Out of curiosity, how many of you set out to learn a specific FMA style? If you did, what made you choose that style? The preferred range? The reputation of the teacher? The emphasized weapons? I expect that a lot of people chose based on a particular teacher. Or that a lot of people ended up in their FMA style based on availability. (I started in Doce Pares simply because that's what the only FMA school in Baltimore at the time happened to be Doce Pares. Not that I'm complaining. It was a great education.) In the case of, say, gung fu, people often make choices based on style. Northern vs. southern. Internal vs. external. Wing chun vs. hung gar. Etc. And while, to my mind at least, the differences between one FMA and another are less pronounced than (for example) the differences between taiji and northern shaolin, I'm wondering whether style is a factor for FMAists as well. So how about it? Who set out to learn largo mano? Or serrada? Or whatever. Stuart
I got lucky. I found the best teacher in the area to learn from and years later, I'm discovering that he's one of the best in the fma world to learn from. Whenever I'm asked, I tell people to forget style -- just find the best teacher in a convenient location with good guys to practice with.
Good advice. Are there people in FMA for whom style was a bigger consideration? Anyone? Bueller? (Too early in the morning for 80s movie references, but you can't stop me.) Stuart
I got into it by accident, and ended up in JKD / Kali, it was the only thing that I knew was around, then I trained in Pekiti Tirsia for a while Then Inayan Serrada Eskrima (both awsome styles by the way), then I went to the Philippines and got a whole dose of good guys, I have settled with 2 instructors but still seek out others for the expeariance. The 2 I have settled for as my main influence I went to because of their reputation, and to say I was not disappointed is an understatement. GM Dionisio Canete Doce Pares Multi Style Eskrima GM Ondo Caburnay Lapunti Arnis De Abanico Regards Pat
I sorta stumbled in as well. My Sifu exposed me to the idea of Kali. I then found a local JKD/Inasanto blend program. I did that for about a year. Then, while at the local Martial Arts Supply store, I found an add for a Pekiti Tirsia group. Went down and left the Inasanto program the next day (though I occaisionally use Inasanto material when talking about flow drills). - Matt
I was introduced indirectly through JKD/Kali. Saw Dan Inosanto in various magazine, got interested in FMA, heard there was an arnis class starting nearby, and got hooked. Doce Pares. Later found a JKD/Kali teacher a couple of cities over. Trained with him for years. Now, I'm looking to join a Modern Arnis class at George Washington University. Stuart
Done Modern Arnis for a while, followed Prof Remy around for a while (we had a good laugh together), hope you get a good Modern Arnis Instructor as a good one has lots to show, some of the ones (not all by the way) I seen in Germany looked like Karate guys playing with a stick, even Remy used to say to me and laugh "look Pat, they don't get it". GM Remy's style was originally based on Balintawak, he once told be that Dan bought his first pair of sticks from him too. He was also responsible for adapting the stick to stick training method as opposed to the stick to hand of the old school. Great man, and will be missed. Regards Pat
Yep, been on the receiving end of that one several times, it hurt like hell too There was a picture of Remy inflicting gruesome pain on me in MAI many years ago, and you can tell by the look on my face, I was not a happy bunny rabbit, made many of my students laugh (they paid for that later though). (I must dig that old copy out, or ask old Bob Sykes if he still has the picture.) Anyway I' babbling, sorry about that, I'll get back on subject. regards Pat
Not seen much FMA's yet as still quite new to it. I got interested after seeing Mind Body & Kick Ass moves, I knew that a style called Kali / Escrima / Arnis existed but just did not know what it was or even if it was one style or lots of different styles just knew it involved sparring with rattan sticks, after watching some stick fighting on Mind & Body I started to search for FMA, the only place I could find was Impact martial arts club not far from me but I just did not want to train in JKD, did not fancy it, anyway cut a long story short I eventually joined the Kali class which trained for 1.25 hours a week which is not enough training for me anyway so I eventually joined the JKD class basically to learn some Wing Chun type hand work and to get more exercise, the Kali class is good but I would prefer to train in just FMA's 3 or 4 times a week, that is the path that I now think I should of taken 15 years ago, just a shame that there are no FMA classes nearer to me, we have literally hundreds of Karate, Kung Fu and Kickboxing classes in a 10 mile radius but no pure FMA, perhaps some one should consider Stoke on Trent to open a club, how about it Pat ?
The teacher's name is Roman Picardo. I'm not familiar with the name. But it's been a while since I was really plugged into the community. So that doesn't mean a great deal. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to meet him personally. Stuart
Try looking at his videos, good stuff, especially if you turn the sound off and watch what he is actually doing, quite a few nice tricks in there. Regards Pat
I'll do that. I'm currently working my way through Mark Wiley's tome on Filipino Martial Culture (with the healthy dose of skepticism advised by members of this forum).
hi sirs, if you allow me to join the discussion :Angel: , me, i have considered sir diego_vega's advice.. "just find the best teacher in a convenient location with good guys to practice with". I find that logical, coz I work on shifts, distance from my home & workplace really is/was a factor. I found one, near our place, GM Vic Sanchez who teaches 4 styles. At first am not into styles really, I just want to LEARN FMA :bang: . But now I think am fortunate, for largo mano, he teaches Lightning Scientific style of GM Ben Lema, in-fighting Modern Arnis/Balintawak of GM Presas, for we call palis-palis, like aikido, "go w/ the flow", he teaches Cinco Terros, & Kasilagan, for, wait how can I explain this , I'll get back, , but if you can help me explain kasilagan style, thanks for that :love:
If you don't cough up the password in about 10 seconds, your post is going to self destruct. It's good advice. No question. We seem to have a consensus. Style wasn't really an issue. Good to know. Stuart
Well geuss i came about it through chance, found it through the karate my parents choose for me to do, and was lucky that there was a good fma instructor at the club who i started with. Then he introduced me to his instructor (time to suck up to pat before my next grading ), who just happened to be one of the best fma instructors in the country. This was after i seen a demo at clash of the titans and sworn i would never do this. now look where iv ended up....
You know, I loses a awful lot of potential students with that advice. :bang: Actually, I think I said this to "Pinoy" when he was checking out my class. I asked where he lived and kept commenting on how far it was from where we practiced and said that there were others closer to him. Honestly, at this stage in my life and fma development, I'm more interested in promoting the fma as a generic than myself as a teacher and my style as a brandname. I have a list of teachers on my mental checklist who I can personally recommend or whom I've heard nothing but good things about whenever any potential student comes calling. My own teacher Guro Jun deLeon does this too. I remember how he kept recommending other teachers and styles to me and really exhorted me to try them out, PLEASE. (Kind of like the guy who's parents moved a lot when he was a kid, but he managed to find them everytime! ) Hey Shootodog, you live Marikina....
after years of style hopping, i stumbled into a newspaper add about sinkatan arnis estrella, checked it out, stayed for 3 months, then i wanted some more, so i looked around saw ikatan kali, i was hooked, but because of my work schedule, i stopped, then i found a pekiti tirsia kali clud, tried 1 class and right after i enrolled.
