Love of the art

Everyone comes to the Philippine Combat Arts, particularly here in the United States, for various reasons. Some, are looking for an excuse to get outside the house, meet new people, and maybe get a little exercise. Others, are looking to be the baddest mamajama since Jason Bourne. And still others are just looking for a traditional expression of the Philippine Combat Arts.

Well, for whatever reason you decide to try out a training session, only one thing will keep you coming back and help you improve at these arts, and that is love of the art. Now, love the art, doesnt mean you have to sell your instructor your first born child, wash his car using only circular wiping motions, worship a picture of some old asian dude you've never met while meditating on the secrets of the universe. No, love of the art means you love the practice of the art, whether it be at the cheer of some paid instructor, in the privacy of your own home, or to the dismay of every other person at the bus stop.

If you talk to alot of elders in the Philipines, they will often refer to the practice of arnis or escrima, not as fighting, training, but play. They will say they play eskrima, or they play arnis, or they play kali. If they wish to spar with you, they may ask you to play. This method of reference shows something other than the difficulty of learning a foreign language, instead it shows the true joy of the practice of the art.

It is not work to practice, it is not something you need to be forced to do, have hammered into you, or do at the last minute. Instead to love the practice of eskrima, kali, or arnis is joy, something that if only you didnt have that pesky day job, that need to have food every now and then, that you would just constantly do.

So if you ever stop by a session, and wonder why we dont yell at our members. Why we dont bark like a drill sargent, make them do more calistenics than a new recruit in basic training, make people chase carrots (e.g. ranks), its because what we seek to promote, arent phony tough guys, people seeking to have yet another rank to throw in their cacaphony of various martial arts belts, or technique hunters, instead we seek to show people the love of this eclectic art that is the Philippine Combat Arts.