you a very valuable lesson this morning. If you follow these rules, you will see a nice jump in your skill and ability before you know it.

Thank you for reading my blog, and don’t forget to check the Offerings page for updates on my upcoming book, Mustafa Gatdula’s How to Build a Dominant Fighter in 12 Months!

I’m having a dilemma right now.

I have been discussing what it takes to make a decent living as a martial arts school owner, and I am realizing that many serious martial arts teachers don’t really want to run a commercial school! Do they want to teach? Yes! But there are many things you must do to make your school successful and I’m not referring to donning a clown outfit and entertaining 6 olds, either. Most of these things really take a different kind of discipline than what it takes to work out or fight, but it seems that most of these true blue die hard martial artists aren’t willing to do them in order to put food on the table. As a result, we lose many of our best teachers to full-time day jobs, while those students looking to train in a school are stuck having to choose between Mickey Mouse Tae Kwon Do and Barney Kenpo Karate. It is sad that many serious martial artists equate success in the dojo with selling out one’s values, to the point that they sabatoge their own potential for success by believing that it just can’t be done.

Now, before I go on, let me list the basic recipe for success in the dojo:

• You must be in good enough shape and have good enough skill that your students will be motivated to stay with you and work harder simply because you’re around
• Classes should be designed so that they are experiencing an increase in skill and physical ability
• Your school should look like a place where they will learn (not posh, but at least fit the image of a serious dojo)
• You must have studied marketing and sales. It does not have to be a formal education, but at least well enough that you understand the functions of sales and marketing, how to put together and carry out a plan
• You need a good website that paints the picture of what you do
• A good, clear mission statement that colors everything you do
• A reputation
• A Unique Selling Point
• Your Daily Business Operating Plan must be in place and adhered to
• You must have a target market and a marketing message, as well as a Martial Philosophy
• Your own niche in the market where you do business
• Multiple forms of income within your martial arts

Although it may sound like a lot, it isn’t. But it does take a lot of preparation, and for some reason many martial artists seem to believe that all you need are certifications to teach and money. I started my first school in 1992 with almost nothing, and nearly two decades later, we are still here. And why is that? Because I never believed for minute that I couldn’t do it.  Many teachers out here are pessimistic, so they end up working 40 hours a week PLUS running a dojo, and that isn’t success, my friends, because I guarantee that something is lacking. And there are plenty of ostriches out there with their heads in the sand, trying to convince themselves that they really don’t want a school.

Yet, they will criticize and dislike those who have a full-time school, while sniveling “good for you” out the corner of their mouth… implying that those who have a school are either arrogant or selling out.

So, the bottom line is that some folks are just not business minded! Is there hope for them to still teach full-time without having to punch a clock elsewhere 8 hours a day?

Yes!

I would like to share some of my ideas–and these are just opinions; most of them I have not tried:

• Find ways to maximize the use of your space (for those who already have a school). Rent out the gym on days and slots you do not have classes. You can approach church groups, fitness instructors, massage therapists, dance instructors, etc. Many schools have days free that can be income-generating slots that will cover many, if not most, of your school’s bills. Several times, I have rented out my school to others needing space.
• Sell things:  Martial Arts supplies, books and videos, exercise equipment. My good friend an older Kung Fu brother Raymond Wong had a carry out and wholesale sari sari (knick-nack) store across the street from his school. On top of that, he owned rental properties and
• Throw martial arts tournaments. You would be surprised what kind of money you can generate from investing about $1,000 of your own money in a one-day event. But beware!  If you do not patronize other’s events, or are not well-respected in your martial arts community, this may not be a good idea. Competitors and teachers are fickle. In some martial arts communities, any tournament will draw competitors just because you advertise it. Some competitors are chasing prize money. But many, like in Northern California where I live, are social people; they only attend tournaments promoted by people they are associated with or like. Either way, between door sales, entry fees, and concessions, it is a great form of income.
• Have a side business that supports the martial arts community:  trophies (late, great Shihand Robert Everhart did this); martial arts supply; bill collections; or write books or promote video/DVDs
• Work for yourself! No, really! Pass out flyers full-time as a job, and you will see a nice jump in your school’s enrollment. To be honest, marketing is what drives the bus, and someone’s got to do it! However, in most martial arts schools, no one does it. So are you going to hire someone? Or do it yourself?
• Teach on the road. I have used satellite classes almost all my adult life, and I swear by it. Having even a rec center class on the other side of town allows you to tap into a market that normally would consider your gym too far away to join. If you take a venue that is either free or low-rent, it’s a great second income! Especially if you only teach once or twice a week
• Work seasonally. This is something I had done when I first began teaching, and have done several times when enrollment was low. Take short-term jobs, like post office “casual” postitions during Christmas. This will end after a certain date, and  you will be less likely to stay when you should be returning back to your business.
• Compete on the open circuit. A fun, easy income…. if you are good enough. On top of that, you are building your reputation at the same time!
• Use your martial arts as a form of personal training. Not just fitness, but offer exclusive personal training in real martial arts for those whose schedules requirement and have the income to support it. This will let you work when you want, and personal training brings you about the worth of three to four students per client. You can’t beat that with a stick!

In the old days, teachers taught small groups and supplemented income with other things. But this allowed them to focus on their art daily and fully. Of course, a full enrollment will too, but if it’s just not for you there are many ways to make your living with the martial arts–within the martial arts.

I hope this article is useful to you, and gives you a few things to think about. Thank you for visiting!

This installment is dealing mostly with the martial arts student/fighter, rather than the teacher.

While I believe in following a teacher’s example, respecting his plan for you, and allowing yourself to be trained–rather than to try and teach yourself–I believe that every martial arts student controls his level of learning and develpment by the amount he “puts in”.

It’s one thing to attend class and train when you are not in class, but to go out and find “training” partners is another. Of course when I speak of training partners, I am referring to sparring partners. Often within a school, it may be difficult to find others with similar approaches to the martial arts. In one of my discussions with an East Coast-based FMA teacher, she mentions how in a school there may be a large number of students who are less than fully serious about training. So where does that leave the hard-core, dedicated student?

I have always encouraged my guys to go out and find partners to train with. One of my students, a year ago, attended a tournament but was lost and arrived too late to fight. He reviewed video of the divison he was to have fought in and saw a guy defeat another of my students, who mentioned that he wanted a rematch. Well, the guy who was late also wanted to see how he’d do, and guess what? They approached him, asked if he’d like to spar more, and the group (there were about 5 of them) left the tournament to go to another student’s home to mix it up. Today, they are all friends who regularly spar with each other, and everyone attends a different school.

Tournaments are a great place to find guys who want to throw up hands, but have limited access to others with similar endeavors. They are also good places to find guys who are not afraid to fight and will “bring it” a little harder than some of your own classmates. This builds confidence in fighting someone unfamiliar, and gives you more opportunity to try your wares, so to speak. Finally, when you have had an abundance of matches under your belt you are more relaxed when fighting and will find it easier to try new techniques and strategies. Adapting to new tournament formats and fight rules are easier as well.

Streetfighting is not much different (aside from tactics used and rules) in that everyone is somewhat nervous. However the ones who have fought more are usually less nervous, and some are not nervous at all. We want to achieve that level:  having no anxiety in combat at all. This is a place few can arrive. By having more fights in your past, you are reaching that goal every time you cross hands with a guy. This is why we find more veteran point fighters jumping into full-contact fights, even when they had not trained particularly for those events. The more you fight, the more comfortable you will be in facing opponents.

When a martial artist has avoided fighting matches, he must resort to ridiculing combat sports and putting down those who do. They make themselves feel better by downplaying the confidence of martial artists who participate, by talking in concept:  “If we fought for real, I would kill you/If you fought in a real fight, you would find that your tournament experience won’t help you/I am training for real thing; not a game of tag.”  Most of these people who treat the ring this way often do no fighting other than some light sparring with friends. And what is that, but a small version of a tournament anyway? Are they fighting to the death? No! They are fighting with rules too!

It is a numbers game–how many opponents you have had + how many lessons you have learned from those matches. It is also some algebraic magic that will have you sorting out your sport experience, and how it applies to the street. But the bottom line is that your timing, your knowledge of distance, and your reflexes will improve through point fighting and at a much higher rate than any other form of training or fighting.

Thank you for visting my blog, and please look out for my new book (coming soon, in December 2009), Mustafa Gatdula’s How to Build a Dominant Fighter in 12 Months! Look on my Offerings page!

I found this notebook in my school, belonging to one of my senior students. The date of this page I will quote from is August 2004, and the title of his notes is “Tips for Teaching”. I don’t remember this class, but I often give lectures to my boys, and I require all students to keep a notebook.

We are not going to discuss these things in detail, but I am glad to see that these guys are referencing old notes:

TIPS FOR TEACHING

1. Always start class on time
2. Speak in a confident and authoritative voice
3. Organize your classes in a logical order (exercises, limbs, categories of techniques)
4. Combine technique practice in the air, on targets, on each other, against another technique, and in sparring
5. Specify emphasis on speed, power, accuracy, or repetition
6. Train the student on at least two techniques every class
7. Explain, in detail, one technique each class
8. Limit free practice to 10 minutes per item, per class
9. Ask for questions before each drill
10. Use the Private Lesson Plan
11. Make sure each student performs corrctly
12. Ask yourself, “Are these students really developing?”
13. Ask yourself, “Do these students enjoy this class?”
14. Sloppy students mean sloppy instruction
15. Practice what you preach

Look for upcoming articles that will explain these rules in greater detail. Thank you for vising my blog!

I’m going to introduce something very radical to the western martial arts student. Open your mind to what I am saying, and God willing you will find something valuable in this article. This is very short–not a lot of fluff, but I just want to get these thoughts out.

The Full-Time Student

When I was young man, living in the Philippines, I attended the graduation party of a baby cousin of mine, who was 16 or 17  at the time. The question as dinner was, what are you doing to do now? My cousin said, “I don’t know, I’m thinking about studying martial arts and opening a school…”

Full-time study as a martial artist? Instead of college or a job? Hmmm….

The martial arts can be a profession as much as a hobby. Some people study the art casually, and their skill reflects their study intensity. A very small number of martial artists make the art their life, and plan to do something with this knowledge. Teach, fight, but something. There is no need to take that slow-baked method of studying a few times a week; if you know this is what you want to do, why not just immerse yourself? Teaching the martial arts is just as lofty as any other career, and it deserves the same amount of dedication and education as any other pursuit.

There are several ways to approach a career in teaching the martial arts, but this is the best way to do it:

1. study the arts full-time. even if you have to work to have food, shelter, and tuition, the rest of your time should be spent in training
2. enter competitions as a way to gauge your progress and/or make a name for yourself, as well as to develop your skills in application
3. begin teaching in small groups as you compete, and allow this time to be the development of your teaching skills
4. open your school

Study the arts in lieu of a formal academic education. Not exactly what most parents dream for their children, but it is a admirable goal. Full-time study gives your skills the attention it needs to reach your potential, and allows you to focus on learning the art fully, as opposed to just lumping that knowledge along with everything else you take in. When you train every day, for several hours a day, your skills will develop like no others. I believe that for the future teacher, this is a must-do.

Thank you for reading my blog.

As I write this, I am involved in a disagreement with several martial artists over on MartialTalk. I am going to spare you the juicy details of our disagreement (actually I laugh at things like this, because when a martial artist is easily offended, he/she is really telling on himself about how tough he is/or not). Basically, I was reading the Modern Arnis forum, when I noticed a sticky by the list owner, Bob Hubbard. He was lamenting the fact that he started MartialTalk as a place for martial artists to exchange ideas and talk about Filipino Martial Arts, mainly Remy Presas’ Modern Arnis. Instead, he says, the forum had turned into a place for seminar promoters to advertise their events and for people to divert readers to Youtube. I am sensitive about this, which is why I try my best not to lure their readers over to this blog.

But I digress. So there are two parts to this article–one part for the teachers of the art, and the other, for the student.

So let’s start with the teachers.

There is no secret that I was opposed to Remy Presas’ notion that Arnis is the perfect add-on art. Of course, anyone could benefit from these arts, but I believe he was trying to get students to notice the effectiveness of our country’s arts and needed to use existing martial arts students to find his first students. But once his family got on the ground, I believe that he should have taken his art in a different direction… which was into full-time schools with dedicated, full-time teachers. Instead, he continued with the seminar industry until his art, as well as the rest of the FMA community, became known as nothing more than an “add-on” art. Or worse, people referred to Arnis as just “the sticks”.

It hurt in several places:

• teachers of the art kept FMAs “on the side”, and very few people did exclusively FMAs. (As a result, when I began teaching in 1991, I only taught the Filipino arts, although I hold 5 Black Belts in different styles)
• curriculums only covered the hair and skin of the art, because teachers needed to teach a roomful of beginners as well as a handful of more advanced students. the training then, became drills-based and very little attention was given to skill and basics development. the result? guys who knew tons of disarms and counters, but hit like little girls
• turnover from student to teacher was too simple and too quick. rarely will one find FMA people who have fought much, and you will find three or four generations of students in less than a decade
• FMAs become a backyard/garage class style, rather than treated as a stand alone system, capable of 100% of a man’s attention. this is has been my message the entire time I’ve been a teacher
• when the teachers spend only a portion of their time practicing and training, they end up with mediocre skill. this is prevalent in the Filipino arts. I have shaken hands with many FMA people, and most of them have the grip of a 10 year old boy.
• the de-emphasis on physical skills and prowess results in a community of weak, soft-skinned martial artists who are prone to hurt feelings and offense. this leads to the unnecessary feuding we see among FMA people… take your pick!

Teaching full-time gives the FMA Guro ample time to develop his skills and his own unique ideas and systems. It gives him more teaching experience, which is–in essence–a learning experience. It shows the community that these arts deserve respect and attention, rather than being an additional certificate to fluff one’s resume. It also allows beginners to have the Filipino arts as a choice of what art to study, rather than to have to choose a mainstream art as a base style and then take a few courses in “sticks” to supplement one’s training. This is my biggest belief–that the art really needs students who will take this art to a higher level rather than simply a side course. (It is also the reason I do not allow my own students to study Kung Fu and Eskrima with me simultaneously. Instead, I require them to study one for 2 years before studying the other. I do not allow anyone to study my Kuntaw until they have been with me for 2 years.) 

With a full-time FMA school, you will see things in the art you never thought about, because you are now thinking about Arnis every day and teaching it every day. I guarantee that you will develop new ideas about the art, and will be able to let them manifest through your students skill. In one generation–yours–you will take your art in a completely new direction.

I am will close here, and in Part II, we will discuss why the student should study FMAs full time. Thank you for visiting my blog!

Fighting almost never goes down like you plan it in training. One of the reasons is that there is often too much emphasis on reaction/defense against something the opponent attacks you with, and since you have no control over that the fight is too unpredictable. Take my advice, and steer your training towards your attacks–(1) things that you will initiate, and (2) things that you can do to draw a specific reaction from the opponent.  Today’s article will deal with what you use to initiate an attack.

What often happens in sparring is that fighters will base their strategies on what techniques the opponent is using. This philosophy is perhaps the most common one found in Filipino styles, but those who break from this mold stand out because their fighting ability will be better. Fighting is a blur. It happens so fast, we usually lose our senses while fighting and cannot think and plan to be able to perform better. This is why so many Guros believe in “less is better”; but it need not be so! Using base techniques–in this case, let’s keep it simple and stick to just base hand and base foot techniques.

What is a “Base Hand” technique?

A base hand technique is one of several short, but well thought through, punch and strike combinations that is used to build an attack around. For example, we can take a very common combination… the Back Fist – Reverse Punch combination. The base hand technique will either follow a kick (or kick combination), or it will lead into a kick (or kick combination):

• skip side kick > back fist – reverse punch
• sliding step / back fist – reverse punch > back leg roundhouse kick > finishing technique
• skip leg sweep > back fist – reverse punch > round kick to the face (to a fallen opponent)

The base technique then, could either set up a kick, could be used to set up a finishing technique, or could be used as a finishing technique. We could add here by having base kick combinations and finishing attack combinations also (finishing attack combinations are techniques that are used to “finish off’ the opponent:  knock him out, knock him down, injure him, etc.) and doing so would make fighting much like a matrix. One could have 7 base hand techniques, 7 base kick techniques, and 7 finishes; therefore, the attack would be a combination of two or three of the 21 techniques.

This is a simple philosophy that can occupy an entire curriculum of fighting and learning. In fact, this is the secret behind my Sport Karate style and many other people who have broken from tradition. Using base techniques requires less thinking and ad libbing. There is a method to the madness, and the only challenge once you have trained the pieces well is to use the right tool for the right job at the right moment.

I hope this simple, but effective tip finds a home in your training regimen. Thank you for reading my blog. Please look out for my book, coming soon! 

Mustafa Gatdula’s How to Build a Dominant Fighter in 12 Months

There is a problem in the Filipino Martial Arts, that I have noticed seems to be a very dangerous one.

The arts we practice are very deadly. Not many martial arts styles address actually maiming the opponent or killing him. This style regularly introduces techniques that will result in the opponent’s death, and are designed for nothing more than killing the opponent. For street combat effectiveness, this seems to be just what the doctor ordered–our arts can truly arm the average citizen with a skill that will stop an attacker dead in his tracks. While many teachers claim to give their students self-confidence, what other skill can one have–besides shooting a gun–that would give you the range of simple self-defense to lethal potentials? Arming someone with the Filipino fighting arts can be similar to giving them a firearm, however, we must treat it with the same level of responsiblity. And this is one place that the industry of FMA instruction has failed.

I am not going to bore you with the number of FMA student who have killed in America alone. There is a conversation we must have openly in the art among teachers and masters:

Who do we teach, who do we refuse, when do we teach certain techniques, and how do we teach the arts?

Rhetoric and cowardness in the FMA have led to the philosophy, "I teach people to defend themselves, even to the point of deadliness, because they may need it." If you are teaching people how to fight, is it necessary to teach them mainly how to kill? I know of men who only speak of fighting as a life-or-death fight, and consider everything other than a life-or-death fight a separate skill from what they do. Any idea why they have this fantasy of fighting?

Yes, they are cowards in the biggest way.

These are men who are really afraid to mix it up, they are afraid of an ass-whipping. So afraid, that any threat they perceive must be met with death. Not much different from the 10 year old kid who is bullied at school and brings a knife to confront his bullies. See, he sees no way out of this situation–no way to handle it appropriately, so he falls back on the common dream the race of the weak often fantacize about: killing the people they fear. What situation is so bad that a 5th grader must carry a knife and kill another 5th grader? What taunts or names could you call him to justify that? Of course, none! But in his mind, his parents can’t end this bullying, his teachers can’t do it, and he certainly can’t do it, and the only thing he feels safe doing is to bring a knife and shove it in the boy’s stomach.

We have men, who call themselves "self-defense experts", who are so afraid of gambling the appropriate level of force to thwart an attacker (and the butt-stomping that would accompany that failure), that they hide behind knives and tough talk. These are men whose teachers never taught them true self-confidence and lessened their fear of another man by teaching them to deal with attackers with nothing more than bare hands. So the only thing they know will stop an attacker is the knife.

And let me tell you something about the knife.

 The knife is the perfect excuse for not having to prove you know what you’re doing. It’s the modern-day "my art is too deadly for sparring" excuse. It is something that many other men fear, and wielding one will scare other men into not challenging you on your knowledge. It is something that is so wrapped up in theory and fantasy, there is no testing or winning or losing to face–only the belief that "if I fight for real, I’ll kill you"…. It is the excuse for not being physically fit ("you don’t need abs or stamina to stab your attacker") or really having to train hard. It is the perfect thing to hide behind–along with rank, organizations, friends, reputations, and tough talk. Frankly speaking, it is the weapon of choice for cowards.

The coward is a guy who is afraid of everything and will not face his fears, even if they confront him. He will do everything in his power to avoid confrontation. It has nothing to do with fearlessness and courage, as courageous men are not fearless, they are just men who are strong enough to do and face what they are afraid of. Cowards are quite often cloaked in wolves clothing; they are dressed like the tough guys, they talk their talk and act like them as well… but inside–deep inside–they are cowards. As the saying goes, they wear their toughness only on the outside. The knife is something they brandish because secretly, they are hoping that this image will give the appearance of toughness. And they keep just enough skills, that secretly, they can’t wait for the day they get to use it (justifiably) and redeem themselves of being… well, a coward.

Don’t be a wannabe. No man wants to accept that he is afraid. We want our women to feel safe around us, and we want to know that we are capable of defending them and our children. But to hide this fear behind the false bravado of being a cold-blooded killer–when we know darn well that most of us would never face another man, mano a mano. This, my brothers, is cowardice. True self-confidence and bravery is the knowledge and belief that no man poses a true threat, unless he is the coward with the weapon. But instead, most FMA guys is that guy.

Don’t be a wannabe.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Learn how to point fight and maybe you too can be a dangerous killing machine on the streets, like Ralph Macchio! LOL!

Point Karate to help develop streetfighting ability? Now, there’s a radical theory!

Reminds me of a joke:

Guy walks into a restaurant and orders a steak, the waiter brings him a hamburger. “That’s not a steak!” the guy protested. The waiter goes, “I know, but steak’s not available, but it’s the next best thing!”

Then he asks for glass of apple juice, and the waiter brings Kool Aid. When the man protests again, the waiter tells him, it’s the next best thing.

When the bill comes, the man leaves an IOU. When the waiter insists on cash, the man tells him he’s got no money, but it’s the next…

Fighters can’t call themselves “fighters” unless they fight. They must fight in any way they have available to them, and in as many ways that they can in order to develop their skill. I have heard arguments from non-sparring men ranging from they don’t like tournaments, to tournaments not being “realistic” enough, to tournaments creating bad habits, to there simply being no tournaments in their area. All this may be true, but in order to prepare for a streetfight it is best to spar often and spar with strangers. Truth be told, no tournament format (even NHB/Cage fighting) is quite unlike the streets. But in order to develop the skills needed for fighting successfully on the street–that cannot be developed through drills, focus mitts and bag training–you must have time squaring up with an aggressive opponent. And since no tournament format has it all, it would be a good idea to give yourself a good mix of tournament styles in order to capture experience and the benefits of the various types of competition.

I am an advocate of boxing and point fighting, because this is where the bulk of my fighting experience occurred. I did fight in Olympic style TKD tournaments, Muay Thai style, and regular kickboxing, but it wasn’t much compared to what I gained from boxing and point fighting. But I can tell you that my experience there was greatly enhanced by boxing and point fighting. I was faster, had better timing and was able to see and move in the middle of exchanges, where most fighters experience a blur. I know that if I had not owned a school and could have pursued my full-contact experience more avidly, I would have gone far because of the ease I beat some of my opponents.

The weapons used in point karate are somewhat “lame”; but they are necessary to esnure the safety of the fighters and also help you increase the speed by which you move. Can you throw a hook in point fighting? Yes. Can you throw a rear-leg, power Roundhouse kick? Yes! But those weapons are slower than Ridgehands and front leg Round kicks, and if you can deal with them, the Hook and the Roundkick won’t have a chance to reach you. You can always transition from one weapon to the next, depending on the rules of the bout you are about to fight. And fighters must be versatile. After all, not every fight you engage in will be a knock-down, drag-em-out death match. What if you must subdue a neighbor? Or a minor? Or your own son?

And in training, I’m sure you spar with your own Dojo brothers and training partners with some level of control, correct? We all adhere to rules, just like in competition, and it is actually a good practice to limit what you fight with in order to isolate certain limbs and techniques to focus our practice. Tournaments are no difference. As I said in the last “Using Spor Karate” article, we are only developing one part–while a very important part–of our fighting skill and the altercation, when we point fight.

I’d like to challenge you to try something… an experiment! The next time you spar, set the timer, and then you will spar for 3 minutes and not get hit 5 times before you land 5 hits on your opponent. Keep a count; you don’t have to stop the clock like they do in the tournaments to call shots.  You will find that this is very difficult to do if you’ve never fought this way. If you are an FMA fighter, this is an extremely important skill to have, as we fight with blades and even a cut on the forearm can main or kill you.

Try the best two out of three. Now, if you can’t do it, I would like to appeal to you to check back with me and I’ll give you some tips. If you can, then I would say get a better-skilled opponent or then again, maybe you already have the skill I’m referring to. But I am willing to bet that most of you do not, because point karate is one of the best ways to develop this ability.

Or you could always do what many of my friends have done at my request: spend an entire year fighting in Point Karate competitions. You’ll be surprised at how much your speed and timing will improve. This is the fast track to developing skill in full-contact fighting, including streetfighting. The premise of all of this is that you need to have actual fighting experience in order to join your practice with theories and ability. And I’m not talking about that time some guy punched you in the nose in the 12th grade–nor am I talking about that club security job you had tossing drunks on their bottoms. In the absence of consistent, real fighting experience, tournament fighting is the safest, “next best thing”.

Thanks for reading my blog. Please visit us again!

As I’ve mentioned before, martial artists are some of the biggest assholes.

Many of us got involved in the arts because we lack self-esteem or confidence that we can defend ourselves, and the martial arts allow us to feel like we’ve got back up. But something about arming a coward…. He usually ends up going overboard with the confidence thing, and is likely to become a bully or just major league jerk-off. Why is this? Because the martial artist was not really changed by his training, and is still a coward–and still insecure. But the arts at least gave him the wisdom to fake being tough;  it gave him the dress, the jargon, the mannerisms, and even the physique of a guy that can fight. But although he is dressed like a tough guy, he still has “puss” written all over him.

Bottom line is that the expectations of a newbie in the art are still there, if the training hasn’t done what it’s supposed to do for him. Whether we are talking about toughness in the art, fighting ability, or even our prejudices.

So one guy joins because he feels unsafe, and another guy joins because he watched “Black Belt Theater” on Saturdays in his pajamas and now he wants to be the next Grasshopper. He will bring with him all the silly, childish expectations of a beginner in the art about who he will become, what to expect, and what is authentic in the arts. If the teacher and the training are incomplete or not deep enough, as a Black Belter, he will still harbor those fantasies well into the mature stages of his martial arts career.

On the other hand, we also have those with plain old racism, xenocentrism, and prejudice in the art.

I have met more than my share of Asian teachers (not just Filipinos, but I am thinking of a particular Filipino teacher as I type this article) who believe that any White teacher of the art is inferior to Asian teachers. They have a difficult time referring to an American FMA “master” with all the qualifications–like time in the art, SKILL, and level of knowledge–while accepting a 28 year-old FOB (fresh off the boat) referring to himself as a Master. You see it in some of the Korean magazines (I didn’t subscribe, but I’ve been getting them for nearly 10 years);  Koreans of any age being referred to as “Master/Grandmaster/Kwangjangnim”, while all the White guys are being titled “Mr.” or “Teacher/Sabumnim”. I have quite a few friends and acquaintances that are Korean teachers, and many of them are very guilty of this. (Betcha didn’t know, but I grew up with a Korean stepmom, speak some Korean, and have the inside scoop in this community). Some of the Filipino teachers I know have suggested that I recruit in the Filipino community a little heavier, because my students are mostly White and Black, with a few others here and there. There is an underlying belief that more Filipino students would legitimize my school (to whom, I wonder?) and that perhaps I am giving up too much to the wrong people.

Not long ago, my school was like that. I have always had an “inner circle” in my school, as my teachers had one. Matter of fact, Gatdula’s Fighting Cobras (my old business name) once had ONE White guy, ONE Black guy, ONE Mexican, and ONE Cambodian, and all the rest of my school was Filipino. I don’t know, maybe it was because the older folks in my community encouraged their kids to do martial arts. But my school was also the only FMA school in Sacramento at the time (all the others were in community centers or operating out of subleased space in Karate schools), so that could be a reason too. When I moved to a bigger location downtown, I ended up with mostly Caucasian students, and I didn’t blink for a second. Hey, as long as these guys worked hard and made me look good, right? Yet there were still a few idiots who felt like my school was suffering something because although I was making much more money, I had too many “others” in the school.

And guess what? Those American guys made really good students. They are taller, they are humble and learn just as quickly–sometimes even more humble than my Asian students–and stronger. How could I complain about that? Where the average height in my school was once around 5′6″, it is now about 6′. I have four strongest fighters that are African American, and I would bet my money on them against any fighter in Sacramento. How many teachers can say that? One of my students is 55, and had been taken private lessons for about 3 years before I opened a group class (in Jow Ga, my kung fu style), and he is perhaps the best Kung Fu student I’ve had in the 18-year history of my school. My most accomplished tournament fighters (of the adults) are a guy now living in Fiji (Indian descent) and one of my African American students… both over age 30.

But cowardly is the word of the day, and none of the Guro I know that hold these feelings would come right out and say it (except the guy I’m writing this about, and I gave him an earful about it too). They express it in their attitude towards non-Filipinos/non-Asians teaching the art. I know that I’ve had people think that I was that way, but my attitude towards the FMA in the West has nothing to do with race (if you knew me personally, you would know that this is true). It was all about the approach to teaching the practice of the art. Sometimes, people don’t look deep enough into the things I say, and they believe that I am representing their view to the art and it will allow them to say stupid things around me. But if a practitioner of the art studied full-time, trained hard, tested himself regularly, and reflected on the philosophy of the art… and then repeated this process when he became a teacher, he is a qualified teacher. But if he learned by seminar, promoted by seminar, and skipped over everything else important (testing and full-time study), I have harsh things to say about you, Westerner or Filipino.

Sometimes, I can change my view of a person just by listening to the things they say, or to see what they are doing. Not long ago, I resented guys like Hock Hockheim–students of Remy Presas who now teach “non-Filipino” labeled martial arts through the seminar circuit. But recently, I came across his website/forum and really read what he says:

• I no longer “do” FMAs because, as a non-Filipino, there is a ceiling to my success
• I still teach FMAs, but have to label it as simply “stick/knife/empty hand” because of the implication that I am not qualified since I am not Filipino
• I still honor my teachers for what they gave me, but I must carve my own niche in this path
• FMAs, as it is being taught, does not involve skill development and is too random for anyone to really learn the art

Who can argue with that? As one who is very close to prejudice and injustice (remember I am from Washington, DC and Pampanga; I’ve seen more than my share of the ugly head of racism) it saddens me that this martial arts community cannot allow a guy who has paid his dues in the FMAs to simply be “one of us”. Something else you may not know:  Hock is my Kuya under Ernesto Presas’ Arjuken, so I know a little more about his training than what you can find on the internet. I remember reading that he now calls his art “PAC”/Pacific Archipelago Combatives, and for a short time (sorry can’t remember exactly what it was) some European stuff, and yeah, it pissed me off. But it wasn’t steal-FMA-from-the-Filipinos-and-call-it-something-else, it was find-a-way-to-market-to-people-who-won’t-respect-me-for-my-knowledge-because-of-my-race. And that’s a damned shame.

The solution, in my opinion, is natural. The seminar industry simply does not allow for students to develop, it is a dog-and-pony show for martial artists to sell videos and increase attendance to more seminars. I know what goes on. A bunch of seminar junkies and magazine/video tape/youtube nut-huggers gather around to watch the Master dazzle them with a tap-dance of techniques and drills. They take pictures, collect a certificate, and then add another notch to their resumes, while practicing what little they were able to take away from the seminar in their Karate schools and garages. Most of the complaints many people have of the FMAs (which caused them to come out with a new-and-improved version in the first place) come from this industry, and taking the traditional road will give you a different experience. And then, you have to fight. If American guys like Hock needed respect, they would get it by fighting and letting the world see their credibility; it’s an easy sell. You can’t convince a guy in a seminar. A common expression you’ll hear the Sayoc/Atienza guys say is “come to a seminar and you’ll see”. But that won’t do it for some of us, we have to see it in action. And the old, sad excuse “sparring ain’t real fighting” isn’t good enough either; if you don’t spar, you’ll have to streetfight and I’m sure there aren’t too many of you doing that. But respect comes from skill, and regardless of your race or ethnicity, you will have that respect if people see you fight–whether you are a dominant fighter or not. This is one reason why the Dog Brothers and their members get instant respect just by being a member. Ever heard the Filipino expression “Skill is rank”?

Sometimes, your skill in movement is convincing enough. But few people will really ever witness your skill before they meet you, and as a teacher you need to be able to put your stuff in print and paint a picture that way. A bio that reads, “Guro X fought in tournaments from 1988 – 2000″ carries a lot more weight in the minds of potential students than, “Guro X is certified by GM Y, GM Z…”  That stuff is for other seminar junkies. Substance will almost always transcend misconception, never forget that. And if you have good skill and they are still judging you by your race, then I say you wouldn’t want those guys as students anyway. The ones who hold the prejudices will eventually die away, they are really insignificant, insecure children who never grew up. Whether they are here or not, they won’t affect your bottom line, the life of your business, or the reputation of your skill and character.

Thanks for reading my blog, have a good Thanksgiving!

Idag har jag varit i slagsmål för första gången i Tokyo, det hela utspelade sig i Yoyogiparken efter skoltid under i ljuset av en gatulampa. Dock så var det hela planerat, jag har nämligen hittat en Österrikare i skolan som också har tränat karate. Så vi kom fram till att vi skulle sparras för några veckor sedan. Eftersom vi inte hittar någon dojo så fick det bli i parken och det funkade alldeles utmärkt. Enda bakslaget jag kan hitta är att jag fick tvätta karatedräkten för att få bort lerfläckarna…

I know I’m going to leave a few people upset behind this. But give me a chance to explain.

Today’s martial artist cannot compare to yesterday’s martial artist because the role of martial artist in this community has changed with the times. 20, 30 years ago, the martial artist was a unique man. He was someone whose occupation was “martial artist”. You rarely found a Black Belt of the art, and when you did he had the skills you expected a Black Belter to have. Today, the Black Belt doesn’t even mean the same thing. Heck, your 8 year old grandkid’s got one… how hard can it be? After all, Dr. Laura even has one! (Seriously!)

Nothing against Dr. Laura, I actually love her show. But the implication that one is a warrior can no longer be put on a martial artist, since the martial arts is now an alternative to dieting, religion, sewing classes and yoga. Used to be something that only fighters and those dedicate to learning the art of fighting did. We have seen so much diluted martial arts, most have wouldn’t even recognize a true martial warrior if we ever saw one.

I don’t want to place blame on today’s martial artist. Most them don’t know any better, and there are so few good sources for information out there miseducation of our students is commonplace. But the days of a martial arts master being the patriarch of a warrior family are nearly gone; today he is a businessman. Our masters of 30 years ago kept his nose out of the magazines and in the gym. He practiced all day long. You could take classes at 8 a.m. or 5 p.m. He didn’t have to maximize profits because his school took care of the bills alone, so when he told you it was time to take a test (if he gave them) you knew it was time. Exams today are nothing more than a form of income that increases as you advance. Our teachers paid homage to their masters as they would an ancestor. Today’s teacher? Well, he’s recertifying each year for a fee. If he hasn’t fallen out of favor because of money or ego.

The student has changed too. He no longer has aspirations of being the next disciple. He reads internet forums, and shops around. He challenges his teacher on stuff he says because of some Wikipedia entry or magazine article. He is “creating his own path” by taking some Muay Thai classes and then BJJ and maybe next year, adding a Krav Maga certification. If he doesn’t get the kind of service or training he sees in the movies, he will quit and move on to the next martial arts fad. In fact, the only way to keep this guy training is to bind him into a contract. Oftentimes, he is learning so many different styles at the same time, he doesn’t have time to practice any of them to perfection. So what we end up with is a guy who is learning everything, but can’t do anything, with good skill.

We are ambitious and impatient. We know nothing of dedication (think of all the forum threads where students call loyalty to one’s teacher “blind loyalty” or “stupid”) and commitment. If a teacher tells you it will take 7 years to achieve the Black Belt, he gets accused of trying to milk students out of tuition money. We are taught to challenge the generations-old traditions and time-proven training methods:

• boards don’t hit back
• we need to be “well rounded” by cross training; otherwise training is incomplete
• we are the customer; give me a reason to come back and train another month
• hand conditioning is bad for you
• we should learn how to fight without needing fitness
• i train for the street, you’re teaching me to fight for sport
• the only form you need is “perfect form”
• there is no such thing as mastery in the arts; i am a perpetual student
• this style is outdated*
• 90% of fights go to the ground, so why aren’t we ground fighting?
• i don’t need philosophy, what i need to learn is how to keep my butt alive!

Oh, we have cliches. In fact, we have more cliches than we do functional fighting techniques! We think we are so clever, quoting all those modern martial art-isms. But like the guy who thinks his style is outdated*, I wonder if he thinks he would ever hang with a guy like Wong Sheng Deng or Mas Oyama. Tell you what, these guys were killers, and I’d like to see you tell them that their traditional techniques or brick-breaking feats equate to nothing in combat.

The student today–as well as the teacher–does not take his art serious enough to call himself equal with the ones before him. He barely even trains long and hard enough. What is a guy putting in these days… 4, 5 years of 3 to 4 training sessions a week before strapping on a Black Belt? Hardly, most of these bozos are doing it in a few seminars! If they are training “full time” they are probably working out about 2 hours a week. Today’s student has too many distractions:  work, school, snowboarding, even other styles he’s trying to pursue simultaneously.

I was asked today by a teacher (won’t name him although he did give me permission) what it would take before I considered him to be my equal, and I love this guy to death, but here goes:

• you MUST love the martial arts more than you love making a good income
• although we all have other interests, none may take precedence over your martial arts
• you must have full dedication to promoting and teaching your art
• you must have put a lifetime effort into studying the art–deeply studying the art–prior to running out there and trying to teach what you learned
• you must be willing to make a pilgrimage to learn or teach your art
• your students must become basically a part of your extended family… really
• you have to be educated about other styles, arts , techniques and teachers
• you must be willing to shy away from ranks and titles and publicity. those things mean nothing
• practicing your craft is a full-time, everyday thing for you. some parts of your skill should never go away or be willing to deteriorate
• you cannot have character flaws that will detract from the pursuit of your art (womanizing, drinking, gambling, etc)
• finally, you must have confidence in your skill as well as your students’ skill. you must be so confident, you will put money on any of your advanced or intermediate students against any man out there

These qualities must be passed on to your student. I was reading about the uchi deshi (live-in student) custom of some Japanese masters, because I am considering taking a few on. To many Western students, this concept seems unrealistic and silly. But this is something I have done several times in my life, and I know the benefit of training this way. My only worry is that I would waste my time with some students who will not finish. I have already experienced this with a few students who quit after I began confiding my art in them; it has caused me to close my Kuntaw enrollment this year (actually, since 2008). To date, I have taught possibly a thousand students in my arts, but my Kuntaw class today only has 8 men training. I believe if I relocated to some place out of town, all 8 would travel to continue their training. In turn for this dedication, I have trained them to the point that I would put my money on them against any man reading this blog.

Today’s warrior (so-called warrior) probably couldn’t fathom having a class of students this skilled; they probably think I’m crazy or talking trash. This is the difference between yesterday’s martial artist and the ones walking the dojo floors today.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please come back and visit again soon!

I am going to give you a secret that will improve your overall fighting ability 100% if only you’d listen and learn, and open your mind.

First, forget all that crap about point karate not being realistic enough. I can tell you, most of the guys who say that aren’t doing anything else “more realistic”.

Within my school’s walls is a sub-system I created just for those who want to learn to fight on the tournament circuit–whether they want to fight full contact or point. It is mandatory for my Kuntaw students to study, and I strongly recommend my Kung Fu students to participate as well. I call this system Gatdula’s Sport Karate. It is a three-tier system that utilizes more than 60 techniques, and each of the 60 techniques is drilled at least 500 times before a student is allowed to move on to the next level. Besides the 60 techniques, we have more than 15 secrets that the students must learn and live by. I will reveal only one today on this blog:

You must treat each contact you make with your opponent as if this were the only exchange you and the opponent will have.

Point fighting, in essence, the perfection of the initial attack. It is perfecting how we engage the opponent and how we counter him when he initiates the attack. That is it. What you do after the exchange is up to you. For the point fighter, a point is called; for the ring fighter, he must finish the opponent. But learning to master the initial attack and the various ways to counter those attacks is what point fighting is all about. When you have perfected this craft, you learn to gain the upper hand on an opponent–whether in the ring or on the street–because you have learned both to land the first shot as well as counter the first shot (and make the opponent miss).

This is a philosophy post, not a technique post, so I am not telling you how this is accomplished. You are welcome to experiment with this concept in fighting by simply sparring for points. It isn’t as hard as people would have you believe, and learning to do so won’t hurt your fighting ability. Rather, it will give your fighting ability a little nitrous oxide behind it. When you land first, you have a greater chance of landing 2nd, 3rd and ultimately, end the altercation. When you get hit first, you have less of a chance to counter and you are more likely to get hit again if the opponent decides to take you out immediately.

This will be the first of a series of posts on this subject, and I hope you will take some of my advice to heart and actually get out on the circuit and make it happen. Trust me, you will see a huge improvement to your fighting ability if you do. If anyone lives in the Sacramento area, please contact me so you can stop by and I will prove to you in person how effective this type of fighting can be (or anything else I put on this blog).

Thank you for visiting, please spread the word!

One of the strongest images I have of my maternal grandfather is his claim of being a martial arts “hermit”. Those who have met him walk away with the impression that he is unfriendly and introverted. Not just because he didn’t speak English, but surprisingly he was a walking contradiction:  my Grandfather was a very giving man, but when it came to his martial arts he was very selfish;  he was fiercely patriotic, but didn’t seem to like many Filipinos (just like my mom, more on this later);  was a lifelong martial artist, but really disliked martial artists. When I speak of old-school martial artists looking another up and down, thinking “I can take this guy”, my Lolo takes the cake. As a young man, he taught me to train hard and out do my peers and to look down on them as inferior martial artists. Does this make you uncomfortable? Good. That’s what warriors do. If you’re looking to get along with someone, go hold hands in some seminar somewhere…

I begrudgingly complied with many of his requests to keep my distance from most other martial artists. After attending a few FMA seminars with my old friend Billy Bryant, I stopped going when my grandfather objected. Although I was somewhat rebellious and independent thinking as a youth, I was obedient when it came to martial arts, because I really did look up to him and I truly believed that my grandfather was better skilled, more knowledgeable, and could make me into a superior fighter if I followed his lead. Now in my 40s, I am a spitting image of my Lolo in looks, build (he was actually leaner), lifestyle, and outlook. I hope that in the next 30 years, I am equal to who he was as a Master and as a man.

At the heart of this old man’s philosophy was his belief that in order to gain martial arts mastery, one needed to become a martial arts “hermit” in order to grow–even if only for a short period of time.

The hermit is one who has isolated himself from the rest of his community. For whatever reasons–religion, art, intense self-reflection–a man who lives this lifestyle is destined for wisdom or insanity. Our greatest human minds have lived the life of a hermit at some point in their lives. By disallowing distractions and frivolous activity to enter our lives, we enable ourselves to develop, reflect and perfect whatever it is we focus on during our solitude. Many of the things martial artists do, such as rub elbows with other teachers in the political world, put on demonstrations, write meaningless “look-who-I-am-and-what-I-know” articles for the magazines–do nothing at all for one’s skill in the martial arts. The true martial artist has no interest in such things, which has no place in one’s martial arts path. You want respect in the martial arts? Then make your skill unrivaled by most, and then you will earn respect. This is the old-fashioned way of building one’s reputation:  standing on the merits of actual ability.

I consider myself an “Eskrima” hermit because I did not have classmates, family or friends in Eskrima while I was learning (besides my brother). In Kung Fu and Karate training, I had schools full of classmates, friends on the tournament circuit, and other school owners as friends. Even in Kuntaw, I had friends from all over the world who practiced Kuntaw and Silat; but my Eskrima experience is all to myself. This would seem odd, because my grandfather was not an “eskrima guy”, he was an empty hands guy, and his second weapon of choice was a bolo. But I took to the stick because this was the weapon we sparred with, and it was also the weapon I had the most difficulty learning. As I started to get out and meet other arnisadors and eskrimadors, I learned that–like my grandfather–I found most of them weak, sheepish, into politics, poorly skilled and I simply tended not to like them. In fact, most of my friends in the martial arts are Tae Kwon Do practitioners and boxers. I find martial artists egotistic, insecure, poorly skilled and undisciplined. This is not say that I am a monk either; but I treat my martial arts with much more respect than most martial artists. Confidence and antagonism seem to frighten most FMA people, so they seek strength in numbers or to simply avoid any forms of in-person confrontation. This is very disappointing because I know that back home, Arnis practitioners are not this way. Most have no rank and are happy with that. But most Filipino Arnis fighters are highly capable of defending themselves and will try you out at the drop of a dime, and you have to respect that. I consider anything less than that to be a weak representation of our arts. What I see of Filipino FMA people in America is that most of us have bought into the commercialization of the West–we like money, nice cars, rank and things to show off. This is what my mother and grandfather never let us become… coconuts. It is no wonder that we find that many Filipino FMA people look down on FOB Filipinos and many FOB Filipinos look down on western Filipinos. There is a lot lost in these arts when you lose the culture. The practice of isolating oneself–the training and the secrets we hold–is a very old-school, cultural thing for Filipino masters. Many of the benefits from practicing the art of seclusion cannot be duplicated in a classroom or seminar.

If you look at my school, I have the windows boarded up and covered with a mural. We do not allow visitors during class times. We only attend tournaments and scrimmages, rarely social events. I do not put on demonstrations for strangers; in fact, I rarely even demonstrate for my own students. My personal training sessions are alone–as they were when I was younger–and I am usually only seen in uniform when I am fighting. If I ask another martial artist to train with him, I am only planning to spar (not show, explain or hang out). My martial arts are for my students, so I rarely guest-teach in other Guros’ schools… even in those schools owned by my friends. I do not post Youtube videos. My skill and my reputation are all I care about; I could care less whether I am a popular teacher, or if people like me in this community. To be known for skill, knowledge and teaching ability if all I care about. In my community, you will find three groups of martial artists who know me:  those who have seen me fight or teach (competitors or former students), those who have never seen me but have only seen my students fight, or–the majority–those who have heard of me but never seen me or my students;  you would be hard pressed to find folks in my martial arts community who do not know who I am. And of those people, they either admire me (whether or not they’ve met me or seen me), or they loathe me (whether or not they’ve met me or seen me). Me and my school’s reputation have traveled long and far, without the use of magazine articles or advertising. And this is with me being isolated from this local community.

I once ate with my family in a restaurant in San Francisco, when the waiter noticed my school’s name on my credit card. He returned with three fellow employees (all FMA students), asking to take pictures, sign an autograph and promising to visit my school 100 miles away. As usual, they commented on how young I was, thinking I was some old man with along beard, lol. I get that a lot, because my ideas are old school and my attitude came from old men. But I tell you, I would not be the man I was had I joined the rest of the community.

Being a hermit does not require you to go live in a mountain or in the marshes. All it does is have you focus on yourself and your martial arts 99% of the time, and reject everything that lends nothing to your skill and knowledge:  publicity, rank and ego, affiliations, unnecessary attention.  My students fight in tournaments every month, but I am almost never in attendance. Why? Because I am at the school teaching, and that is most important. It’s not even necessary for me to attend and coach, because the preparation was done in the gym. When I am in attendance, I am sitting with my family and school, not walking around passing out business cards. You must keep your arts in your school and keep to yourself when you are away. The time to get with other people is when it’s time to test out what you’ve been doing. My students are allowed to attend seminars and train in other schools, but we keep our information in the house. As a teacher, I cannot focus my attention outside our circle because it takes away from them.

I have rejected several offers to write articles about my school. We attempted to get some articles published years ago through Black Belt and Inside Kung Fu magazine, and all were rejected because my views either offended or were contradictory to what the rest of the community believed. While I originally thought my philosophy could help some in the community, I realized that most of them do not want to listen. I still have an email forwarded from my old student that he received from Inside Kung Fu magazine:

Xxx,

After reading your articles several times, I find that “I Am Now FMA”
would be too harsh for our magazine. While the points made may be true,
they are presented in a way that probably would offend many of the
Filipino styists. I still have not made a decision on the other article,
but I’m leaning toward not printing that one also. Sorry for the delay.

xxxx xxxxx
ikf

I guess as they say that the truth hurts. But what probably hurts more is if you piss off some their most consistent advertisers. Some folks really don’t want to know the truth, and this is why they don’t fight… it is better to sit back and think you can protect yourself than to throw on the gloves to see if you are right. After I had experienced this treatment from the magazines and even some of the forums, I decided that it was time to keep my martial arts close to home. I realize now that the magazines are not there to share knowledge or teach, but to advertise and brag.

But I digress.

The same way a husband is only here for his family, a teacher is only here for his students. I think back to when Bruce Lee was acting, his students must have felt neglected. Perhaps many of them were there just because he was Bruce Lee the actor, they are certainly benefiting from being able to say, “Bruce Lee was my Sifu” when in fact their Sifu was Dan Inosanto. And excuse me for making this observation, many of those students couldn’t hold a candle up to Masutatsu Oyama’s students. But Mas was there for his guys all his life, and there you have the difference. Did Oyama go out and politic? Sure he did, after a lifetime of hermitage. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a lifetime, but he preceded his teaching career with perfecting the art himself by training in the woods. By the time he was ready to take Kyokushinkai to the world, he had focused on himself and his art enough that it was perhaps the “strongest Karate” on the planet. And how many people around can argue with that?

So, my question to you is, are you in pursuit of making your martial art the “strongest” of the styles? Are you attempting to make yourself the “strongest” teacher? Training your students the “strongest” fighters?

I have once heard that if you can’t be the best, get out of the business. We should all be striving to be the best; at least if we are serious martial artists. Casual training should not be in the vocabulary of the Guro… we are training people to be able to defend themselves and their families. You can’t promise them protection with mediocre, unambitious martial arts training. But it all starts with you, the Master. This has nothing to do with who has abs, who can run a 3-minute mile, who holds the highest degree Black Belt, who is world-famous or not. All that matters is the knowledge, skill, and experience level of the teacher, and how he passes that down to his students. Isolating yourself from all that does not matter in the effort to perfect oneself is a good way to get started on that path.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please come and visit us again!

Fiind un fan Bruce Lee, (heh, cine nu e…) am am mai citit una alta despre el si am vazut ca omul era obsedat de pregatirea fizica. El credea ca la antrenamentele de arte martiale, practicantii de arte martiale puneau accent perea mult pe pregatirea thenica propriu zisa si mai putin pe cea fizica si, privindu-i corpul, pot sa spun ca mare dreptatea avea.

In ceea ce priveste BJJ nu poti avea mari performante in acest sport daca nu ai o pregatire fizica peste medie. Din cate am vazut eu BJJ este unul dintre cele mai solicitante sporturi. Aici foarte rar sa vina un sportiv antrenat in alte stiluri sau un atlet care sa reziste mai mult de doua reprize de sparring. BJJul iti solicita toate grupele de muschi din cap pana in picioare in egala masura. Dupa un antrenament de BJJ si circa 4 reprize de sparring este imposibil sa nu faci febra musculara.

De aceea pregatirea fizica trebuie sa primeze inaintea celei de bjj. Avand in vedere ca o repriza de sparring dureaza in media 5-6 minute, pregatirea fizica este esentiala. Fara o pregatire fizica temeinica nu poti rezista in bjj pentru ca vei obosi si nu vei mai avea forta necesara sa faci sweeps, submissions si chiar chockes care sunt relativ simplu si nu necesta prea multa forta.

Asadar, cine vrea sa faca BJJ asa cum se face va trebui sa se asigure ca este apt fizic si ca nu cade dupa primul antrenament.

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Proxyul francezilor a picat azi de cateva ori si din cauza asta n-am  mai avut acces la net si nu am putut scrie postul asa cum as fi vrut.

]]> http://filipinofightingsecretslive.com/2009/11/12/teach-them-to-fight-by-combination/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:56:47 +0000 thekuntawman http://filipinofightingsecretslive.com/2009/11/12/teach-them-to-fight-by-combination/

I know, it sounds like a Bruce Lee rip-off. Well it isn’t… completely. See, fighting by combination has been around longer than Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, and it just makes good fighting sense to do it. Maybe his book, Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method, was your first time hearing about this technique, but not for all of us. (Got to admit, though, that the book is a must-read and was a great eye-opener)  This method I will introduce to you is going to take it a little deeper than Uyehara’s version.

Fighting with combinations, rather than just throwing individual techniques, is very effective for several reasons:

1. the first technique you throw will often be unsuccessful; it will probably be blocked, evaded or simply not reach its target. the techniques that follow have a better chance of landing
2. combinations allow you to plan and set up traps for the opponent.
3. combinations prevent your opponent from countering because he is too busy dealing with your attack
4. training with combinations helps to build your fighters’ aggression level and stamina

You can have attacking combinations–which initiate the contact between you and the opponent; counter/defensive combinations–which you will use in place of a blocking technique when the opponent attacks; or finishing combinations–which are combinations you use to finish off the opponent once you have engaged him. Every fighting system must have these elements, otherwise, students will have difficulty learning to fight in real time. The combinations, then, are the templates your fighters use to attack, defend and finish the opponent. They may deviate from them as needed, but these techniques are what get the ball rolling in the first place.

I want you to do more than just identify combinations and what techniques go into them. You should have set combos for each purpose and situation, for each skill level or level of learning. Once you have these things etched in stone, your students should spend a good amount of time training them until they become second nature.

A good suggestion is what I do for full contact fighting. I have several punching combinations that we use (about 20… it’s a secret). These combinations are thrown hundreds, possibly thousands of times a month. But each time we throw them, we may throw them alone (with proper footwork, of course), following a kick or kick combination, or the punching combo will follow a kick or kick combination. The matrices of combinations are then drilled thousands upon thousands of times, so that all fighting is planned, and none is shot from the hip. Add to this some basic skill in setting up opponents, and forcing him to do and go where you want, and you’ve got an effective kickboxing program.

So, I’m pretty sure you are sitting there thinking, “that’s it???”

Yup, that’s it. I’m not going to do the thinking and planning for you. You’re the Guro, you figure it out. Just use this method, and you will see a lot of fighting success. Of course, you’ll have even more success if you get a copy of my book, Mustafa Gatdula’s How to Build a Dominant Fighter in 12 Months.

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