The following is an event from the old school Balintawak days related to me by GM Maranga, posted on my blog yesterday. The Balintawak club had arranged a sparring session with a rival school. The Balintawak members lined up against the wall, and rivals from the other school would pick an opponent out of the line up. One challenger stepped forward and moved down the line of Balintawak practitioners, trying to choose a suitable opponent. One of the Balintawak guys was very muscular, so he was passed over. Unfortunately, the challenger didn’t know that the muscular guy with the ferocious mustache wasn’t very good. As the challenger looked over Drigo Maranga, Maranga did his best to look tough, because at the time he was relatively new to eskrima and didn’t feel prepared for the match. At last the eskrimador from the rival school pointed to a small, older man. He had made his choice. Rodrigo Maranga and the other Balintawak stylists repressed laughs. “Sili kolikot!” they sputtered. You see, in Visayan a “sili kolikot” is a tiny but very fierce chili pepper (called “sili labuyo” in Tagalog). The challenger had unknowingly called out the master of the school, the legendary Anciong Bacon, who was small, but hell on wheels, and one of Cebu’s greatest masters of stickfighting!
I am back, it was a great seminars in australia and los angeles, i would like to thanks to all who attended at dan inosantos school from seattle, north carolina, canada,philippines and los angeles,. Thank you for your support and hope to train with you again soon. You are all wonderfull group. Also i would like to thanks to the groups in australia, thank you to all my instructors for your big hospitality and most to dr. Garth dicker and the family. I would like to thanks also to all my friends in the philippines for a warm welcome and the friendship. Gm bobby taboada
