Having problems with message search?
Steve: The first question would be how long have you been involved in the martial arts?
Ted: 31-33 years
Steve: What martial arts have you studied?
Ted: I started out first in Judo. A friend of mine introduced me to the art of Judo when I arrived in the states. I was born and raised in Hawaii until I was 13. I didn’t get an official system but studied several different styles. My first Karate style was a Hawaiian karate style; I spent a lot of years with that. Then I started experimenting and trying other styles like Shitoryu and Shorinryu. Then my Dad and I started Kajukempo with Tony Ramos. When I first came to the states my Dad and I helped build a gym in L.A. where we trained Kajukempo. I stopped for a while and when I started back up I was in Praying Mantis, then I went to Dan Inosanto’s backyard and that’s when I first started JKD and Escrima. I was brought in because of the Escrima. My Dad knew Richard Bustillio who got me into the backyard sessions. I got in to learn Escrima but I really wanted to take JKD first. It was pretty good because I learned to like both of them. It use to be after the JKD class, before everyone would close out, Dan Inosanto would ask those of you who wanted to stay for the Escrima can do so, and everybody would leave but maybe about three, four maybe five if we’re lucky. But the Escrima class in those days was so brand new nobody ever knew what it was. As it went further down the road, then I got involved in the Filipino arts more. I got three main systems that I studied: serrada style by Angel Cabales, Largo Mano style systems from Leo Giron and Villabralle/Kali style from Ben Largusa. This was also my dad’s system that he had learned as a kid from the Grandmaster Villabralle. Also under his belt, he had been taught by others a knife fighting system, which I think, helped him in his boxing years later. My Grandfather was a champion boxer on the islands and he didn’t want my Dad to fight. As my Dad got older and, he stopped the Escrima training because, as a kid, everybody was doing basketball or whatever, and he just got tired of doing Escrima and Kali by himself, which is natural for most kids. My Grandfather stopped him from training with Grandmaster Villabralle because hi was such a ‘hot head,’ but eventually he continued boxing in spite of my Grandparents.
Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.
Offline 
Send Email