“KEEP THE FMA 5 ALIVE!”
BECOME AN FMA EQUAL OPPORTUNITY DEPLOYER!
Above I give you the common FMA seminar photo. Why is it common? Everyone is ALWAYS holding sticks. Other related photos show the instructors and attendees working with sticks. Sticks, Sticks. STICKS! Almost always single sticks. Some of you seeing and reading this are not algorithm-ly linked to FMA and never see these photos. Granted sticks are fun and addictive for some (not many, as most people are golfing, tennis-ing and pickle-balling, very few are in the martial arts, and even fewer in FMA. It seems that those few of the few that are doing FMA surely do a whole, whole lot of sticks. Mostly single sticks.
A recent plethora of happy FMA campers holding sticks and flooding me with photos in my algorithm, caused me to write this probably unpopular essay. But, as far as white boys – gringos – like me go – and one might say I am a younger “elder” in FMA. I was even declared an “ambassador” of FMA by one of the largest FMA groups on the web, and having been in FMA since 1986, teaching around the world since the late 1990s, I am sort of “glued” to FMA, so you might want hear me out for a moment on this?
In the Philippines, I learned (mostly from Ernesto Presas) that there are 5 areas of FMA “Play.” Since this is serious, I drop the word “play” and replace it with “arenas. “Five Arenas.”
- Single stick.
- Double stick.
- Knife.
- Stick and knife, let’s not argue about stick-sword thing right now.
- Mano mano
Note: There are some other lesser categories to fool with like magic, whips, powders, the bo-staff, etc.. Some are indigenous, some invaded from outside traditional martial arts of other countries.
Looking at the big picture of all indigenous FMA system heads and masters that we all respect, etc, I think all would agree, on paper…doctrine… these are the big 5 that make up the skeleton of FMA. As a result, I am an equal-time “deployer” of FMA training. Each category should be given equal time. Proportionality – to properly teach, represent, spread, honor, core FMA. Yet, we see, hear, smell, touch, watch and adore TOO MUCH STICK!
From a training doctrine perspective, it is almost to the point that some folks should call their courses, “Randy’s stick course,” and not “Randolph’s FMA.” Because Randy, perhaps innocently, does way too much single stick, ignoring the other arenas. Think about this.
Naming precisely what you do is honest business. I see where some do this and semantically this is cool. Some teach the Panantukan-ish “Dirty Boxing” Which is a great marketing name, but let’s face it, if it was really, REALLY dirty, it would hardly look like boxing at all. But, there has to be bridge marketing. I get it.
Back to FMA seminar photos – For me, this is not just a seminar photo finishing-day, group thing, because I can see how that happens, well, it was a FMA seminar, so… “Hey! Let’s all get our sticks and get a picture.” But even this portends the subliminal concept that all or most FMA is…single stick. Yet, it is only 1/5th.
I like the idea that FMA-er artisans are exploring the bolo-sword reminiscent of it’s training stick originality. It has no real value to modern survival, but it’s an art! A hobby. Fun. Historical. Sword and even stick are not “crime and war” street survival, and their benefits are abstract. I can state with much confidence that you will never be in a stick-stick fight, as if – you walking around with a 28-inch stick concealed stick at the mall and get onto a hassle with another guy, who is also concealing a 28-inch stick. You are more likely to fight with tennis rackets or golf clubs! And even that is crazy rare idea. If you remove stick dueling from the FMA curriculum, there is not a whole lot of stick material left. (I know because I have slaved to do this for my Force Necessary: Stick course.)
In the golden-olden days, I remember the big Remy Presas seminar-camps. 4 or 5 dayers. We would be destroyed (especially our hands and fingers!) by the 20 percent “hand-mano-mano” days doing Small Circle Jujitsu and Sinawali Boxing. Remy was always making the connection, making sure whenever he could, to connect the 5 areas with the same drill-movements. Not ignoring the big 5. This approach was drilled into me by Remy and Ernesto.
It’s not hard. 20% each. Slice it up over a class, or a week, or a month or a year even. And by using classic drill patterns, you can slide 2,3 arenas into the basic movements. I mean, look what you can do with the Hubad drill. All 5, with inserts. FMA equal time deployer drill! And it has been my experience that the mano-mano could be many established empty hand martial arts. That is what I have seen from the FMA GMs. (I think kajukenbo when I think mano mano. It has karate, jujitsu, kenpo and boxing. That and Remy’s sinawali boxing.)
Oh well! Continue to have your fun! This is just my opinion. “Keep the FMA 5 alive!” You can ignore me of course. I am ignorable. I don’t do FMA full-time, I mostly do generic combatives, and perhaps in this regard I have an odd-unique, inside-yet-outsider viewpoint?
