filipino martial arts in illinois?

[khand50]

hi,
not sure where to post this question. i have been looking for filipino martial arts in illinois. i live at the cross section of i80 and i180. there are schools in chicago and bloomington and rockford. all are about two hours away from me and i was hoping to find something closer. cities i could drive to easier would be moline, peoria, sterling, dixon, rockfalls, lasalle/peru, possibly joliet. if anyone knows of anyone teaching any form of filipino arts in any of those areas or locations please let me know. thank you.

[tim_stl]

hi,
not sure where to post this question. i have been looking for filipino martial arts in illinois. i live at the cross section of i80 and i180. there are schools in chicago and bloomington and rockford. all are about two hours away from me and i was hoping to find something closer. cities i could drive to easier would be moline, peoria, sterling, dixon, rockfalls, lasalle/peru, possibly joliet. if anyone knows of anyone teaching any form of filipino arts in any of those areas or locations please let me know. thank you.

i'm not sure if he's teaching, but mike alcaraz of garimot arnis is in kewanee.



tim

[billc]

If you would like to train in a blade based FMA, Dekiti Tirsia Sirada Kali, there is a class at the Midway Kodenkan taught by John Bednarski. It is about 40 minutes from villa park, and downers grove Illinois, and they have a website. It may be too far to travel during the week, but there is a Saturday class. You should give John a call anyway because he is pretty well connected into the FMA community in Illinois and can probably help you find a school. I have been training with John since June and I have to say that he knows how to teach the art and he has a great deal of knowledge that you could find helpful.

Bill

[khand50]

tim,
if you have a number for him pm me. or i can give you my number and he can call me. i searched whitepages.com and didnt come up with anything. i get to kewanee more often than anywhere else because my best friend lives there. i used to live there. any leads on mike would be great.
ive tried to keep away from the chicago area just because i dont like driving there. its about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from where i live so i would just go to bloomington and train with terry crutcher. ive contacted him about doing that. my weekends are usually when i work. he has classes on saturday. so im trying to figure that one out.
ive studied many arts through the years. including the filipino arts. but i always want more of certain things. especially the filipino arts. i am currently teaching my neighbor and we are up to his next phase of training which is working with single and double batons. i created my own teaching curriculum years ago and keep refining it as i go along. the first phase of training involves empty hands. the second phase is introduction to basic kali/eskrima which i have learned in the past 25 years. and we keep going through various ranges and skills as we progress.
if i can get with someone teaching the filipino arts i can progress more myself. i have many dvd videos on the filipino arts which i can work from because i know enough of the basics to do so, but i like that interaction with others. thanks guys for the info. i going to keep looking around and if you can get mike's info for me that would be awesome....

[khand50]

i found john's website and wrote him an email. thanks for the headsup.

[Navadisha]

i found john's website and wrote him an email. thanks for the headsup.

John also puts on an awesome tournament every year, The Pacific Island Gathering, this year in August. Hope you could make it there this year. Terry Crutcher was there last year.

[tim_stl]

if you have a number for him pm me.

i don't have his number handy, but his e-mail address can be found at http://www.garimot.com/gat-classes.php#illinois (dcpt2ugopeisho@insightbb.com).

i see from your youtube channel that you know victor rivera. he's also a part of the garimot family, still down in west palm.



tim

[khand50]

vic is a great guy. very gifted martial artist. we trained together at the sdma academy in west palm. i really enjoyed working with him. i know he was training in systema for a bit the last i heard before i moved from west palm to illinios back in 2003. another classmate from sdma, richie carrion, now of jkd extreme, told me that vic was still active in the arts. that was back in 2000.
thanks for the info. ill try to contact mike and see about getting together.