Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:01:20 -0800 From: eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: Eskrima digest, Vol 13 #82 - 4 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: Eskrima-FMA discussion forum, the premier FMA forum on the Internet. List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Help: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on plus11.host4u.net X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.3 required=5.0 tests=NO_REAL_NAME autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: O 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 Sudlud-Inayan Eskrima/Kali/Arnis/FMA mailing list ---->> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2006: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. 2300 members. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima/FMA digest at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! Today's Topics: 1. Maryland seminar with Christopher Ricketts (Bakbakan@aol.com) 2. Re: Calm Mind (bgdebuque) 3. UFC in WSJ (Ray Terry) 4. guros in Toronto, Canada (jay de leon) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: Bakbakan@aol.com Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:14:42 EST To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] Maryland seminar with Christopher Ricketts Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net I have received inquiries regarding payment methods. Aside from money orders and certified check, I have set up Paypal buttons for these upcoming events on www.swacom.com Paypal is free to use and a secure method of payment that can be linked to your credit card. Please make sure you purchase the correct date you wish to attend. And bring with you a completed and signed waiver (available in PDF) at the day of the event. If you are paying by money order or certified check, please email me at bakbakan@aol.com or info@swacom.com for mailing address. Only cash, money orders or certified checks will be accepted at the day of the event. Thanks in advance for supporting this event! Yours in the Arts, Guro John G. Jacobo www.swacom.com --__--__-- Message: 2 Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 12:14:46 -0500 From: bgdebuque To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: Re: [Eskrima] Calm Mind Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Based on my own experience, there are three (3) possible mindsets in a real-life confrontation: 1. Enraged - You are so mad at the other guy that you just want to hurt him really bad regardless of what the consequences will be. 2. Afraid - You definitely think the odds are against you that, unless you can pull out the proverbial bunny from the top hat, kingdom come is just a few moments away. 3. Meditative - You feel no hate nor fear. Your sense of awareness is may be at its sharpest but your pulse rate and breath rate are still perfectly normal. You live-out the fight moment by moment. You react instinctively to an attack. You exploit instinctively any weakness in your opponent's defense. Your strikes are all coming from the "void". In a perverted sense, you are perfectly at bliss. I have only experienced mindset no. 3 above after undergoing a few years of MA training... > > Message: 3 > To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net > From: Alex.France@kp.org > Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:09:43 -0800 > Subject: [Eskrima] Calm Mind > Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net > > Yes! The times I've found myself in life-and-death situations were the > times I was most calm; and I credit that to martial arts training. One > example (a non-war story): I was in the fast line on a freeway when a > station wagon (remember those?) full of kids in the back started drifting > into my lane. I had to make a split second decision: allow the collision > to happen or stomp on the brakes. With kids in the back of the station > wagon, I really had only one choice. I knew (beforehand) that no other > cars were around us, so I stomped on the brakes and let the car do a 180. > Engine died and cars were now approaching. I calmly turned the engine on > (if you're in panic mode you'd flood the carburetor), shifted into > reverse, sped backwards to hug the guard rail as the cars passed by. After > the cars cleared , I made a u-turn and continued on. Everything good and > fine, right? Here's the kicker: Two or three minutes later, after the > danger had passed, my body starts shaking uncontrollably (but not enough > to lose control of my driving (smile)) . Major adrenaline dump! > > Alex(ander Bautista Bayot France) --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:44:34 -0800 From: "Ray Terry" To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net, eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] UFC in WSJ Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net PAGE ONE Wall Street Journal On the Vegas Strip, A Fast, Brutal Sport Deals Blow to Boxing 'Ultimate Fighting' Matches Score Fans, Ads, Bettors; Luring the 'Maxim' Crowd By PETER SANDERS March 15, 2006 LAS VEGAS -- With its history of glitzy championship bouts, this city's famous gambling Strip is boxing's home turf. But when longtime fans Brian Schulz and Derek Ellis drove five-plus hours here from northern Utah one recent Saturday night, the hottest fight in town wasn't staged in a boxing ring. It was inside "the Octagon." The Octagon is the eight-sided, fenced-in battleground used by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the martial arts-inspired circuit that is fast gaining popularity nationwide. Here in Las Vegas, the sport -- known for its chokeholds, elbow punches and acrobatic takedowns -- is making a run at boxing's supremacy. For decades, Las Vegas was the biggest venue for boxing's prizefights, featuring ring stars like Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis. But with few new marquee names and younger spectators craving harder, faster action, heavyweight boxing's golden era has faded. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is muscling in with corporate sponsors, pay-per-view specials and star-flecked audiences. On Feb. 4, boldface names like Paris Hilton, Cindy Crawford and Charles Barkley showed up for a championship Ultimate Fighting event at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. Dana White, the UFC's 36-year-old president, says the sport fills a void left by boxing's failure to adapt to fans' changing tastes. "The UFC is the most exciting combat sport in the world because there are so many ways to win and so many ways to lose," he says. "Boxing is your father's sport." On March 4, Mr. Schulz, 41, was among more than 10,000 fans who paid between $50 and $450 to watch the action at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, also in Las Vegas. He likes to describe Ultimate Fighting as "a purer sport than boxing." For one thing, it's more violent. Ultimate Fighting is a so-called mixed martial-arts event that combines karate, judo, jiu-jitsu, boxing, wrestling and old-fashioned street fighting. The result is a sport that features many more ways for combatants -- wearing thin, fingerless gloves, not the padded boxing kind -- to effect maximum carnage. The object is simple: overwhelm the opponent by whatever means necessary, save a few banned tactics like biting. If a fight doesn't lead to a knockout or surrender, then a panel of three judges uses a scoring system to determine the winner. The early March card at Mandalay showcased Ultimate Fighting's fast pace and brutality. In one match, Jason Lambert and Rob MacDonald sparred like boxers for a minute or so. Then, Mr. Lambert drove his head into Mr. MacDonald's midsection and piled him into the mat. Squatting on his face, Mr. Lambert twisted and wrenched his opponent's left arm backward in an unnatural and painful trajectory. Grimacing in pain, Mr. MacDonald "tapped out," banging his free hand on the mat in the UFC's universal "mercy" signal. In a later match, Mike Swick was quickly tossed to the mat by opponent Steve Vigneault. But Mr. Swick instantly turned the tables with a move called "The Guillotine Choke." Cradling his opponent's head in his elbow, between bulging biceps and his forearm, Mr. Swick squeezed hard and temporarily cut off Mr. Vigneault's ability to breathe. Boxing promoter Gary Shaw attributes Ultimate Fighting's rise to a generation inured to violence and mayhem -- the sort commonly depicted in movies and videogames. "The mixture of wrestling with boxing and the fact that it's not staged goes to the bloodthirsty segment of the population," he says. The fights are bona fide competitions, part of the official Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit. The UFC is the leading force among a growing number of slickly packaged versions of a sport that has evolved from unregulated, no-holds-barred free-for-alls staged in bars and Indian casinos a few years ago. Those brawls attracted the attention of regulators and other critics as long as a decade ago. Sen. John McCain described the sport as a "human cockfight" and sought to ban the competitions. Rather than collapse under government scrutiny, the sport's proponents decided to adopt formal rules and regulations. Over the past several years, they worked with states like New Jersey and Nevada to ensure that officials would authorize them to stage fights. Today, the UFC has weight classes, ringside doctors and a scoring system that is similar to boxing. It has also reined in some violence, outlawing such crowd-pleasing tactics as eye-gouging, head-butting and biting. Mixed martial-arts events are now sanctioned by more than 20 state athletic commissions. The most recent state to sign on was California, where in September Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation allowing the bouts. The UFC has shrewdly built a following with flashy marketing that appeals to the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male sought by everyone from Maxim magazine to beer makers. A weekly reality show on Viacom Inc.'s Spike TV features contestants vying for a spot on the UFC circuit; it draws a weekly average of two million viewers. At the events, ear-splitting rock music plays over endless highlight reels between fights, and big-screen ads pitch BMW cars and coming movie thrillers like "The Hills Have Eyes." Also prominently featured are ads for the league's DVD titles like "Ultimate Beatdowns Vol. 1." In Nevada, casino bettors can now make wagers on the fights. In Las Vegas and some other cities, the audience for Ultimate Fighting matches can now rival or surpass big boxing matches. For the Super Bowl weekend matchup between Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell -- UFC stars capable of earning $1 million or more per year -- about 10,300 people packed the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Tickets ranged from $50 to $750, but scalpers commanded well above face value. Most fans were in their seat for the entire card, not just the marquee matchup. An image of spectator Paris Hilton, flashed on the big screen, drew lusty boos from the raucous crowd. The event took in about $3.4 million. A few weeks later, a big junior middleweight boxing match was held at Mandalay Bay between "Sugar" Shane Mosely and Fernando Vargas, two of the sport's few remaining brand-name fighters. Though the venue seats nearly 11,000, only about 8,500 fans showed up to watch the bout. The fight took in about $3.5 million. A spokesman for Mandalay Bay's owner, MGM Mirage, declined to comment on why the venue did not sell out. Although big names in boxing acknowledge the ring's flagging appeal, they don't necessarily blame the UFC. Don King, the boxing promoter, thinks an aging demographic, the loss of recognizable names in the heavyweight classes and a disappearance from network television have all crippled the sport. "Since network television left boxing, people can't identify with the fighters," Mr. King says. "If boxing were a stock, I'd sell it short," says Bert Randolph Sugar, a longtime boxing writer who's enshrined in the sport's hall of fame. Even so, Mr. Sugar dismisses Ultimate Fighting as little more than "bar fights without the beer bottles." --__--__-- Message: 4 Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 12:11:58 -0800 (PST) From: jay de leon To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] guros in Toronto, Canada Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net A former student of my guro Godofredo Fajardo has just relocated to Toronto, Canada and is looking for an arnis guro. Please let me know if you teach in this area, either through the forum or privately if you wish, with style and contact information. Thanks, Jay de Leon --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Eskrima mailing list Eskrima@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima http://eskrima-fma.net Old digest issues @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com/pub/eskrima Copyright 1994-2006: Ray Terry, MartialArtsResource.com, Sudlud.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember September 11. End of Eskrima Digest