Archive for April 2010
April 25, 2010
Periodically, I will supplement my income by teaching introductory classes. Not quite a seminar, these are one-day events; short classes that skim the surface of a subject that will hopefully generate some interest in full-time learning. Chose a market that normally wouldn’t come in contact with your school. How about a nearby business district? Or [...]
Posted in The Business of Teaching the Martial Arts |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Business, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 25, 2010
Martial artists have this “thing”, that we always like chasing after the new “thing” in the martial arts. Every few years, the new fads come and go, leaving behind a wave of newly certified teachers of the arts and a few die-hard enthusiasts. While once touted as and extremely effective form of fighting, the old [...]
Posted in Observations and Insights |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 24, 2010
When I was 14, I dated a beautiful young girl named Violeta Alvarado. She was a Salvadoran immigrant who studied martial arts, and got in streetfights a lot. Tailor-made for me, we hung out almost every day, and she even joined my kung fu school. We went to arcades for hours a day, practiced martial [...]
Posted in Teaching Philosophy |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 23, 2010
This article is going to seem as if I am contradicting my own philosophy about specializing in the martial arts. But let me clarify something first. Not all martial artists are created equal. There are some of us who do this full-time as teachers, some of use do this full-time as students/fighters, some do it [...]
Posted in Martial Philosophy in the FMA |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 15, 2010
Several days ago I was talking with a student of the late Sensei Don Buck (sorry, I forgot his name already) and I listened to his stories of what training was like in the 80s for him, and how he views martial arts training today. This gentleman lamented the quick promotions we see so common [...]
Posted in Teaching Philosophy |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 12, 2010
A young Eskrimador was excited to meet a local champion, who was a hero of his. After meeting him, he jumped at the chance to ask him his opinion about which skill he should emphasize to improve his fighting performance. To the young man’s disappointment, the champion simply told him, “learn to hold your stick”… [...]
Posted in Techniques and Fighting Strategy |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 10, 2010
Don’t you dare call me “old”. Some music just reminds me of life back in the day, when Filipinos didn’t really have our own pop music, we just listened to good American music. And then someone would come along and cover a great song, but with an “ock-sent”. Back when you thought coming to the U.S. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tags: blogging, breezing, Filipino Martial Arts, FMA, george benson, jazz
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April 10, 2010
As a young teacher, I had a prejudgment that some potential students were not suitable for my style of teaching. I thought that only the toughest students would accept this training, and when students who did not appear “tough enough” I discouraged them from joining my school. Seeing many of the older masters refuse students, [...]
Posted in Teaching Philosophy |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 8, 2010
I tried to think of a clever title for this article, and I decided to just get to the point and tell you what I’m going to talk about… and not sugar coat it. The FMAs have too many lousy teachers. Now, I’m sure none of us plan our curriculums to produce lousy teachers. But [...]
Posted in Observations and Insights |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
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April 4, 2010
I was watching one of my Assistant Instructors, D Spann, teaching my full-contact class for me Thursday night, and thought about another student who joined with him. This other student was a Filipino student (D is African American) and came to me with two Black Belts, one in Tae Kwon Do and the other in [...]
Posted in Teaching Philosophy |
Tags: Arnis, blog, blogging, blogs, dumog, dumug, Escrima, filipino martial arts books, FMA, fma books, FMA empty hand, FMA philosophy, FMA training, Guro, Kali, kicking, Kicking techniques, kintomutai, Kuntao, Martial Arts Mastery, martial way, pananjakman, panantukan, panatukan, panuntukan, Philippines, Self Defense, sikaran, Silat, sparring, super techniques, tadyakan
2 Comments »
