How did you “style” progress

[Holmejr]

In Eskrido De Alcuizar GM back in the 50/60’s incorporated judo, elements of tang so doo, boxing into his original Doce Pares/San Miguel roots. Our stick work is basically called eskrima and our knife work is called combat judo. This is until they come together and then there is no distinction.

I always believed that FMA was the original JKD/MMA always progressing and utilizing what was useful. Many folks that see dog brothers or others incorporate “outside” elements, might say it’s is adulterating the art.

Thoughts.

 

[ap Oweyn]

I'm with you. I feel like that adaptation of outside elements to the priorities of FMA is absolutely essential. I don't see that as adulteration, but as an intrinsic part of FMA's "worldview." I get that it's different from the view of other traditional arts. But that's okay. It would be deeply reductionist to suggest that FMA should follow the path of something like karate or gung fu simply by virtue of coming from the same basic geographical area. It's a different culture.

All that said, I'm very clearly (from my picture) not Filipino. So, while my training has primarily taken place within that culture, I'm not a member of it at the end of the day. So I'm commenting as an outsider looking in.

As for how my style progressed, I'm likely not the best person to ask. I did speak at length with GM Cacoy about how eskrido came about, but I've also trained in other things, and I can't pretend that this hasn't influenced how my personal practice evolved. And how that's different from my original art evolving.

On top of that, while I view FMA as "my art," it's actually not my first art. So I came into it with other influences as well. Those influences have faded, but they were still there at the beginning.

All of which likely combines to form a not-very-useful answer. Like a giant, ineffectual Voltron.

 

[Buka]

American Karate, which really doesn’t fall under today’s common definitions of Karate, progressed through giving and stealing.

The Giving - was from different martial artists and their traditional martial arts, who were very generous with their time and knowledge helping us for years.

The Stealing - anything we saw that looked (or felt) more effective than something similar to what we did, we stole. Then went to people and asked them to teach us the details. And all of them did. Not one person ever said no. Not even guys who were competitors of ours.

That’s how our art progressed. So far, so good.