First of all, it was an honor and privilege for Guro Ray to allow me to be one of his assistants on this trip.
It was also an honor to meet and work with Master Mike Kossivakis. He poured alot of hours of hard work in this project and it shows. I will dedicate at least one seperate post regarding his efforts and level of detail.
But first, Just as Guro Ray gave proper respect to his instructors, so did I and I want to take the time in this post to show the same respect to my instructors and influences like I always do.
My introduction/dedications were in rank order and capacity:
Full Instructor and NC State Regional Representative of FCS-Kali.
Lakan Dalawa Hock Hochheim's Pacific Archipelago and Filipino Combatives.
First Degree Black Belt Grandmaster Rick Ward's Sunburst Natural Fist System under Sifu David Ng.
Lakan, Grandmaster Remy A. Presas' Modern Arnis (IMAF, Inc)
It was indeed a pleasure to share from all these influences at the events. I had the chance to of course share Guro Ray's outstanding material but also to:
- Show some of Hock Hochheim's gun disarms, which I learned from Master Lyndon Johnson, to several policeman from Greece. We used one of their .45(s) which was checked and all-cleared.
- Showed the unarmed combative ready stance.
- Shared the mind of pre-engagement concepts.
- Shared the concept of dimenished fighter. They were understandably hard customers but were very impressed. They said, "We like you, you always have an answer to our questions." (Got lucky that time
)
- Showed several of the Professor's disarms, counter to disarms, and counter-to-counter disarms. That was a blast.
- Showed some of Grandmaster Rick Ward's Sasamba techniques; Five Animals styles, monkey and preying mantis techniques for the curious. Also, showed an application of our Chinese double stick form.
- Another policeman asked me if I could show him some tonfa applications so he then whipped out the tonfa and I went to town showing how to relate the information from Guro Ray's instruction on Punyo Mano to the tonfa. We had a blast!!! I also showed how to use single sinawali to open up some strikes and leg takedowns we use in Sasamba, FCS, and Hock's CQC.
So again, thanks to Grandmaster Remy A. Presas and Guro/Sifu David Ng for giving the permission to start teaching three years ago to this date (Professor had given me permission Aug 2000 at Atlanta seminar. Tim you remember the one where the hot girl was flirting with me at the lunch counter?)
Much thanks to GM Ward and Guro Ng for the type of testing that we do in our Kung-fu system and the number of hours required to test for the brown and black belts. I am thankful even more so that I had nearly double the hours than some of my peers had.
Much thanks to Master Michael Kossivakis and Master Ray Dionaldo for allowing me the opportunity to help out and to share what I have learned with others.
Finally, thanks to Guro Ray for all of his instruction and friendship.
Best regards,
Harold
It was also an honor to meet and work with Master Mike Kossivakis. He poured alot of hours of hard work in this project and it shows. I will dedicate at least one seperate post regarding his efforts and level of detail.
But first, Just as Guro Ray gave proper respect to his instructors, so did I and I want to take the time in this post to show the same respect to my instructors and influences like I always do.
My introduction/dedications were in rank order and capacity:
Full Instructor and NC State Regional Representative of FCS-Kali.
Lakan Dalawa Hock Hochheim's Pacific Archipelago and Filipino Combatives.
First Degree Black Belt Grandmaster Rick Ward's Sunburst Natural Fist System under Sifu David Ng.
Lakan, Grandmaster Remy A. Presas' Modern Arnis (IMAF, Inc)
It was indeed a pleasure to share from all these influences at the events. I had the chance to of course share Guro Ray's outstanding material but also to:
- Show some of Hock Hochheim's gun disarms, which I learned from Master Lyndon Johnson, to several policeman from Greece. We used one of their .45(s) which was checked and all-cleared.
- Showed the unarmed combative ready stance.
- Shared the mind of pre-engagement concepts.
- Shared the concept of dimenished fighter. They were understandably hard customers but were very impressed. They said, "We like you, you always have an answer to our questions." (Got lucky that time
)- Showed several of the Professor's disarms, counter to disarms, and counter-to-counter disarms. That was a blast.
- Showed some of Grandmaster Rick Ward's Sasamba techniques; Five Animals styles, monkey and preying mantis techniques for the curious. Also, showed an application of our Chinese double stick form.
- Another policeman asked me if I could show him some tonfa applications so he then whipped out the tonfa and I went to town showing how to relate the information from Guro Ray's instruction on Punyo Mano to the tonfa. We had a blast!!! I also showed how to use single sinawali to open up some strikes and leg takedowns we use in Sasamba, FCS, and Hock's CQC.
So again, thanks to Grandmaster Remy A. Presas and Guro/Sifu David Ng for giving the permission to start teaching three years ago to this date (Professor had given me permission Aug 2000 at Atlanta seminar. Tim you remember the one where the hot girl was flirting with me at the lunch counter
?)Much thanks to GM Ward and Guro Ng for the type of testing that we do in our Kung-fu system and the number of hours required to test for the brown and black belts. I am thankful even more so that I had nearly double the hours than some of my peers had.
Much thanks to Master Michael Kossivakis and Master Ray Dionaldo for allowing me the opportunity to help out and to share what I have learned with others.
Finally, thanks to Guro Ray for all of his instruction and friendship.
Best regards,
Harold
