Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club - Guro's Blog

Eskrima & Kenpo

Recognizing Patterns

12/13/2024

I believe one of the greatest gifts Grandmaster Art Gonzalez bestowed upon me was that of recognizing geometric patterns and the role they played in offensive and defensive movements. He would say, when you understand the patterns and tie them to our concepts, principles, and with or minor, and major key words, you will have the ability to play with any martial art style, or system, and you may even have a better understanding of the art then those who practice it. I can recall a time when I became very frustrated when GM Art began to change his teaching methodology from technique based drills to focusing more on the concepts and principles. At the time I did not understand the value of this lesson, I once complained to one of my very first students, Mr. Dean Simmons, a physicist I worked with and trained during lunch hours who was already a black belt in Chinese Kenpo and also held rank in Kung Fu. After my selfish rant, he simply replied Mickey, Sir, do you not understand how beautiful it is not to be locked down to simply techniques, what you do is what most martial arts strive for, to be unburdened by a series of choreographed techniques and simply react to what is occurring, you have been given a great gift and you don’t even see it.

In my defense, I knew of no other method of learning, and at the time when I was much younger than I am now, I was too damn lazy to search for the deeper meaning and understanding of our art of Tenios DeCuerdas, I just wanted to be taught a technique with a given name, write it in my note book and move on to the next named technique. GM Art would often say, my job is to create thinkers, not mindless robots, this is the only way I can lift you up and to make you better than I am. People may walk into the school and say oh he is a karate guy, he is a kenpo guy, oh no he is a gung fu guy, when the truth is that he is a DeCuerdas man capable of playing with other arts because he understand concepts and principles. I now look back on these memories with great fondness, and with great appreciation, these lessons are what keep me driving forward to progress the art, my students as well as my own progression. I highly recommend those just starting or are already a few years into their martial journey to always take time to understand the movements and patterns of your techniques, regardless of what style is practiced, if you do, I am certain you will end up seeing things that are missed by many and at times find shortcuts for better efficiency. Regardless of what style you practice, may you continue to grow and progress in your understanding. God Bless and train strong to remain strong!

Maestro Mike Cardenas
Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club
VEA Martial Arts Academy, Manteca CA.

What We Share and What We Keep

10/19/2022

It has been a while since I have written a blog, but after attending a great martial art sharing event at the FTMA Annual Gathering in Salinas over the past weekend, I thought it fitting to reflect on how far we have come as an FMA community. During my early years of Eskrima training, early 90s, much of what we did within or small knit of Tenios DeCuerdas practitioners under the late GM Art Gonzalez was kept very secret and within our own house. I can recall many evenings when we would be deep into training and we would get a visitor walk in who was a higher ranking FMA practitioner and we would immediately switch up what we were doing, and at times default to some basic bastardized serrada drills, like outside number one or something similar. I use the term bastardized because we referred to our practice of Serrada as “spaghetti serrada” meaning it is not as crisp and clean as those who have dedicated their lives and honed their skills toward llearning this style. When the visitor would leave, we would go back to our DeCuerdas training. Back then, and as a newcomer to the Filipino martial arts, I found it a bit odd that we couldn’t simply keep doing what we were doing, this practice was never done or observed in my early kung fu classes. I suspect such practices were warranted for a reason and practiced by teachers prior to me delving into this martial art that I now hold near and dear to my heart. I once asked GM Art about this and he said you never know who is simply coming here to visit, some don’t just come to visit they come to take what you have and not give credit where they got it, I guess he experienced something like this in the past, but I didn’t want to push it based on his demeanor from his response so I instead asked about Serrada. From what I was told GM Art said our Serrada influence came from John Eliab and our DeCuerdas came from Tenios DeCuerdas that he learned via his family from the island of Bohol in the Philippines, why it was called Tenios Decuerdas. Both Eliab and Tenio are recognized as being the founders of the system GM Art learned from and his primary teachers. Over the years the mentality of holding things close to your chest has changed as our elders began to be more open to cross sharing and a new generation of FMA practitioners helped drive this movement by wanting to learn other styles as well as their own dedicated system. I often heard that even when Tenio would teach at seminars it was just basic FMA movements and not necessarily from the material he shared internally with his core group. During my over two decades of tutelage of training with GM Art he would sometimes say you can show this and that but keep this stuff internal to your students. But even he began to slowly start sharing much of what he once considered private or told me not to share at our MACE events and other seminars he went to, I believe he finally realized that sooner or later he would have to share if he wanted to be more recognized in the martial arts community. Personally, I have grown accustomed to just sharing everything with a few exceptions, which are things/techniques he told me to keep for myself, and to honor his wishes I have done that, but for the most part, I am an open book willing to share much of what I was taught. Cross training this past weekend at the FTMA Gathering and with the upcoming VEA Martial Arts Cross Share event I am pleased to see that we are heading down a path of continued sharing, if we don’t do this then each of our respected arts will die off. In my opinion I think another major influence of individuals willingness to share what they have come from social media in the form of youtube, blogs, and podcasts, where people are interviewed, and they not only talk about their systems but show some movements and techniques from it. All this sharing just benefits us all as we can become better martial artists by picking up new techniques or nuances that others may have in their system. Anyhow, my point is that I am glad where things are going and I hope to continue providing opportunities for cross sharing not only for my own development but also for our future generation of FMA practitioners.

Where My Expectations Come From

7/8/2021

For some reason it has been a while since I have written to my blog, perhaps because I have been spread to thin lately, busy with other responsibilities and goals in life, like raising a family, career obligations, and lastly, scrambling like mad to finish my book regarding our martial style art while at the same time deciphering the codes, and keys GM Art Gonzalez left me with. However, I feel the moment is now right to set aside a little time to discuss something that has been on my mind lately. Some of you may know that our family recently lost our family dog and protector, her beloved Princess Fiona, she was 9 years of age and died unexpectedly, we were always told by our family vet that she was the epidemy of good health for a Doberman, so we had expected her to outlive our last Dobi of 13 years who was rattled with every ailment known to not just this breed but to all other dog breeds as well. Her unexpected passing rocked our family to its core and for me, her sudden passing once again made me fear death, a feeling I had not had since I was a youngster. I was struck with the thought, that I am on borrowed time and pondered how much time would I still needed to ensure that my kids could function in life on their own after my passing and if our art and the art of GM Gonzalez could be carried on by my students based on every lesson, I have provided them. While I always recognized that we are all on borrowed time, this is the first time this idea of borrowed time was put right in front of my face to truly see the ugly truth in this statement.

The sad reality is that I still have much to teach my kids about life and my students about our art, I have just begun to teach my kids life skills and I have only scratched the surface of our art; yet more than ever I fill the need to pass these lessons on to my students as quickly as possible and I live with the fear that I will run out of time. So, this blog is for my students, when I am hard one you, it is because I love each and everyone of you, it comes from a place of love, I want each of you to be better than me and have a deeper understand of the art than I do. When I have you drill something repeatedly until nauseum, it’s because I want you to truly understand the technique and commit it to muscle memory. I also want you armed with knowledge and skill to protect yourself and your loved ones from harm.

Please understand that I have a deep appreciation and love for our art and only want it to be represented in a way that would make GM Art proud. DeCuerdas Diestro Fighting Systems is an art developed to induce injury and even death, if need be, to your opponent, thus the responsibility to ensure you understand it lies solely on my shoulders. I also feel as if I need to share as much as I can, and as quickly as possible to you and to other practitioners who studied under GM Art but who may have not received the lessons that I received or have forgotten the lessons GM Art once taught us. Fortunately for me and for them, I documented nearly everything I could, this is why whenever a search is done on social media for GM Art much of the content you will find comes from me, this is not to brag it is simply the fact that I am sharing what he left me with the world, I am not sure who else has as much archival information as I do, but I will continue to get my material out there.

My expectations of what I expect from my students comes not only from the responsibility I have to ensure our art endures but also from a place where I want my students to not only be good martial artists but great martial artists who can defend themselves in any situation and with or without the use of weapons. Death will one day come calling for all of us and when it comes for me, I want to smile at him and say my work is done here death, please lead me to my ancestors, past friends, and former pets beyond the Golden Arches of heaven.

With much love and respect,

Maestro Mike Cardenas

The "Bad Boy" and the mental aspects of training.

7/15/2020

We train like killers in order to learn how to protect ourselves from killers, this was an old adage that my late martial arts instructor, Grandmaster Art Gonzalez, would ramble off every so often. His view of the world was different than most, people were either prey, predators, or hunters or defenders against the predator/predators.

He referred to these predators and street thugs as “The Bad Boy” they are people in our society who lack honor, compassion and or empathy, and take advantage of the kindness of others and of societies kindness. There are no rules of engagement for the bad boy and they don’t have to mentally prepare themselves before inflicting harm upon another human, they have already been mentally conditioned through a life of violence. For many and most law bidding citizens facing such an opponent will put you at an immediate and severe disadvantage unless you have been trained to fight, with physical contact and under extreme duress. There are countless videos of a bully or bullies verbally and then physically assaulting people who don’t appear to have any clue of what to do, in the minds of the assaulted they are most likely still trying to figure out why they are being harassed, as there upbringing consisted of consistent reprimands when it came to verbal assaults, hitting our kicking someone. No hitting, no kicking, no biting, or you will earn a time out or get a spanking. This is the first and primary mental hurdle that many in society will face if and or when you are forced to fight back to defend yourself.

I can recall my first physical confrontation in high school, I was punched in the face in the gym locker room and at the time I was not armed with martial knowledge or mentally conditioned for a physical confrontation, I simply resorted to basic survival instincts and held my attacker against the lockers to avoid getting hit again, and I can remember thinking oh man I am going to get into a lot of trouble if I hit him back. My instructor would often tell his me and his other students, hey man I may not be teaching you how to win trophies but rather something more meaningful and that is how to survive in the street, against the bad boy, the bad boy doesn’t give a shit about your martial art rank, or what you do for living there intent is to hurt you and even kill you, so you have to be ready, that’s why we train under duress and why we train like killers in order to learn how to protect ourselves from killers. Over the past few weeks, I cannot stop thinking about these mental lessons my teacher shared with me as I am currently inundated by the never-ending news of the violence occurring across our country. Repeat offenders/criminals/bad boys are being released due to a pandemic and people who have a propensity for violence are now free to act on those feelings with little to no recourse.

In such times we must continue to prepare ourselves for a violent encounter, not just the physical aspect of our techniques but the mental training that goes along with it, it is the symbiotic relationship of these two aspects that is the key to our survival. For our training, GM Art would say you have to be able to turn off and on your switch Mikie, when your switch is turned one way you are the gentlemen, the nice guy people know you to be, but when you turn the switch the other way you “Key up” become a hunter who will turn the table on your attacker and make the predator fear you, but hopefully you will be skilled enough that you will not have to be forced to kill your attacker out of fear. So when in doubt train, when you are scared train, when you are worried train, when you are tired train and hopefully after all your training you too will learn to survive and protect yourself and your loved ones from the Bad Boy. To the hunt!

Random thoughts and where do we go from here.

10/28/2019

I recently had a great conversation with a fellow brother of DeCuerdas in which we reminisced, shared ideas and thoughts of the art that was taught and passed on to us by the late GM Art Gonzalez. What stuck with me from our conversation was how each of his students may have learned something new or different depending on when you were in class. Sr. Master Jorge once said that when we obtain a level of proficiency, black belt or Guro status that if we opened up a book describing what DeCuerdas is, and after turning open the cover, the first thing we would see would be a mirror, signifying that we are all distinct individuals, and that one’s DeCuerdas might be slightly different than another DeCuerdas practitioner, it is our interpretation of what was taught combined with our own influences, body mechanics and other nuances that drive how we interpret and perform what was learned.

What we each learned depended heavily on when you trained closest to and with our former GM and each of us black belts/Guro’s under him took various pieces of knowledge from him during those time frames in which we were closest to him, various pieces that make up the larger Tenio’s DeCuerdas puzzle, a puzzle that is said to consist of 19 different systems. This is perhaps why to the outside observer you may see slight differences in each DeCuerdas student’s interpretation of the art and most of us tend to gravitate to those systems and or techniques that either we have a personal fondness for or are just naturally better at doing. Also, there is so much to learn in the our DeCuerdas art that it wasn’t uncommon to learn something and not see it again for another 5 or 10 years.

GM Art once told me that my body type and strength for my smaller frame was built for speed, so he wanted to work more on knife and empty hands with me as well as additional body mechanics for delivering optimum power. This was another gift he had, like a master mechanic he knew what each of his students was missing and worked to tweak and modify your physical and mental modalities to make you better in the body that God had given you. He was also an innovator who was always looking to improve the system. He told me that we should be like busy little beavers constantly examining the DeCuerdas damn we built and search for holes that may penetrate it. I like to pride myself in knowing that I was around with him during his early years when he first came out to teach the general public, I first meet him at Stribley Park in Stockton CA, being introduced to him by my friend and at the time teacher Jorge Magana. Back then I truly believe that he was only teaching for the purpose of using this opportunity to continue to hone his craft and this provided a chance to have fresh meat to beat on and exercise existing knowledge and push the envelope toward further progression. Hell, for my first year or so he never even called me by name, nor did he want to know my name, he would just say in Spanish when he needed me, tú, ven aquí (you come over here), but I did care how he addressed me, I needed him to give me the self-preservation knowledge that I was seeking. For me, I spent nearly two decades with him and didn’t earn my Guro/Black Belt status until after eight years of study with him and my Master Certification only after putting in an additional nine years.

During that time I took a short hiatusis to go back to school and earn my engineering degree, and then another hiatus when our group kinda fell off the radar and stopped regular practice, after the closure of our Fremont school, my move from Stockton to Manteca, GM Daniels move to Texas, and during GM Arts time teaching more regularly in Mexico, which all occurred during the same time frame. Now that our GM is gone, I feel I have a responsibility to pass on everything he taught me including some of the fundamentals of our art as well as new material he was teaching me the few years before his passing. Under the banner of the Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club I will pass this knowledge to my students, friends and affiliate pack member schools. With the premision granted from GM Daniel, we will also in honor and homage of my former teacher wear a few of his older logo designs representing him and the roots of what we do. There is much work to be done and I have a few more holes I need to fill in my DeCuerdas schematic and training, but I truly feel that my teacher left me with ample clues and knowledge to fill those gaps and to continue to better myself for many years to come. Lastly, I am hopeful that his successor GM Daniel will continue to spread what he has learned through his organization so that our teacher’s legacy continues to propagate for years to come. Signing off in the words of my beloved teacher “To the hunt”!

The loss of our DeCuerdas Patriarch

10/21/2019

On October 3rd, 2019 the world lost an incredible martial artist who had much more of his knowledge and martial wisdom to share with the world. He was a martial artist from the old guard, a different breed of martial artist who made the development and propagation of his craft the focal point of his existence. Everything he did in life was connected to the arts, even how he walked into a room provided an opportunity to train and develop his skills, scanning the area for possible threats and assessing others in the room to determine if they were right or left handed, looking to see if they guarded one area of their body more than another, indicating a possible concealed carry. These are lessons passed on in conversation that would be shared with me over a meal or coffee and either at Denny’s or McDonalds, his two primary preferences for such conversations. Having spent nearly two decades with this man I never truly understood this level of commitment and dedication to the art, while I myself am passionate about the arts and practice daily, he committed nearly every minute and hour to his. In his world being a member of a martial arts pack or second best wouldn’t suffice, he thrived to be the very best and pushed his small circle of students to think and be the same. He would tell me in between low growls and when he wasn’t happy with my performance that he wasn’t looking to make mediocre martial artists, his goal was to create thinkers and exceptional martial artists. Mikie, don’t do it like that, why are you moving your foot like that, get out of the way if you don’t want to get hit, stop overthinking it, just do it; this is how he would push me to do more and improve. While I hated been lambasted this way and not pleasing him or not performing to his standard I would bask in the glory when in those rare moments he would say, yes Mikie like that, did you guys just see what Mikie just did, ah the sweet inoculation of his approval, something I still seek today even after his passing. Like a caring father he only wanted what was best for his students and he tried feverishly to pass on his years of knowledge before his time would come to join the ranks of the other warrior eagles of yesteryear.

It was through this interaction of me looking for validation, and approval, and him driving me and other students to be more and do more for the art of DeCuerdas that created our unique and sometimes strained relationship. But through it all, my respect for his knowledge and my love for him grew. He once told me that I was his “Gallo”, meaning his rooster, one who would fight for him and defend his honor and every turn; I nearly cried when he told me this while placing his hand on my shoulder. I always wanted him to know that I was there for him and I just tried to do what any loyal student would do when someone was attacking their teacher and or fathers honor, this was mostly done via my responses on the internet in my rebuttals to the keyboard critics. My wife would get very upset with me when she would ask why I was upset after coming downstairs from my home office flushed red with anger and I would tell her some phuck is talking shit about Art so I told him to come down to the school and lets solve this problem by the old ways. She would be furious with me and say you have a family; you could be talking to a lunatic, promise me you won’t do that anymore, unfortunately this is a promise I am not proud to admit that I have broken on several occasions when another keyboard warrior would throw out insults. Over the last several years as I began playing a more active role in promoting the art of DeCuerdas by opening and running my own DeCuerdas school, our relationship was once again a rollercoaster ride and a push and pull between ideas of how we could best promote the art while continuing to honor his forefathers of John Eliab and Richard Tenio. I had different ideas of how we could best past down lessons and get students to appreciate our art, I would say we need to introduce to students to some basic FMA drills that are not necessarily DeCuerdas drills and then interject DeCuerdas into those drills so they can truly appreciate its shortcuts and effectiveness. He would call me up and say hey I saw what you posted on facebook, why are you doing that drill, that’s not DeCuerdas, to which I would respond, true no its not but is a good drill to teach timing and footwork, and it engages my younger students. Such conversation would frustrate the hell out of me, but I know now that he wasn’t really criticizing me per say, he just had a different approach and a more combative method to teaching the art, a method that would only interest a select few of fellow martial art masochists. He would sometimes say, you’re wasting your time teaching some of those other drills that other people do, do you want to stay at your level, or do you want to grow. To which I would say I do want to grow and I want my students to grow with me, I just want my students to take a different route to get there and gain a deep understanding. For me, I wanted to take the academic lessons I had learned from my management and leadership programs and my education degree and apply those theories toward my school and students, hoping to enhance the delivery of each lesson and propagation of our art. This was usually the rub.

You see GM Art was old school, I say this not in a negative connotation, just pointing out a fact that his methods of instruction were based on a different frame of mind from someone from a different generation and life experiences. As mentioned only those who shared such experiences truly gravitated to these methods regardless of bruises and pain suffered during the metamorphosis of becoming a DeCuerdas man. Early on I gravitated to his method because I had endured a few scuffles which quickly highlighted an area of my life that needed significant improvement, and that area being self-defense and more like self-preservation. I couldn’t fight or defend myself for shit and was looking for help, that help came in the form of GM Art, a no nonsense hard hitting OG. You would have had to have had the experience of being punched in the mouth, taste the metallic flavor of your own blood and feel your throat tighten up out of anger and fear to truly appreciate his early teaching methodologies. Nowadays, most young adults and even some adults have never had such an experience, they come from a world where their only possible physical confrontation was through a television screen and fought through a remote control connected to an x-box. While they enjoy the arts, they put their training in the same category of playing basketball, tennis, and or any other sport that may not leave you for dead if you don’t counter or react appropriately to an oncoming attack. Earlier this year, approximately five months before his passing, we once again had an argument over methodologies and points of opinion as we would on occasion, as well as another issue that I will not discuss. However, this time this argument prompted me to formally separate from him after two decades of being his student, a decision that was perhaps the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life, for those who are not martial artists you may not understand the toll this decision can play on one’s mental and emotional health, I just felt our relationship would be healthier and better served if this was done and we could both work to promote the art through or differing methodologies. After this separation, I began to work harder than ever on reviewing my notes (mental, written and videos/photos) and the many notes he had personally given me, putting together the “keys” as Art liked to call them, of our DeCuerdas system. I notified the core group of our clan of my decision and even told them exactly why I was doing this, not to gain favor but rather to remain transparent in my decision and because I consider a select few of them my brothers, brothers I will defend till my death. Regardless of this formal separation, GM Arts lesson made me into the martial artist I am today, how I view the arts and other system are scene through my DeCuerdas lens.

The confidence and strength I gained throughout my life are do impart to his mentorship and our interactions. I am and will forever be dedicated to DeCuerdas and will continue to propagate the art in his name and honor, a promise I made to him when I first opened my school, and my love for this man will never go away. Perhaps GM Art got what he wanted from me after all, a new level of dedication to the art, and a drive to push DeCuerdas further along. In a way, all my hard work in a way was to seek his approval, to say, see Art, DeCuerdas is getting its name out there, we are both serving the same mission, unfortunately that will never come to be. His recent death has left a void in my heart that cannot be filled. There are a handful of people that folks would want to see when they enter heavens gates alongside their parents to greet them, for me, Arturo would be one of those other people I would want to see and embrace once more. I can see it now, hey Mikie, before you walk through the gates make sure to be aware of your surroundings, remember 360-degree peripheral vision, have you already forgotten everything I taught you; it’s about time you showed up, I need your help teaching a few of Gods Angels numerado. All would be forgotten, and we would train for the love of the art and for each other as we had in days long since passed, at least one can still dream, rest in peace GM Art, you will forever be in my heart and memory.

Grandmaster Art Gonzalez 7-18-1953 to 10-03-2019

The Martial Path.

5/17/2019

It is unfortunate that martial arts and the training of the arts can bring about a negative perception of the practitioner by the general public; some may see us as knuckle dragging barbarians that only train for the goal of having the ability to inflict damage upon another human being. While this definition may hold true for a tiny majority of martial art practitioners, there are many who don’t just train for the purpose of self-defense or offense. Many of us who train in the arts may have a variety of reasons as to why we decided to train in the first place, I believe that those of us who stick it out year after year find that the journey has led them to a better understanding of themselves and how they see the world; a sort of transcendence to a very different way of looking at life and our role and purpose for living in it. For me, I began my training only as a means of self-protection, I was, by definition, a coward, fearful of nearly anything that walked, crawled and or slithered. I didn’t care about the history, artistry or the philosophical or psychological lessons that could be gleamed from the lessons and journey. Over time I quickly learned more about myself and my peers, as our training continued, bonds began to develop between myself and my classmates, this bond developed over shared suffering and adversity. When things got tough, we didn’t quit, there were times the only reason I stuck it out was because of my martial art brethren, it was easier to let myself down than to let members of my tribe down. During this journey I also began to see how others processed information, each having varying degrees of learning modalities, if a lesson was shared by my instructor and not easily understood by someone then it was up to the tribe to teach it from a slightly different perspective or explain it differently so that we could help them become better and so that we all could continue to progress together. Now as a teacher of the arts I try my best to make sure I understand the reason why my students train with me and I am constantly trying to find the best approach to passing on a lesson based on each individual learning modality. Some students train for the fitness aspect, some train for self-protection, and some train just because the activity is totally outside of anything they have ever done, and it challenges them physically and mentally. Regardless of the reason, if they stick it out and continue to face and overcome the challenges presented within the safety of the Dojo they soon find that the study of the arts opens doors to their soul and before long they also realize that they are part of a family or Ohana, where their peers and teacher will be there to help them through any adversity they may face both in and out of the Dojo. This is the path I have chosen to travel and a path I hope to serve as a guide for others willing to venture down this road that leads to fulfillment and transcendence, a road of twists and turns where there is no end, but rather a steady climb toward personal progress. -Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club.

Teaching and building our puzzle

12/6/2018

As an instructor and lifetime student of the martial arts I have failed more times than I would care to admit. However, with each failure lies the birth of valuable experience and newly found wisdom, both critical pieces that can be used to build and decipher our own martial art puzzle. What is the martial art puzzle? It is our understanding of the art or arts we practice, the piecing together of all our martial art techniques, concepts and principles and the re-evaluation of our perception and approach to our martial understanding. The truth is that the puzzle is infinite because there is always room for improvement, refinement and obtainment of new skill. As an instructor, my responsibility to my students is to share all my failures, success and new insights and view of my martial puzzle, to give them an upper hand so that they may benefit from my own experiences. I tell my students that my job is to make them better than me, that is what I strive to do through my instruction. GM Art Gonzalez used the following analogy to explain the idea of working to make our student better than ourselves, “my job is to reach down and pull you up and thrust you above me and you in turn do the same with your students”. GM Art shared stories of how SGM Gilbert Tenio, would share keys of our DeCuerdas art with him and how his mind would be flooded with new information to the point in which he would become overwhelmed by the realization that his understand just rose to a new level. For me, I too have had these moments of epiphanies after GM Art spends a few minutes or a couple of hours with me, refining my martial art knowledge. These epiphanies usually happen when I try and lie my head down to sleep and while I am thinking about a martial art lesson I just had, or a lesson I have seen. A couple of days ago I had a similar experience/revelation, while referencing some of my notebooks and many loose slips of papers containing martial art notes and scribbles. However this time it (new pieces to my puzzle) was more than I had ever experienced in the past. The only way I can describe this epiphany is like that moment when you are looking at an “autostereogram”, which in laymen’s term, is a specially designed picture that has a picture hidden within it which is only revealed after you stare at it for some time. After looking at all my notes laid out before me the end result was a cascade of information that changed the entire way I viewed our system which will now change my method of instruction. I know that I cannot be the only martial artist that has experienced something similar, the bewitching feeling of a new insight, that Archimedes moment of “Eureka”, a new revealed idea that send a shiver you’re your spine and one that immediately adds a dozen more pieces to our never-ending puzzle! I suppose the point of my verbose rambling is to say that if we are not constantly sharing, reviewing and re-evaluating our thoughts and ideas about the arts we practice we miss out on this eureka moments. The more I share with my students I have found that they too are teaching me and contributing to my puzzle, I have said on more than one occasion to a student while observing “what the hell did you just do” and then follow up with “wow you came up with that, that’s a good technique and it’s a keeper”. So as we approach the end of 2018, perhaps it is a good time to re-evaluate our martial art principles, concepts and basics movements, hidden within them you may find a significant revelation, a hidden jewel that will further add to the development of your own puzzle.

The 10 most memorable lessons my father left me.

4/1/2018

My father, Melchior Cardenas was a man born from a different generation, those born from the mid-to-late 1920s to the early-to-mid 1940s were known as the “The Silent Generation”. They were considered the generation that made the best of bad situations and overcame life’s trials through hard work, perseverance and with little complaint. Over the years he shared many words of wisdom that he had learned through his own experiences with anyone who was willing to listen, unfortunately as a kid I didn’t heed much of his advice because during my teenage years I had wrongly concluded that I already knew everything I would need to know to succeed in life. Now that I am older and I hope wiser, I realized that my father had a wealth of knowledge and advice that would stand the test of time. What I attend to capture here is the few I remember and a few I recently read about in his journals that he left behind after his passing.

#1. “People who tough it out, who suffer the most, achieve the most”
I believe this was my father’s way of saying that it is through our trials and struggles that help develop our character and fortitude, once this development has occurred achievements are easier to obtain.

#2. “ALWAYS believe that something wonderful is about to happen” I always equate this quote from my dad as the power of positive thought, I firmly believe that if we think positive then our lives will be better because of it, if you doubt this philosophy take a stab at being sour and grumpy for a week and see what happens.

#3. “Stay positive, negativity drains useful energy” One way to maintain our energy is through positivity, it is a funny thing that happens when you have a positive mind set, our energy increases as well as our demeanor. Negativity also robs us of useful energy to focus on other areas of our lives that require our attention.

#4. “Set goals and be determined to achieve them” While this statement seems self-explanatory, many people don’t understand what it means to set goals and what steps are required to achieve them, my dad taught me early on of the value of goal setting, he once told me that goals can provide purpose, and having a sense of purpose in life is important. He also taught me that if my goals seemed overwhelming that I should break the journey to that goal into steps and not concentrate on the entire goal (or the whole enchilada as he would say) but rather mini goals accomplished one bite at a time, before you know it you will have eaten the entire “enchilada”.

#5. Pray: Be as holy as possible, be forgiving and be humble and always try and help others in need. While I don’t go to church or pray as often as I should, learning how to be more humble and forgiving of others seems like great advice regardless of one’s faith or lack thereof, humility and forgiveness are two qualities that I keep self-reflective tabs on to ensure I am not going astray from dads words of wisdom. When it comes to helping others in need, my parents didn’t just say we should help people in words but rather they practiced kindness daily, inviting common strangers into our home for a meal or simply helping people in need was a common occurrence and a memory I will remember forever and attempt to emulate.

#6. Eat Healthy. Not much to say here unless one doesn’t know the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods, a good rule of thumb is to shop on the edges of a super market, this is where whole foods reside that require climate control environments, like meat, chicken, fish and fresh veggies. Processed foods, which are not so good typically reside in the middle of a grocery store.

#7. Watch comedies, anything to make you laugh, humor and laughing is good for the soul. My dad loved to laugh and he had a great sense of humor, and when he laughed it was hard not to get caught up in the laughing frenzy, I have fond memories watching the three stooges and the pink panther with my dad and laughing alongside him. It’s hard to be depressed when you laughing.

#8. Don’t feel bad if you get depressed every once in a while, it’s normal. Don’t dwell there because negatives such as anxiety, stress, fear and worry robs you of energy that can be useful to fight off illness. I have a few days out of the year that I get depressed or stressed out, sometimes I don’t even know why I am depressed or have anxiety, and the important thing to note is that this happens to all of us from time to time. This simple yet powerful message is a simple reminder to myself to accept that such feelings are normal and that tomorrow brings about new beginnings and opportunities. Dad used to say that in everyone’s life a little rain must fall and that life is road filled with peaks and valleys. The point to remember is that during these moments, that may not be considered our best days, are only temporary, and most of the time it is our attitude that determines how long we let them affect us.

#9. You can accomplish anything anyone else can, sometimes it just may take a little longer. This is probably the most impactful comment my dad shared with me as I was helping him install a new door, it was also a time when I was struggling with my college coursework, I felt that I just wasn’t progressing fast enough to earn my degree. He looked at me and said “who are you racing”, to which I responded “no one”, he said just concentrate on accomplishing your goal and don’t get worked up about how long it takes you, he then started quietly humming a song about slow and steady wins the race as he drove screws into the new door frame. I will say that this is how most of my dad’s words of wisdom got shared, through the act of working together on some project either on my parents’ home, on our rental properties. Next time you get anxiety about the pace of your progress ask yourself if it is something you truly need to get worked up about, is there a true deadline that needs to be meet or is it a self-imposed deadline.

#10. Always give 100% effort in all that you do, even if you’re just cleaning toilets. This one just made me laugh when he shared this piece of advice with me, but once he explained that it is our character we are developing, and that a man who does not apply equal tenacity and effort to all his work needs to work on doing so, he told me that as long as I know I am giving 100% then I will never have any regrets about not trying my best. I lost my father in 2011 and not a day goes by that I don’t think about him or quietly ask or pray for guidance when contemplating a decision. Luckily he imparted good food for thought that has served me well over the years. Hopefully his words of wisdom can help others as much as they have helped me. In Memory: Mel Cardenas (1940-2011)

Life isn’t fair, get over it and move on!

7/20/2017

Scarlet and Gold, those where my two favorite colors growing up, other than black, why, because they are the colors of the United States Marine Corps. One of the things I do remember about my youth is that I always wanted to grow up and be a soldier, not any soldier but a US Marine. I played soldering with my friends and cousins all the time and had a hodgepodge of different military attire that while much too big for me I wore with pride and enthusiasm. My dad’s sailor lid, my uncle Franks Army Airborne envelope cap, to my uncle Peloy’s Airforce top, my olive drab army uniform and my kids Marine Corp dress blues uniform purchased through the Sears Roebuck catalog, these where my clothing of choice. I ran around the neighborhood pretending to be an “NCO” barking out orders to my younger cousins while pretending to be in life or death battles, running around with makeshift weapons or real bb guns. When not playing I loved looking through and reading our old set of encyclopedias about every military branch. I loved the uniforms, medals and stories of valor that were on the pages. It was therefore natural that my every intention after graduating high school was to become a soldier, more specifically a US Marine. To help prepare myself for my this chapter I began to exercise during my sophomore year in order to get my body ready for the challenges that lie ahead, while my friends were mostly deciding what college they would go to I only had one goal and one dream, to become a “jar head”. Being young and naïve of the realities of war even furthered my dreams of being a Marine, I began to refer to this goal as my destiny. I loved collecting and learning everything about soldering, visiting the old Army surplus store with my elder cousin Noel in Stockton called “someplace special” was as it was named, truly someplace special for me. When I purchased a used item there I imagined what its story was, where the original owner came from, to what things he had been through. While my high school academics is somewhat of a blur, the one assignment I can recall is a report I did on General Douglas Macarthur whom some referred to as the “American Caesar”, we were supposed to write a report on someone who we considered a hero, considering that I had a small portrait of the guy smoking his famous corn cob pipe in my bedroom I found it fitting and was very excited to educate my classmates and teacher about this man. It was probably the one time that I truly dedicated myself to any one assignment and eagerly applied myself to further investigate his life.

It is the aforementioned that set the stage for what was about to occur, the reality that my dream of becoming a soldier wasn’t in the cards for me. You see during a routine walk home from middle school I unexpectedly had an epileptic seizure and from that day till my twenties would continue to have them periodically through middle school and high school. During this time I visited with neurologists and other doctors who were trying to figure out what was going on, my seizures were not enough to classify me as a full-fledged epileptic, the random onset of them during middle school seemed unusual to them. Through the probing and testing they also found I had an iron deficiency and smaller than normal red blood cells. It was decided that even though my seizures were not very frequent, on the order of only once or twice a year that it would still be safer, for which I agreed, to just have me on a minimal dosage of medication which eliminated my seizures all together. As is typical with most high schools, military recruiters began coming out to schools during career fairs and talks, naturally I gravitated to their booths and their talks and was more than ready to graduate to fulfill my dream of becoming a soldier. I still vividly remember, as a high school junior, walking into the Marine Corps recruiters office in the shopping center off of Pershing Avenue and March Lane and stating as soon as I crossed the threshold of the door “I am ready to work and to become be a US Marine”, I saw the Sergeant behind the desk smirk, and said “you think you have what it takes”, for which I replied with an enthusiastic “yes sir” and with a bit of cockiness, I stated I bet I can out pushup and pullup anyone in here. I am not sure if he was amused or annoyed at this point but he barked an order at another recruiter to jump on the pull up bar they had in the office; he jumped up and busted out about 27 of them before dropping down winded by the exertion. By this point in my life I could manage about 25 total, I jumped up and pushed myself hard to get in 30. I had their attention, which I thought would lead to the signing of some papers, but I was told to comeback the following week for the pushup challenge, at this point I think they were either having fun leading me on or simply prolonging the challenge to prolong the crap they were giving to the other recruiter whom I had just beat in the pull up challenge. During the course of this courtship I reached a point where questions where being asked, such as, have you ever been arrested, have you ever done drugs, and lastly are you on any medication, followed by, lying to any of these questions is a federal offense. Naturally I mentioned “tegretol” the medication I had been prescribed for controlling my epilepsy. Once the words left my mouth I could see the disappointment in the recruiters face, his only response was “you got heart kid but we can’t take you” delivered with as much empathy as he could muster.

His response hit me like a ton of bricks, what, this was my dream, my goal, my destiny. How could this be happening, life can’t be this unfair. I have no other provisions for what I will do next, you can’t do this to me. This led to a downward spiral of my spirit and character, I didn’t care about anything anymore except for maybe fishing and drinking, I had no idea how to deal with this setback. What was worse is that I kept all this information private, I told no one of my trip to the recruiter’s office that day, I told no one that I was denied military service, I simply walked out of that office that day and when I was out of visual range of the recruiters office I sat down on the sidewalk and cried. My only game plan moving forward was to simply stop my medication, not tell anyone and try again in a year, then when the question was asked again I could reply with a “no Sir, no medication taken here”. This worked for about 3 months, until I came down with a fever which then led to another epileptic episode. This was the straw that broke me, everything made me angry. I felt as if I was broken, a misfit amongst my peers, not worthy to serve or defend my country if the need were to arise. While this blog is much too long to go into the specifics of what turned my mindset around it highlights one example of how life is full twist and turns and littered with setbacks and unforeseen challenges. It is how you deal with these setbacks that makes all the difference and which is why as a parent I try and spend as much time as I can teaching my kids how to deal with fear and failure and with not getting what you want. Dealing with failure is in my mind a very important lesson to pass on to others, apparently I am not the only one who thinks so, there are now college courses on this very topic and many books have been written and sold on how to deal with setbacks and change, such as the book “mindset” to the classic “who moved my cheese” which I purchased a kid version to read to my children. So the point of this article is to realize that life isn’t fair, sometimes things don’t, wont and will not go as we planned, accept that fact and then think about what else you can do to learn from it to develop a contingency plan or help someone else learn from your experience. In the first couple of pages of the Dr. Spencer Johnson book, “who moved my cheese” is a passage that I just love, it is as follows:

“Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered, but a maze of passages, through which we must see our way, lost and confused, now and again checked in a blind alley. But always, if we have faith, a door will open for us, not perhaps one that we ourselves would ever have thought of, but one that will ultimately prove good for us.”

Well for me, a door was opened and life has never been better, I have a beautiful family, great friends and a great job in the service of our countries national defense. Now when I hit a road block, I pause briefly before dusting myself off again and keep moving forward, I will leave you with the words of Robert Burns “The best laid schemes o’ mice and men often go astray”. If you go astray or fall down, get up get your bearings, dust yourself off and keep moving! Oss!

Author

Hello I am Mike Cardenas, Head Eskrima Instructor at the VEA Martial Arts Academy in Manteca CA and head of the Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club. Thanks for visiting my blog page.

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