Naperville wrote: ↑Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:06 pmI know.....we're all sissies!James Y wrote: ↑Mon Feb 13, 2023 8:56 pmOuch! Thanks for sharing your experience and the video.
The eye is no joke. The worst pain I ever felt was once, 40+ ago during sparring, an opponent wearing those cheap, foam-dipped, Jhoon Rhee-designed Saf-T Punch (or whatever they were called) gloves missed my face with a left punch, but his thumb had been open, and the tip of his exposed thumb rammed straight into my right eyeball. That stopped me in my tracks. With my eye closed, I lightly touched the eyelid, and it felt flat underneath...at least I thought it did. I sat down, and about 5 minutes later, I touched the eyelid again, and I felt the eyeball underneath it again. I very slowly opened my eye in front of a mirror, and my eye was normal, but very red and a bit teary. Surprisingly, I never even suffered an eye infection or a detached retina, or whatever.
After the 5 minutes there was no pain at all; but right after it happened, it was the worst pain in my life up to that point. And I'd previously taken an unprotected shot to the balls by a tennis ball from a hard serve that put me down on the tennis court for several minutes. Yes, my worst ball shot came NOT during a sparring match or a fight, but during a game of tennis.
Jim
Sorry about your eye poke. It really is quite the wake up call isn't it. One day after 20+ years you think you've just lost vision in one eye, and it freaks you out. It certainly did myself.
No seriously, sparring can be as dangerous as a real fight. Blows to the face/eyes is bad news and I for one thought, what in the heck am I doing with no protective gear of any kind. Now that group Stockton-Multistyle uses eye protection, helmets, and gloves.
Just a note: It is all very confusing, probably too confusing to get into but I'll give it a shot. I came to Bahala Na about 10 to 15 years after they started teaching their art to outsiders. Before that you really had to know someone to get invited to the homes of the instructors.
Guro Dan Inosanto was the first graduate of Bahala Na, and later Inosanto opened a school with Bruce Lee.
There were a few guys with a lot of talent who initially taught everyone in Lodi and Stockton: Dentoy Revillar, Max Sarmiento, Leo Giron and Angel Cabales. There were probably another 6 that also taught escrima/arnis in the area where the Filipino farmers learned under fruit trees and asparagus fields but their arts are not as big.
Around 2001, I started studying escrima with Suro Jason Inay, in Inayan, founded by Mangisursuro Mike Inay, a graduate of GM Angel Cabales. I also received private lessons from Lahong Susuro John Peterson(dec) and Guro David Antony Ruiz.
I was studying 3 escrima arts at once in 2002, but they were all very closely related. The founders of the arts all belonged to the same Filipino lodges.
* I referred to the escrima group that I spent most of my time with as Bahala Na(out of Stockton, CA). That is who they were at the time. They are very well known in escrima circles in NorCal. Well the GM who instructed the initial group(which I was not part of) passed away, his name was GM Leo Giron. A new GM Tony Somera was chosen by GM Giron, and it caused quite a bit of anger among the original group of students. GM Tony Somera was my instructor at the Bahala Na.
To make matters worse, after I returned home from Stockton, CA, to Illinois, Bahala Na GM Tony Somera passed away. The group already reeling from the initial issues, completely fractured because what was the head instructor of the Bahala Na, Maestro Labanog was not delegated as the new leader by GM Somera.
* I had also been studying an art called SLD, which stands for Serrada, Dequerdas(spelling varies) and Largo Mano under Maestro Dexter Labanog, who formed his own group to teach and was REAL tight with the older instructors at Bahala Na. Initially Dexter was the lead instructor under GM Leo Giron.
* I was also studying under Guro Carlito Bonjoc, a graduate of Cabales Serrada Escrima in his art Mata Sa Bagyo.
Well, I got back to Illinois and Bahala Na broke up into around 4 arts. I am not going to go into all of them because there is no way you will read all of that. Historically it is important but it is too confusing.
Just know that the video above that I posted had instructors that also trained me at Bahala Na and SLD. They initially formed a group called, "Bahala Na - Multistyle" and combined all of the techniques with the head of the new group under GM Dexter Labanog. But the group was sued, and they lost in court, and changed the name of the school to "Stockton-Multistyle."
Bahala Na is still around. As is O.G.E, Original Giron Escrima founded by the son of GM Giron.
If you can believe it, between 2000 and 2003, I studied with at least 3 other escrima/arnis groups. The ones above had the most influence on me. You may have heard of Sayoc, yep I trained with them too but not enough to do much.
Naperville,
Thank you for sharing your training history and some of the details of the groups you trained with. Sounds to me your background has a rich history.
TBH, I'm not overly familiar with the Filipino martial arts. My Kenpo teacher also trained in Arnis and Escrima, among other arts, but I only trained a little bit of Arnis under Remy Presas. So basically, my knowledge of FMA is nil. However, I do have great respect for FMA, and your background is excellent.
I honestly don't know why I never formally trained in FMA. It would have fit me much better than some arts I spent some time in (Tae Kwon Do, for example); which, after having done Kenpo and Sh!to-ryu Karate, TKD was too easy for me. I could already do all the kicks as well as or better than many of the better TKD guys before I even tried TKD out. The only difference was that the TKD people shuffled around and bounced around on their kicks more, but they weren't better than the Kenpo or Sh!to-ryu guys at it.
It is sad how, as in almost everything else, politics, ego, and jealousy rear their ugly heads in martial arts, and in MA organizations.
Jim
