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Friday, May 4th at 2000

NO CLASS the weekend of Saturday, May 12th

NO CLASS the weekend of Saturday, May 19th

Saturday, May 26th at 0900

Saturday, June 2nd at 0900

Saturday, June 9th at 0900

Saturday, June 16th at 0900

Saturday, June 23rd at 0900

Saturday, June 30th at 0900

NO CLASS Saturday, July 7th

NO CLASS Saturday, July 14th

I am a proud father of my sons and daughter, but I hold a special place for my oldest son William. As many of you know my son was born very prematurely and unfortunately encountered very traumatic circumstances close to and in the months following his birth. His first few months of life were spent in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, only to be followed a few weeks after his discharge by a few months more in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. His injuries were catastrophic, and as a result he has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, cortical visual impairment and a whole host of related diagnoses and has endured multiple surgeries for his brain, heart, stomach, hips and legs. He has far more strength than I do, and the only thing that exceeds his fortitude is his loving heart. He shows me that I am stronger than I am, I am more than I believe and I can be better than myself.

In the three primary Filipino Martial Arts systems that I practice and have the privilege to represent, the family and tribe are central to our philosophies. Our families propel us and drive our training, they are the reason we train and fight so hard. We are not separate from our families nor our tribe, and our conceptualization of combat is always rooted in this context. Most of us are not young men beating our chests for status or attention, and if we would ever have to use the technology we have been taught there is a good chance it may be with our wives, children or families present. With this in mind, I began fleshing out already proven and existing material and adapting techniques and concepts to our own specific and unique needs. With my son’s level of involvement he is encumbered in a heavy special needs wheelchair, and cannot observe, engage or even communicate with me or my wife in the same ways that other children would normally do. But we are no victims to circumstance, and my training has taught me to be a Feeder, not a passive recipient to life’s challenges. My family, no matter the specific situation is and always will be my primary security protocol; it is my life’s job to take care of them, to protect and provide for them unconditionally.

I began with a few video clips and with Pamana Tuhon Sayoc’s suggestions and permission I would like to present my ideas on using our Filipino Martial Arts for parents, guardians and family who take care of children with special needs.  A debt of gratitude must be expressed to Pamana Tuhon, Tuhon Carl and Guro Dan for everything they have taught and shared.  My instructors Guro Joey, Guro Travis and Guro Brian for their guidance and instruction, my brothers Guro Steve and Guro Jon for always working with me on my projects and ideas, my students for staying with me, and a special thanks to my wife who constantly puts up with my antics.

This past Easter season, I found myself thinking about my faith and the belief that there are angels and archangels that watch over us. For my profession I take care of sick infants in the same Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that my son was born into. I wondered about the spirits and angels in our midst that watch over these babies, and I remembered our second son Gabriel who we lost at birth. I find solace in the thought that he, the dearly departed and those angels entrusted with our charge who continue to guard and protect us continue to do so on their end. This project is my promise to work within my own faculties, my physical ability and mental creativity and build on the Filipino Martial Arts that I have been blessed with, and hold so dear. This is for my instructors and students, my brothers and sisters-in-arms, my family and above all for my son William.

So here is the start of our “Kali 101″ series, what I intend to be ongoing clips that demonstrate, showcase or educate the public on fundamental movements of the Filipino Martial Arts.  This first clip of many starts with the double stick basics of Sinawali, the name of the indigenous arts of my mother’s hometown province of Pampanga.  Thank you to the Patalinghug family of Doce Pares Eskrima (GM Cacoy Canete System) and Guro Dan Inosanto (Inosanto-Lacoste Kali) for giving me my base in Sinawali and introducing me to a part of my family’s past.  And special thanks to Kuya Marvin and his twins for the inspiration to start this in the first place.  Dominic and Victoria this is for you.

“Queng leon queng tigre ecu tatacut, queca pa?” (I fear neither lions nor tigers, why should I be afraid of you?) – Pampanga Warrior’s Motto taken from Galang’s “Complete Sinawali: Filipino Double-Weapon Fighting”

Guro Victor Gendrano Jr. of Filipino Martial Heritage will be our guest
instructor next Saturday, March 31st, teaching sword and shield. This
is material that Guro Victor has been developing, refining and working
on the last several years and I’m excited to have him present it to
us. Based on “long and short” (sometimes described as “espada y daga”)
principles, he will be presenting offensive and protective shield
application with stick or sword. We will be implementing sparring
drills to develop proper footwork, body mechanics, awareness of
distance, range and timing.

Guro Victor is one of my seniors under Guro Dan Inosanto in the
Filipino Martial Arts and is a long time instructor at the Academy in
Marina del Rey. In addition he holds Ambassador title in our Sayoc
Kali system and is the founder of Filipino Martial Heritage, his own
organization.

Sayoc Atienza students are expected to attend, and City of Claremont
students are more than welcome to join us.  As always students are encouraged
to bring interested friends and family.

Thousands of miles away, Sayoc Kali Full Instructor Patrick Consing visited the Sayoc Hawaii Training Group on his way to train and further develop the Pilipinas Sayoc Kali Training Group in the Philippines!  The Sayoc Hawaii Training Group is led by former IEFMA student and Doce Pares Guro Tony Angel Cruz.  Photos courtesy of Tony Cruz and the Sayoc Hawaii Training Group.

Lastly, this upcoming weekend Atienza Kali Full Instructor Guro Josh Votaw of Urban Jungle in NYC will be here in Long Beach teaching an Atienza Kali Tactical Pen seminar.  This is a rare opportunity to have Guro Josh instructing in Southern California, and a chance for us to learn the Tactical Pen curriculum that has been so well received on the East Coast.  Saturday class will be slightly shortened to accomodate travel to Long Beach.

Saturday, February 25 @ 0900 – Class will finish early to accomodate travel for anyone attending Guro Josh’s seminar in Long Beach (see above post).

Saturday, March 3 @ 0900

Saturday, March 10 @ 0900

Friday, March 16 @ 2000

Friday, March 23 @ 2000

Saturday, March 31 @ 0900

I remember having a conversation in graduate school on the topic of leadership, when a friend of mine simply stated that “leadership is defined by context”. I think we had been debating on the development of students’ participation in extracurricular activities, and the foundations of initiative that would allow them to make the jump from receiving information in their classes, to enacting and living those lessons throughout all aspects of their lives.

This is not that different from our own training. Every technique, every strategy or tactic, every application of weapon, individual or group is seated in a foundation of context. Onlookers often speculate on why we begin our template training in a “scarecrow” fashion, with our opponent simply standing still in front of us. When we relate our methodology to that of shooting however, to putting rounds downrange in a static stance at a fixed target it suddenly doesn’t seem so foreign. Every form or set in most martial arts around in the world and throughout history at one point had an appropriate context. The unfortunate phenomenon is that in many systems these contexts of applications have been lost or forgotten. The Japanese Martial Arts world encounters this frequently with their interpretations of kata, and Guro Dan often recounts an experience of watching a well known eskrimador perform beautifully executed movements but then had no idea what they would be used for.

One of the tools we like using to influence our training or lesson plans is surveillance footage of attacks. These examples demonstrate real attacks, in real world context. While we do not rely on these videos as our sole source of information, they are a valuable resource in reminding us that what is easy to conceptualize in training, can truly happen to ordinary people in ordinary places like our homes and towns. Some of the more recent viral videos include the Chinese student being beaten behind a school in Chicago, and this one if a seven-year-old escaping a kidnapping attempt at Walmart.

http://youtu.be/_9rqjT3Yzsw

Our Transportation Security Administration (TSA) does this kind of thing constantly, so every time someone tries to use their shoes or liquids to threaten air travel the rest of the population is subject to reactive searches based on previous threats. No matter how real or informative these videos or experiences are however they are still receiver based. We wait to see information, or hear about some breach and base our knowledge, awareness and subsequent training on what has happened. But what about what could happen?

Sayoc Kali addresses this question with a fundamental cornerstone to our Philosophy of Learning, known as the Thought Provocation Method:

http://sayoc.com/pages/articles_philosophyoflearning.html

The Thought Provocation Method is basically this: what are all the ways we could think about scenarios or situations, no matter how fantastic they seem? Could we imagine an instance where we would need to strike at Vital Targets while a body is fixed in front of us? What if they were running away from us? What if that was our own little girl, taken of her feet in front of us. What if instead of letting her go that man began to run away from us? Does practicing targets from behind an opponent make more sense now?

The martial arts taught at IEFMA come from individuals and families that no only examined their own experiences, but constantly research and develop our curriculum in real world situations and scenarios. What I have been taught has at one point been done, and been done successfully. So if I teach it, it comes from a relevant context. I am in no way smart enough or experienced enough to design, develop and propagate original material or techniques. In her book “The Philosophical Baby”, Allison Gopnik discusses the concept of counterfactuals, and our human ability to imagine possibilities; alternate realities founded in a long and carefully protected childhood that allows us to use play as a developmental tool. We are given the gifts of reason, of intellect and of imagination, and we are taught in a methodology of Thought Provocation. We are feeders. We use the past, we research our own and others’ experiences and we take that knowledge and expand on it. This is how we use our drills and templates and techniques and learn to grow with them, to evolve through them.

I give you all situations in class, and many of you have already incorporated the practice of imagining scenarios in your own lives at work, at home or even at school. And now, we can take dated technology such as using a flying sidekick to knock someone off of a horse, and apply it to someone trying to abduct your child and run away in front of you. Use your imagination. And keep training.