From: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: eskrima-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #111 Reply-To: eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest Sat, 4 March 2000 Vol 07 : Num 111 In this issue: eskrima: Re: Swords and Guards eskrima: Re: Hello Nate Defensor eskrima: Re: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #105 eskrima: guard on Filipino blades eskrima: Courage eskrima: Re: Angel RIP eskrima: Cooking Question eskrima: soft sticks [none] ========================================================================== Eskrima-Digest, serving the Internet since June 1994. 1100 members strong! Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry, the Martial Arts Resource, Inayan Eskrima Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe eskrima-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a plain text e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and online search the last four years worth of digest issues at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jivita@aol.com Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 15:37:05 EST Subject: eskrima: Re: Swords and Guards I hate to buck the trend but....you do find guards on Pilipino swords. Amoung other places, round guards can be found on some Bisayan swords, rectangular and "serrated" guards can be found on Kampilans, "S" guards can be found on Pinuti type weapons and think I may have even found one with a D guard! Regards. Jim Lowe Berkeley Eskrima Club http://members.aol.com/BEC.html ------------------------------ From: Ken McDonough Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 13:21:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: eskrima: Re: Hello Nate Defensor Nate Defensor posted: Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 10:57:39 -0600 Subject: eskrima: re: guard on Filipino blades> Sir: Glad to see you here. My wife and I met you last year in Frederick, Maryland. She is from Cebu (Sorry I do not have your correct title). We are planning a visit Cebu next year. How is Chicago weather ? I received your tapes. Sincerely, Ken McDonough __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: "NAGA-RAJAH, \"The Serpent-King\"" Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 14:01:03 -1000 Subject: eskrima: Re: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #105 Second that Travis . . .Brian Viloria . . .I remember him when he was a little kid. He and my cousins used to live in back of Big Way Supermarket in Waipahu, Hawaii. I remember when he and my cousins used to fight with the big Samoan kids there. Even at his age and small size he used to rock some of those big Samoans. I know quite a few older and stronger guys he boxed in the ring, and he's bled and rocked quite a few of them. It's too bad I can't watch any of those fights. It would be exciting to watch a native Waipahu boy on T.V. Oh yeah, by the way, growing up he did take eskrima for a short time from my Maestro Snookie in Waipahu. That was only for a few months. His heart was more into boxing, and I guess it's better for him that he took the boxing route as he is making a whole bunch of people proud of him. Assalamu Alai Kum (Peace be with you all) Erwin "Hari" Vicente Legaspi - Spirit Dancing in the Flesh - NAGA RAJAH - "The Serpent King" "Behold, I send you like sheep in the midst of wolves; be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." - Matthew 10:16 "Intellect and intelligence do not go together. Intelligence is obtained only when the heart and mind reach an agreement." - Jiddu Krishnamurti "To silence the man is more dangerous than damming the flood." - old Chinese Zhou dynasty proverb ------------------------------ From: Luis Pellicer Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 08:43:30 +0800 Subject: eskrima: guard on Filipino blades Good question. In my collection I have both utility and "fighting" versions of the same kind of blade. (Bought in the regions the blades were native to, the real things, not from a "supplier") The fighting versions are longer with less broadness, but don't have guards. Could this be that the primary weapons were the spear and sheild, and that the blade was a fall back weapon, then not used as much as we would like to think? It is also harder to use certain moves with a guard. I don't find either of the two previous statements valid, but the question was good anyway. LPIII ------------------------------ From: "BILL MCGRATH" Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 21:12:13 -0500 Subject: eskrima: Courage Mike Koblic asked: "Can you teach courage?" Yes, I believe you can. Let's start by going back to the definition of courage that I used in the PTI newsletter article. "Courage: The ability to overcome fear in order to attain a goal." Courage is a mental process. Two people can perform the very same action, but for one person, that action would require courage and for the other it would not. It may require a great deal of courage for someone with a mortal fear of blood to render first aid to someone with an open wound, where to a trained paramedic, the very same action would just be another day at work and require no courage. Closer to our discussion, fighting someone in a tournament who has regularly beaten you with embarrassing ease requires some courage, while your fighting a third competitor who you yourself have often easily beaten would require no courage. If we accept that courage is not the lack of fear, but the overcoming of fear, then we can address ways to overcome that fear. If courage is the "ability to overcome fear in order to attain a goal," then we can train for the courage needed in a fight by: 1. Making the goal more easily attainable. Believing that winning is possible is the first step towards overcoming fear. Often fear in a fight comes from a student not having confidence in his skills. A good place to overcome this fear is through developing power in his strikes. As strange as it first sounds, if a student believes "All I need is one hit and I can take this guy out." it will go a long way towards overcoming his own fear of getting hit. I did a seminar at a school once where the teacher had a student who had a confidence problem during sparring. I was told he would flinch and duck and generally showed a fear of getting hit. I asked the student to face me and imagine we were about to spar. I asked him how did he feel? Nervous, he said. I then told him to imagine that he had a loaded shotgun in his hands. Now how did he feel? He laughed and said "No problem!" I suggested the teacher give him a lot of heavy bag work, specializing in elbow strikes and "put a shotgun in his elbows." Sometimes fear comes from believing that winning is impossible. Just getting such a student to believe winning is possible helps greatly. 2. Making the non-attainment of the goal completely unacceptable. The first example that comes to my mind is a mother defending her child from attack. Her need to attain her goal (to protect her child) is so strong, that she would rather die than not attain that goal. In the winter issue of the PTI newsletter, we discussed how to use mental imagery to bring out this protective instinct in a student (especially with those students on the low end of the human aggression bell curve). In warrior societies the goal is honor. Many of these warrior societies would traditionally take teenage boys and put them through a period I call "Adulthood Training Camp." During this period they would be taken from the women and children's hut and brought out into the jungle to undergo training in how to be an adult male in that society. In these societies, most men would rather die than be thought of as a coward. The military often uses a combination of the protective instinct and a code of honor in its training to help its members overcome fear. I have heard many veterans say that the reason they were able to overcome their fear in a bad combat situation was variations on "I just couldn't let my buddy die." (the protective instinct) or "I'm a member of XYZ unit and we get the job done!" (honor at work). I think in both of these instances, the common denominator in physiological terms is the individual's familial feelings for others in the group. Courage is brought out either in the protection of a group member or in the need to maintain group approval and thereby remain a member of the group. 3. Through a process of desensitization. Remember the story of the frog and the boiling water? Put a frog into a pot of boiling water and he will jump right out. Place a frog into a pot of room temperature water and very gradually bring up the heat and the frog will stay in the water until he is cooked. Or have you ever had a friend tell you that he was taught to swim by his father who picked him up and tossed him into the deep end of the pool. Teaching fighting to most people is much like the frog in the water or teaching a child to swim. While there are some people born at the high end of the human courage bell curve and can be tossed into the "deep end of the pool" in many physical endeavors without adverse effects. The majority of people do not fit into this category however and will do better with a graduated process of learning. The secret to overcoming a person's fear of fighting or anything else is to start at a low level and gradually desensitize them to their fear through multiple successful repetitions. The key word here is successful. Taking a person who is afraid of water and throwing them into the deep end of the pool and only pulling them out when they are half drowned will only serve to strengthen their phobia. Before Tuhon Gaje started us in sparring, he had us go through a long period of two-man drills to get our basics down. Sparring started with what Tuhon Gaje called "Range Sparring" which was done at extreme long range (beyond contact range). He would gradually bring us closer together, so that the stick could just make contact. Then we put on gear and were allowed to attack just the weapon hand. Then just the weapon hand and head. Then hand, head and legs. Then hands, head, legs and body. Finally throws were added to the mix. We started at the shallow end of the pool, got our basic strokes down, and gradually moved into deeper water. I think of courage as a "mental muscle." People exhibit high levels of muscular strength because of: A. Good genetics B. Will power C. Training D. All of the above (the really scary people) I believe the same can be said of high levels of courage. Regards, Tuhon Bill McGrath www.pekiti-tirsia.com ------------------------------ From: Saturbo@aol.com Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 21:13:14 EST Subject: eskrima: Re: Angel RIP In reference to Ray Terry's thoughtful posting that today (March 3) marked the passing of Angel Cabales: I would like it to be known that several of his former students met at his grave to share in their memories of Angel, then had lunch afterward and shared old stories. Angel was indeed a great man, with total faith in his considerable skills, and was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He touched the lives of many people in a positive way as a friend and a guro. R. Saturno, Jr ------------------------------ From: Buz Grover Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 21:58:54 -0500 Subject: eskrima: Cooking Question An odd question: is anyone else out there a chef/cook that started up with FMA? Some background: I'm a MA dilettante who spent close to 20 years in foodservice. Got tired of pushing the same rock up the same hill so I got me a liberal arts degree and became a computer geek along the way. While earning said degree I turned into a sofa spud, got disgusted with myself and so, upon graduation, sought a MA long on street technique and short on kicking air. Fell into an FMA/JKD Concepts school and felt like I'd finally found a home. Whatever the case, as an ex-chef I find the edged weapon aspects of FMA to be the most enjoyable and the most perplexing. When sparring I can usually hold my own--I've no trouble making a blade go where I want it to go while keeping the rest of my bod out of the way. When training, though, I fall all over myself. My footwork and body mechanics have more to do with dodging hot pans and busy coworkers than integrating male/female triangles, while all the years I spent with a single edge blade in hand causes me to fillet myself with a double edged training dagger. My guess is I'll eventually be able to merge my slicing and dicing skills into the FMA, though I'd be curious to find out if anyone else has managed to do the same. One would think that swinging a live blade for two to six hours a day for close to twenty years would end up counting for something. I'm also curious if anyone knows of a specific Filipino blade or style that would work well for someone who swung a ten-inch French knife for a bunch of years. Hope this question isn't too goofy, Buz Grover ------------------------------ From: OnEHyPeRPnAy@aol.com Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 00:35:41 EST Subject: eskrima: soft sticks the soft sticks that I use are padded sticks....and they cost $35.00 i think theyre selling it at my training center for $30 for a pair now... ~Geralyn ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 08:36:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [none] ------------------------------ End of Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #111 **************************************** To unsubscribe from the eskrima-digest send the command: unsubscribe eskrima-digest -or- unsubscribe eskrima-digest your.old@address in the BODY of an email (top line, left justified) addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry and the Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.