# Stories about the masters...



## billc (Sep 8, 2012)

Does anyone have good stories about the various masters of the FMA.  I know a few about Master Ilustrisimo but I wouldn't want to repeat them because that honor belongs to those who have trained with one of the 3 pillars, or Edgar Sulite.  I love the stories about the FMA masters because they are so recent.  You have men who fought using the arts, in war and civilian life, who have fought and actually ended the lives of others in combat, both Japanese soldiers, street criminals and others and you have these arts being passed down today.  There isn't that far of a remove from these masters and keeping their stories alive, outside of FMA circles especially only helps to spread the FMA.  

I heard one story from Edgar Sulite at a seminar of his that  I attended.  One of his students was practising in a park and was challenged by another guy.  The student said that he was only a student, and the guy told him to get his teacher and come back so this guy could fight the teacher.  The teacher was Edgar Sulite.  So Edgar Sulite said "I was very angry,"  which, if you ever met Edgar Sulite is hard to believe.  He was such a laid back, decent man, from what I could tell having traveled around the midwest attending his seminars.  So he goes and squares off against the jerk in the park.  Edgar Sulite said the guy swung a number 1 at him, (downward diagonal to the head or neck the left side) and Edgar stepped back and cut with I believe his term was a Panapiece, or thin slice cut.  Edgar Sulites strike hit the guy in the hand.  Edgar Sulite said you could see the guys hand starting to swell up, the guys hand started to shake, and that is when the guy threw down his stick and ran away.

Anyone else have stories of real life encounters from the masters?  I enjoy the stories I hear about Master Ilustrisimo and some of the others who fought the Japanese.


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## seasoned (Sep 8, 2012)

I wish I could contribute to this thread, FMA. I can't because of the lack of knowledge on my part.

But, I will keep in touch because it seems like the start of a very interesting thread..........


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## David43515 (Sep 10, 2012)

Well I heard one from a student of Floro VilleBrille (spelling?) about a Challenge he made and later backed out of because he beleived the other man had super-natural protection. But like you said, I should save that one for his students to tell. So here's another. 

Coconut husks are a couple inches thick and extremely course. They peel them off by driving the coconut onto a sharp spike and twisting the coconut. Even so, it's very difficult. To impress his the fiance with his hand strength he made a wager while they were walking near a coconut grove. He bet the growers that he could peel 5 coconuts with his bare hands faster than they could do it with their spikes....and he managed to do it.

He was known as a fighter and would travel around looking for good fighters to train with. When he heard of a remote mountain tribe who had good escrimadors, he traveled there and asked to learn from them. The village headman told his daughter to train Floro. He felt insulted at first, and even more so when he met her and realized she was blind! Then he crossed sticks with her....and found he couldn't hit her with his best moves. He stayed and worked with her and years later told everyone she was the best of all his teachers.


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## yak sao (Sep 10, 2012)

I haven't trained in FMA for several years now but here is a story that Rene Latosa personally told me:

He was in Germany many years ago, and was at a local school to teach a seminar. He was in the front of the school alone, doing some work on the heavy bag, when this guy wearing a kung fu uniform and carrying a duffel bag walks in. The kung fu guy asked who was the school master, beacause he was there to challenge him in a stick match.
Without stopping his workout, Lataosa motioned with his head that the teacher was in the back of the school, so the guy went back.
A minute or so later, the guy reappears and said to Latosa, " they told me in back that you are the man to challenge, so let's fight"

Latosa picks up a stick, while this guy pulls a couple of sticks from his bag. The kung fu guy proceeds to impressively twirl the sticks as he squares off in front of Latosa. Latosa simply reaches in and grabs the guy's lapels and throws him to the ground.
The guy gets back up and says, " no, I want to fight stick vs stick", so Latosaa says "OK, let's go again".

They square back up, the kung fu guy once again proceeds to twirl his sticks fast and furiously. Latosa takes his stick and tosses it at the guy, who gets flustered, and tries to juggle the extra sticvk between his two sticks. Latosa once again reaches in and grabs the guy's lapels and throws him to the ground.

The guy gets up, puts his sticks in his bag and leaves.


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## geezer (Sep 11, 2012)

In those early days, when _Rene Latosa_ first introduced Escrima in Europe, he ran into a lot of challenges and tough cases. He ran into some tough judo players and hard sparring, old-school karate guys. Some of those guys later became his most loyal students. But Rene really had to prove his stuff. And he did. He was a real scrapper, and _skinny_ too back then, if you look at the old pictures of him and Bill Newman from the 70's. 

One funny story he told was when he went to do a demo for Kieth Kernspecht in a beer hall in Germany. Rene was up on a stage doing his thing with doble baston when some guy in the back jumps up interrupting the demo, shouting in heavily accented English, _"Hey! Vat vould you do against zis?!?"_ and begins violently twirling two sets of nunchuks! Rene just stopped, looked at the guy, and threw one of his sticks across the room _right at his head_. The stick smacked hard against the wall just inches from the guy's ear. He was so flustered that he dropped his "chuks", then grabbed them up off the floor and ran out the door as fast as he could. 


Now _that_ would have been funny to watch. :uhyeah:


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## Stickgrappler (Sep 12, 2012)

My friend,David Black Mastro, posted this on his Facebook:


"*A veteran eskrimador ("Old man Benigno") saves young Leo Giron during jungle fighting, 1945.*
For a while there was shooting but when the situation became a hand to hand engagement, bolos went into action. Even the Japanese knew better than shooting in the dark. One might kill his own comrade. A Samurai swung at me. He aimed at my mid section. I swung my bolo toward the same direction hoping to cut his arm. He missed, I also missed; this was a horizontal blow. He came back with another horizontal back hand. I pulled my stomach back as I delivered a flashing downward follow blow. I felt a rip on the front portion of my fatigue shirt. I missed him again. The old man to my left just downed his last Jap, now he came to my rescue. He pushed me down. I laid flat on the shrub. Old man Benigno ducked under the heavy Japanese number one blow, at a fraction of a second the old man launched a heavy follow blow striking the back of the Japanese head. The Japanese's head was almost severed. I sat up wet from sweating. The night was cold most especially in higher elevation, once in a while there is a little frost on top of some old log lying in the open. The yelling was changing into laughter, as the boys search the Japanese for goodies and souveniers. Benigno and another boy pulled me up. "It's finished sir" was the report. I was ashamed, I didn't say a word. We went back to camp. It was dark and we had to feel our way back... "

Taken from the late GM Leo Giron's book, *Memories Ride the Ebb of Tide*.



_Salamat po _for the great stories so far! Any more?


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## Stickgrappler (Sep 12, 2012)

From a Leo Giron interview. He was asked about his WWII experience.


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FMA: What was the most memorable encounter you had with the enemy?

LG: Well it is hard to try and choose one particular encounter because they were all very horrifying. One Bonsai attack comes to mind, in early June 1945 on a rainy day. A large number of enemy soldiers charged our position. We formed a wedge or triangle formation, two on the side and one as a point man. I was point man. Just like any Bonsai charge the enemy was always noisy. Yelling and shouting, they are not afraid to die. The Filipino guerrillas, on the other hand, chew their tobacco, grit their teeth and wing their bolos, chop here, jab there, long bolos, short daggers, pointed bamboo, pulverized chili peppers with sand deposited in bamboo tubes to spray so the enemy cannot see. By now my adrenaline must have gone up. One bayonet and samurai sword came simultaneously. The samurai sword was in front of me while the bayonet was a little to the left. With my left hand I parried the bayonet. I blocked the sword coming down on me. The bayonet man went by and his body came in line with my bolo. Thats when I came down to cut his left hip. The Samurai was coming back with a backhand blow. I met his triceps with the bolo and chopped it to the ground. After the encounter I wiped my face with my left hand to clear my eyes from the rain and found bloodstains on my face. There were many more encounters. But our job was not to be detected by the enemy; our mission was to send back vital information on the enemy to headquarters.


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