From a Serrada online digest:
>There are so many arts so complicated and so deep that they cannot be taught often to completion to any ONE >person. Guys like Pak Vic and Uncle Bill won't be around forever. Serrada is the same way. Luckily it can still be >learned and mastered.
>
>Train hard folks when guys like Larry pass on it should scare you. Take stock of what you know. People like this are >living libraries just waiting for Alexandria to happen to them.
>
>Learn it before it burns away.
Funny you should mention this, because I just posted on the same theme elsewhere, inspired by the same loss. In fact, I've put a couple of rants on my blog in the last several months over the insularity in our FMA community. Alex France sponsored a series of seminars here in the Bay Area with top-notch instructors. He's stopped because there was such poor response. The Atillo Balintawok seminar was cancelled because of lack of interest. What a shame! Have we nothing to learn from each other or experience of other arts?
Even within the Serrada community this exists. For instance, I've trained with just about every major student of Angel Cabales, from all the guys of my generation who were at the academy to attending seminars or classes with Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Mike Inay and Vincent Cabales. Everyone has something to offer, whether a different nuance for an armbar or a new way to finish a takedown. Meanwhile I've supported seminars by Carlito Bonjoc, Wade Williams, Khalid Khan, Darren Tibon, Sultan Uddin, Anthony Davis. Few of these have been attended by students from other Serrada schools. What a shame to miss these opportunities, because once they are gone, the knowledge and resource of that person are lost to us, and each one carries a piece of Angel's teaching.
Now those are just the names of the more prominent instructors. Meanwhile, I've been teaching this art for 22 years now. How many second or third generation students have ever looked me up to see what I'm doing with the art? I can probably count them on the fingers of one hand. Sure, lots have said they'd like to visit and train with me "one day", but I'm already at the age where friends and peers are starting to die off. Oh well. They probably won't miss anything, though I can say as fact that I've shown things to members of the younger generations that were standard moves under Angel which had not been passed on by their instructor.
I've often compared this state of affairs to Aikido, where it is common for students to visit other schools, and for teachers to come as guest instructors at each other's academies. Sometimes this might be a formally arranged seminar, but other times it can just be someone travelling for work or on vacation who drops into a local school for a training session. Students are usually welcome this way, and if a black belt, they might be invited to share what they do back home. I learned a lot from this
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