Aspirations for 2025

[ap Oweyn]

Good morning (at least on the East Coast of the US) everyone. In another effort to reignite the FMA forum a bit, I thought I'd ask what the FMA folks here have planned for the New Year.

Personally, I've been largely inactive for a while (for medical reasons mostly). But a combination of things has me thinking I'd like to get involved again in whatever capacity I can. So my aspirations for 2025 are to start training again (first and foremost) and to perhaps do a workshop for the Filipino cultural student group at the college where I work. We have a student worker from the PI who did arnis as his gym class back home, so we got to talking about it. I'm not the slightest bit interested in being "tactical" or "street lethal," but the chance to do some cultural work is really compelling to me. So we'll see.

I live far enough out finding an FMA group is tough. The closest teacher to me (only about 20 minutes away) appears to have moved on, which is a shame. Especially given that they trained with two of my former taekwondo instructors from the mid-80s. But if I widen the net a bit, I might find some training partners. And I don't have to widen the net too much before it includes folks from the groups with which I used to train. So it's not as dire as all that.

More to say on this, but let's see if the thread actually happens first. If it does, we'll talk. If it turns out to be the online equivalent of jotting this all down on a post-it note and lobbing it into a ravine, I get it. But I'll have tried at least.

One way or another, here's wishing my fellow eskrimadors a Happy New Year. Cheers.


ap

 

[Prince_Alarming]

Make enough money in the first month or two to pay my taxes
Quit drinking and smoking
Keep my studio and room in good order
reestablish a regular workout routine
Finish couch to 5k. Cardiovascular fitness has always been my greatest weakness
learn a tai chi sword form
go back to proper karate class once my taxes are paid off and I have a good few months of sobriety and non smoking. The idea of being around kids in karate class when I have disgusting, unhealthy addictions is repellent to me. I hate the idea that I might be sending kids the message that all that stuff is OK. It isn't.

 

[ap Oweyn]

Thanks Prince Alarming.

So it looks like I've duplicated a thread in the main forum, which I should have anticipated. And there likely isn't enough traffic here to do an FMA-specific thread. So I'll perhaps start a new thread to liven things up here. Apologies everyone.

That said, if anyone does have aspirations they want to share here, I'm not discouraging you.

 

[Prince_Alarming]

Yeah, I'd love to hear what goals people are going to be smashing this year. TBH having a fresh thread at so far a juncture doesn't seem like a bad thing to me

 

[Prince_Alarming]

Thanks Prince Alarming.

So it looks like I've duplicated a thread in the main forum, which I should have anticipated. And there likely isn't enough traffic here to do an FMA-specific thread. So I'll perhaps start a new thread to liven things up here. Apologies everyone.

That said, if anyone does have aspirations they want to share here, I'm not discouraging you.

BTW don't we know each other from MAP and facebook?

 

[ap Oweyn]

BTW don't we know each other from MAP and facebook?

Yep! I was a mod at MAP for a while. This wasn't your screen name at MAP though, was it? It's been a while and I've gotten old in the meantime.

I started out as the FMA forum mod over there, as it happens.

 

[Prince_Alarming]

Yep! I was a mod at MAP for a while. This wasn't your screen name at MAP though, was it? It's been a while and I've gotten old in the meantime.

I started out as the FMA forum mod over there, as it happens.

I was Knight_Errant.... please don't hold it against me, I've grown up quite a bit since then

 

[ap Oweyn]

I was Knight_Errant.... please don't hold it against me, I've grown up quite a bit since then

Brother, I was re-reading some of my stuff from back then recently. And I'd like to think I have too. Though I promise nothing.

And I applaud your resolutions for this year. I would like to get back to a training "place" myself. Though, as I mentioned, FMA training places are few and far between. (Mine are all back in Maryland, which isn't an odyssey, but is a bit far for regular attendance.) The small town where I live has taekwondo, MMA, and BJJ. But none of those are what I'm after. (I do like muay thai a lot, but I'm not a natural fit for most MMA gyms. Not competitive enough in nature.)

I've thought about fencing as an adjunct to FMA (again). There might be an opportunity for that through the university I attend. But I'm also ancient by university club standards, so there's that.

 

[Prince_Alarming]

Brother, I was re-reading some of my stuff from back then recently. And I'd like to think I have too. Though I promise nothing.

And I applaud your resolutions for this year. I would like to get back to a training "place" myself. Though, as I mentioned, FMA training places are few and far between. (Mine are all back in Maryland, which isn't an odyssey, but is a bit far for regular attendance.) The small town where I live has taekwondo, MMA, and BJJ. But none of those are what I'm after. (I do like muay thai a lot, but I'm not a natural fit for most MMA gyms. Not competitive enough in nature.)

I've thought about fencing as an adjunct to FMA (again). There might be an opportunity for that through the university I attend. But I'm also ancient by university club standards, so there's that.

Fencing is yet another thing I'd like to try. I'm dead jealous of my nephew taking kendo lessons.

 

[ap Oweyn]

Fencing is yet another thing I'd like to try. I'm dead jealous of my nephew taking kendo lessons.

I think my university has a kendo club too. My son fenced epee for a little bit, and I participated in fencing classes formally before my kids were born and informally when I was in undergrad (more years ago than I care to contemplate). FMA has programmed me for a certain level of informality though, and fencing feels a little restrictive to me now. (Sport fencing I mean.)

I suspect, really, I'm just going to need to start a group of my own and go from there, if I'm serious about this. I've certainly taught for long enough. It's just a question of schedule, location, and that sort of logistics. That's part of why I'd want to do it through the college where I work.

 

[Prince_Alarming]

I think my university has a kendo club too. My son fenced epee for a little bit, and I participated in fencing classes formally before my kids were born and informally when I was in undergrad (more years ago than I care to contemplate). FMA has programmed me for a certain level of informality though, and fencing feels a little restrictive to me now. (Sport fencing I mean.)

I suspect, really, I'm just going to need to start a group of my own and go from there, if I'm serious about this. I've certainly taught for long enough. It's just a question of schedule, location, and that sort of logistics. That's part of why I'd want to do it through the college where I work.

Cool. Me, I wanna learn a tai chi sword form. It seems do-able to learn it on my own as a lone madman kind of thing. To begin with I'll be using a piece of tourist tat that I picked up while I was drunk, but when I've learned the form properly I aim to buy an actual tai chi sword.