Lakas Filipino Martial Arts

Thanks to my Tita Julie Maraña for sharing this portrait. Recently, my family has been sharing a post I published back in 2014 with renewed interest in our grandfather (“Lolo” in Tagalog), Col. Laureano Maraña. Over the past few years I have been able to uncover a little bit more, including his unit flag which ultimately inspired the current Lakas Filipino Martial Arts emblem. Colonel Laureano…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 30: Guro Mark Mikita – The Iconoclast

I first became aware of Mark Mikita when I lived in Southern California. On a hot afternoon amidst the crawling West LA traffic on Washington Blvd, I saw his school. The exterior was white, with clean lettering and black Baybayin on the side. “Mi-ki-ta” I said to myself, reading the ancient syllabary. Above it all, clear and simple with no adornment, as if to boldly proclaim the art were the…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 29: Gura Rosie Abriam – The Gura

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Shortly before moving back home to Maryland, I watched Guro Inosanto online as he presented our Filipino Martial Arts to a captivated audience at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. The program, entitled “Filipino Martial Arts: From Kali and Escrima to Boxing”featured faculty from the University of Maryland but also included a name I…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 28: Sifu Dwight Woods – The Rebel

“Yes! The rhythm! The Rebel!” – Public Enemy

I started listening to Sifu Dwight Woods years before his podcasts, “The I Love Jeet Kune Do Broadcast”, “The Jeet Kune Do Dialogues” and “The FMA Files”. I started watching Sifu Dwight on YouTube back in the day, intently listening to his clips from his classes, talking about Guro Inosanto, JKD and Kali. Since then, podcasts have become a great…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 27: Gat Puno Abundio Baet – The Chief

I see it in footage today, just as I saw it in person back then. But I cannot explain it. “It must be his position” I thought. “Or maybe the angles.” In the hot, and very humid Florida sun, we stood around Gat Puno Abon Baet at he easily touched his opponent’s head with his stick while staying out of range. I watched their shoulders. Their feet. Even now, I cannot really understand it. I only…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 26: Professor Guy Chase – De Cadena

“Watch how he moves. Look at him.” I looked over my shoulder for a moment. “Did you see him?”

I was partnered up with Guro Victor Gendrano for the evening Kali class at the Inosanto Academy. I was there for Instructor Camp, so the school was crowded with both students as well as visiting instructors from around the country, even from around the world. We were pushed to the very back, at the edge…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 25: Lauren Mary Kim – The Stunt Woman

We all leaned forward, on the edges of our seats. As the Stormtroopers surrounded her, she sat still, forging tools in hand. One prodded her helmet with his blaster. Suddenly she sprung up, alive in action, her hammer and tongs whirling and smashing and crushing. We all shrieked in exhilaration! My daughter next to me jumped up off the bean bag, my sons and wife yelling on the couch. And…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 24: Tuhon Ray Dionaldo – The Bridge

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I could barely believe it. I was standing outside in the Southern California sun, looking up at the Ed Parker’s Kenpo Karate sign at his original school in Pasadena. I was about to go inside and meet Tuhon Ray Dionaldo, the incredible Filipino Martial Artist that had captivated my attention over the last several months on YouTube. I had started Sayoc Kali earlier in that…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 23: Dr. Mark Wiley – The Through Line

Sometime during my college years, I came across a book that truly captivated me and significantly influenced my views on Filipino Martial Arts. That book was “Filipino Martial Culture”by Mark V. Wiley. Growing up, I loved going to bookstores and my local mall had at least two or three. I would scourge the graphic novels and fictions sections, but eventually grew into (and stayed with) martial…

By Dens of Lions Encompassed

“No, she can say goodbye… and we’ll wait right here.”

Her thick, Boston accent was loud, and clear. It cut through the thick silence that both proceeded and followed. We stood at the entrance of the newly built Covid unit, as a mom held her sons hands and whispered into his ear and kissed him on the cheek. Through masked faces, the little boy burst into tears and his mom began to sob. We were…

Gratitude, Identity & Filipino Martial Culture

Growing up, I hated history.

I remember almost nothing from my US History or European History classes, and I clearly remember feeling very disconnected to the material and my teachers (mostly Jesuit priests) as a teenager. Now I love it. Especially the history as it relates to The Philippines.

As still the case today, almost immediately as a student of Guro Inosanto’s at his Academy in Los…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 22: Guro Steve Grody – The Flow

Guro Steve Grody is one of the pioneers in sharing JKD and Kali through video. He is the one that put Burton Richardson on, and propelled Mark Balluff to mega stardom. But what really set him apart at the time, and what is still immensely valuable to me was his emphasis on very specific components of the arts. Both highly specialized but also extremely universal, his tapes on hubad lubad, siko…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 21: Jay Enage – The Script

Guro Inosanto always shared with us that it was the martial artists, the warriors who protected the culture. He once commented that any culture that exists today, only exists because there were warriors there to preserve it. And as long as I have known about Filipino Martial Arts, I knew that somewhere in that culture and history, existed the ancient script. Like anting-anting, like the hidden…

Filipino Culture Through Guro Dan Inosanto

Guro Inosanto has said it countless times, “in order to understand the art, you have to understand the culture, and in order to understand the culture, you must understand the history.” I had the great privilege of being a resident student at the Inosanto Academy for almost 10 years, and in addition to the world class instruction what I found to be completely invaluable was the history that Guro…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 21: Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje, Jr. – The Discipline

I first met Grand Tuhon Leo Gaje at the Inosanto Academy in Marina del Rey almost 16 years ago. It was the Fall of 2003 and he came in to visit with Guro Dan. I was sitting close to the main entrance after Silat class, as back then you had to be promoted into the evening Kali class that Guro taught. I had only been a student at the Academy for a few weeks and still constantly star struck at…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 20: Guro Jay Jasper Pugao – The Movement

In our method of Kali as taught by Guro Inosanto, we learn that our term comes from the words “kamut” (hand) and “lihok” (motion, or movement) and so Guro explains that our art is one of hand movements; of body motion. Guro Ramon Rubia used to always say that “the truth is in the movement”, and that Eskrima as our Filipino Martial Art was one that no longer used the physical and literal arms…

Lakas Filipino Martial Arts Podcast Episode 19: Tuhon Apolo Ladra – The Indigenous

Indigenous. Native. Natural. Inherent to. Originating from. Characteristic of a particular country, region or people.

Tuhon Apolo Ladra is all of these things. But he is also a bridge. A torch. He is a bridge from our ancient, indigenous Filipino culture to our modern American life. He is a torch passed from Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje to his Kali4Kids program. He is the light that reflects the…