Last night I had a dream and I've been having dreams that later on comes true.  I've verified this through Tiffany Napial but now I am going to start documenting.

February 18, 2013 I had a dream that I recently asked someone to be my Girlfriend.  We were in an upstairs apartment with a newly installed panoramic painting abstract but beautiful.  Another painting was there previously leaning against the wall covered.  I was sitting on a couch with the girl making sure I would not let go of her hand.  I do not know who this person is.  I did see someone who gave me the artwork and there was someone I recognized.  Guro Henry Cabillion and somehow he wanted to painting leaning on the wall.  And it was important that he knew I was dating this person.

What that means I have no clue but let's see.

WEKAF USA to Raise Dues

It has come to my attention that WEKAF USA's board of directors are planning to raise the dues. As a former member of the board that thought has indeed crossed my mind, with all the things I wanted to do as the Marketing Director the number one issue has always been money.

But before they raise the dues I think a few fundamental questions need to be answered by the board before I agree to the raise.

1) Has the whole issue of who has the right to be called WEKAF USA been resolved?

2) If WEKAF USA is the largest WEKAF INTL member, than what has WEKAF INTL done to accommodate the USA team? For example,
a. Get special rates for USA team to be in one hotel
b. Shouldn't the USA group vote be worth more since we are a majority? I am not asking this to be a snob, but if 10 countries vote against the USA and each of those countries have only 1-2 members while the USA has 160+ then why is our vote only count as one?

3. What benefits do I get now as a WEKAF USA member?

4. What do you plan to add if we raise the dues?

5. Where are my ID cards or School Certificate?

6. How come there are no more ALL MEMBER meetings?

7. How can the board communicate with it's members?

8. What forum do we have to talk about how the last National was ran?

9. As a school member how are you helping me develop my business?

10. How are you making FMA more mainstream?

These are just some questions that need be answered irregardless wether they raise the dues or not.

I encourage all WEKAF USA board to ask their director these questions before they raise the dues.

Sincerely,
Francis Serrano
Former Marketing Director
WEKAF USA
2006-2008




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The bad hand not too bad.

Kawit, empty hand, checking hand, the good hand. Terms i have heard to describe the weaker of the two hands. I know there are many styles of FMA that focuses on different aspects of the style such as footwork or power or even the ranges. There are even styles that teaches doble sobliti (double stick) first. All I believe are important. And what I believe to be more important is the kawit hand or empty hand. As practitioner we know that we differ from the other Martial arts by the teaching of weapon first but another "hidden" aspect is the checking hand. The checking hand although more predominantly taught to media and corto fighters it is essential to us. The empty or kawit hand is there to manipulate our opponent by placing their weapon wherever we choose, by controlling the tempo and the be able to generate a large amount of force in confined spaces.

The checking hand allows us to not only the obvious which is check the opponent's hand but to control it as well. With our checking hand we can manipulate our opponents weapon hand and their body. And if your checking hand is sensitive enough you wouldn't even need to look at your opponent but because you have a tactile connection you already know what he or she is going to do just by the feel of their weapon hand.

Another aspect of the kawit hand is controlling your opponents speed. Because you manipulate your opponent you can set them up to move their body is a position where it would take them an extra 4-5 seconds to reset while only taking you 1. So to your opponent it looks like your faster but in reality you just made them slower.

One of the biggest critics against corto style fighting is the lack of power. Because they're not enough space to generate the proper velocity to ensure maximum damage. But excecuted correct you can us your checking hand to move your opponent towards your weapon while your weapon is moving toward your opponent. Thus generating twice the amount of power in less space.

As you can see the kawit is a strong weapon min any FMAers arsenal. And to sum it up here is what I tell my students.

"Your weapon hand kills your opponent, the other one saves your life."
-Francis T. B. Serrano
Guro Visayan Legacy Association
FMASCHOOL.com

Constantly Improving

Its been hard trying to market FMASCHOOL.com, difficult because I am my own worst client. As someone with marketing experience, I know that its crucial that I follow up with any and all contacts I
might have made in my events. It's important to have a booth ready to go with staff ready to answer any questions that might arise. But it is also important to get their contact info. Just giving them my flyer or business care won't do any good. It is up to the vendor to follow up. I know this, and any marketing person worth his salt knows this. But I can't seem to do it. Maybe this is what keeps me from success. My own lack of follow through?

So with that to any and all who wants to market anything. Showing up isn't good enough anymore, its showing up everyday is what counts. Push for it and never give up on your dream.

Francis




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The Best Defense is not a Good Offense.

That old saying the Best Defense is a very good offense does not apply in combative sports. Yes it might apply to foothball or basketball(yay Lakers) but not to sports such as boxing or eskrima. At least not to the way you think it is.

If you were in a situation that would require you to fight than defense can not completely be gone. For at all times you must be aware of the opponents counters. But this is were I believe many practicioners of WEKAF style fighting is forgeting. In the match just hitting your opponent with out any regard to your defense is not a true representation of your skills. But most of the time the fighters just let the armor absorb all the strikes and once they start fighting opponents that can really do some damage then what are they going to do? Imagine if boxing great Manny Pacquiao were to only do offense well as fast as he is one lucky punch will knock even him out. So he has to incorporate some defense of circling, head weaving, and checking.

So in conclusion to my rant, to fight without any defense at all just makes you a 50% fighter. No matter how good your offense may be.


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I know I am suppose to share

When I was a little boy one of the things that was alway hard for me was to share. Share my toys my friends just anything that belonged to me well it stayed with me. I am just a stingy little boy. I guess it had to do with being the youngest and there was at least 16 years between my sister and I. So in that context i am an only child.

But as I grew older I knew that sharing was important. And now I share all the time. But when is it okay not to share?

Eversince Visayan Legacy split from the main school it has been awkward. I mean I still have friends from the old school. And I look forward to see them in tournaments and seminars. But now it's different.

Now that they decided to stay with their teacher why are some of them still asking us to be their corner man and or prepare them for the upcoming tournament. Why are they not asking their leaders and or teachers? I just find it so unfair that they are expecting us to sti help the when in our time of need they decided to abandon us. Let's me be clear although they are still my friends. Their decision to stay with that person still hurt. To me it felt lime they put their self interest first before doing what is obviously right. ( Oh btw if you are reading this and you are one of those people. Sorry but this is how I feel )

Now at tournaments they come up and ask if we can be their corner man or have a session with them to train. I am so not down with that.

1. Why aren't they askig their teachers? I mean they choose to stay with him so have him help you. But more often than not if we do help them they go and give credit to their teacher not the one that actual helped them.

2. As a school owner my point of view has changed. I find myself thinking of my students first more and more often. And my students pay me to teach them what I know, why then should others get it for free? It's not fair to my students.

So sharing all the time. Well not in this case.

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Effectiveness of Stickfighting

More often than not I get a lot of questions and comments about FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) and it's effectiveness. Well it doesn't take much convincing that FMA is designed for real world application. And yes I know we don't walk around with sticks everyday. But any true Filipino Martial Artist knows what makes this effective isn't the tool it's the "tool" that thinks that I need a stick to kick their ass. Just kidding what makes this dangerous isn't the stick it's the person that wields it.

And here's why:

1. Extension. A stick is an extension of my arm meaning that I can still do the same move with a small variation.

2. Faster than you. A stick can travel almost 50x's faster than your fist. And we train to block and counter with a fast moving sticks being wielded against us. Well if we can move block evade counter circumnavigate dodge with a stick traveling at high velocity than how much easier would it be when it is traveling at a slower rate?

3. We start training weapon first. That is because FMA has a military point of view. In any military training across the globe and history. All soldiers are first taught how to fight with a weapon. And when they go out on the field of battle they carry as much weapons as they can carry. Why? It's because they want to have as much of an advantage over their enemy. So they teach them how to wield their weapons first and then move into empty hands. But ask any soldier, once you take a way their weapons are they any less dangerous?


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