What do you think of Latosa Escrima/WT?

[Joerg]

Hi all!

After several months of searching I finally found an oppotunity to learn FMA in my area.
My primary interest is in blade-oriented training, with unarmed training being a close runner-up.
There is a school that teaches Latosa Escrima and WT (Leung Ting) and I will give it a try next week.

I have a few questions regarding the Latosa system:
What do you think of its bladework?

Is there any unarmed training incorporated in Latosa Escrima, or do I have to learn WT for this?

I ask these questions because all websites about Latosa Escrima I came across also have a section on the Leung Ting system of WT.
Obviously these two arts are organized under the same umbrella organisation (EWTO), and I got the impresson that the unarmed aspects of Escrima are left out and that one would have to learn WT if he seeks some unarmed training.

Also, these two arts are promoted quite heavily on the web, and I wonder if this is not just balooney.

Any comments?

Jörg

 

[Smoke]

Well Jorg, I used to train under Rene Latosa and later Cedric Concon and some of the senior students. Both like sticks more but I did learn some bladework from both of them, fluid power cutting and stabbing. However, I never learned under the AEWTO system so it's a bit freer for me.

That being said, you would most likely learn Wing Chun before empty hand escrima. The ranking system I was under is a bit different than the Euro system. Rene was influenced by Max Sarmiento's Kadena de Mano system and was also an ex-boxer. He hits pretty freakin' hard too.

 

[carnifex]

Smoke...This isn't meant as a flame, but the Latosa Escrima/ WT schools teach Wing Tsun, not Wing Chun.
The differences aren't that great, except that to my knowledge the stances are tighter, the kicks are never above the stomach, and there is generally less "fluff" involved. Basically the WT system is geared more towards Selfdefense/ street combat than Wing Chun is.
And most schools that I have been to that are under EWTO organisation teach Escrima and WT separately, although one is welcome to train in both styles simultaneously. I trained Wing Tsun with a private instructor and found it to be far more valuable than training in the "official" school of the EWTO. They are heavily geared towards making money and lots of it. Ergo, the somewhat excessive self-promotion on the Web. This is my opinion, but I think that there are generally too many students in one class and they don't really teach you to fight until you have reached a certain rank. And speaking of rankings. There is a fee that has to be paid for every ranking you obtain. This can at times be as high as several hundred dollars. They also charge for contact sparring. A certain amount per sparring session. Not exactly my cup of tea. I was lucky enough to find a private, certified instructor, and we have never been more than ten people in class at a time. Ergo, we learned a lot faster than we would have most other places. Also...Our instructor insisted on atleast two sparring sessions a week. great stuff...

Ack, look at this. I've been rambling again

Sorry about that.

Regards

Carnifex



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"Move like Water, strike like Thunder..."

 

[Smoke]

Carnifex, no offense taken at all.
I have the hardest time explaining how I learned under Rene and how I learned gung fu. I remember when they started using a grading system, (got my certificate somewhere) and it still makes me laugh at the WT/WC thing.

 

[Myers]

Hi carnifex:
This isn't meant as a flame either, but you need to get out and see more Wing Chun.
Your comments about "Wing Tsun" vs. "Wing Chun" as far as "fluff" and self-defense orientation don't apply at all to the many different lineages I have been exposed to. They are rather broad generalizations. There's a whole world of Wing Chun players out there that wouldn't agree with your assessment.

Keith

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Attitude Is Everything!

[This message has been edited by Myers (edited 02-02-2000).]

 

[carnifex]

Point taken, Smoke, and Myers. I admit to making judgement calls based on my own exposure to the difference's between the two branches of Gung Fu. The Wing Chun stylists I have seen seemed to be practicing something alot softer than the WT I was doing.
My bad

Regards

Carnifex

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"Move like Water, strike like Thunder..."