Only for filipinos about escrima

Bayani,

The officer who was accused of using the phrase "howling wilderness" in reference to Samar was Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith but he passed the originator of the phrase to his commander Chaffee. The Samar campaign cast a black eye on US military history. It was during the court martial of several officers (Waller and Day) for the execution of several prisoners that accusations went back and forth between soldiers. Waller was also responsible for turning the march to Lanang from Basey into a terrible fiasco. Starving, Waller accused his own Filipino allies/scouts of hoarding food and killed them. Waller a lover of the bottle (as Brian Macllister Linn describes him in 'The Philippine War' - then abandoned many of his own marines to die in the wilderness as he returned to camp. The Katipunan was not involved, as these events were centered in Samar.
Samar revealed the weaknesses of bad leadership and the inability of officers to control their men.Chaffee's appointed officer Smith exceeded the power of his command many times. Samar did not become the howling wilderness as the marines themselves commented in their court martials that "As a military movement it was of no other value than to show that the mountains are not impenetrable to us."

--Rafael--
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Frederico,

Samar lost many people in the Philippine US conflict as the soldiers were not discriminating at who the enemy was. The order was to kill ANY male over ten. Then after a time, the cut off point pretty much became any inhabitant of Samar. This was later discovered by the powers that be of the US armed forces and court martials were handed down.

--Rafael--
 
Thanks, Rafael, for the historical notes--my only reply is :O Damn. There's a great piece of literature from the period by Mark Twain called the WAR PRAYER. Seems to sum up my feelings at the moment.

Y'know, Federico, and all y'all, there's definitely something to the notion that while other folks "do" FMAs, aware Pinoys BEAR, as in CARRY, the art. Do you feel the weight too? Strive to be worthy.

MABUHAY!

bayani

 
i feel like the art is my own family hairloom that i have to protect it. i care when people dont represent it right. i care what people think of it. i defend the reputatuion of the philippine arts like a man defend his sister reputation. i want everybody first impression to be very good of these arts because they represent me and my brothers and my sister because we all do the arts.

when i fight in a point tournament or kuoshu, i always make sure that people know we are doing philippine style. when i meet somebody who said they did the philippine martial arts already, but they were not impress, i invite them to spar so they see that it is not just a bunch of prearrange techniques and drill. at my boxing gym, where nobody respects _any_ martial art, they respect the philippine martial arts. when i choose students for promotion, it is base on if this person is the best representative i can produce, if not they must train longer, even if that means i might loose the studnet.

in this way, i am "carrying the art", not just "doing" it.

i have met so many people who are just "doing" the art, many of them are here, they say "i dont care what the lineage is, as long as it works". they go to muay thai and silat for empty hands because its popular and never get more interested in the philippine way except disarming and "limb destructions" and patty cake drills. they sell there arts on videos and give certificates to men who study with them only 8 or 10 times in a seminar. they have representatitves of there own style or organization and they have never seen these people fight, can they handle a challenge, or will they bastardize the art or not.

these men will not accept a challenge because they "have nothing to prove". little do they know that challenge fights prove EVERYTHING. are you worthy to call yourself a teacher, can your ideas really work, do you really fear no man, etc. they hide behind the statement, this is not real streetfighting, i practice realy streetfighting, you are doing tag/a game/"conceptual" ideas.

i can only respect a man who embrace this art like something very precious his father gives to him, and to preserve it is a "jihad" not just a supplement to his "complete fighting style". because this person is my equal, not the guy who is just "doing it"
 
Federico, I think your father was exposed to a style of arnis or eskrima that wasn't good. Either that, or the style of his ancestors was a lot better than what the Americans ahve been exposed to. Let's face it, a lot of American schools suck. Secondly, a lot of "oldtimer" arnisadors (whose attitude rubbed on your dad's) think the American way of practicing drills in a structured curriculum that emphasizes disarms and fancy forms or routines sucks. We can't blame 'em--cuz look at a lot of "paper tigers" in the FMA in the US right now.

Maybe your dad's referring to those arnis systems that suck when he said you shouldn't study them. Maybe he was referring to Modern Arnis, and other systems. If you want to be safe and sure about the FMa style u study, go for Pekiti Tirsia. Most of them are good and train hard. Pekiti Tirsia has a great reputation in the USa.
 
Wow a real old thread. A very different me. Well in the past 2 years, Ive done a minors worth of research on Philippne history, done interviews with many older Filipinos in the area, scoped out the local schools (even joined one but didnt like it after a month since it focused mostly on kickboxing which was something I didnt care for), etc... Ive come to form my own opinion on the matter, and hopefully have found a teacher. However out of respect to my father I will clarify his position. In the last few months we had many talks about his life, his past, present, hopes, etc... According to him his grandfather was a sailor. In his voyages to such places as Indonesia, he claimed to learn some arnis. When my father was 13 his grandfather attempted to teach him a little. However his grandfather taught the art with a bolo, as meant to be used with bolo and not sticks. Which was something that was a negative to my dad, as he did not want to learn to fight with bolo, and anyways at such a young age he was generally not interested in learning martial arts. Unfortunately soon after his grandfather died, that was his last personal experience with arnis. His view on arnis was that he doubted that anyone here would really teach the real thing, and if they did he didnt find the value of bolo fighting in US scenarios.
 
Federico, it appears that your father and ancestors had a great style. A blade-oriented Visayan style. Whatever it was, it must have been very practical and effective, since it dealt with blades, and from the picture I gathered from your father's background and that of your ancestors, tough.

I guess your father hated arnis in the first place, a hatred he never outgrew. Complicating things further was that he wanted you to go to college and make something out of yourself, instead of losing yourself in the FMA.

Compounding things even further was the fact that 90% of the FMA he saw in the USA was drills-emphatic, and didn't use HARD sparring in training. Sayang (what a waste) pare! If he had learned your lolo's stuff, you'd be heir to a great style by now.;)

If you still wanna look for a great style where even the white guys do the arnis stuff right and more in keeping with "oldtime" Pinoy spirit/flavor, then go to Pekiti-Tirsia kali.
 
hi frederico,
i just read the first post from last year (or two years ago?), i think your dad was looking at how arnis/eskrima is demonstrated today. usually when you see people move, they are moving with slo mo or no power. of course, to many of the old men, they do not remember arnis practiced that way. when you perform your arnis with power, its clear that you are training to destroy somebody. arnis is the US is trained for coordination and ability to improvise, this is why they have so many drills. you see lots of face to face, and you never see fighting. so i know what he's talking about.

you can probably train with anybody in arnis, but when you practice keep in mind that you are training to hurt people. maybe in class they are emphasizing drills and sinawali, but at home you can train attack patterns and countering patterns, make your training partner a tree with low branches (for arms) and train your attacking methods that way. and if you can ever come to california look me up, and i can give you a few tricks.

mabuhay
 
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