My honey worked Saturday morning and there was someone who needed to be
trained. It was a perfect opportunity to ask a former soldier to meet me
for training. The necessary connections were made and at around 09:30
hours on Saturday morning we met and began training. The trainee was a
former member of several U.S. Army Airborne units. He was wounded in
time of battle and generally worn down by repeated jumps. I began his
training with classical Serrada Outside number 1. He was asked to begin
practicing the movement set and meet up with me again on Wednesday of
this week. He is now forced retired and was referred to me by Master
Michael Schwartz of the Wounded Warrior Project. I'll train this man for
free and hope that I can find ways to work around his disabilities and
allow him to be able to fully make an account of himself in a time of
need. I hope to give back to my country, my teacher and my system of
martial arts. I showed him a variety of fixed position combat techniques
that require little movement and that are quite capable of being used
for self defense. I seldom show these techniques in public, because they
appear non-nonsensical to the untrained eye and would only make me
available for public derision. I showed him Mano Viejo techniques that
are based upon right-eye manipulation and the drawing and pushing of an
opponent by breath control and mental focus. We are talking about
pamako and tagabalag, or the freezing of a person and the art of
invisibility. Freezing and the art of invisibility are ancient Filipino
martial techniques that are shrouded in time and seldom seen by most
modern practitioner's of Filipino martial Arts. I am a baby in these
techniques and I am stumbling along the path of learning. I have nobody
to train me any further. I froze my student a few times, drew him too me
effortlessly, controlled him by mental focus, breathing and relaxation.
Whatever else that I do and how I do it, is beyond me. I have no idea
where all of this leads, but my hope and desire is that it just gets
better. I will say that pamako and tagabalog are nothing what I thought
they would be. It is about a clear mind and not having a desire to harm
someone, it is about no desire. If they do not attempt to harm you, than
without their commitment, the techniques won't work. They will harm
themselves by their own devices. It is about a cleansed mind with a
blank slate of any intent. You simply allow something to happen. You
cannot have any desire to harm, maim, break, dislocate, nor destroy. You
simply open yourself up and let the energy which permeates all things,
do what needs to be done. I honestly believe that using such energy for
harm would be harmful to the person attempting to use it in a wrong way.
That's it. I suppose that you could use the techniques in a wrong way,
but I wouldn't know how to do this. I have found "a" way and will simply
follow along to wherever it wishes to take me. This is why I really
don't show much in public. I feel myself keying up and worry about
harming my student in public, because of forcing the techniques,
remember, it works "for me" when I simply let everything happen. When my
student and I are alone we both can relax and just flow. I don't need
to show particular techniques, or worry about displaying my art in a
gracious fashion to the public, because I represent Angel Cabales. Angel
Cabales exposed me to these things many years ago when he showed
something to me when Jimmy Tacosa was visiting. He asked me to block a
technique and I repeatedly attempted to block his hit and he just wasn't
there and the next thing I knew he had placed his weapon on my shoulder
and I had no idea how he had accomplished this. He had frozen me and
had also disappeared. I quit Escrima that day, because I knew that I
would have been effortlessly killed by him and I also knew that I would
have to discover what he did on my own. Hell, if you don't know what was
done to you, "How the hell was I going to able to figure it out alone".
Can I eventually teach these techniques to another human being? I
don't know, but hopefully I can. Apparently, you have to humble yourself
before you can be able to use the techniques that I speak of. The
manipulation of energies could be immense. You can lock someone's
skeleton and cause great harm with minimum effort. Once, when training
wit Bob Stewart and Anthony Lo Presti I grabbed a hold of Anthony and we
both felt a great deal of energy. I knew that had I continued my
throwing technique: I felt tat I could have thrown Anthony 20 feet away
without effort. I had focused my mind upon his wrists and when I started
moving, it was as if he was being tugged by a hugely powerful machine. I
wish that I had full control of these techniques. It's like reading the
old accounts of past martial artists. A wounded warrior in possession
of these abilities would have little problem, in defending themselves.
Even if I can't Master these techniques, or not be able to teach this to
a wounded warrior: I will do my best to do so. I can only hope that he
stays with me and becomes an accomplished warrior, it is a fond hope.
