Guro Antonio “ Dodong “ dela Cruz Jr.Guro Antonio “ Dodong “ dela Cruz Jr.

Informative Issue No. 226 2016

Getting to Know Guro Antonio “ Dodong “ dela Cruz, Jr. Training Commences Teaching Effectively and Safely Power in Striking

Each issue features practitioners of martial arts and other internal arts, other features include historical, theo-retical and technical articles; reflections, Filipino martial arts, healing arts, the culture of the Philippines and other related subjects. The authors, publisher and owner of this online magazine are not responsible for any injury, which may result from the instructions contained in this online magazine. Before embarking on any of the physical activates described in the magazine, the reader should consult his or her physician for advice regarding their individual suitability for per-forming such activity. The ideas and opinions expressed in the FMA Informative online magazine are those of the authors or instruc-tors being interviewed and are not necessarily the views of the publisher, editor or owner of the FMA Informative. The articles are the property of the author’s that wrote them and cannot be used without the permission of the author. The FMA Informative is for the promulgation and promotion of the Filipino martial arts and the Culture of the Philippines. NO issue can be printed and Sold for Monies, without the express permission of the Owner and Publisher of the FMA Informative.

The FMA informative would like to thank Master Jose Isidro for his introduction to Guro Antonio ‘Dodong’ dela Cruz Jr., known as Guro Dodong, living in Lupon, Davao Oriental, Mindanao, Philippines. The FMA Informative representative while visiting the Philippines in 2016 was in Davao Mindanao, and Guro Dodong traveled 2 hours from Lupon to Davao to meet and talk with the representative. This was very special indeed, for the FMA Informative representative found that Guro Dodong is a special kind of Filipino martial arts practitioner, very friendly, honest, humble, energetic and fully dedicated to the Filipino martial arts. Guro Dodong in his commitment of excellence continues to promulgate, support, and develop programs for Lupon, Elementary and High School students, Barangay Tanods and Peacekeepers.

Guro Antonio ‘Dodong’ dela Cruz Jr. Personal Commitment and Thankfulness Guro Dodong loyalty is to the Organization, MARRPIO, under Dr. Remy P. Presas, Jr., Presas Family Arnis., and to Isirdo Modern Arnis under Master Jose Isidro. He has their trust and confidence by granting and accrediting him to be Lakan Antas Isa. Master Jose Isidro supports Guro Dodong generously. He is not only Guro Dodong Master but also a very close friend to him and his family. Guro Dodong is also very thankful for the support of some people in the Lupon community like the first lady Mrs. Erlinda D. Lim the wife of the Mayor of Lupon, (Davao Oriental) and his son-in-law. Councilor Sonny Alonzo, and the councilors Ms. Gina Libre, and Cenen Angsinco. Our Barangay Captain of Poblacion Lupon, Florentino Macquilan III., and Kagawad Alan Balingit. These people supported my Arnis activities here in Lupon. Guro Dodong has organized new groups of martial artists, ISMART- LUMADS, (Isidro Modern Arnis and Taekwondo) (Lupon United Martial Artists for the development of Sports). These groups will develop ath-letes to represent the Municipality and Province in the field of Sport Martial Art competition. Aside from these all the members will also perform and participate in community service like, peacekeeping, traffic enforcement, and Community Emergency Response and Rescue, intelligence gathering. They will be trained to perform such duties depending on their capability. These people will be the future Army, Police, Barangay Tanod and security guards, in Lupon Mindanao. There is a Brotherhood of Martial Artists, as a Filipino everyone must learn and train in Arnis, the first priority in martial arts. Working together for the peace and harmony among the different martial arts and styles, and promote sportsmanship and brotherhood. To help maintain peace and order, to make the community a safe place to live. Master Jose Isidro is very supportive to Guro Dodong plans and actions in these matter. He is our Grandmaster of the group and the Great Grandmaster is Dr. Remy P. Presas.Jr.

Guro Antonio “ Dodong “ dela Cruz Jr. Email: tonyfalcon98@yahoo.com

Lupon, Davao Oriental, Mindanao, Philippines

Lupon, Davao Oriental, Philippines Lupon is said to have derived its name from the native word “naluponan”, meaning a body of land accumulated at the mouth of a river resulting from years of continued accretion. The settlers shortened the word “naluponan” into what is called now “Lupon”. This “naluponan” area was then applied to the mouth of the Sumlug river of Lupon municipality of today. Lupon was primarily inhabited by the Mandaya and Mansaka in the hinterlands, and the native Kalagans in the shorelines of Lupon connected to Pantukan municipality and San Isidro municipality today. But, through a wave of mi-gration [local immigrants from Luzon and the Visayas (Christians and Muslims alike)] and the coming of logging conces-sions, the population of Lupon has increased through the succeeding years. Lupon first became a regular barrio of Pantukan in 1919. Two years later Governor General Francis Burton Har-rison issued an Executive Order No. 8, series of 1921, creating Lupon as a Municipal District comprising eight (8) barrios that include Poblacion Lupon, Sumlog, Cocornon, Tagugpo, Piso, Maputi, Langka, and Banaybanay. Datu Commara Manuel was appointed as the municipal district president from 1921 to 1929. The American Occu-pation in the Philippine Islands was serious about pacifying inhabitants from rebellion against the American regime. What they did was to create Mindanao into a Moro Province, at the expense of the Christians both Catholic and Protestants also inhabiting the whole region. It was on this ground that Lupon was said to have been made into a sultanate with Datu Manuel as its sultan. But such an idea of Lupon becoming a sultanate was short-lived as Datu Manuel was replaced by the succeeding municipal district presidents.

Getting to Know Guro Antonio “ Dodong “ dela Cruz Jr.

I’m reminded of that basic concepts and principles of what Grandmaster Roland Dantes told me to learn the basic fundamen-tals, concepts, principles, theories and philosophies, to have a deeper understanding of the art to be learned. He told me, con-stant practice makes you perfect and that makes you a Master of the art. Before, I just wanted to be a student to learn self-defense to protect myself and also to share it to my comrades in the Ba-rangay Tanod in our community in which I’m the Commander. I’m a 14 years volunteer before I resigned and moved on. I don’t have any ambition to be a teacher, because I know that to be a teacher there’s a big task to achieve that is how to teach the students effectively and to impose discipline. There are lots of things to learn and in the Lupon, Mindanao no one or a very few are qualified Guro’s to teach and train students. They know how to fight effectively, but they don’t know how to explain the wisdom behind it. However, I can’t resist the request of my Arnis idol Grandmaster Dantes to promote and propagate Arnis in the Lupon region. After the training with our group of Barangay Tanod, Grandmaster Roland promised to come back to our place in Lupon to train and prepare me for that purpose. But unfortunately after a month Grandmaster Dantes passed away. I was so frustrated and down of his passing. I was there at Grandmaster Dan-tes funeral in Antipolo City where I met many Filipino martial arts greats, mostly Modern Arnis practitioners. I also meet Guro Peachie Saguin who was very good to me and provided me with vital information about the Filipino martial arts. I also meet the other pillars of Modern Arnis, Grandmasters Rodel Dagooc, Pepi-to Robas, Vic Sanchez and Jerry dela Cruz, and my uncle who is a Master. Some of the practitioners offered me free training and to be a member of their Organization. But I did not commit myself to any of them, but still I continue to practice the art.

After a year I was invited by Grand-master Bambit Dulay to join the 5th FMA World Festival in Palawan on July 2010. There I meet so many Filipino martial arts Grandmasters and Masters and practitioners from different parts of the world and became friends with them and on Facebook. Some were the Russian Group led by Master Alex Plaxin.

Also I met Master Jose Isidro, a Filipino - American and we become good friends up to this day. I like his attitude of not leaving his friend behind and very protective and is concerned about our safety always. I enjoy his company and have great fun during that event until we departed ways at the airport. But our communication still continues thru Facebook. He is the only Master who was able to convince and persuaded me to join his group and to be under his guidance.

I appreciate also his loyalty to Dr. Remy P. Presas, Jr., and MARPPIO the Presas Family Arnis. I’m very proud and honored to be part of their Organization. Master Isidro has train me thru long dis-tance training in YouTube. I choose him among other Grandmasters and Masters, because he has the quality of a good leader, very supportive and generous and a loyal friend. We are compatible in many things. In the near future we will be busi-ness partner of our joint effort to produce Arnis Equipment, cost effective, safe and affordable to the Filipino Arnisadors. This will be our Lega-cy to the Filipino martial arts. He financed and supported this project and has already seen the fruits of our labor. We have already tested this equipment in our training, sparring and tournaments. This will be sold in the market soon. Master Isidro came to Lupon in October 2015 to visit me and my students who are also eager to meet their Master and friend in Face-book. There is a lot of things to learn and train in the Filipino martial arts. Here I want to teach more to the children in the Elementary and High School students,” Sport Arnis “. This is what Grandmaster Dantes wished was to spread and propagate and promote the Filipino martial arts, and to be part of the school curriculum. For the adults, self-defense. For peacekeepers, defensive tactics, arrest and control procedures, etc. For physical fitness, Arnis Kalirobics. Sport Arnis is very attractive to the younger generations because of the art of fighting, they can express their feelings, and their skills to hit and to get hurt, and this is very exciting to them. But I always remind them that this is just a part of Arnis, the sport aspect and not the totality of the real art the Filipino martial arts. In this stage the students learn the Basic of Arnis, discipline and practices. Creative Anyo and Labanan are the competitions in Sport Arnis. For the Barangay Tanods and Peacekeepers they will also learn Sport Arnis so they can also join in on the tournaments, but the important training is the Defensive Tactics Training for law enforcers and peacekeepers that involves Arnis stick fighting, empty hand, punching and kicking, knife defense, hand cuffing, arrest and control procedure and many more. First they are oriented with the history of the Filipino martial arts. The people behind the creation of one of the best martial art in the world. The importance of preserving it for the next generation to come. The Code of Conduct to be observed by trainees. The discipline and its practices. Warm-up exercises, stretching, footwork exercises and many more.

The FMA Informative wants the reader to learn a litte about Guro Antonio “ Dodong “ dela Cruz, Jr. known as Guro Dodong from his own thoughts.

Training Commences The first lesson that should be learned is the proper courtesy bow, the correct grip or holding of the weapon. The different weapons used in the Filipino martial arts. The baston or sticks, rattan or any kind of hard wood. Bladed weapons like sword and dagger and other improvised weapons. Empty hand is also introduce to the trainees. The rattan stick is commonly used weapon for training. For sparring, we use foam padded stick. To learn and understand the importance of assuming the proper stances for maintaining balance, agility and coordination and body shifting, that develop physical fitness components of muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, poise and proper posturing in Arnis. The correct stance is a strong foundation to maintain stability and balance when doing a particular techniques or sequence of techniques. With this the student also learns how to place their bodyweight or center of gravity. Consistent practice is highly recommended for with practice the student will be able to avoid of being out-balanced and the danger of being thrown or takedown. Maneuverability or footwork, moving from one position to another can be achieved through proper foot placement, these movements are called body shifting. This includes striking maneuvers, blocking maneuvers and evasive maneu-vers. Learning how to move in a fight will enable a student to develop the coordi-nation of their arms, legs, and the whole body, to create an opening and opportunity with good timing to execute a defensive, offensive, evasive and devastating attack or strike to their opponent. This basic knowledge and information enables the practi-tioners to a better understanding on how to move and fight effectively.

Students are also taught the ranges of fighting, the long range, medium range and close range or close quarter. The different angles or direction of foot move-ments and attack. The cross (+) and the “X” pattern for striking and footwork. the centerline in where the offensive came from, for defense you have to move away from the line of attack, either you move laterally , 45 degrees angle to execute the counter-attack. The different striking and blocking techniques in which the practitioners should understand and learn to combine the strikes and blocks, that strike can be a block and the block can be a strike. Learn-ing and understanding these basics, the practitioners will determined the fight, the timing of the offensive and defensive and evasive maneuvers and the coordination of all moving parts and techniques to execute. In empty hands the student must also learn the human weapons, the weap-ons that we have in our body from top of the head to foot. Like the head can be used for butting (if the feet and the hands cannot strike), the shoulders can be used for bumping, the elbow, the hands also have many forms of weapons to strike. The vital targets of the body, the nerves and pressure points, manipulation of joints of the arms and legs for locking purposes, the Chi or the breathing tech-niques, etc. Striking and blocking punching and kicking are essential parts of the training.

Knife Defense

Gun Defense

will create an explosive and destructive effect to the target. Like a punch, it is a close hand form into a fist with the knuckles at its front. The hand is connected to the wrist, a rotating joint. At this point alone it needs a lot of training and conditioning to make it a lethal weap-on. The fist will carry all the body weights and the concentrated force generated from the body. The fist must be strong enough to contain all the power being delivered, if it fail, the fist breaks from the sudden impact of the strike to the target that causes serious injury and damage to the hand and wrist. The Fist which is the weapon must be trained and condition enough to withstand the impact of the strike and capable to carry the force de-livered from the body. For Guro Dodong, although he teaches power punching, but he also teaches his students the other weapons that the hand is capable of being, like the palm, palm heel, back fist, back hand, knife hand, the wrist, hammer fist, fingers, etc. Slapping technique also is taught, it is very effective and powerful strike that doesn’t cause injury using these other weapon in the hand.

Making training weapons is my way of teaching effectively and safely. The traditional form of training was modernized by Professor Remy A. Presas. In the training, traditional way of blocking is by hitting the weapon arm, this is very unpopular to the new generations and a hindrance to the propagation of the art, but Professor Presas, for training purposes we have to block the stick. Hitting the hand and the arm needs a thicker and expensive gloves and arm protector, but this equipment are expensive Today, by the latest innovation of the training sticks, we have the luxury of hitting hard at full power to strike directly to any parts of the body (excluding the head) without worries of injury and we can assured the safety of the practitioners. It became cost effective because we elimi-nate or reduce the use of protective gears in training.

Teaching Effectively and Safely

Power in Striking

Guro Dodong was asked the question where he get his “Power” when striking. This question is not a simple question. It needs a lot of explanation. What Guro Dodong knows and understands in fighting, the power is the force that drives the weapon, either stick or a fist, to strike an object or person to produce a devastating and destructive effect. For Guro Dodong, there are 3 aspects that determine the “Power of a Strike”. In his Hapkido learning, HAP means coordination, KI means power, and DO means way. The Way of Coordinating Power. First is the Power of the Mind. The mental training for martial art, is the will to protect our own self to survive and stay alive in a fight. Focus and concentration, and to plan a strategy and the execution is command-ed by the mind. Strengthening the Faith that you can achieve your objective. Mind over body, Mind over matter is the discipline and the rule. This must be coordinated to the other aspect. Second is the Physical Power (the different parts of the body). The physical training involves the strength, muscles, endurance, flexibility, agility, etc. of the body. Proper Stances and grounding or rooting, foot-work, body shifting, balance and timing plays an important role in generating power. Third is the “Breath, the “Chi or Ki”. The breath is the link between the Mind and the Body. The Chi or Ki is your energy or Life Force. Martial artists believe it is located in your abdomen and can be summoned at will. In martial arts, a practitioner might take a deep breath, focus his will or his Chi, and then strike the target. Chi gives you the ability to add power, intensity and focus to achieving your goal. Breathing help you find your Chi. Deep breathing by slowly Inhaling through the nostril, filling your lungs and abdomen. Then expel the breath slowly through your mouth. Fell the energy and strength you expel, that’s summoning your “Chi”. Now, make the expulsion of breath coincide with a physical and mental effort, this coordination of the three powers

Dis-arming

MARRPIO Click Here

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