tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14368873168517488272024-03-14T20:16:30.233+09:00Father and Son's Martial Arts Fun TrainingiWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-78963281160081540462015-02-06T04:41:00.000+09:002015-02-06T04:58:01.971+09:00No more MA practice together...I'm sad to say that probably my post from now on will becoming very rare since me and my son haven't practiced together for a long time. I'll try to post again if something comes up. The last time that we were able to practice was last May 2014, the day before my birthday when my son and his friends asked me to go with them near the river to hang out. We played with bikes and then my son gave me a very nice birthday gift by sparring together. Skills were low since we haven't practiced for months but it was nice to see that my son hasn't lost his touch. He was able to throw, slam me to the ground and twist my wrist until I give up, lol! He even gave me a good head lock that I nearly passed out, HAHA!<br />
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After cranking our neck, we moved on to kicking and punching each other then his friends joined in. Then we moved to sticks and all of us had a good time.<br />
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Here are some photos but please do read on...<br />
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My son slammed me to the ground but I immediately used my "old man's sleazy wrist throw technique" and got him flying. He is a lot faster and has more endurance so cheating is my only option, HAHAHA!<br />
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He grabbed my neck then moved to a wrist lock. I didn't see that coming... I tried to escape but wasn't successful. I tried not to give up so he pumped my wrist more until I finally tapped, lol!<br />
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He is very good with doing wrist locks and attacking pressure points and he really knows where it hurts.<br />
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Here we were rolling everywhere trying to lock or pin each other. Photo on the top left is where I was about to lever choke him with my left arm but he got hold of my right hand and moved to a finger lock. He was in a bad position and tapped first but my fingers was really hurting.<br />
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Top right: I was trying to evade his leg lock but suddenly he shifted technique and gave me a good booting on my chest. That was painful, hahaha!<br />
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Photo below: I slammed him doing a head lock, he is not escaping me this time... HAHAHA!<br />
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Giving my son a good military head lock drag (this is not really a head lock but a technique where you try to get your wrist to dig in on Adam's apple while dragging). Used for silent sentry removal and can be very effective if executed swiftly. If done properly, the wind pipe will get flattened then by jerking the right shoulder forward while forcing the enemy downwards will cause a lever action to neatly snap the opponent's neck. My son love this technique too and have used it against me countless times.<br />
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We also played with sticks with his buddies. It was the first time for his friends to play with sticks and they were really funny. We really had a good laugh.<br />
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Best Birthday gift from my son :)<br />
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My son is 18 now and will be going to college this year. With his school, part time job and his girl friend, I am sure that finding time together for MA practice will become more rare. With his tight schedule, he had to stop going to the dojos. The thing I like about my son is that he tries lots of stuffs and not just stick to one. MA is good but motorcycles, repair, music, ball games, swimming, music, etc. is there to learn too. I have asked my son a few months back why he stopped going to the dojos and I really liked his answer. He told me that He loves MA but is following Military CQC and Traditional FMA's principle where the soldier gets trained for several months or years, then kicks ass, then moves on. This is true with most soldiers or spooky practitioners who were trained in the military fighting arts, that we just move on.<br />
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Like me, my son often practice alone. Usually with knives or sticks. Sometimes he still sneaks behind me and executes a good sentry removal technique where I couldn't do nothing. I am very happy that the true or real principle of Traditional FMA and CQC sank in his brain. These fighting arts or skills are not intended for self defense unlike the newer or the more organized arts. My old WW2 veteran teachers and my other weirdo jarhead seniors taught me that the principle is simple, sneak in, whack your enemy, take his tools, vanish asap then fight for another day using the scavenged tools. This is totally a guerrilla type of fighting art and not the ones most MA dojos offer. I even learned that some weird wannabe fighting art/s teaches deadly stuffs then promotes love and peace while holding hands and kissing the enemy, hahaha!!! I am sure that those teachers have never seen real combat, lol!<br />
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Though we believe in that principle, there are times that fighting will be head on or for self defense. I've learned that my son can shift easily to defensive arts and not result to snapping his opponent's neck. This is where the other arts that he learned helps. The good thing with the fighting arts is that the practitioner doesn't have to be very skilled or has to practice regularly, all he has to do is to remember his training and to follow proper procedure. The techniques are simple, direct and can be executed even after years without practice.<br />
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Another thing that I learned from other MA practitioners is that many practice too much. Polishing their MA skills to the max and most aim for the belt... but sucks with survival skills. Many live in their small fantasy world where they fantasize that most real fights are peachy. I even met one who doesn't have the idea how to change his car's flat tire... That is a sign of an easy target, just deflate air or throw several caltrops and let him freeze in the winter mountains. Sneaky but technically it can work... I have taught my son weird stuffs and some of them are so weird that by just thinking about them prevents us from fighting because what if the opponent is efficient with those stuffs also. Back in the Philippines my teachers taught me about traps (trapping was part of my MA training, no joke!). There are times that when I go to the mountains in Japan that I still have the hair on my back standing because I accidentally saw a string on the ground. What if it is a snare or a snapper, a dead fall, a pipe boomer or a mine??? Twice at the beach I nearly got a heart attack when I stepped on a sand trap, I got an instant flash in my head that I was stepping on sharpened bamboo. My face got so pale that my son couldn't stop laughing. Since my son is not joining the military, I refrained from teaching him these stuffs but if he only knew... I'm sure his face will also turn pale. Also met practitioners who doesn't know how to ride a bicycle or swim.<br />
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Lesson here is that learning MA doesn't make you a super hero. Superman has his krptonite. It doesn't mean that if you wear your pants over your tights will make you Batman. One can have so many black belts and medals but if he doesn't know how to catch and skin fish, his option is limited to buying prepared fish from the market :)<br />
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Teach your child well and teach them true. No sugar coating and no Kamehameha. Teach them that MA, fighting arts and weapons can kill. It is like guns, guns don't kill, the person does. You may have armed them to the teeth but if they know compassion and common sense, they are OK :)<br />
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PS: to my bros: Will try to bring Jr. to Manila when I fly back. Time for him to experience some good jungle booting from you guys, haha!<br />
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<span style="color: #37404e;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">We just arrived home from the police station to claim our son. Our son helped catch and apprehend a suspect by controlling him from escaping by using CQC (Close Quarters Combat) controlling techniques which left the suspect immobile. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">I have learned from the police that he didn't use any aggressive techniques and only used very peaceful yet effective CQC controlling techniques without using excessive force and not giving harm nor damage to the suspect. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">As a father and as his CQC-FMA teacher, I am very proud to see him grow-up with responsibility and love for the country. May he always walk tall and proud... OSSU!!!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I didn't post the whole story on FB but the story went like this... My son and his classmate saw a guy who shouted "thief!" and joined in the chase. They caught the guy but my son was the one who grabbed the guy and passed him to the main guy. Then he escaped and the chase was on again. The guy was able to escape 3 times and my son always caught him. During their cat and mouse chase, the guy punched my son on the face and kicked him on his leg plus threatened him that he will kill my son. My son did not punch him back. He just controlled him by using the standing collar hold or just grabbed his arm. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The police called us in to claim our son at the main police station since he is still a minor and to ask us if we would like to file charges against the guy because he punched and kicked our son and for the threats. We didn't file charges because my son told us that he was not injured. Since this happened in Japan, the laws here are different and using force to apprehend someone may backfire to the person helping the law if too much force is used. It was a good move that he did not poke his eyes or slammed him on the concrete head first. He was trained heavily on military CQC and finishing the job is SOP but he was cool all the way. The funny thing is that when I was talking to the police that he assured me that my son did not use aggressive force. Then he showed me how my son used the standing cross collar hold (which was actually a choke and was very military just like what the Spec Ops uses, lol!). Then he showed us how he grabbed his arm (which was actually a joint lock, hahaha!). He also commented that my son should join the forces </span><img alt="" border="0" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Smilie" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">My biggest question was, why was the guy able to punch and kick my son because it is near impossible to retaliate while being military cross choked (It's like having your Adam's Apple constantly poked and it hurts like hell... this techniques is not normally taught at dojos...) so I asked him. His answer is that he actually gave the guy some slack for him to land some blows on his face. I know that my son has been receiving punches, kicks, have been slammed to the ground, twisted, grappled, choked and bled many times since he was young. A punch on his face will make the bad guy look "more bad" to the eyes of the people... Yes his techniques was SOP where you receive hits first but I was surprised that he was crazy enough to follow it. Then I asked, "why did you follow it?" his answer is "because it's Standard Operating Procedure"... lol! This reminded me during my younger days when my senior says "jump", we don't ask "how high", we just jump, hahaha!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">My son is now 17 and rarely goes to the dojos. We rarely have the time to train together but he still does train by himself but not as often as he should. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Many of us have been training all our lives to see real action but I guess what separates practitioners from the untrained is that practitioners perform much better and has the luxury to think and control the situation while the untrained often losses it </span><img alt="" border="0" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Smilie" /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> I really believe that allowing my son to cross-train from aggressive/offensive CQC-Traditional FMA to defensive Japanese Martial Arts really helped his character and decision making. Our training and his dojo training plus the numerous street fights he experienced before I believe also helped him keep his cool.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I hope you enjoyed my son's experience. Keep cool and keep on training!</span>iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-53617178482850691652013-06-21T14:53:00.003+09:002013-06-22T08:49:22.899+09:00Knife fighting skills for unarmed combat.<br />
As we all know that knife fighting is different from unarmed combat but can we use the skills that we learn from knife fighting to enhance our unarmed fighting skills? The benefit is not much and may not be obvious to many but studying it can benefit one's unarmed skills by enhancing his reflexes.<br />
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To make it easy and simple to understand, I will share an experience that I had when I was sharing knife fighting to my MA friends. The group was composed of high ranking martial artists/instructors from unarmed martial arts but also had been training knife fighting and stick fighting. One of the member had trained Modern FMA and he has passed the skills that he learned to their group. They are not beginners obviously but I was called in to share my BS. Basically they don't need me because they know the moves and the drills but what they were looking for was something coming from CQC-FMA.<br />
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I had a feeling that they were expecting something similar to their past knife fighting training but since I came from a different study, I gave them something a bit different. They had their sticks and dummy knives ready but since I never trained with dummy knives, I passed around my dulled kitchen knives. They looked worried because those knives though dull can still cut, lol.<br />
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I divided the group and set them as partners basing on their ranks and skill level. One knife per group and the attackers must attack their partners free style and at full speed. The defenders role was to protect themselves in anyway that they can. There was no time limit, no rules, and even if they got hit, they must continue unless that it was really a kill shot. They can punch, kick, grapple, whatever... They were chasing each other, rolling on the floor, towels, helmets and gears were flying and it was a brawl. I made them play several times and asked them what they noticed and what they learned.<br />
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They were all laughing and gasping for air and they said that it was intense and fun. Then their comments came rolling in. They said that it was very different compared to their older training. First, they said that kicking was near to impossible and punching was difficult because of avoiding getting their leg or wrist sliced. Two of them got small cuts on thier hands which made the group more jumpy. They couldn't deliver hard blocks and was left to parrying and grabbing. It was more of a cat fight that MA. <br />
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They said that their MA performance was much better when they were using dummy knives and could ditch out more techniques but with dulled knives, the experience was different. They said that getting stabbed with their plastic dummy knives was not painful and it really didn't have the fear factor of real knives. Real dulled blades are thinner and hurts when stabbed plus knowing that they still can cut kept them on their toes. Another big difference was that dulled real knives have the real shine of the metal that made it more realistic and more fearful.<br />
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Next I made them do several more rounds but this time all of them have knives and then immediately told them to do unarmed sparring. Naturally they went back to kicking, punching, and takedowns but their techniques became a little different. These guys are all full contact hard hitters. Their bodies are trained to receive heavy blows but they noticed that instead of accepting the blows, their bodies are automatically contracting or evading the blows. Their movement became more "cat-like" and this was because of their knife fighting reflexes was still working.<br />
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Then one commented basing it on the sparring that I did before, that he had a hard time landing a solid hit to my body because my body was evading his hits by automatically contracting. He said that for a body hit, they will normally make their stomach or chest muscles to get hard in anticipation of the blow which is OK but is a lot more painful. To be honest, I never noticed that I was doing this but probably it just became natural???<br />
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The best comment that I got is that this new experience training with thinner dulled knives at a fast pace made their eyes work faster and they became more careful. Punches and kicks seems to look a lot slower and that they could anticipate their opponents movements a lot better. The technique that I gave them was not really a technique but skills to enhance their reflexes more by using fear as the main tool... HAHAHA!<br />
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After that, they asked for more techniques and wanted the weird stuffs :)<br />
Gave them some CQC-FMA weirdo attacks plus a bit of lesson on tools, size, shape (single, double, barbed, ice pick, triangular, clawed, tube, blood groves, serrated, flexible, with poison groves, syringe, fragile or breakable, ballistic, etc.) weight and length, gave some lessons on more weird tools like wood, glass, plastic and stones. A short lesson on infection, time, climate, weather, the effects of the moon (clotting or gushing). I'm sure that they have forgotten most of it by now because these are basically useless for MA knife fighting but can be useful for survival purposes for example you got injured by a weird looking tool in the woods and can estimate the time you got left before the hemorrhage or the organs to collapse, blood will clot or will it continue to gush out... Also taught them the magic of Super Glue, etc. and how these stuffs can save their lives in a survival situation. They said that it was a very different dirty game compared to duels and knife fighting but worth the study.<br />
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After ditching out some weird stuffs, they were sneaking, faking and conning each other like wannabe ninjas. Some of of their movements were super fake and corny, and some were like what we see in the movies and it was a good laugh. We had lots of fun that day and I hope that they will remember some of them :)<br />
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<br />iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-64501056634295428592013-04-27T13:10:00.003+09:002013-04-28T00:52:19.793+09:00Bye dad :)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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First my apologies for being off the radar lately to share stuffs to my real life MA and military friends who are far away from me (you know who you are..), and my apologies for the visitors especially MA dads who reads my boring stories. You are all awesome! Times have been really tough especially for biz and this is why I've stayed silent these past few months... Anyway, time to start shaking off my belly fat and start moving again :)<br />
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Recent news is that my son got 1st in a Karate Full Contact Compe last month (many thanks for you guys who greeted us, that was very nice). The compe was no belt colors as always and I was not there to watch... He got a busted knee but I think he enjoyed it. I'm happy to say that after a few months since my son joined Karate, he has been promoted twice and hopefully he will reach brown soon (fingers crossed).<br />
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The reason why I'm sharing this is not because my son won but for another reason that really shocked me. A week ago my wife gently told me that it should be better if I don't watch my son during competitions. She has been trying to tell me this years ago but I was just too blind to see the facts. We had a long talk and looking at the facts, I know that she is right. Fact no.1 is that my son often lose whenever I am watching him compete. This happened a lot during his Judo days but I was too blind or to arrogant to see the facts. Fact no.2 is that he is never relaxed when I am watching. Fact no.3 is I often see my son looking or glancing at me during a fight which causes him to lose concentration. Even when he is fighting for another art is that after every fight, he goes to pay respect to his teachers and last is come to me and kneel down, bow in a very traditional martial arts way and ask for my advice or to apologize if he lost. This is very odd since I am not his main teacher during those times but he still does it which I don't know why but honestly I'm very happy and proud whenever he does that. Makes me feel like Mr. Miyagi or some fat MA master, hahaha! My wife said that probably he has a feeling of coercion or something whenever I'm around but I hope he gets through it fast. <br />
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My wife said based on what she know is that since I have been teaching him "weird" martial arts since he was a kid, probably it has been hard for my son to keep up to my expectations. She said that probably our son wanted to prove his skills to me but it just doesn't work even with the different arts that he mixes, my skills are more effective, simple and deadly. Sometimes she watches our private full contact sparring and even with his endurance, flexibility and skills, I can easily finish the spar with a thumb on this adams apple or eye. Probably he thinks that way but the truth is that he is getting very skilled and to the point that I may need to wear full body armor. Because of his other arts, sometimes he makes and combines his original techniques and uses them against me and when this happens, I've kissed the ground before I can ask for a time out, lol. Just imagine the feeling of receiving a knee to the solar plexus then an elbow to the jaw, then getting my arm twisted then slammed to the floor and then choked till I nearly pass off. Though the hits are controlled, it's still is painful... hahaha! Karate made him very flexible and agile and I really hate his heavy low kicks, he nearly broke my knee! Probably the biggest mistake is that we spar using Filipino dark combat arts and not the arts that he learned from the dojos. We tried many times to stick with dojo rules but when ever we get to serious training, all goes back to free style Filipino/military martial arts which I think we can never change. Getting slammed to the wall, dodging dirty laudry, evading sucker punches, being finger locked or getting a slap on the groin is so much fun (probably just for us, lol). He is getting more efficient and he has to accept that I'm slowly losing. I'm just good in cheating but I know that my gimmicks will not last long. Maybe all he need is to give some credit and some pride to himself and probably this will help him compete better. I really shook him down and bent his ego when I gave him 2 black belts before (MA lesson in humility) but I guess that he has to start standing up again. For fathers who are new to MA, lesson in humility is very important. We don't want to have a loose cannon do we? It is not beating or humiliation but it is about bending their ego so that they can be more responsible in life. My style was to have a full contact, no holds barred fight with my son and just toss him around like paper using only my weak hand which gave him the idea that there's lots more to learn and his black belts doesn't mean a thing. It is like emptying a cup full of water so that we can put new water inside... Don't worry if you yourself can't spar with your black belter kids because most good teachers knows how to do this. If the teacher sucks and your kids keeps beating them, you can still give some advice on humility. There are lots of ways to do this, just use your imagination. If I was not capable, I was thinking of passing him to some thugs and if he beats them all, I'll just get some more... joke-joke, HAHAHA!<br />
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Going back to the topic... About techniques... Though most arts do compliment each other, some of our techniques does not compliment most of the modern day arts and their rules. Many arts concentrate on pounding the opponent by giving heavy blows, I concentrate more on the vitals which is a big NO-NO for compes. Yes he can combine the techniques even for compe use using some limitations but tends to drop most of the skills that I know he is very effective and just try to pound his way through. He is not that good delivering blows but he is excellent in take downs and grappling but totally refrain from using them and just sticks with the techniques that he wont get a foul warning. As we all know that there is a sweet spot where a deadly techniques can be controlled and combined resulting on minimal damage to the opponent but still retaining it's effectiveness. In competition, many practitioners are very skilled with pounding techniques. If he tries to go knuckle to knuckle with a brute, he will surely drop. I know he knows but probably is still mixed up somewhere upstairs... <br />
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As of now, I am trying to refrain from training with him because I think that he will be having more fun at the dojo than with me. I am also getting too old and have problems trying to heal from the injuries that I got from him during our training. Old guys don't heal as fast as kids do, hahaha!<br />
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And for you guys who often suggest MMA for my son, my answer is a NO. He is small and those guys are huge!!! and is not a fan of the ring. Not that we don't like MMA but I guess that it's just not for us. He is more on the traditional arts side. And for you guys who asked about for what purpose and goal in teaching him dark arts, agressive riding, machinery, electronics, chem, and other BS. The answer is that I was hoping to prepare him if ever he would want to join the military or the police (or some zombie apocalypse, lol) that if ever he will be in a messy situation that he can go in, finish the job with pin point accuracy and silence, leave them clueless on what hit them, save the day and live for another. That is what my teachers have taught me and I expect that he will make the skills his own. BUT another sad thing that I learned recently is that I think he hopes to be a nursery teacher someday (scratching head). Don't blame me for trying... hahaha!<br />
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I think that it's time for me to stay away from watching him during compe which for me is very sad and just savor the fun private time when we practice together in the kitchen. Last time we practiced, he slammed me to the table and slapped my butt with a frying pan and that was so funny. I'll just hope that we will have more fun time like this :)<br />
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For dads who might be in the same boat as me, if you are seeing your child losing compes, studies, ect. even though they have good training and got our full support but they still suck... probably we could step away a bit from the big picture and just look from a distance just like what I'm doing. It's sad I know but if the situation is the same as with me, then maybe it will be best if we just give them some space and give our cheers inside the bathroom when they are not looking...<br />
teens...hmmmmm :)<br />
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<br />iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-14452010738486497452012-11-26T19:40:00.003+09:002012-11-30T02:17:03.139+09:00Bonding with our little sister :)<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EdtcMO4mYZk" width="560"></iframe>
Shooting Time :)
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TANK you!!!<br />
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20+ years of not touching any firearm and my bad eyesight got me wondering if I can still shoot straight.
Guns are good but I still prefer the good ol CQC-Arnis, lol!<br />
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For my friends and future friends in Japan:<br />
If you want to experience shooting firearms like what we did in the video, just contact me at romatak@yahoo.com and I'll guide you to the Philippines. I can also bring you to private shooting ranges and kill-rooms of you want :) If you want to experience some military like training, that too can be arranged :)iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-42576383967162294092012-11-26T19:37:00.001+09:002012-11-30T02:08:58.992+09:00My visit to the Philippines Nov. 2012.It has been nearly 2 decades since I last visited the Philippines. Seeing my brothers and sister and their families was my main objective next to finding new business ideas. At first I got culture shocked with the surroundings. Many things have changed and I can barely identify where north was. My body compass went haywire, lol! Lots of new buildings, new houses, new stores, new cars and new fashion. Everybody has a cell phone but during my time we only have the black analog house telephone :) Another thing that surprised me was the prices got a lot higher. It was around 1.50 Pesos for a jeep ride but not it's 8.0 Pesos. One thing good that I notice that the transportation system is a lot better, thanks to the new trains, newer busses and taxi cabs. The streets are cleaner and a lot safer compared to my younger years. <br />
<a name='more'></a>Security guards, police, traffic enforcers and even local community officers are everywhere. Commuting and strolling alone even at places like Quiapo felt a lot safer. I even got mistaken as an Interpol officer at a weapons shop in Quiapo when I bought a jungle knife for my little brother for his birthday. The shop asked for some identification card and all I have are my Japanese IDs. The shop owner instantly thought that I was an Interpol officer from seeing my IDs. Though I tried to tell him the truth, but he was totally convinced that I was an officer, lol! He went out of the shop and two officers came in and discretely saluted me and greeted me "welcome home sir"... I tried to tell them that I'm a nobody but couldn't convince them, lol!<br />
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Another fun-fun thing I noticed was that I was a "Pok-Pok magnet" (young girls who need some spanking from their dads)... I even received a note with a tel. no. written in a piece of paper from a cute sales lady :) Sad thing is that my little sister was always on guard and all I can do was to scratch my head, HAHAHA!!!<br />
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Though Manila is a lot safer nowadays, I nearly got into 3 street fights. One was at a train station when a huge guy pushed me. This got me pissed and told him that if he pushes me again that I will throw him to the ground. He turned white and the crowd opened. My sister nearly panicked not because my height was only about his chest. She said that she was scared that I will use CQC and strangle the guy, lol! Another is after I went off a jeepney and a creepy guy in his late 20s followed and tried to pester me. I was pulling my travel suitcase and he was asking where I was going, telling me to piss-off, getting to close and was a real nut case. I noticed his eyes and skin color and I'm sure that he was in the influence of some kind of funky drug. I walked about a block trying to get him off my shoulder but sent him to the ground when he tried to grab my suitcase. I "gently" punched his throat, grabbed and twisted his chin then swept his right leg, grabbled his right arm as he was falling then stepped on his face while twisting his arm. Two cops rushed towards us and asked what the problem was and if I will file a police report. I told them that all's OK with me. The officers scolded the guy and I over heard some bystanders commenting that he was a total fool to beef on someone like me. I don't know why they said that... maybe because I was wearing military trousers, officers t-shirt and an officers bull ring, lol! The 3rd encounter is not really worth mentioning... There are punks all over the globe but I can say that the Philippines is a safe place to visit as long as you stay away from dodgy areas where I usually go for a stroll, hahaha!<br />
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My visit was only for 3 weeks and I thought that I will have difficulties adjusting since I had been away for so long but all went fine. To stay invisible or to fit in, my sister strongly advised me to stay away from wearing jogging pants (workout clothes). I wear workout clothes in Japan everyday but wearing them in the streets in the Manila is like shouting "I'm a balikbayan" (a Filipino who is from abroad). The normal fashion in Manila for my age is jeans or cargo pants and t-shirt or short pants, t-shirt and slippers. After a few days I was strolling dodgy areas alone like I was invisible, lol!<br />
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The Philippines is a beautiful place. People are warm and are always smiling. I don't know why it took me so long to visit my mother land but from now on, I will surely be visiting more often :)<br />
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<br />iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-4670092589221933902012-10-16T14:40:00.003+09:002012-10-17T02:13:10.693+09:00Are all martial arts teachers good?We've seen lots of high ranking martial artist with lots of red stripes on their black belts and normally people will think that the more numbers of red stripes their black belt has, the more competent or bad-ass they are. I've seen and met lots of very high ranking "martial arts masters"from all over, some are my friends, some I had dinner with, some I have sparred with, and some nearly pissed me off because of their arrogance or their lack of abilities to teach or to fight.<br />
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I've seen several "stripped man" but met only two who nearly killed me of boredom. I met them during my son's trainings since I like my son to learn different arts. One acts like a wannabe samurai who is too proud but lack the ability to teach and one just sucks in teaching and the only students who he'll amuse are young kids. Since I like sending my son to learn different arts, I expect that he learns something from every class and I expect their teachers to teach him properly based on his skills (he has 3 black belts and 2 are from very offensive martial arts - FMA and CQC). If a teacher will show him their bullshit techniques, he will instantly know what they are made of. He'll get him bored and he will be the laugh of our dinner talk and surely we will never promote him in any way especially to our friends who may want to learn martial arts in the future.<br />
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What signs to look for to detect a crappy MA teacher:<br />
1. Are his students skilled?<br />
2. Do the students love him? I'm not talking about respect here anymore because a good teacher will always get his students respect.<br />
3. Are the students scared or are they having fun?<br />
4. Is the teacher skilled and his teaching style dynamic?<br />
5. Are your kids showing some MA results? They move faster, they punch or kick better, they became more flexible, etc.<br />
6. And finally, the best way to know if your kid has a good MA teacher is that they will show eagerness to go again for their next lesson. They will bombard you with fun stories of their practice. They will share with you their hopes ("I'll get my pink belt soon dad", lol). But most of all, you'll see if your kids are really interested if they are practicing or doing MA moves even if they don't have to. My son is now 16 years old and he still often does this. Sometimes we are just talking BS and suddenly he starts doing katas or some Sentai Ranger moves??? Actually I do it too and I'm 42, HAHAHA!<br />
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Another thing that a newbie or parents should consider is the teaching personality of the teacher or teachers. Different dojos, MA school or clubs have different teaching styles and naturally the teachers have different techniques and characters and personality. Most of the high ranking teachers I know show their skills to their students but some uses their skills just a little bit too much. Me and my fellow MA senior friends believe that hurting students is a big "NO". Yes students get hurt sometimes even if we control our blows, grapple, locks and throws but mostly these are accidents that can sometimes happen especially in full contact MA even with protectors. Often times seniors do get hurt too especially when training kids because most of them still doesn't know how to control plus their reach or hit range are more concentrated on our midsection. Often we get kicked or punched on the groin and we can't really do anything about it but to pretend that everything is ok or just laugh and take the pain. Sadly I've seen several MA teachers who teaches students very roughly. I've seen students fall down in pain and had a hard time breathing and from my point of view, the instructor is just too rough... Yes me and my son often times train with hard blows. We get bruises, cuts, etc. but my son was trained in the traditional FMA-CQC way and he basically wanted to experience and learn how I did but when I'm teaching other people especially kids, they only get hurt during accidents which is rare. I'm the one who gets damaged the most. My son broke 2 of my fingers, damaged both my knees, and nearly broke my jaw, got hit several times on the groin and adamsapple too, lol. But when I'm sparring with other practitioners, I try to keep it as easy as possible because I don't want to get hurt and I also don't want to hurt them. Times have changed and finding a student who is OK to experience pain is very rare not like in the old days. During my days, there was a bin made specially for me to vomit in to but those days are long gone and probably no student now will be happy to have his personal vomiting bin during MA practice. If I only had a choice back then, I would prefer not to have my bin, lol. <br />
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As of now my son is enrolled in a Karate school ( http://kyokukai.com/ ) that I know he loves. He does not only respect his teachers but I can feel that he really loves them. His sensies from my point of view are very well skilled and have a very dynamic way of teaching. They are very good not only with kids but also with the teens, adults and even with the senior ranking students and I can see that they are having lots of fun. <br />
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Yes I too belong to this senior martial artist class but I never wore my stripes and have used it only for hanging washed laundry and went to the bin when it got really battered. This may sound that I don't have any respect for my teachers but in reality, my teachers too hated wearing their stripes and just prefer their old black belts or prefer to practice wearing ordinary clothes. Since most of my teachers preferred teaching me outside their dojos, I never really liked the idea of wearing stripes. Another thing is that I'm too shy to wear it, lol. If you are planning to put your kids into martial arts, I suggest that you don't look at the long number of red stripes on the teachers belts but to look for the skills and character of the instructors. Anybody can have stripes but this is not a guarantee that they are good teachers. Probably this is why I don't wear stripes because my teaching style sucks, HAHAHA!iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-69253599293307239482012-10-11T04:55:00.000+09:002012-10-11T04:55:00.905+09:00How I kept my son interested with Martial Arts.I had several MA practitioners and MA newbie parents asked me how I kept my son interested in Martial Arts. The truth is I really don't know the answer but me and my wife gave lots of support when he was just starting MA. He often got injured during Judo and lost many competition and he personally knew and admitted that he sucks during compes but this never discouraged him. We were always there to watch their compe and mom said that she knew that me watching the compe gave my son more mental pressure than his opponents, lol. <br />
<a name='more'></a>Though you may see in our training vids that I'm often jolly during training, I have a different attitude during compes probably because that I came from a no holds barred offensive art, that losing in a closed door compe is not an option especially when my teachers have their bet on me. I lose = I get blamed and get my ass kicked by my seniors but if I win, I share the loot. It was not easy to have funky MA teachers who were expecting the loot so that they can use it as capital for roosters (cock fighting), lol. <br />
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Going back to the topic... The idea or advice on how to keep my kid interested in MA came from my seniors from Motorcycle Trials. During those days I was more on bikes and totally forgot about MA. My seniors shared with me their mistakes why their kids didn't follow their hobby. They said that when their kids were young, they really pushed them to ride BTR (bike trials) or Trials motorcycles and train like pros. Lots of technical stuffs, lots of balancing act and endless practice. Crashing is a common thing in Trials and some of the newbie kids freaked out and hated riding. I also got my son to ride motorcycles during his early years but kept my seniors advice in my mind and tried my best not to be too technical and just let him ride without pressure. I brought him to the mountains riding bicycles, scooters, , dirtbikes, Trials, ATVs and even normal streetbikes just for the experience and he loved it. I also taught him how to restore/repair and even help me salvage/scrap crappy motorcycles since he was 9 and he enjoyed it. Even up to now he still keep his crappy 250cc Trials bike though I rarely take him for riding. <br /><br />
Same with his MA training, I encouraged him to learn different arts and find what is best for him. I know that Traditional FMA was a bit hard for kids since he has to learn and experience lots of weird stuffs outside FMA like learning how to ride motorcycles, drive cars, repair vehicles, play with electronics, learn how to open locks, weld, hunt, cook, swim like a fish, climb high places, lots of survival training, etc. Plus I also encouraged him to watch the news (weird stuffs), lots of brutal/gore movies, lots of action and military movies, lots of games that are not intended for kids but we talk after and asked him his opinion if what he saw was right or wrong then told him the consequences if he unlawfully use what he saw or learned. Learning right and wrong is very important especially for Traditional FMA and CQC since these are very offensive arts. We practice with weapons but most of all our art is more on silent sentry style and in the wrong hands of a crazy skilled practitioner, this can cause extreme havoc which I strongly detest. Knowing that my son knows "right and wrong" and knows that he will go to jail or get killed if he use the arts unlawfully, I can say that he can safely learn other MA without being too confident, high pride, being a bully or acting like a thug.<br />
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One problem with new black belts or new advance practitioners is that often the advance newbies have too much confident and believe that they are somewhat like Superman or are knifeproof/bulletproof and can't be hurt but with how I trained my son, he knows that there will always be someone better than him.<br />
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Often when there is a new student who was awarded advance level, we (senseis) often talk to each other that we now have to break the student's pride so that he will not go astray. Breaking their false pride will make the newbie advance fighter to study more and to train more harder. They will become more open minded, more sensitive and more caring and if ever they may encounter real combat, they have a choice whether to use full force, slight force or just to run away. Most of the advance practitioners I know will say no to a fight and will only fight if there is no choice left.<br />
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It is really hard for us parents to get our kids constantly interested in MA. Most of the young practitioners will stop when they reach advance or black belt and many will not even reach advance. Being a parent of a MA practitioner can be hard to some, years of training/studying fees, lots of MA tools like protectors, gis, training wear, lots of laundry, driving them to the dojo or practice area, watching our kids get injured, losing in a compe, talking with other parents which we don't get along well or by just waking up early on a cold Sunday when we still like to sleep but have to rise and prepare our kids for their practice. Kids don't usually see our efforts but we really can't complain. All we can do is to guide them and hope that they will win even 3rd place in one compe...<br />
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I think the best way that we can keep our kids interested in MA is to regularly talk with them. Listen to their stories on how they trained, how they sparred, learn their dreams and goals, but most of all is to learn if they had fun. If kids don't have fun, they'll surely be quitting very soon... One style I use to get my son more interested in MA is to ask him to show or teach me the techniques he learned. Sometime I also study their katas or forms (from other martial arts) and practice with him. Often I ask my son to use the techniques against me and fake the act making him believe that his punch felt like that I was hit by a bulldozer but those were during his younger years now I have to dodge or ask him to keep his hits lighter or I'll be in big trouble, HAHAHA! In total, we try to make every practice or training as fun as possible so we both enjoy it. There is always a huge burst of laughter every time we do our training and when this happens, mom usually joins in. Often times mom will attack without warning and get our asses kicked. Probably mom is our secret weapon, lol.<br />
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Hope that you too enjoy training with your kids :)iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-60822020890434071522012-07-18T08:09:00.000+09:002012-09-06T00:24:11.487+09:00Martial Arts Sharing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
No one is an island... This applies to with martial arts. Knowing one art is good but learning more arts are better. Combining techniques to one's own art and making it his own is an explosive combination. My father taught me Okinawan Karate when I was five or six, then took Shotokan Karate before my teens. Then tried a bit of TKD and some mixed Chinese martial arts, then Arnis and last is CQC. With all the dojos, with all my fellow students and with all my teachers from different arts and even from "my shady weirdo/thug teachers" and my two grandpop stick/itak/bolo wielding instructors who always quarrel about which of their style is better (they have very similar style, lol!!!), they all have one thing in common and that is "TO SHARE". </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnATNCj4qmmqBLmeBIpHRNtT2cA_NFDToyGPu2bHl5Kt4-Ec1jp0oJ3EjksTclrar-DZQwY6nE-4C_nYecr9COJSi9EpO3RlgSPiKJYXyBKVSn9OqSqaO7Qag-PjuDfQ3bnjYFeSJBzTU/s1600/arnis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnATNCj4qmmqBLmeBIpHRNtT2cA_NFDToyGPu2bHl5Kt4-Ec1jp0oJ3EjksTclrar-DZQwY6nE-4C_nYecr9COJSi9EpO3RlgSPiKJYXyBKVSn9OqSqaO7Qag-PjuDfQ3bnjYFeSJBzTU/s200/arnis.jpg" width="128" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_k6a0TNjQiAPmigjlGXnLIpmjByXGAITwlkGNdsVkknjP_Wo8OV7YDJezmLNcQCAvlNZIeah8_RDkb8jZWef4qOhWaOfvz0njRCM30_Tu3SPlDbgCQlyRB3PTnGi2H9hq8kT7exE6fM/s1600/IMG_7879.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_k6a0TNjQiAPmigjlGXnLIpmjByXGAITwlkGNdsVkknjP_Wo8OV7YDJezmLNcQCAvlNZIeah8_RDkb8jZWef4qOhWaOfvz0njRCM30_Tu3SPlDbgCQlyRB3PTnGi2H9hq8kT7exE6fM/s200/IMG_7879.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZVIL-nIE6_WHA7PBWgXTrbRFxLEzcd-H5tzs2S0I9Xvh4Z1Xkn8JkQ4K_y0u99KYdrVtmNv4XpyApuOY4yHwXCcjahalHAyFFMYocuV3m6VAeT-8AVBgfSAvXk1PGEKd7qxXzm15VwF0/s1600/oyaji+club.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZVIL-nIE6_WHA7PBWgXTrbRFxLEzcd-H5tzs2S0I9Xvh4Z1Xkn8JkQ4K_y0u99KYdrVtmNv4XpyApuOY4yHwXCcjahalHAyFFMYocuV3m6VAeT-8AVBgfSAvXk1PGEKd7qxXzm15VwF0/s200/oyaji+club.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnATNCj4qmmqBLmeBIpHRNtT2cA_NFDToyGPu2bHl5Kt4-Ec1jp0oJ3EjksTclrar-DZQwY6nE-4C_nYecr9COJSi9EpO3RlgSPiKJYXyBKVSn9OqSqaO7Qag-PjuDfQ3bnjYFeSJBzTU/s1600/arnis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>
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<a name='more'></a>One of my favorite martial arts aside from Arnis-CQC is Karate though I have never been a proficient practitioner of Karate, I have very high respect for the art. I believe that Karate is a very strong and effective art may it be on the dojos or on the streets. Another martial art that I like is Judo though I have never been a Judoka, it it will always be close to my heart since my son has studied Judo and have mixed spar with him and his Judo mates using Filipino Dumog (Filipino grappling art similar to Jujitsu) and we had tons of fun.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvLTgtM63aSQMdNLbjIsJhOR76ZPB1SSlhMDNMZZ_o4RQyViTO0zcJMgEkhhJ8pyxpxqfMHdPpAEFnskuEEcT8RL2Brw9e1eAGS7aOIEW1N_nR9EY-ygg_YK_Rw3iRqFiDBUyIP1b4oo/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvLTgtM63aSQMdNLbjIsJhOR76ZPB1SSlhMDNMZZ_o4RQyViTO0zcJMgEkhhJ8pyxpxqfMHdPpAEFnskuEEcT8RL2Brw9e1eAGS7aOIEW1N_nR9EY-ygg_YK_Rw3iRqFiDBUyIP1b4oo/s320/2.JPG" width="320" /></a>Here I am sharing Arnis-CQC with the senseis of Kyoto Karate Club ( http://www.kyokukai.com/ ) during "Oyaji Club" (Father's Club). For me, sharing Arnis-CQC is the easy part but joining the Karatekas with their warm-up stretching might give me a heart attack! Joining them doing kicks and punches always makes me gasp for air, lol! It has been more than 20 years since I have been away from heavy training and these guys are killing me, HAHAHA!!! The good thing about sharing Arnis-CQC with Kyoto Karate Club is that I also learn new stuffs, new techniques and have gained new friends and hopefully, I may lose some weight and become sexy again (fingers crossed... HAHAHA!)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGg8knqfgB9m0BeRX2DZzNne4fvxDZSOAPmIxRtRm9Gpt2xtHNWPpBn3YHbbBKDIda7q0TrAMT-dFoXDiCJTYtBCH3XcLcHbz1EIE66oyD7UEOFciJ4Mb3sBxgh09evG8vAQExXc9_B_k/s1600/9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGg8knqfgB9m0BeRX2DZzNne4fvxDZSOAPmIxRtRm9Gpt2xtHNWPpBn3YHbbBKDIda7q0TrAMT-dFoXDiCJTYtBCH3XcLcHbz1EIE66oyD7UEOFciJ4Mb3sBxgh09evG8vAQExXc9_B_k/s200/9.JPG" width="150" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0drTLjcI1De0Rr3chM2pRSQF4Vw_Qkso15JQOj15C2ot2hKcKNBjFGR9__HaOVV_kVCw-r2luGIDP1YAMxxDAafanPgXIfN9iBHZKcWfh19mXnTHQONpXsber6OtliJGXgdmOabM3zys/s1600/7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0drTLjcI1De0Rr3chM2pRSQF4Vw_Qkso15JQOj15C2ot2hKcKNBjFGR9__HaOVV_kVCw-r2luGIDP1YAMxxDAafanPgXIfN9iBHZKcWfh19mXnTHQONpXsber6OtliJGXgdmOabM3zys/s200/7.JPG" width="200" /></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;">Suzuki Sensei (owner and head instructor of Kyoto Karate Club). He has studied Arnis-Kali in Australia some years ago. A hard hitter and a very good Karate sensei. He is combining Arnis-Kali-CQC with Karate Sabaki Style.</span></div>
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Arnis-CQC is least heard of in Japan. I have spent half of my life living in Japan and have kept it hidden for many years since it is not popular and Traditional Arnis-CQC that I have learned are not intended for sports but are very offensive/aggressive in nature. I had to do some modification with my art so that it will be more less offensive and more on self defense but again??? lol!</div>
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I only brought it out again when I learned that my son had a strong interest in learning martial arts. Usually I share it with fellow martial arts senseis and advance students coming from different arts. Then I also started sharing Arnis-CQC with ladies. I found out that ladies who have no interest learning martial arts but due to some unwanted incident (by perverts or by moms who had been victims by domestic violence, has been maltreated by morons, etc...) who then wanted to learn some self defense techniques to defend themselves can easy learn basic Arnis-CQC with ease. Frying pan, nail file, high heel shoes, biting, hair pulling, groin kicking, etc. against perverts are "girls best friends", HAHAHA!!!<br />
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I learned through my experience that FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) can be learned easily by anybody and can also be mixed or combined with other martial arts with almost no problems. During my early years in Japan I had experienced sharing FMA with some oldies Karatekas and all went well. Next was with Kendo guys and that too went well and I was able to use my sticks :) I also had some experience sharing FMA with Kung-fu guys and the sharing was very easy for me since I prefer moving in circular patterns (ala-Kuntaw-Silat style). I have also shared FMA-CQC with some Judokas including my son and it was a blast and we really had tons of fun.<br />
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What I notice when sharing FMA-CQC is that most people that I have shared it with had strong first impressions that FMA is only a weapons art which concentrates on sticks, knives and bolos. Many of them didn't know that FMA too have unarmed arts that are combined and built into the whole system like bread and butter. Arts like Dumog, Suntukan, Sipaan, Pilipit, Sakalan, etc. then mixed with some hybrid borrowed arts from our neighbor countries. Many of them didn't know that Traditional FMA is a very old hybrid art and was originally intended for war. I usually get asked questions by real beginners like "what will you do if you don't have your stick with you", or "what will you do if I grab your leg and you don't have your knife"? My usual answer is, "I'll try to make friends with you then will try to borrow some cash, I'll sleep in your house, will eat your food and will even play with your dog"... Some don't usually get the joke but in reality, two of my grandpop teachers told me that joke, lol!<br />
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Now I share the art with anybody who likes to learn. To share what I know is my simple way of giving thanks to all my martial arts teachers and my simple way of giving back and paying my respects to martial arts :)</div>
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iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-48289968547736204682012-06-13T10:14:00.002+09:002012-06-13T12:46:23.344+09:00How to find a good Martial Arts School.Finding a good martial art school can be difficult not only to people who are very new to martial arts, people who have some experience or to advance practitioners who are looking for a new art to study.<br />
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For beginners, the student must know what he likes to learn and must know (even a bit) on what he is good at. If he likes punching and kicking or throwing and grappling or if he likes to learn weaponry or if he likes all. Is he big, fat, slim, tall, short, muscular, thin or has a normal body built. Body mass and built is not really a problem and anybody can learn any martial art regardless of his size but it is best if you can make full use of what you have. A 45 kgs. man will have lot of difficulties with sumo wrestling and a 250 kgs. guy will have difficulties studying an art that concentrates more on kicks (unless he wants to lose weight)...<br />
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Someone who has some martial arts experience basically knows what he is looking for and so are the advance practitioners but it still can be difficult to find a new school. There will always be a comparison between the old school where he use to train and the new school that he plans to join. Some people likes to train soft and some hard (with real heavy body hits or just light hits), some loves katas (forms) and some loves full contact. Some loves the old traditional style with lots of bowing, seniority, different belt levels, manners, etc. and some hates them. Some likes rigid styles and some likes hybrid styles. Most of the schools are good but this doesn't mean that you may like a certain school instantly because everybody has a different character. For example, there may be 10 schools that teaches Karate but their style may be different from each other. One school may be very rigid and another school may be very friendly. No one can really tell what school is good for you and the best way to find one is to join trial lessons in all of them and decide which is best suited for yourself.<br />
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I also had the same problem with my son. My son is 15 yrs. old and holds 3 black belts (Judo, CQC, Arnis) and wanted to study Karate. First he wanted to study full contact and self defense Karate but also wants to learn traditional Karate. There are lots of styles to chose from but he knows what he wants so we have limited our search based on his goal. First he entered a school that he soon got bored because they are too stiff. My son found them to be very proud... He is an advance practitioner and was treated like a real total beginner which got my son to get really pissed. The search was on again... While searching the web, we found a school that looks promising (lots of champions) and looks very friendly. The next day my son took a trial lesson and knew instantly that this is the school that he was looking for. The staffs are nice, the instructors are great and the students are skilled but what got my son to like the school is that they are all friendly. The main sensei asked my son if he has any martial art experience and my son said Judo-CQC-Arnis, got him to change to his gi, was instructed to do some stretching then was called to join in the training. First it was kicks and punching, then to the punching/kicking mitts, then went directly to full contact!!! White against all belt colors... yes!!! Grabbing and throwing was permitted and this is what my son was really looking for. I am sure that he was only allowed to dive-in because he is a veteran practitioner but I'm sure that a total beginner will not be allowed to spar and will have to take very basic lessons first...<br />
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Though he was a beginner in Karate, he was never given a high-hat treatment but was constantly been watched and guided and given advice and instructions on how to effectively punch and kick plus the right timing when to use his grabbing skills (my son shines in grappling). After the lesson, all I can see in my son was happiness and enjoyment. When we got home, he had so many fun stories for mom and it took us over midnight listening how he really like the school.<br />
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Now my son is still practicing Judo at his old dojo, practices CQC-Arnis with me, and goes to Karate. Everyday is like martial arts for him, lol!<br />
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Studying martial arts is good but if you find the right school for you, you will be having lots of fun :)<br />
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The school's name is on the next post...iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-38420927677580256722012-06-13T08:21:00.001+09:002012-06-13T16:10:21.283+09:00京空会/ Kyoto-karate-club<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">After a long search, my son finally found a very good Karate school ( </span><a href="http://www.kyokukai.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.kyokukai.com/</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> ). The teachers and students are all very skilled, down to earth and very friendly. They are also very foreigner friendly. The school concentrate</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">s on "Karate Sabaki Style" (self defense and full contact) and is a mixture of traditional and modern karate. They also allow grabbing, throwing and grappling to be mixed with punching and kicks making it a complete art, plus they also teach weaponry. </span><br />
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New students coming from other arts (like my son who came from Judo-CQC-Arnis-Kali) will find the school very open and welcoming. The school is not rigid to their own style alone and will develop their art with the old art that the student has, making it an explosive-hybrid combination of skills and techniques.<br />
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The blog below was our school's BBQ last Sunday. The sun was good, food was great and we had lots of fun. I also have joined the school as CQC-Arnis-Kali instructor. If you are searching for a fun and no BS Karate school in Kyoto Japan, please drop by and share the fun :)<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/osusuzuki4429/30876743.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/osusuzuki4429/30876743.html</a>iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-71955750565916366842012-05-22T04:36:00.000+09:002012-05-22T04:36:49.168+09:00Practicing on a bad day.Many say not to practice during a bad day. I don't know if this is coincidental but I notice that most of our training happens when we have tight schedule, late at night, haven't slept, sick (with a fever of flu), injured or just feeling lazy. Since my son started going to high school, we are having a hard time finding enough time to practice properly. He goes to school, two different dojos, hanging around with his friends and probably will be finding some part time job soon so our training schedule will surely get tighter.<br />
Sometime we do our training just after I scolded my son for doing something stupid like not cleaning his room or for not doing his school homework and these are the times when I notice that my son's hits gets really heavy. These are the times when I often get punched in the face, get my arms twisted like hell or choked till I nearly pass out, HAHAHA!!!<br />
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This video was taken last Sunday. I was very tired and sleepy because I haven't slept because of work. My left thumb is still broken plus I have pigged out again and couldn't move, lol! My son is still having his back rehabilitation from last week's injury, has to clean his pigpen of a room and is expecting his classmates arrival in a few hours. We had breakfast then mom started to bark at my son because of his "pigpen" so we decided to do a runner. My son cleaned his pigpen in less than 15 minutes and we did our escape, hahaha! We went to the nearby river to practice but my son started to ride my motorcycle around and it took 20 minutes of our training time. We only had 30 minutes left and couldn't do much. Most was spent for warm-ups and only 5 minutes of sparring (sparring video not included). Our training sucked big time but we still had lots of fun.<br />
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I noticed that even when we are on an open area, we unknowingly try to use very minimal space. I placed the videocam (iphone) on top of my bike and totally forgot about it but we still kept on using very limited space. Probably this is because of CQC that we got used to training in tight areas. I don't know if this is good or not since we can really run around and not worry about breaking anything...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BjxMc5VgZOc" width="560"></iframe>iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-82029781016634126092012-05-12T03:39:00.000+09:002012-05-12T03:39:53.772+09:00Learning another martial art...As a MA practitioner, I have always been open to learn new techniques from other martial arts and so is my son. We believe that all MA have good techniques and that we should be open to learn, adopt and mix our style with theirs. When I was young, I tried studying and stealing all the techniques that I can get. There was a time when I concentrated most on hand fighting then moved to kicks then joint lock and throwing but found out that during real fights, I keep coming back to CQC and Traditional Arnis. As I grew older and fat, I found out that I lost/forgot high kicks and straight punching and concentrate more on locks, throws, sucker punch, knee to face, head pressure points and chokes plus use any weapon that I can put my hands on which is not really nice if you are not doing CQC or Traditional Filipino Martial Arts.<br />
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I passed CQC-FMA to my son but gave him the choice to study other arts and since my son is half Japanese, he took Judo and is moving to Karatedo to fill his Japanese side. He started with CQC-FMA during his grade school and moved to Judo during his Jr. high school but I promised him that he can move to Karate when he reaches high school. It was his long time dream to learn Karate. There are many types of Karatedo schools, some concentrates more on forms or katas, some concentrates more on points, some on full contact and some on self defense and some are mixed. Me and my wife took a lot of searching to find the right school that matches his character and fighting style and today we visited a school that we think our son will really enjoy. As I see it, the school we went today concentrates more on full contact and self defense. Full contact means that their competition uses minimal protection and punches and kicks to the face is allowed and with no head gear (nice!). The school's atmosphere is nice and friendly and less the bull shit. When we came in, the main sensei immediately told my son to stretch and to join in then gave him lessons instantly. Got him working on his punches and kicks and moved on to handheld punching bags plus did a soft sparring. My son sucked big time during the lessons since he still has to learn how to do Karate straight punching and straight kicking because he is more on circular attacks then to grappling but what he really enjoyed are the punching bags... WHAM!!! :)<br />
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I've seen several MA schools and most are too strict and formal but today's school was just awesome. No BS and more on fighting :) Another good thing is that this school is the cheapest compared to all the schools we have searched. The school's aim is not for business but more on just like a warm group circle of Karatekas and they only ask for rent of the place where they practice and for the punching bags/gears that they use. Going to McDonalds (onle time only) is more expensive than their monthly fee!!! It is three times cheaper compared to most schools but they hit hard!!! :) Japan is a very expensive place to live but learning martial arts can be very cheap if you know where to look.<br />
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Before we left, me and his sensei talked and I told him that my son practices Judo, CQC and Traditional Arnis. He told me that my son can use/adopt some of the techniques he learned before (minus the weird stuffs he learned from me). This is a good sign that the school is a good school because good schools wont limit their students just to their own techniques but are open for developing and adding their techniques on top. Many senseis are just too arrogant to stick with their techniques and for them, the new student has to "empty his cup to fill in new water" but good senseis will never go for this BS. Good senseis will just ask the new student to get a bigger cup or a bucket and will just add more water on top :)<br />
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Starting tomorrow, we go back training in Judo, CQC and Arnis again in preparation for Karate... OSSU!!!iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-14038098539888469452012-05-05T13:37:00.001+09:002012-05-05T13:38:18.888+09:00Why girls should learn martial arts.This came from my old post in Facebook (Oct. 28, 2011). This is about a girl who is very close to my family and why she needed to learn some martial arts or self defense techniques...<br />
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<div class="p1"><i>"Late this afternoon today, my daughter (not my real daughter) came to our house seeking refuge. When I opened the door, she embraced me and was crying, couldn't speak straight and shaking. It was really hard to understand what she was trying to say because she was terrified. I found out that some pervert followed her and flipped her skirt then did a runner when she rang my doorbell. Me and my son tried searching for the perv but no luck. This might not sound much to some but this can be a very traumatic experience to many. </i><br />
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</i></div><div class="p1"><i>There are lots of weirdos running lose everywhere and their main targets are young pretty girls and ladies so I guess that it is time for my daughter to learn how to be street smart and how to protect herself from assailants like the perv. The world is so fcked-up that even with all the high tech surveillance goodies the country provides (cameras, gps, etc.), kids (boys and girls) should really need to learn some self-defence techniques when all fails and no help is available. </i></div><div class="p2"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="p1"><i>Often times we rely too much on the police but based upon my experiences, crime often happens when cops are not around. Weirdos are not dumb and they target their prey at areas that are favorable for them so hoping for help to come instantly is often near to none. Before it is normal for a guy to save a damsel in distress but nowadays, most of them will protect their hides and pretend that they didn't see anything and will just walk away. I love the police and they are great but they cannot be there for us always. Martial arts and self-defence too are good but not as effective as parents, students and concerned citizens join hands to do routine patrols, simple surveillance, or even just have watchful eyes for weirdos. </i></div><div class="p2"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="p1"><i>From now on my son will be looking after her and I just hope that they never cross path for his sake (very evil grin). If you have young daughters (kids and teenagers), best to start teaching them some of your well hidden anti-weirdo repellant moves that you have been keeping for ages :) Time for our kids to kick some ass!!!"</i></div><div class="p1"><i>------------------------------------------------------------------</i></div><div class="p1"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="p1">She came two weeks after the incident and me and my son gave her a lesson on self defense. The lesson was only for two hours I am sure that she didn't learn much but she probably gained some self confidence. The self defense techniques that we gave her was very minimal but we focused more on the reason why she became a target. Before she always walks slow and always looks at the ground but now she walks face up, fast, straight and confident. She is a silent, sweet and a bit of a soft type kid and I pointed it out to her that weirdos loves these qualities... She changed a lot these past few months. She still is the sweet, silent type kid but by just changing her posture and walking speed/style, she said she that she feels a lot safer.</div><div class="p1"><br />
</div><div class="p1">The world outside is crazy so if you have kids, best to start teaching them some MA or some self defense techniques :)</div><div class="p3"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ronnel.deramos#"></a></div><div class="p3"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/browse/likes/?id=2457526433770"></a></div>iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-41730140671885932802012-04-15T03:28:00.004+09:002012-04-15T03:33:21.065+09:00Boys will always be boys... (stupid fight that started by staring)I'd like to share this...<br />
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Yesterday me and my son went out for a walk. While we were walking, a tall kid riding a bicycle stopped, dismounted his bike and dropped his school bag and shouted to my son why he was staring at him. My son quickly went to face him and just said "<i><b>yaro ka</b></i>" (provocation of a fight). I ordered my son to hang his umbrella on the fence behind him, which he did and I hanged my umbrella too. It was raining so we had umbrellas... It will be very unfair for the other kid if my son is holding an umbrella since he can use it as an Arnis stick. The other kid kept on shouting about why my son was giving him a bad stare. My son was trying to keep his cool but was really provoking him on a fight but he kept on saying no and just wanted to scare away my son by his scary thug like tactics. The sound of my son's voice started to sound low and slow and started looking around and this is a very big sign that he is really pissed and will start to attack.<br />
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I was keeping my distance from the boys and said nothing because I believe that they have to settle their differences between themselves. Then the kid started giving me a provocative stare which really got me pissed so I said that <b><i>if you have the balls to stare at me like that, I'm sure you have the balls to finish it</i>...</b> He said <i><b>no</b></i> and went barking to my son again. I was so pissed that I got close to the kids and said <b>"<i>my son is a lot smaller than you, he is younger than you, don't be shy... He has been waiting for ages for you to stop barking and start fighting. I'm starting to really get bored and if you really have the balls to fight, please do it before I fall asleep</i>"</b>. The kid looked shocked with what I said, probably he thought that I'll stand between them to stop the fight.<br />
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The kid got mellow and that was the time when I came in to bark at the boys. First I asked him what was his motive. I learned that he was just trying to show off his "big balls of steel" and to scare away my son. Then I asked him what sport do you do, then he politely answered basketball sir... I grabbed my head in despair and told the kid nicely that it is like suicide... I said <b><i>"don't think that because you are older, bigger and taller than other kids that you can scare them all. There are many small people who will eat you for snack. It is good that you didn't push through because I know that you won't stand a chance and will drop in seconds with several broken bones"</i></b>. I am very proud that my son was able to keep his cool... but probably it was because that I was there watching. If I wasn't there, I'm sure that the kid would be in very big trouble. Probably he won't get a broken arm but I'm sure that he'll get twisted and locked very hard until he shit his pants and will be treated like a floor polisher on the asphalt". Then he politely asked what my son sport was and I answered that he has three black belts on different arts. Then he asked what arts I do and my rank, my son answered <i><b>"dad's lowest is 4th black on offensive arts and he has several more"</b></i>... the kid started to get even more pale... Then I turned to the kid and kindly gave my advice, <i><b>"being strong cannot be attained by starting fights and trying to only scare people away. Probably you have scared lots kids but there will be a time when someone will accept your invitation to a fight and you must be man enough to finish what you've started"</b></i>. He bowed down and asked for an apology.<br />
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Then I turned to my son, gave him a good slap on the head, then I said <i><b>"I didn't expect that you will fall for this kind of cheap fight provocation. You have all the chance to just ignore the kid and just walk away but you really wanted to go into a fight that I know that your opponent will get badly hurt"</b></i>. Then gave him a good snap on his mid section and said again, <b><i>"this is for not controlling and putting dirt on the arts"</i></b>... My son faced me then gave me a very solemn bow and asked for apology. The other kid's face was turning really pale upon seeing my son (my student) asking for apology doing it in a formal martial arts way. <b><i>Then I kindly told the kid that he too lack patience and that he could have just ignored my son and just passed but didn't because he wanted to test how hard his balls are and that he really looked like a jerk for starting a fight and not finishing it.</i> </b>He again said sorry and I really felt that it really came from his heart.<br />
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Then I suggested to the boys that instead of fighting, they should be friends. Both of them are tough kids and tough kids should look after each other especially in tight situations and not be enemies. The kid kindly asked my son if they can exchange emails and numbers which they did. I told them that from now on, you both must get along well and I think they will.<br />
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To be honest, I really like the kid even during when he was provoking a fight. He is tall, good athletic body and very handsome and he looks very similar to one of my students plus he seems to really have balls of steel (I really like tough kids). I didn't worry about my son because I've seen him in fights and have heard how he fights from his friend and from his school teachers. He fights effectively and does not throw punches nor kicks but gives CQC standing arm twist and locks, hair pulling, face grabs and chokes and a bit of pressure point fighting only (one of his favorite is grabbing his opponent by the balls... very effective technique and fights end up instantly). No eye scraping, no bone breaking, no throat clamping and other weird techniques unless he is in real danger but he can go all the way if he is fighting a terrorist or a child molester. I ordered him to never throw a punch or use Judo techniques on street fights but to stick with using pressure point fighting and stand-up grappling (controlled CQC or controlled unarmed FMA) and I know that my son will not really harm him much and will only be like an ordinary controlled sparring since we both know that the other kid is no real threat and is just a misguided wannabe hard ass and a wannabe junior thug.<br />
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I hope the kid comes for a visit at our place so that we can introduce him to martial arts. Usually the people who do martial arts are the people who tries to stay away from fights. The more higher the rank of the practitioner, the more we try to keep our cool. Most of the fights that my son had was when he was not yet a black belter but as he get more dark belts, the more he keeps his cool (but still not enough...). I too still have a lot to learn and I hope that I will never be in a real fight again...<br />
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After all my blabbing and preaching, I should have preached to myself when I was young because I too was just like the kid. I also provoked and started fights (one vs two, vs five, vs eight...), I was a misguided wannabe thug too but martial arts really made me learn to keep my cool and just walk away. Now I'm just an old fat dad who enjoys cooking, cleaning the house and washing dirty laundry :)iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-77791374064654107742012-04-08T04:08:00.001+09:002012-04-08T04:10:21.866+09:00Father VS sonIf you are a father who closely teaches your child martial arts, I'm sure that you have received similar questions or comments like "can you still keep up with your child", "who is better between the two of you", I'm sure your child can beat you shitless"... I've been getting lots of these. My son often get these questions and comments too from his friends and even sometimes from his other senseis from another martial arts.<br />
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The truth is, my son has never beaten me (yet...) on full contact controlled sparring using FMA or CQC but has given me lots of painful sleepless nights :) We never had sports-like martial arts sparring since I'm not very useful on defense based martial arts so I'm sure that he will put me down if I'm only limited to certain targets and rules (no hair pulling, no finger locking, no biting, no neck cranking, no throat clamping, no face scraping, no eye poking or gouging, no hits to the vitals, and no weapons... etc.). My son wants my techniques so he goes with my rules which doesn't have much rules really... no ipon, no points for hits, tap means surrender but we try our best to keep it gentle so that we don't damage each other. In reality, both me and my son knows that he can beat me anytime if we will fight for real. Though I may have more skills and experience, he is my advance student and has been trained using offensive FMA-CQC and will never fight head-on. He'll catch me when I'm sleeping or when I least expect it. He is faster, have more endurance and better eye sight than me, and I have been trying to pass him all the techniques that I know, plus he is also studying other martial arts and combining them all together will surely put me down. I'm getting old, slow and fat and I am sure that I only have a few more years to teach him all my BS... then I will become his student, hahaha... To be honest, there have been several times when I was pinned down and couldn't do anything especially during grappling (finger locks). There also have been countless times that I nearly passed out during his choke hold. I also noticed that sometimes when we are doing a demonstration sparring that he puts himself in the position to actually lose... Sometimes I even get surprised during demonstrations when I show very basic throwing techniques and he starts flipping and flying in the air like a stuntman from Hollywood. I don't know where he learned how to fake-fall like a pro but it really looks cool. He should teach that to me sometime :) My son follows a very strict code that his seniors or senseis will always be his senseis. He'll role with the punches while stealing techniques and even if I get too old, but he will always make me win :)<br />
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Since I am teaching my son traditional FMA and CQC, I often get punched, kicked, thrown, grappled, chocked, and neck cranked. I also often get hit with his sticks, usually on my hands, elbows, and head. The hits are partly controlled but they still hurt. The hardest part was when my son was still a beginner when his control sucks. The most painful stage was when he was near advance when he knows the techniques, have lots of power and speed but still can't properly control the amount of force that he was giving. Now he is in advance, teaching has been a lot easier and more enjoyable for me. I can teach him in slow motion and not get myself hurt in the process. I believe that beginners should start learning it on a slightly high pace and then to full speed and once their bodies learn the movements or techniques, then that is the time to go slow or even by only using demonstrations or by explaining, the student will know instantly how to effectively execute the new technique without teaching him "again" all the basics, stances, moves and execution because his body remembers the moves by instinct. Even if his style of execution doesn't look exactly like mine as long as it looks similar and looks effective then that is fine by me. Even if he miss on the first hit but as long as he combine it with a devastating follow up, that is fine too :)<br />
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Here are some of my "happy" photos when I got injured...<br />
1st and 2nd photos are when my son gave me a good finger lock where I broke my thumb :)<br />
3rd photo is my left leg after seeing a chiropractor. I got it during the time when I was teaching my son leg twisting/grappling. Both my knees got damaged but my left knee got water and I had to crawl the stairs for 2 weeks.<br />
These are just some of my happy moments but there had been many, like having difficulties breathing from receiving several palm hits, both shoulders feeling like frozen shoulders for months... It is good that I go to a very good chiropractor who is also a high martial arts practitioner and knows where I took the beating and easily adjusts or repairs the damages.<br />
Though we had a rough time during our early days of training, I find it very rewarding to see my child learning something. Doing martial arts together made us very close to each other and are like best of friends but as a father, I still get angry and scold my child when he did something wrong (not doing his school homework, not cleaning his room, normal boys stuffs...) but maybe because of his MA training and MA values, he follows seniority so we never end up fighting. He knows how to accept his mistakes and tries to fix the problem... but boys will always be boys and they NEVER clean their room properly (sigh...)<br />
We hope that you and your kids too are having fun training martial arts :)<br />
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</a></div>iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-79280864752868270702012-03-20T04:37:00.000+09:002012-03-20T04:37:41.561+09:00Closest to real life training for my son.When I first started learning FMA my grandpop teachers always talk about their real life experiences during the war. Some of my younger teachers back then are military personnel, police officers and some are really dodgy excons and hoodlums who shared different violent real life stories that they have experienced. I also studied foreign martial arts in proper schools and though the techniques might be similar in some way, the way of thinking is very different. Proper martial arts schools teaches respect, leadership, team spirit, manners, etc. plus their fighting arts. The FMA that I got from my orthodox gurus had it all different... it was more on stealth, back stabbing, covering tracks and the training was a lot painful. There was a time that I was ordered to eat like mad before a stick spar, spar when I had a high fever, spar when drunk, spar after sex, spar when I was injured, etc... and most of the times I got owned. My old teachers told me that traditional FMA was made for war and nothing else. It was invented not for glory or to gain respect to prove how big their balls are but to maim or to eliminate our oppressors. Our oppressors are organized, well funded, large in numbers and have better weapons than our sticks and knives so our attacks should always be discrete, swift and without remorse. They also said that we should be the ones to start the attacks and if attacked by a larger force, we should retreat or get overwhelmed... Now because of the modern times, many martial arts concentrate on self defense unlike traditional FMA-CQC which are very offensive art.<br />
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Most new breed martial arts teaches love, respect, etc... One time I was introduced to a guy who is a jolly 2nd degree black belt (will not say his art...) and was asked what FMA-CQC is. I just answered that it came from the Philippines. Then he started showing off his high kicks and super punches and asked me if we could spar. He also bragged that he has a gold medal from some tournament and would like to see what FMA is made of... I said no but he insisted and said that since we are both practitioners we can do it for "love, peace, respect, etc"... I was really annoyed since he was talking like a hip-hop gangster and he is Asian??? Anyway, I gave in to his request to fight using CQC, he danced and gave me fast kicks and punches, I lightly clawed his eyes and gave him a 3 finger to his throat while doing a neck breaker also covering his nose and mouth and thumb to his eye with my other hand. He gave up instantly. He said that he didn't know what came first... the pain on his throat or pain on his neck, pain on his eyeball or from panic of air deprivation... He tried again, poked his adams apple... then another is when I grabbed his balls and sent him to the ground then pulled his nose and it bled. I didn't even have to punch, kick, throw or grapple him. Then he asked for apologies for being so forward on asking me to spar using no holds barred FMA without knowing what FMA is... He thought that FMA practitioners sucks during unarmed fights. He asked why I was not intimidated by his fancy high kicks. I just told him to try learning with someone using real sticks or real bladed weapon in full speed and you will not get intimidated easily. He asked why FMA-CQC techniques are so brutal that I will surely be disqualified in a tournament... I told him that not all martial arts are intended for "peace, love and harmony" and the truth is that "real traditional martial arts around the world" were mostly intended for real combat and guys like you should also study your martial arts roots and learn the old ways and not to limit yourself in tournament fighting because if real shit happens, you cannot brag about your gold medal to the attacker or he will just use it to strangle you... I have met lots of martial arts practitioners and I get many comments about FMA that the techniques are illegal but mostly the comments came from lower ranking black belts but I often get very positive comments from higher ranking black belts and masters. Usually they say that they find the techniques similar to their old teachers or say that once similar techniques were used in their arts but are kept now by their superiors. The good thing with FMA is that the techniques are just brutal from beginner to master level. Many practitioners from other martial arts say that a practitioner should spend years training unarmed fighting before they can move on to weapons training. The reason why traditional FMA starts with weapons is because FMA was invented during the time of war. The oppressors were attacking our country torturing, raping, killing our fellow countrymen and we really don't have time spending years to polish our fighting techniques. My old teacher said that during his time, guerrillas were taught only very basic FMA and deployed asap. The ones who survived or didn't got captured had another day to train more fancier techniques... Sad that many martial arts practitioners nowadays don't understand our "dive in, pick up your weapons and hope to be lucky" beginner class training... Traditional FMA practitioners back then just didn't have the time to fck around because most of them are in hiding, evading, injured, mourning, in shock and mostly have not eaten properly for days...<br />
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Since I was brought up to traditional FMA, my son also got the same training (just a bit softer). I like it to be realistic in every way as much as possible but because we are living in the modern days, I had to limit him with subtle techniques and training. He doesn't have to learn how to ride a horse, hunt, learn farming, learn bush craftmanship, etc. What he got is driving cars off-road, jumping motorcycles, mechanical and electrical repair, outdoor off-grid techniques, computers and lots of stuffs that he needs to learn in modern times then I adjust FMA-CQC to the places where confrontation would mostly happen like streets, rooms, toilets, stairs, inside a vehicle and have also adjusted to modern self defense techniques and have left offensive techniques for later. I'm sure that he wont be needing traditional offensive techniques especially that we are living in Japan unless he wants to join the military or the police when he gets older.iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-6483874437623563162012-03-03T12:23:00.001+09:002012-03-03T12:23:48.520+09:00How to teach your kids self defense on a tight budget :)If you are a parent who would like your kids to learn some self defense techniques but you are on a tight budget, don't lose sleep because you still can. There are many different ways to get very cheap or free self defense techniques for your kids. You can search for group circles who practices self defense or martial arts, join the group then teach what you learned to your kids and as you get better, you can pass the techniques to your kids. If you are in a really tight position, watch action movies, martial arts movies, self defense how to's in YouTube or buy or borrow a book. Study the techniques, do lots of practice and observe safety procedures. Find which style suits you best, learn the pros and cons of the style you want to study but don't forget to also think/predict/know what your kid may be good at and learn the style which you think is best for you and your kids and practice together. You and your kids may never reach black belt levels or learn fancy techniques but it is better than doing nothing. Learning super fancy cool self defense stuffs will not guarantee anybody that they will be victorious in all real world fights. Often very basic techniques can bring assailants down if done properly (just like an effective sucker punch or kick to the groin...).<br />
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I love playing "play wrestling" or "play sentai ranger" with kids. I always take the role of the bad guy and get my ass beaten by the kids. The kids will not learn real world fighting skills but it can be a good exercise for both of you plus you being the bad guy, teaches kids about the some morals that bad guys will always be bad guys and the good guys always wins, plus it is really fun.<br />
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Another good way to train is to make or buy a punching bag. You can also build a makiwara or use a book or a pillow to train your kids. When my son was young, I use to hang old tires as a punching bag. Also used old car seats for his knife training and even let him try bashing several old car windows with a baseball bat (I sell cars and had lots of junkers). The fun thing he learned about hitting a car's window with a baseball bat is that the glass doesn't break and will only hurt his hands because of the shock which thought him how to select proper tools to get the job done. Using tools for training like punching bags will teach them how to properly hit without breaking their wrists, plus will increase their imagination on how to effectively use the techniques you have passed them.<br />
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When the time comes that you finances are stable, then you can enroll your kids to proper martial arts or self defense schools or probably your kids can also join MA circles or groups when he gets older...iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-1304623054713215972012-02-13T01:35:00.002+09:002013-06-22T20:10:59.078+09:00Knife Fighting MythsI am sure that many martial artists like myself who trains mostly on hand weapons have been looked down by other people who have probably never been to a real knife fight with the idea that real knife fights doesn't happen like "mano-mano" or "one on one" just like what we see in the movies. There are people who will say about us being very wrong to believe that we stand a chance against a determined assailants who wants to gut us in the real world because we will never see them coming and our years spent training in martial arts or weapons training are useless.<br />
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<b><i>Question:</i></b><br />
<i><b>1.</b></i> It is true that we may not have a chance to defend ourselves in the real world because many experienced criminals whose aim is to murder will not usually flash their knives in front of us before they gut us. Most attacks are ambush style attacks and often all is too late. <br />
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<i><b>Answer:</b></i> Yes!!! Often in the real world, real weapon based attacks happens when we least expect it and the odds against us may be too great that our chance of survival is very small or very close to none but there are people who have survived similar attacks. What if you also belong to those few lucky persons who saw a chance to fight their way out, escaped and lived? Though it is a big gamble, I'd rather put my chips in and study some martial arts skills than to live a life knowing that if I get attacked that I will never be able to defend myself and get gutted without complain...<br />
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<i><b>2.</b></i> There is no defense for an assailant who is rushes, tackles and stabs us with a knife.<br />
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<b><i>Answer:</i></b> Someone charging at full speed with a knife is very difficult to counter or stop but not impossible :)<br />
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<b><i>3.</i></b> Knife attacks can never be parried or blocked without being cut.<br />
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<b style="font-style: italic;">Answer: </b>There are so many people even without martial arts training who have parried or blocked knife attacks and are still happily living and spending their lives with their loved ones. Knife attacks can be parried and blocked but hope for more luck and expect to also be cut or stabbed :)<br />
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<i><b>4.</b></i> There is no escape if we are grabbed by several attackers while one or two of their members attacks us with their knives.<br />
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<b><i>Answer:</i></b> Chances of survival is very small but as I have mentioned in <i>"</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i>FMA Close Quarters Knife Combat Training"</i>, </span>that one of my teachers was hold at gun point by several attackers and was stabbed nine times on the neck then thrown to rot but was able to act dead and crawled his way out and survived. He might have been very lucky or might have nine lives... Another example is my friend's dad in the Philippines who got stabbed several times by unknown number of assailants. He spent months inside the hospital but survived. Some people that I met and some I had the chance to share lunch who lived at the squatter's area were able to escape and live (I just don't know if they are still alive now... man, they are really dodgy...).<br />
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<b><i>5.</i></b> Knife attacks often happens in the dark and the martial artists will have no chance of defending himself when visibility is minimal.<br />
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<b><i>Answer:</i></b> This is really very hard especially people like me who basically can't see much in the dark because of our poor eye sights. I have no real knife fight experience in the dark (only hand to hand). Sometimes I practice with my son using dulled kitchen knives or sticks and I often get hit. If this was a true knife fight I am sure that I will sufferer many cuts and stabs though even with my poor eye sight against my son's good vision, I still often win probably because I have more practice time and experience compared to him but I am sure that if he spends a little bit more time practicing, I am <b>"double dead"</b>. Here is one of our video that has a short clip during our Arnis training in low light: <a href="http://father-and-son-ma-training-japan.blogspot.com/p/our-main-video.html">http://father-and-son-ma-training-japan.blogspot.com/p/our-main-video.html</a><br />
you'll notice that I was having a hard time seeing in low light making me very unorganized plus getting my eyeglasses bent by my son, lol.<br />
Yes, probably there is still a chance to survive but for me, I will be needing lots of luck, new eye glasses or night vision goggles... Also give me full body armor plus a gun with 100 rounds or ammo, or send me the SWAT team so that they can beat his sorry ass for me :)<br />
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<i><b>6.</b></i> Martial artists has no effective defense against sucker punches or sucker style knife attacks.<br />
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<i><b>Answer:</b></i> Martial artist or not, I am sure that no one will ever be fully prepared for sucker attacks. When I was in high school, I got sucker punched by a girl when I was eating "lugaw" (flavored boiled rice) near our school. I was enjoying my meal then suddenly somebody punched me from behind. I quickly turned and was about to jump the attacker but when I saw the college girl who was about to deliver another punch to my face I backed out. She was surprised to see that I was not her real target. She just stood stiff and cried. Her friends apologized and told me that she was looking for his sister's boy friend who happens to look like me... Good thing that I was actively practicing MA during those times and receiving a sucker punch from a girl is no problem but if she was a dude, I am sure that it was lights out for me. What more if this was a knife attack.<br />
Time passed and I had my share of receiving several sucker punches and sucker attacks from school fights, bars, streets, etc. All of these attacks were done by untrained dudes who hits like pussies so I was still able to retaliate and thanks to my buddies who were there and stopped or also attacked my attacker, thus giving me time to shake off the twinkling stars and join in the fun... I was just lucky that none of these sucker attacks were lethal or I will not be here to share my experiences.<br />
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<i><b>7.</b></i> Using a weapon (guns, knives, sticks, frying pan, etc.) against armed attackers to protect ourselves will put us in prison...<br />
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<b><i>Answer:</i></b> If we kill the attacker then the answer is a strong YES! The law is not dumb and if proven that we only retaliated to defend our life then probably the'll give us a bit of slack but still we will be facing charges (or unless we have successfully evaded the scene without a trace...???). Probably even if we just injure them during their attacks, we will still be facing charges especially in developed countries. BUT this does not happen much in the Philippines!!! and other developing countries :) There you can still defend yourself and if you get lucky (which we often are...) chances of getting help from passers-by or concerned citizens is still high. During my college days, there was an incident that happened while we are inside a jeepney. There was a lady who was "sandwiched" by two hold-uppers. We didn't notice that a robbery was happening but luckily, the guy sitting across the lady noticed the incident and went for the guy on the left. He didn't know that the guy sitting on the right is also a team member. Suddenly the guy on the right gave him a front stab but the knife hand of the attacker was held by another passenger sitting next to him. All hell broke lose... passengers were hitting the two guys, grannies were hitting them with their high heel shoes, the driver stopped and hit the guys head with a tire wrench. One of the passenger was able to turn the assailants knife against him, the lady on the center didn't do a thing... Law enforcers came to the rescue, the two robbers were bloody and was still receiving kicks, punches coming from everywhere... The people around was ordered to give space and then the two lucky guys got a sweet taste of jungle boots and M-16 rifle butts on their faces. The guy who probably used the knife against the robber plus all of us who joined the party were interviewed and got a nice warm tap on our shoulders and was left to go home.<br />
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Many similar incidents like this happened and probably are still happening all over the world. Since I am now living in Japan and if a similar incident happens, I would probably think many times (if I have the chance to think...) before engaging the assailant or I will end up in bars... who knows...???<br />
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Going back to martial arts, the reason why we practice knife fighting or defending against knife or weapon attacks is that we are just trying to give ourselves an extra fighting edge. There is a big chance that we may never be able to defend ourselves or a much more bigger chance that we may never be able to experience real combat but again it is giving us extra chance or possibility to survive during an attack. My son and my students also share this same way of thinking that it is better to be "at least" prepared than to do nothing. Even if we may never use the skills that we learned in martial arts, we still can say that we learned some tricks, techniques, gained new friends, probably lost some weight, made our bodies more sexier, exchanged some laughs, pains and tears but most of all, we have enjoyed and benefited something from learning rather than doing nothing. Plus if luck really sucks and we may have to really fight to protect our lives, then I am sure that at least we wont be easy targets :)iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-64773817610125665892012-02-12T16:12:00.002+09:002012-02-12T16:12:50.991+09:00CQC Knife fight question from a friend...I got this question from a good friend at FB pertaining to our "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">FMA Close Quarters Knife Combat Training" at: </span><a href="http://father-and-son-ma-training-japan.blogspot.com/p/test-knife.html" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">http://father-and-son-ma-training-japan.blogspot.com/p/test-knife.html</a><br />
and would also like to share it here...<br />
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Question from my buddy:<br />
<span style="background-color: #edeff4; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">... </span><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text" style="background-color: #edeff4; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">finally watched this (hectic first week at Rocket Internet, fighting only with my keyboard :P)<br />
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looks really fun, and now I know <a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100002121799734" href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002121799734" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Takuya</a> could poke holes in me like swiss cheese before I had time to stand on one leg like Best Kid ;)<br />
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I noticed the latter half, you're holding the knives forward. I had only one intro to knife fighting from a Sth African guy in China, who I can only assume got into dodgy situations in that dodgy country! The main thing I tried to remember from him was like standing side on and minimizing the attack area of my body, while keeping my knife as close to him as possible, hence having the knife forward. he said backwards was more for protecting myself from accidental cuts or if sneaking up on someone from behind to poke in the neck...<br />
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Are those points irrelevent in close quarters conditions, and what is your preferred way if any to hold the knife in CQC?</span><br />
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My Answer:<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #edeff4; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;">... different countries have different styles of fighting. A thug will have a different style than a butcher and so will a car mechanic, a logger, a pen pusher, nurse, hardened criminal, law enforcers, etc. Different martial artists also have different styles and even martial artist from a certain martial arts will also have their styles slightly different from one another. There is NO single best way or style that will guarantee ones success during a fight. Practicing or studying knife fighting only gives the practitioner an extra edge because of their training but in the end, all goes down to luck... Yes standing on the side and keeping the knife close to the opponent is a good technique. The target area becomes smaller but this is not much of a problem with skilled practitioners especially with FMA because FMAs favorite target is going for the knife hand. My son and my students during their first sparring with me often does this technique but as soon as we start, I whack/cut their knife hands and even if they are standing on their side doesn't make much of a difference because I can go for their arm, then to the jugulars and eyes. The more his knife hand is out, the more easier it is for a skilled practitioner to grapple him, slam his head, break his arm, then probably gut him finally after toying with him... There is also no proper way to hold a knife, me and my son just prefer using an icepick grip because we are grapplers but we often also use different ways to hold the knife and all depends on what we want to accomplish. Just like last week when me and Tak were practicing. Mine was a dummy but Tak's was using "real shit" I parried him several times then he rotated the blade and I got a "nice surprise" the next time I parried...... lol. Practicing using real and fake changes the practitioners style. Many are very good with dummy knives but freaks out with real knives... Many practice using slow choreographed motions, many like doing it like "give and take" (the master shows his skills while his dummy student only stands like a fuck doll), For me and my son we just like to do it freestyle and hope to get lucky, lol. Time for you to practice again Leon :)</span></div>iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-46493117995809041402012-01-29T07:01:00.004+09:002012-01-29T07:55:34.803+09:00Difference with Traditional, Modern, McDojos and BS Martial Arts.Admit it or not, many martial arts practitioners think/believe that their own art is the most effective and the most deadly and other martial arts sucks... and many practitioners follow it like a religion or a cult. Some like traditional arts and some hates them. Others believe that it is a "The Way of Ninja"... sorry but I still haven't met a real living Ninja practitioner inside Japan during my 20+ years of living here. Some of my MA mates live in Shigaken (where the Ninjas originated) but Vsad that none of them are Ninjas... Hmmm, here in Japan, if you claim that you are a Ninja, I'm sure that you'll get a cold shoulder shrug plus a smile from the Japanese, lol. I'm not saying that there are no real Ninja practitioner here in Japan now but if you ever see a real one, could you please introduce him to my son... I'll kindly ask him to teach my son so that he can learn how to use smoke bombs and disappear in thin air, lol!<br />
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For me I cannot say which is which because like many, I also have trained different arts. I got my first training from my dad who is an Okinawan Karate practitioner when I was 6 or 7 (sorry can't remember). Most of it was stretching and exercise then forms/katas. Then I moved to real Karate (Shotokan), then to Modern Arnis, then to Tae Kwon Do. Then I moved to FMA/Traditional Philippine Martial Arts (read my first post) where I didn't really know that I was being trained by grandpops until it was too late, lol. Then moved to military CQC but also had the privilege to learn some Chinese MA. I am jack of all trade but a master of none though I was also awarded with several dark belts (with stripes), my main love is FMA and CQC because of it's simplicity and practicality. Then went to Japan and joined with retired MA practitioners and is now peacefully training with my son.<br />
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I stopped practicing martial arts for many years (riding Trials, off-road bikes, joining road races was more fun for me during those days...) until my son showed interest learning martial arts. Since my son is Japanese, I wanted him to learn Japanese martial arts. On the side, I slowly introduced him to Traditional FMA and CQC which I think became a big hurdle for him because he got mixed-up. He is still practicing FMA-CQC but will also study different martial arts.<br />
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First I will talk about the differences in the arts based on my training and experiences. Arts that are taught inside dojos are often for self defence, lots of pre-determined strikes and movements, lots of tradition, lots of morals, lots of pride. Some like MMA, boxing, etc. are more on free-style with lots of training, endurance, skills and also lots of pride. Going to McDojos, I haven't heard of this word since last month! Living in Japan for more than half of my life didn't give me the opportunity to see or visit a McDojo because I haven't seen one in my area... I was surprised that McDojos are becoming very popular overseas. I don't have anything against them because they are still passing or teaching the art using their system and I guess that they are more "user friendly" than the ones I've seen and joined.<br />
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Going back to me... I learned Traditional FMA without spending any money because I was trained by grandpops who worked for my dad and the training was a freebie. If you have read my 1st post, you will have an idea on how I got my training. These guys saw WW2 and their way of thinking was very different. In the Philippines, FMA shares similar techniques but have different names and are practiced in many different ways since there are so many FMA practitioners all over the country. Sad to say that I practiced an art that has no name... One grandpop told me that it was the art of "Itak fighting" (bolo/knife fighting) while the other one said that it was "baston" (stick fighting) though we rarely use sticks and they often argue on who has the better technique though their styles are very identical, lol. Since I often use my itak/bolo for work, this was my main tool for learning. They taught me basic strikes and styles but half of my training was more on learning other stuffs like wilderness survival and the art of war based on their experiences...<br />
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This is getting long but please read on unless you are getting bored, probably you'll pick-up something... Unlike most modern martial arts, grandpop's FMA is a very aggressive art, they prefer striking when least expected. They got me to learn how to clear hectares of land and chop hundreds of huge trees using several bolos and a double edged ax. Study the terrain, wind, weather, find water, track animals, build shelter, control irrigation, use herbs for medicine, get rid of insects like bees and fire ants and hunt for food. Though we also have guns, I was only limited to medieval ways to hunt... The land that we were working on had several "special dangers", from time to time we get to meet fruit and coconut robbers and some of them are vicious. Few times we were stopped and checked by passing insurgent groups so to complete the training, I was also trained to stay out of sight leaving no traces, be very silent and to stay down for hours until the the passing heavily armed group was finished with taking their rest and moved or how to talk politely and how to answer "trick" questions asked by the insurgents.<br />
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So why do they think this way? They told me stories back during the war and most of them are unpleasant. They said that during the war, to stay alive is to go with the flow and to take advantage of what you have and when you strike, you don't fuss around, finish the job, clean yourself and walk away asap. Strike only when you have the advantage. Escape route is vital. If you get caught, you will be tortured, killed, as well as your family and friends, and even your dog, chickens and pigs will be eliminated.<br />
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Then when I was a teen, I got trained by military guys then by dodgy people that I met along the way. The military used FMA-CQC, the dodgy excon guys use similar tactics though CQC was a lot polished but both are very effective. Traditional FMA, CQC and dodgy self learned techniques by excons share something very common and this is to do it direct, no fuss, no fancy moves, very simple... During these times, I was joining private kumites, getting in to fights, and being knocked down cold for from sucker punches at a local bar... and yes I have been to one vs several and real knife fights during my younger years and you can ask my family about it... I was also young and stupid once (still is stupid but not young...).<br />
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I respect Chinese and Japanese martial arts a lot and for me, I see them as a "way of living" since they polish their skills to the fullest. McDojos, though I haven't seen one yet, I think that they too pass their skills efficiently (plus with their additional "original mumbo-jumbo technique" plus lots of colorful belts). Modern Arnis/Kali/Eskrima is very good because they have systematic ways of teaching and the techniques are forever leveling-up and are always dynamic to keep-up with the changes of time. But for us really traditional FMA practitioners, we just want to stay silent and live our lives the normal way without attracting too much attention.<br />
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Going back to traditional "nameless traditional FMA", I think it is also a never ending way to study martial arts but a little bit crude or very direct especially for practitioners who don't do full contact. Though there are no belts to prove our accomplishments, we can still join and enjoy training with other martial arts because the basics are very similar. I always tell my son that people are all the same. We all (majority) have two hands, two legs and a head. There may be hundreds of ways to deliver a punch or kick but the main point is to hit your enemy or opponent where it hurts, gain points for some arts, knock them down or just finish the job. My son have a black belt in Judo and we enjoy practicing together though I never have studied Judo. In Trad-FMA and CQC, we also use grappling, throwing, punching, kicking, biting, pulling hair, poking eyes, plus the itak/sticks/stones/guns/dirt/spit/fry pan, etc. that we use. FMA, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Brazilian, African, Indian, Middle East (I heard that the art is very effective), Russian, Israeli Krav Maga (w/c is very similar to CQC), etc. have very effective arts but in the end, it is all about who is the best practitioner, the last man standing, the lucky guy who was able to dodge a sucker punch wins the day. Other arts also use these stuffs so when we are training, we just try to use or adapt with what our "main dish" for that day will be and have fun. I believe that it really doesn't matter what art you are using as long as you think that your BS is effective and you are having a blast :) If you are lucky enough to have joined a McDojo, don't be angry and quit. It is always best to try to learn something than doing nothing. BUT please don't forget to have FUN!!!iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436887316851748827.post-77337154573547594312012-01-11T06:18:00.003+09:002012-01-17T05:50:23.224+09:00Why I teach my son traditional Filipino Martial Arts.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkyjb51gZiraeXsv7o7alsiaWFQTHUxbiSW6b770XY2bkiQF7mwpbaYRsNREBAFTINjPZNqvtUQM78e_6I5tj3vXWGEmGisPqTQzH-ayRzAV70BZ_fFx6m7whxZuXtHagQIje-7Dp3W-k/s1600/IMG_4763.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkyjb51gZiraeXsv7o7alsiaWFQTHUxbiSW6b770XY2bkiQF7mwpbaYRsNREBAFTINjPZNqvtUQM78e_6I5tj3vXWGEmGisPqTQzH-ayRzAV70BZ_fFx6m7whxZuXtHagQIje-7Dp3W-k/s200/IMG_4763.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade heavy Arnis/Kali sticks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I never planned to teach my son Arnis (FMA = Filipino Martial Arts)... honestly he never knew that I was a practitioner and have kept it from him. My son is half Filipino-Japanese and loves Japanese martial arts and grew up in Japan and have never been to the Philippines so I thought that he may not be interested in FMA.<br />
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Though he can't speak the Filipino language, he often spends hours on YouTube searching for his Filipino roots and came up watching FMA videos. Chopped a broom in half and started imitating the video, lol! He bragged about his new YouTube FMA skills to me and after passed me the sticks with a grin on his face. He was sure that I don't know anything about sticks or martial arts because he knew me as a biker and not as a practitioner. I took the sticks and started to dance... it has been years since I last played with sticks but my son's eyes was twinkling! At last I was the "big hero" though I nearly dropped a stick, hahaha! I showed him some basics and just let him watch YouTube again.<br />
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When he was 12 he joined his school's Judo team which made me and his mom very happy. One day he came to me and asked if I can teach him my art and he was very serious about it. To be very honest, I wasn't sure what to teach him. I did not learn FMA from a legit dojo or Arnis school and learnt it from military men, ex-convicts, and dodgy (half drunk) grandpops. Back in the Philippines when I was young, I also studied several foreign martial arts (Karate, Tae Kwon Do, etc...). One of my teachers was Grand Master Rodel Dagooc (Modern Arnis) but only for a very short time. He was teaching us Karate and one time he played with his Arnis sticks and he was "smokin"! My eyes nearly dropped!!! Man, he is VERY GOOD!!! I took some Arnis lesson from him but we had to move so I had to stop... very sad...<br />
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Then I got booted out from elementary school (12 yrs. old) and as punishment, I had to stay in the province with my dad and help with the chores. My dad is no softy and got me working on his rice fields and mountains during my school-off. Luckily, I got teamed with two old guys who worked for my dad and that is where I started stealing some of their techniques. Both of them are in their mid 80s, traditional practitioners, and were funny as hell. Together we were assigned to clear hectares of land in the mountains in preparation for plantation renewal. My favorite tool was my "itak/bolo"and a huge karet (half-moon curved bolo with a long wooden handle and is about 70 centimeters long) for chopping vines and small trees. Another favorite is a double edged huge ax which I chopped several hundred full size trees and hundreds of coconut trees too :) While enjoying my "chores" bladed art was passed to me by my two teachers. No dojos, no colorful belts, no rules and said that the art was passed to them during the war and will be passed to me as-is-where-is. Learning was fun because both of them have different styles and sometimes they will argue and not talk with each other for days. It was a cold-war between grandpops styles on which is better??? One would teach me his version and the other one will teach me his and the argument between them starts... the funny thing is their styles looks VERY similar to each other and they fight over on who has the better style??? Unlike many beginners, my lessons started with bladed weapons then it moved on to sticks. Sticks lesson was hard since the lessons was done in full contact and their blows gets heavier especially when they were arguing. Punches, throws and grappling was the even worst since I was the dummy of two colliding grandpops who both have bad eyesight (ouch!).<br />
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Then I moved to the city again and met some military guys who shared their art. Made friends with some really dodgy ex-convict guys and the fun begins... All their styles are similar but everyone seems to have something hidden up their sleeves and often I get new "very secret lessons that was kept hidden for centuries and the keys were tossed in the deepest pits of hell for safe keeping..." but would pass their well kept secret if I will keep their secret for myself and not to tell my other teachers (which was his buddies) that I have learned his "vicious kamehameha art of death secret".... Believe it or not but one of the "death secret" passed to me was the very basic "Sinawali" added with flying kicks then ended with a barrel roll which you can surely find something like that in YouTube, lol! Not all are laughs though and many are very effective especially the ones from the military and ex-cons. Their techniques always have something very similar which is cunning, speed, silence, simplicity and effectiveness.<br />
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Based on what I believe, I say that Modern FMA is a hybrid fighting art and has more techniques than what was passed down to me by my traditional FMA teachers because my teachers styles doesn't have the organized teaching method that Modern FMA practices. Modern FMA teaches not only the art but also builds up the personality of their students to be better persons in the modern world. Old FMA is based on what its purpose was intended...<br />
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Going back to my son... I can only teach him what I know based on what I've learned. Many of my techniques too are hybrid or have become my original. Some because of lack of practice, some because I became fat and heavy that I have to stay away from kicking, most became more simple and often have to ditch my sticks and go hand to hand to match the art which my son is more comfortable, plus, I'm really not very much comfortable with sticks since I prefer my good old "sweet itak" more.<br />
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Last... I teach my son humility because there will always be a practitioner who is much faster, more intelligent, have more skills, can deliver more heavier effective blows than I or he can. Another thing is I always say to him that "if you commit the crime, you will serve time" and never use it for showing how big your stick is because even untrained very angry moms carrying a deadly frying pan can bring you flying to the ground but the best technique that I teach him is "pick up your shoes and run" and this is my very well kept secret technique that I have thrown the keys in the deepest pits of hell... (you've learned my century old master secret technique so please keep this between us okay... HAHAHA!!!).<br />
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Many thanks for all my MA teacher, you all rock!iWrenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12887386041202601099noreply@blogger.com2