Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 12:18:07 -0700 From: eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: Eskrima digest, Vol 9 #320 - 7 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Subscribed-Address: fma@martialartsresource.com List-Id: Inayan Eskrima / FMA discussion forum, the premier FMA forum on the Internet. List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Help: Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: Send Eskrima mailing list submissions to eskrima@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Eskrima digest..." <<-------- The Inayan/Eskrima/Kali/Arnis/FMA mailing list -------->> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2002: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). http://InayanEskrima.com/index.cfm See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima/FMA list at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! Today's Topics: 1. RE: The Crippling Kicks of Escrima (Patrick Davies) 2. Seminar with Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania in Frankfurt/Main Germany (Christian von Praun) 3. A Nitpick and FMA in NYC (Marc Denny) 4. Antonio Ilustrisimo (Ray Terry) 5. Pinoys in Iraq (Ray Terry) 6. Cacoy in Martial Art magazine (Oct) (Ray Terry) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: Patrick Davies To: "'eskrima@martialartsresource.net'" Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 14:33:30 +0100 Subject: [Eskrima] RE: The Crippling Kicks of Escrima Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Is this true? After all not all combat was edged weapon/stick orientated so would they train solely low line? Pat Davies Aberdeen Martial Arts Group www.amag.org.uk -----Original Message----- . The kicks focus on the opponent's lower body because they are likely to be struck by the opponent's weapon if delivered higher. Also, an attempt to lift the foot higher than waist level could result in a loss of balance and timing, which can prove fatal in the fast and unpredictable world of weapons combat --__--__-- Message: 2 Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 12:52:18 +0200 Organization: http://freemail.web.de/ From: Christian von Praun To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] Seminar with Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania in Frankfurt/Main Germany Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Hi to all, there will be a seminar with Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania in Frankfurt/Main in Germany at the 9th and 10th of November. For more information click here: http://www.warriors-eskrima.de/ Regards Christian von Praun --__--__-- Message: 3 From: "Marc Denny" To: Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 06:47:35 -0700 Subject: [Eskrima] A Nitpick and FMA in NYC Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Woof All: The post of Mark Wiley's piece included the following: "And while there are many effective kicking methods in the martial arts, only escrima offers such destructive kicks while simultaneously skirmishing with weapons." I would nitpick and offer that Krabi Krabong also offers effective kicking during weapons fights. Woof, Crafty Dog PS: Concerning the person who lives in Brooklyn, NYC: I would offer for your consideration Nick "Raw Dog" Sacoulas at 718-461-0700. His school is on the Horace Harding Expressway in Queens. --__--__-- Message: 4 From: Ray Terry To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net (Eskrima) Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 07:57:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Eskrima] Antonio Ilustrisimo Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Gran Maestro Antonio Ilustrisimo By Pedro Reyes When three robbers boarded the jeepney, they did not expect any problem. It was midnight, the heat was stifling and most of the passengers were half-asleep. One robber sat with the driver in front, while the other two seated themselves at the rear entrance. When an eighty-year old man boarded the jeepney carrying a two-foot aluminum rod, they barely glanced at him. As the jeepney entered a dimly lit park, the robbers pulled out their knives and ordered the passengers to hand over their wallets and jewelry. Instead of complying, the old man swung the aluminum rod, sending the teeth of one robber flying out of the window and ripping the stomach of the other. The remaining robber leaped out of the jeepney and fled. The criminals had made one mistake of trying to rob a jeepney in which the most revered masters of arnis was riding. Although Gran Maestro Antonio Ilustrisimo was eighty-five at the time of this incident, he was still deadly. Fondly called Tatang by his disciples, the Gran Maestro was born in Daan Bantayan, a remote fishing island in the northern tip of the province of Cebu in Central Phillipines. The Ilustrisimo clan is famous for its arnisadores. For as long as the family can remember, the Ilustrisimo style has been handed down from generation to generation to members of the clan. Gender did not matter. The current master would hold one hand over the head of the candidate to determine if the aspirant was sober-minded or hot-headed. The master would teach only those he judged to be temperate. Apparently the father of Tatang started to teach him at such an early age that Tatang can not recall when he began to study Arnis. The training was strict and Tatang often wanted to run away from home. Did he also learn from his famed uncle, Maestro Melecio Ilustrisimo? A little, says Tatang. But he mostly learned from his father. When he was nine years old, Tatang wandered too far away from shore alone in a boat, and was captured by Muslim pirates from Sulu. Fortunately, the Sultan of the pirates took a liking to the maestro and adopted him as a son. While in Sulu, the Maestro came into contact with another famous Arnis maestro, Pedro Cortez. Cortez worked as a government agent pacifying villages so wild and remote that the Phillipine constabulary dared not enter them. Cortez took the young Ilustrisimo as his stick-bearer. One morning a panting messenger ran up to Cortez to tell him that the warring clans in one villages so wild and remote that the Philippine constabulary dared not enter them. Cortez took young Ilustrisimo as his stick bearer. As they entered the village, Ilustrisimo expected the villagers to descend upon them any time and hack them to death. But Cortez coolly walked between the lines of drawn men and told them to lay down their knives at his feet. Amazingly, the men obeyed. Cortez told Ilustrisimo to rope the knives into one bundle. The two of them then shouldered the bundle and calmly walked out of the village. Cortez had used an oracion to make the men capitulate. An oracion is a silent chant, prayer, or incantation that an advance arnisador uses to force his enemy to surrender without using physical force. Tatang is a master of oracion himself. Did he learn oracion from Cortez? No, says Tatang. He learned everything from his father. Holy Friday is a solemn day for arnisadores who are masters of oracion. On this day they test whether they still have the power, or they have lost it. Every Holy Friday Tatang would wander to a deserted field accompanied by believers and skeptics. He would prop up pieces of paper on which he had written incantations beforehand. He would then invite anyone with a gun to shoot at the paper from point-blank range. So far no one has succeeded in hitting the incantations. I asked one marksman what it felt to shoot at the paper. Nothing extraordinary happens while one is aiming at the paper, he says. But the moment one pulls the trigger, an invisible force tugs the barrel of the gun aside and makes one miss. Sometimes the gun would refuse to fire altogether. But to return to the Maestro. When Ilustrisimo was eighteen years old, the sultan sent him to buy beer from a store near the territory of a rival clan. As Ilustrisimo started the traditional haggling, a Muslim toughie standing near began to curse him (to drink alcohol is forbidden to Muslims). When Tatang ignored him, the toughie cursed more vehemently and advanced on Tatang, drawing his kris. As the toughie pulled back his kris to hack at him, Tatang drew his own parang and cut off the attacker's head from below in one motion. "he made a mistake when he pulled back his kris," says Tatang. To avoid a clan war, the sultan loaded his adopted son with money and presents and sent him back to Daan Bantayan. Ilustrisimo had a tearful reunion with his family." They could not recognize me," says Tatang. But Tatang was restless and could not stay in one place. He went from island to island to find work. One town where he worked was terrorized by three hoodlums, the Vasquez brothers, who were so formidable that policemen walked the other way whenever they saw the trio. During the town fiesta, Tatang caught one of the brothers cheating at dice. Tatang so frightened the man that the man dove out of the window of the house to swim a swollen river, from where he shouted he would return to kill the maestro. A few hours later, the man was back with his brothers. Although some town folk tried to stop him, Tatang took a fighting bolo and walked out to the street where the Vasquez brothers were yelling for his head. The brothers encircled Tatang, two in front and another behind. Tatang silently chanted his oracion as the man behind began to throw fist-sized rocks at him. But it was as if an invisible force-field protected Tatang. The rocks either fell short or were deflected. The oracion was effective. Tatang advanced on the two brothers in front. In arnis, one attacks the opponent's arm first to disarm him before attacking the head or body. Tatang swung and like a wet twig, the thumb of one attacker fell to the ground. As Tatang turned to the other man, the brothers fled, never to return, to the relief of town people and the police. Tatang eventually arrived in Manila, the capital of the Phillipines, where he settled in San Nicolas near the waterfront. Then and now San Nicolas is a district where sinister characters from all over the island and the world assembled. To survive in the district, one had to prove he was a man. Word quickly spread. "Better curse the devil than tangle with Ilustrisimo." Tall at five feet eight inches, muscular, with erect bearing, Tatang attracted ladies as well. During World War II, Tatang joined the guerrillas against the Japanese. After the war, he joined the merchant marine and traveled all over the world. There were now no occasions for trouble for his fame as an arnisador either preceded or accompanied him and that was enough. But not always. One day when he was resting between voyages, a delegation of neighbors visited his house and appealed to him to get rid of a toughie who was terrorizing the neighborhood. The man was an expert arnisador and has defeated the champions the neighborhood set to duel with him one after another. Tatang sent a message to the toughie to meet him beside the pier to duel, or else decamp. The toughie arrived at the appointed time with a knife, swaggering. Tatang held a short lead pipe. Tatang spread his arms like a crane and shouted, "I'm open. Hit me." The toughie lunged, Tatang turned to evade the thrust, and in the same movement brought down the lead pipe, crushing the toughie's skull. A hallmark of the Ilustrisimo style is economy of motion. In 1982 Tatang retired from his itinerant life as a seaman, but he refused to teach arnis. He told Antonio Tony Diego, the most persistent pleader, "Young man, learned arnis to save my life, why should I proclaim its secrets to the world?" Antonio Diego, already an instructor in arnis, plied Tatang with meals and fighting cocks for a long time to no avail. Finally Tatang relented. "Do you know anything about arnis?" he asked. "A little," answered Tony. Tatang the proceeded to rain blows on Diego that poor Tony found almost impossible to parry. Their training pattern was set. Tony would arrive at the apartment of Tatang with some gift. Tatang would rain blows on Tony until Tony learned to parry or to counter Tatang's technique. Tony left the training sessions many times with swollen arms or sprained fingers. Still Tony hung on. Eventually other students joined Tony. The group persuaded Tatang to moderate his blows and to instruct more systematically. Lessons from Tatang became a post-graduate course in arnis. Most of his students Already instructors or masters; some had followers of their own. The list of his students reads like a roster of the ablest martial artists in the Phillipines: Antonio Diego, Yul Romo, Ernie Talag, Christopher Ricketts, Romeo Macapagal, Edgar Sulite--the list goes on. Because Tatang honed his arnis in actual combat, not in prearranged sparring, sports tournaments or friendly duels, he is understandably scornful of the showy tradition of theatrical arnis and the limitations of tournament sparring. His style is pure fighting and it is deadly. But at the highest stage of the art, the arnisador no longer fights. When Tatang was a seaman, the reigning martial arts champion among Asian sailors was an Indonesian practitioner of pentjak silat. he boasted of the many men he had killed in duels and dared anyone to fight with him. Growing tired of his boasting, Filipino sailors called Antonio Ilustrisimo from Japan and offered to pay all his expenses to come to Singapore and fight the Indonesian. Ilustrisimo accepted. It was a sweltering night when the duel took place. The stadium was filled with a wildly betting, blood-hungry crowd that had come to watch a fight with naked blades. Perhaps one of the combatants would die. The Indonesian was first in the ring, brandishing his long knife to roars of approval from his supporters. Then Ilustrisimo climbed into his corner and quietly watched the Indonesian. What happened next was inexplicable. The Indonesian glanced at Ilustrisimo. To the consternation of his followers, the Indonesian muttered a string of incomprehensible excuses, scrambled out of the ring and fled. The fight was a no-fight was over. "I used my oracion." And Tatang smiles. --__--__-- Message: 5 From: Ray Terry To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net (Eskrima) Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 09:54:08 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Eskrima] Pinoys in Iraq Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net U.S. advised evacuation of Pinoys in Iraq Thursday, September 12, 2002 President Arroyo's order on Wednesday to evacuate Filipinos in Iraq was a result of a recommendation made by U.S. assistant secretary of state James Kelly, Press secretary Ignacio Bunye said. Bunye said Kelly made the recommendation to Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Alberto del Rosario who relayed the advice to Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople. Arroyo issued the order after discussing the U.S.-Iraq conflict with Ople at noon. Kelly was quoted as saying that it would be a wise move to evacuate Filipinos in Iraq. Kelly did not say if the recommendation was an indication of an imminent attack on Iraq. President Arroyo on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of all Filipinos in Iraq as a precautionary move in the wake of a planned attack by the United States. Arroyo said she wanted to make sure Filipinos in Iraq, including embassy personnel, were safe if the United States decided to attack. The U.S. has been gearing up for an attack on Iraq, claiming that the Arab country has stored "weapons of mass destruction." The more-than-100 Filipinos in Iraq will be brought to Amman, Jordan, the President said. --__--__-- Message: 6 From: Ray Terry To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net (Eskrima) Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 12:14:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Eskrima] Cacoy in Martial Art magazine (Oct) Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net fyi, in the October 2002 issue of "Martial Art: The Voice of Traditional Martial Arts" is a short interview with Gm Cacoy Canete. Also appearing is Richard Bustillo. However, I suspect Cacoy didn't get a chance for a final review of the article as they spell his art with a "c", i.e. Escrima. He spells it Eskrima. At least they didn't call it Kali... :) Ray Terry rterry@idiom.com --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Eskrima mailing list Eskrima@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima http://eskrima-fma.net Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2002: Ray Terry and http://MartialArtsResource.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember 9-11! End of Eskrima Digest