IN MEMORY OF: Ted Wong

It is with deep sadness that I post of the passing of Sifu Ted Wong. My sincerest condolences to the Wong family and his students. The JKD Community has a suffered a great loss, and if I may be so bold, indeed, the Martial Arts Community has suffered a great loss. An Intercepting Fist (2008) - a film by Annette Lee www.brucelee.com's Remembering Bruce Lee - Shannon Lee and Ted Wong I have not had many opportunities to formally train but of all the instructors I've wanted to train with, I wanted to learn from Sifu Ted Wong. One of my training...

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BOOKS: Way of the Ancient Healer by Virgil Mayor Apostol

  Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions by Virgil Mayor Apostol (North Atlantic Books)... Way of the Ancient Healer provides an overview of the rich tradition of Filipino healing practices, discussing their world influences and role in daily life. Enhanced with over 300 photographs and illustrations, the book gives readers a rare look at modern-day Filipino healing rituals, including...

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LINKS: Rumsua.org - Filipino Healing traditions

    http://www.rumsua.org/   My thanks to my friend good P. for the heads-up on this site. I've always been curious about Hilot, the Filipino Healing Art, when I first read about it years ago on the now defunct Eskrima Digest.  There is an 1980's or 1990's article profiling Sam Tendecia in either Inside Kung Fu or Inside  Karate. If I recall correctly it mentioned that Dan Inosanto had an injury that Sam Tendecia cured  using...

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Filipino Martial Arts: From Kali and Escrima to Boxing

October is Filipino American History Month Upcoming Event—October 27, 2010 Filipino Martial Arts: From Kali and Escrima to Boxing The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program and the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) present a screening of the documentary film, The Great Pinoy Boxing Era (Corky Pasquil and Agrafino Edralin) and hosts a panel discussion and demonstration on Filipino martial arts. The Great Pinoy Boxing...

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BOOKS: Americane: The Grasso / Morale Method of Personal Defense

A practical guide for Personal Defense with a walking stick written by Ralph Grasso and Joshua Morale. It's 61 pages and can be purchased here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/americane-the-grasso-morale-method-of-personal-defense/13513616 I will be purchasing this and a review is forthcoming. If you frequent the various Martial Arts forums, Ralph Grasso should be no stranger. He was a student of the late Carl Cestari as well as Amante...

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Dog Brothers on Pay-Per-View Monday, October 18, 2010

Great news... the Dog Brothers will be on PPV! Cut and pasted from http://www.indemand.com/product/view/200437: Stick Fights: Dog Bros' Cruel Combat PPV Premiere: Monday, October 18, 2010 Dog Brothers Martial Arts (DBMA) presents its legendary Stick Fighting Battles for the 1st time ever on Pay Per View! Using its unique, “system of many styles”, DBMA combines Filipino & Indonesian Martial Arts and Dog Brother’s Grappling & Stick-Grappling,...

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IN MEMORY OF: Master Christopher "Topher" Ricketts (1955-2010)

Another terrible loss to the FMA Community. Yesterday Master Christopher "Topher" Ricketts of Bakbakan International passed away after a battle with cancer. He was only 55 years of age. He was one of the founders of Bakbakan, and also one of Antonio "Tatang" Illustrisimo's students, having studied under him along with Tony Diego, Yuli Romo and Edgar Sulite. http://www.myfma.net/forum/topics/master-christopher-ricketts My sincerest condolences to the Ricketts family as well as to the members of Bakbakan International and the Kalis Illustrisimo...

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IN MEMORY OF: GM Ben Largusa (1926-2010)

It is with sadness that I report that the Filipino Martial Arts community has lost another, GM Ben Largusa. Image from Dan Inosanto's The Filipino Martial Arts book. Copied and pasted from http://www.villabrillelargusakali.com/:Grandmaster Ben Largusa was the first man to bring the Kali into the United States public arena. At the 1964 Ed Parker International Karate Championships held in Long Beach, California, he gave America its first demonstration...

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Burglars Said to Have Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates

In a previous post, I wrote about Why I Won't Use My Real Name on the Internet. This is a short followup of something that was reported in the New York Times recently. In this day and age of the Internet, Identity Theft, Privacy and Cyber Security, I hope this site's readers will use a little common sense when they are interacting on social networking sites such as Facebook. Cut and pasted from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/burglars-picked-houses-based-on-facebook-updates/ September 12, 2010, 10:24 am Burglars Said to Have Picked...

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Why I Won't Use My Real Name on the Internet

In the current landscape of the Internet, social networking is huge be it Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Classmates, Linked, etc. Most people who frequent the social networking sites or utilize their services/benefits use their real name. After all, these sites/services help you to find lost friends/relatives/classmates, find jobs, etc. It is in your best interest to use your real name. With that said, however, there are a few reasons why I don't use my real name on the 'Net. It doesn't matter if it's a martial arts forum, a self-defense forum, or...

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UFC 116 - Lesnar X Carwin - the most anticipated heavyweight fight ever

Last night was the UFC Heavyweight Championship unification bout between reigning champion Brock Lesnar and Interim Champion Shane Carwin. This match was fireworks from the start. 3 gif's I made. If they don't show up, please let me know. First 2 shows Shane in action. Last one is Shane just before round 2 starts looking at Brock.   I rooted for Shane. I felt Carwin should've paced himself better instead of going 100%...

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Some new changes to the site...

Please accept my sincerest apologies on how long it's taking me to revamp the site's looks. Once it is halfway decent looking, I will be adding new content. Or maybe not. I'm not sure. Please bear with me. Some changes I've accomplished so far: Sidebar Looks Misaligned in Internet Explorer I'm using Firefox at home and the site looks ok. I checked this site using Internet Explorer and *gasp*, the sidebar is below the main body. Regardless, this current template is temporary, until I have time to really learn and mess with CSS and design the way...

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Revamp of site in progress

Frustrating, very frustrating. Thought I resolved my computer issues (first malware, then malware again, malware yet again, and lately then no digital signal sent to the monitor) Wanted to revamp the site and 'open for public' all in one go, but with the computer issues, please forgive the appearance while the site is under ongoing constructi...

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Army's new DVD - Techniques for Light Indian Club Swinging

My friend Army has a new DVD either out or about to be available. It deals specifically with light Indian clubs . It is 90 minutes long. I will be ordering it shortly and post a review. I have a backlog of reviews I intend to post If you are interested, please check out Army's site: http://www.agelesstrength.com  Good luck in your training and enjoy!...

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LINKS: General Amnat Pooksrisuk Thai Martial Arts

http://amnatpooksrisuk.com/index.html Awesome! General Pooksriruk has his site up and running. I was able to attend one of his Thai Bareknuckle Boxing seminars a few years ago. It was a blast. He was one of the instructors to Tony Jaa. Always interested in checking out Bareknuckle Boxing in its various forms as I feel it's closer to my needs of self-defense. There are some distinctions between Western Boxing as it's a sport with gloves and Muay...

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Battle Scarf - Functional Item and Improvised Weapon

I was catching up with reading the forums and sites, and while at Pete Kautz's site, Alliance Martial Arts, I found out about the Battle Scarf. It seems like it is a great everyday functional item which can definitely be used as an Improvised Weapon for self-defense. Too bad Spring is upon me as Winter just passed, but I will be ordering one soon to check out. For anyone who doubts the power of Flexible Weapons, the Youtube clip above should help change your thinking. The power of Flexible Weapons with the breaking of cinder blocks with just...

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EBOOKS: Safety Response: The Essential Guide to your Personal Safety by Aran Dharmeratnam

This informative manual addresses subjects such as awareness and aggression disengagement. It covers avoidance, the different forms of hostility including less discussed forms such as spatial aggression and distance based aggression. It also looks at some of the physical tactics that predatory aggressors use such as the various grabs, use of projectiles, intimidation and set ups. Plus there are numerous insights into concepts that people can use...

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LINKS: Hertao Self-Defense and MMA Blog

A friend of mine was teaching in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. For those that don't know about Katrina, in the history of the United States, it was one of the five deadliest hurricanes to hit America as well as being the costliest with respect to damages incurred. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina I didn't know that Katrina wiped out his business. Living through the rampant crime must have been very difficult. He...

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Upcoming changes to the site

First off, please update your bookmarks. My site's URL is officially: http://www.stickgrappler.net The URL took effect about a month ago. I have not been posting as of late. I am somewhat of a perfectionist. I wanted to revamp my site prior to the URL going live but I didn't master the CSS/HTML enough to give my site a facelift (yet). Also, I am not satisfied with the interim design and my ultimate design I've not accomplished yet given my crappy CSS/HTML understanding. The first step I took is accomplished, stickgrappler.net is now a reality...

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Facebook "Friend-zy"

Sometime last year, I decided to sign up on Facebook. I wanted to check out the buzz surrounding it and experience the social networking phenomenon firsthand. I must admit I was caught up in what i call the Facebook Friend-zy. Facebook is a powerful social networking tool. It reminds you of birthdays, it allows you to send in effect a "blast email" informing all your friends of some upcoming event, it lets you put up pictures, it lets you post links to interesting sites you found, and it even helps you track down long-lost friends. I was able...

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A Word About My Reviews

I have to get this off my chest. In the interest of full disclosure, my reviews will be from the point of view of a beginner. We are all of varying skill levels, experiences and understanding in the martial arts. What you may find not useful to you, I may find merit in. Vice versa, I may find something I don't like and you would like. I view myself as a beginner in the martial arts. I am not being humble, just honest with you. Although, I have a strong interest in the martial arts since I was a kid, I have not practiced since I was a kid until...

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Catchup I

Hello all: My last post was in September of 2009. Since then, my home computer system has been plagued with viruses, malware, spyware and something newer called scareware (some sort of malware scaring you into buying their antivirus product). My wife and kids have been on the computer more and I don't know how our system got infected. Actually, I know partially why... I run Windows Vista at home, and Windows is infamous for having a lot of holes which hackers exploit. Total frustration spending time cleaning my system, reinstalling programs etc. Although...

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