Lameco

[gungfuhero]

What is it that really characterizes lameco? What is it that makes it stand out?

[Kevin]

LAMECO

Hi...

I definitely no expert on Lameco.. not even a practioner. But, I was watching the Edgar Sulite video Laban Laro II up until about 10 minutes ago.... does that count?

I think that maybe it's not what Lameco is.... it's what it's not.... a FMA style that specializes in a certain range. Even Lameco's name is a combination of the terms for long, medium and close range (LArgo, MEdio, COrto). Edgar Sulite was exposed to a large number of FMA's, and took what he learned to make a composite art which encompassed these different ranges.

Laban Laro II had some good footage of Guro Sulite. What stood out was the speed and power of his strikes.

~Kev

[Guro Dave Gould]

Lameco...

Hi guys,
what makes LAMECO stand out from the other systems more so than anything else was the mindset of the man who brought this system to life. Punong Guro Sulite always felt that the way in which you moved reflected your true combative abilities. He always allowed his abilities to speak for himself more so than he allowed words to speak for his abilities.
There are many great things that stood out about Punong Guro Sulite as a Master, warrior and friend. So... I will refrain from much and attempt to cover the more important issues in answering your question, by which allowed him to pass on his knowledge to those of us who were fortunate enough to consider him as our friend and instructor.
Punong Guro Sulite always tried to impart his knowledge to us through realistic training sessions to say the least. He taught us that the way in which we train has to resemble as close as possible the very thing for which we are training. He always stressed that the way we train will be the way that we will fight. If we train with intention, aggression, speed, power, and violence than so shall we respond in like manner if and when we are forced to confront and put down a life threatening situation.
Punong Guro Sulite often spoke about striking with intention. Striking with intention means that you are able to hit what you are striking at and when you do having enough power to bring it down to the ground. Punong Guro Sulite always taught us that every strike that we throw has to be delivered with enough power to break the head of our opponent or we should`nt throw the strike at all. As well he taught us to train ourselves as not to have a left or a right hand in defending ourselves but rather to have two hands equally capable. Most instructors just tell you that you should be prepared to fight with either hand whereas Punong Guro Sulite demanded it.
Attribute training is the foundation which allows you to become a great warrior. You should never be able to move fast enough, or time well enough, or be able to deliver a strike powerful enough to satisfy yourself, there`s always room for improvement. We as human beings have to constantly challenge ourselves in order to progress. The day that we stop pushing ourselves in delivering 100% of our potential and beyond will be the day that we will allow our abilities to stagnate or worse yet digress in our over-all potential to defend ourselves. Never settle for less than what you are truly capable of.
Punong Guro Sulite trained us in the spirit that "repetition is the mother of all skills". He spent alot of time training us in our basic material and stressed mastery in speed, timing, power, position, non-telegraphic striking, recovery aspects and perception and reaction skills. all the while training in real time in a natural environment as much as possible. One thing that everyone noticed about Punong Guro Sulite was that he was always where he needed to be for only as long as he needed to be there in order to inflict heavy damage to his opponent and then he was gone.
His speed, timing, power, footwork, perception and reaction were impeccable and it was`nt because he was blessed with these skills but rather he knew how to work hard to bring these things to fruition. It`s not what he did but rather how he did them which launched his success and gained him fame and international recognition. To him sometimes less was more...
Punong Guro Sulite`s mindset to me is what really set him apart from the others. He would train us to get operational and to be able to perform with positive effect when it counted the most. He taught us that just because your opponent was lying before your feet dieing that in no uncertain terms was he dead, therefore he was still a threat to your life. He stressed heavily that you do what you have to do to put the crisis situation down and then you move out of the area of operation ASAP.
He tried to prepare his students to deal up close and personal with the warrior spirit in combat. He trained us to defend against an angry man hell bent on separating you from your head and that nothing short of death itself will stop an individual possessing this mindset. Sometimes we all are guilty of training our material slow and easy claiming that we are working on flow but reality should scream at us to the point that we should be able to stop our workouts and realistically ask ourselves if the way in which we are moving at that point in time will be enough to stop an angry man exploding an attack in on our position with the intent to inflict violent deadly force to our persons.
When we would work disarms Punong Guro Would make sure that you understood the reality of sed disarms in real time against an opponent whom will not cooperate with you. He would often tell you to try and disarm him at real speed and would resist and try his best not to allow you to achieve a positive disarm. But then again this is no more than what you would expect from a person attacking you on the street for real. He too would resist and not cooperate as he is fighting for his life as much, if not more so than you are fighting for yours.
There are many ways that Punong Guro Sulite would teach us in developing us to meet his high standards. What I liked most about him was his desire to stay out of politics and focus on the more important aspect of what he had to offer us which was real training to deal with real situations. His system is a no frills system which was taught in a way to enable a person to go from 0 to 60 with intention in the blink of an eye with positive effect... Take care guys and be well.
~ Guro Dave Gould.

[Kevin]

LAMECO

Guro Dave,

Thanks for replying, I always enjoy your posts.

Gfh.... you hit the jackpot!
Couldn't hope for a reply from much more of an authoritative source than Guro Dave.

Take care...
~Kev

[bluesteel]

What is covered on both Laban Laor tapes I'm very interested in them!

[Guro Dave Gould]

Labang laro...

Blue steel,
Hello there, I hope that all is well with you. To answer your questions, Labang laro are a series of drills in LAMECO that Punong Guro Sulite would train us in as to enable his students to deal better with all of the nuances of correlating ones skills as one transitions from long, medium and close ranges with appropriate counter response.
Punong Guro Sulite placed a heavy emphasis on the ability to transition quickly through the different ranges based on necessity and opportunity and in doing so maintaining the ability to strike with effect to those targets available to you within the small span of time by which they will remain available to you in real time.
All in all there are two different sets of Labang laro with solo garote. Both Labang laro tapes only deal with material from the first set. In that set, which is what is covered by the tape series, you will find material related to the task of correlating your ability to block, sector and counter your opponent from a variation of ranges and hybrid ranges while defending various attacks from your opponent.
You will deal with various aspects of defending your opponents attack(s) with your vertical block (tala bartikal), wing block (sombrada), pen block (pluma), and deflection (pasungkit) with appropriate counters. as well you will be taught in drill form to defend against a variation of thrusting attacks with appropriate counter responses from each participant of the drill. You will also be introduced to using all three of your blocks in a flow so to speak as to prepare you to deal with numerous "random" strikes on your position and be able to "flow" from one block to the other as based on necessity in defending yourself from possible harm.
In the latter part of the tape series you focus on close range possibilities whereas you will concentrate on attacks and counter responses dealing with your "punyo" (butt of the weapon) yet correlating with your striking capabilities of impacting with the tip in the corto-medio range. These drills train you to recognize the proper timing of the situation as to allow you to better know when it is "best" to close range on your opponent, or to maybe put distance between you two as to reassess the situation from a neutral position.
One of the last things that you will learn from the tape series will be what we call "Corto" or "Pekiti" in LAMECO which leads to variations of "Palosutan" (search for openings)which is a drill that allows you to strike in random order as to include strikes, thrusting, wetiks, abaniko, punyo, slashing, disarms as well as defending random attacks from your opponent in real time at close range.
The last instructional portion of the tape series deals with what Punong Guro Sulite called "non-cooperation" in this case he applies the knowledge to resisting stand-up lock flow and reversals of sed locks. As well this is a very foundational piece of his knife curriculum as to prevent someone from disarming you from your blade (not covered in tape series).
As a bonus you will receive 20 year old footage of a "very young" Punong Guro Sulite in action in the Philippines demonstrating the power, speed and intensity that would later thrust him onto the scene and gain him international fame and respect from his peers and colleagues. It is a very informative tape series and I feel that you would benefit greatly from the information shared from within.
The second set (not covered by video) dealt more with "saggasa" technique, which is the ability to over run your opponent with aggression when you perceive a weakness in your opponents ability to defend himself. As well it concentrates on the best ways that you can deal with an over aggressive opponent intent on over running your position with violence and rage. As well we have Labang laro for Doble-garote, Espada y daga (on video) and the knife curriculum.
This of course is`nt a full description in great detail of the tape series but there is more than enough information here as to give you the gist of material covered on the tape series. take care and be well...
~ Guro Dave Gould.

[bluesteel]

Thanks Guro Dave,
I have heard good things about you!Do you have a website?. When did you start your training in Lameco and do you teach other material other then the FMA stuff!Thanks for the great info on the tapes.

[Guro Dave Gould]

Bluesteel,
Hello again... I`m grateful for your interest in LAMECO and I wish you great success in your future training endeavors. Now to address your questions:
>>>> Do you have a website?.<<<<
No, it seems as if everyone affiliated with me has one with the exception of myself. I`ve had offers from students and friends alike to create and maintain one for me but to be honest I am out of the country so much conducting seminars and teaching that I have very little time to adequately keep one updated as to give it justice. One day though, I hope to get one up and operating...
>>>> When did you start your training in Lameco? <<<<
I began training martial arts in 1977 and Pilipino warrior arts in 1982. I began my formal training in LAMECO on October 20, 1992 in east Los Angeles at the house of Punong Guro Sulite as a private student. On July 28, 1996 at his home in Palmdale, Ca. I became Punong Guro Sulite`s 24th and final certified instructor in LAMECO. I studied with him privately on a weekly basis until his untimley demise in April 1997.
>> do you teach other material other than the FMA stuff? <<
Yes, I teach Muay-thai. I started Muay-thai at the same time that I started training pilipino warior arts in 1982. I`ve trained diligently since that time both here in Los Angeles as well as in Thailand.
Again thanks for your interest in LAMECO, if I can ever be of assistance to you in any way feel free to contact me. Take care, and be well...
~ Guro Dave Gould.

[manofleisure]

Looking for Lameco Eskrima Instructors....

I am looking for Lameco Eskrima Instruction as close as to Austin Texas as I may get.

There is one in El Paso,but is there a closer one in say,Louisiana or else-where that might fit me better since I will probably be driving the distance.

Thanks,

manofleisure

[manofleisure]

Think I found my school...

Not Lameco,but they teach aspects of Lameco,Inosanto/lacoste

And also a few other arts as well.Pretty cheap also for a 2 hour class.

[guro_abon]

Laban Laron

Guro Dave can you give us some sample of a Laban laro training and combinations.




Gumagalang,

Isagani

[Guro Dave Gould]

Guro Abon,

Hello there, I hope that you are well and that you are keeping challenged by your daily training. Now to respond to your query.

"Labang-laro" are training drills found in Lameco Eskrima in the earliest levels of development. They allow the student to correlate basic foot work, with any blocks, hand sectoring, passing, and counter activity permitted in a semi compliant environment.

"Labang-laro" is actually an attempt for PG Sulite to package any desired technique or concept in drill form facilitating the ability to pass along that technique or concept in a manner where it is easy for the student to learn. In other words the drill itself does not become more important than the technique or concept that the drill was arranged to convey to the student to begin with. I have seen PG Sulite rearrange "Labang-laro" drills to better accomodate the technique or concept that was packaged with-in when he noticed that there was an easier way to present that material to the student.

As one progresses in "Labang-laro" PG Sulite would make it a point to introduce unexpected counter responses leaving the student to perceive and react to anything not expected in the drill. This way the student would learn the required material but never close off the possibility of the opponent doing something out of the norm which could possibly be harmful to him. He would refer to this as "breaking out" of "Labang-laro". Awareness and alertness to ones environment was expected during any interval of training from the most basic to the most avanced.

To give you an idea of "Labang-laro" I will take you through the first drill with garote:

Tala Bartikal, at bantay kamay kuwatro, sa waslik at ikis suklian:

Attacker initiates with a #1 attack, defender blocks Tala bartikal and secures the thumb and index with "bantay kamay kuwatro", he than strikes to the right side rib-cage and simultaneously passes the hand with "Waslik" and counters immediately with Ikis suklian to the right and left sides of the head. Then the attacker becomes the defender and vice versa so that both can train.

Than PG Sulite would have you train the drill using all seven bantay-kamay from the "bukas" position and reverse the drill from the closed side forcing the student to use all 6 bantay-kamay from the "pinid" position. Than he would start breaking out of the drill with whatever counter that he felt you were open to forcing you to perceive, react, adapt and adjust to the unexpected but continue moving with effect.

Although "Labang-laro", "Laro-laro" and "Palosutan" were drills that progressively weaned you from a compliant environment to a very non-compliant environment, Sparring was the ultimate barometer to best guage combative effect and PG Sulite would allow that arena to best implement change and lessons learned based on necessity during our sunday gatherings at his house. As well we were required to spar with PG Sulite at the end of every private class that we had with him.

I hope that this helps. Go well, ciao.

Guro Dave Gould.

[guro_abon]

Maraming Salamat mula dito sa Pilipinas

Maraming salamat for giving sample and explaining of the Laban Laro. Please continue to love the Filipino Arts of PG Sulite. I've met him in Luneta before when i was young and beginners in the Filipino Arts of Blade. hope you can also post your thoughs in our forum found in our site.


Thanks and nice talking to you in this forum and hope you don't mind answering some of my question either here or in your forumregarding Lameco training i am one of Master Sulite's fans in terms of skill, and teaching
methodology.

Keep in touch.

Gumagalang,

Isagani

http://www.angelfire.com/art2/rapidorealismo

[Guro Dave Gould]

Guro Abon,

Hello again, thanks for the response. Sure ask anything of me concerneing Lameco Eskrima that you wish, be it on this Forum or my own Lameco Forum. When time permits I will check out your site as well. Ciao.

Guro Dave Gould.

[RedBagani]

How many Lameco schools are there now & where are they located?