Tag Archive
Gaining the blade
My primary interest in FMA has always been the sword (particularly espada y daga). I come from a fencing background, by which I mean I fenced for a couple of years before I started doing Modern Arnis. And it’s really my only previous mano y mano combative experience. Fortunately for this, lately my instructor has [...]
Modern Arnis
I was couch-training on YouTube earlier and decided I would look up Professor Remy A. Presas. The anniversary of his passing was just a couple of days ago and so I’ve been thinking about him a little bit. More importantly, as you may know, a crucial part of the couch-training regime is to watch cool [...]
All things A/V
I go off on these tangents, where for a month or so, I spend a lot of time trying to learn Tagalog. And then it lapses and subsides. So I’m not doing that, again, this time. But…I did find some pretty cool links in my latest culling of the intarwebs.
For instance PinoyChannel.TV or PinayChannel.TV. [...]
Yin-yang
There’s an interesting concept in martial arts in general, the idea that to be good you have to be both soft and hard, or more plainly, strong and weak. This is a concept that’s always fascinated me, but frankly at first I hadn’t seen much of it. It seemed like it was always better to [...]
Theory and law
I have this problem, in class, I like things to make sense. I am always looking for ‘the golden rule’. I ask our instructor, “So do I do it like this, in every situation?” And the answer is always (a qualified) no. But I obsessively look for the ‘constants’. When doing an elbow strike, should [...]
Storytellers
I’ve been reading a lot lately on ‘reality’ combat systems, ‘no nonsense self defense’, ‘real street fighting’, psychology, criminology, attacks by criminals, etc. There’s a lot of videos people can look up on YouTube if they want, I’m not going to link any here, because nothing I saw there is something I’d want to celebrate [...]
Modern Arnis Seminar
Saturday the 25th of April 2009, Bothell, Washington
There’s a lot of ways to learn FMA, one of the best I’ve found is to take one technique and explore it unarmed, with a knife, and with a stick. Fortunately, this is exactly what Dr. Presas did this Saturday. I think this style of teaching plays to [...]
Flow control contact
So Ramon posted a really cool post here about flow. Between that and some of the stuff we did in class tonight, it really got me thinking a lot. I don’t pretend to be an expert and if this stuff seems like nonsense, please speak up and tell me.
In process analysis or design or martial [...]
Disparate interests
I recently came across This blog post about some of the myths we’re told in FMA.
I hate to harvest other people’s research like this, but there are a lot of cool elements here that I found valuable. For instance this is an article about self defense law, and the liability of martial arts instructors [...]
Repost: World of FMA 1 on TFC
This is a resposting of content from our old blog:
We finally got the latest video from our World of FMA Seminar in June 2008. This is a 6 minute spot that aired on The Filipino Channel’s (TFC) “Balitang America” show (in Tagalog means American News) a month later in early July and includes interviews with [...]
As Seen On TV
Have you all seen the latest Dr. Presas video? The video quality isn’t great, but you can tell it is him.
Some of you (most of you?) know I am an avid researcher of Filipino culture, history, and trivia. So when I came across this article the other day I knew it was destined to be [...]
A Picture Post
I also made the above into a screen saver using IrfanView. That program is a lot of fun.
Have a great day,
Joel
The Point Of Control
There are about four ways to attack with a sword, in fencing, for instance, it is all about the point. There is a thrust, a stab, a slash, and a chop. The rapier is really a thrusting/stabbing weapon. It has an edge, but I can’t imagine how you’d kill [...]
