Latosa Escrima Basic Overview

Discover Latosa Escrima Basics And Foundations Of This Combative Weapon Martial Arts System

Grandmaster Rene Latosa's present focus for his ever-evolving martial arts system is the perfection of teaching methods that help students understand the system conceptually and apply it flexibly and effectively.

Techniques are subserviant to concepts in Latosa Escrima, and serve mainly as drills that help students integrate the intellectual concepts into their bodies' natural reactions.

Latosa Escrima is not about saying, "If he does this, you do that."

It is about training the body to physically express the Latosa Escrima concepts in order to apply them instantly and effectively to any self-defense situation—and, in the end, to any LIFE situation.

As for the training itself, a beginning student will spend most of his/her time learning how his/her own body moves.

There are no strictly prescribed positions or movements in Latosa Escrima.

The instructor works with the student to help the student find out how his/her own body can best express the Latosa Escrima concepts.

This generally begins with learning how to produce short power with a stick held in one hand, and to maintain balance in stillness and in movement in all directions while doing so.

With this journey begun, the student learns to apply short power to the enemy with focus and speed.

In order to avoid getting hit by the enemy while doing so, the student learns concepts of movement relationship through the Box System and Five Strike System, which teach the student about off-lining and interference striking, among other things.

Attitude is cultivated beginning with the very first solo drills, and progresses at a higher pace once partner exercises begin within the first couple classes.

From here, the student advances to apply the developed movements and concepts to all weapons, all ranges and scenarios of combat, all levels of force, and all self-defense situations.

At the highest levels, it all comes back to training the mind and body to express the concepts, as perfectly as the span of one's lifetime will allow.