News and upcoming events for LESKAS and the Filipino Martial Arts community

2/12/06

LESKAS Seattle would like to announce an open gym sparring session (throwdown) on Saturday, March 11th from noon-?. We would like an ego-free get together, where you are free to test your techniques in stickfighting, kickboxing, grappling, and mixed martial arts. If you are not familiar with our club, please contact us before showing up. Bad attitudes and non-participating spectators will not be allowed. People will be free to spar with other participants at whatever contact level that you both are comfortable with.

We have a hardwood floor, judo mats, and a heavy bag for anyone that would like to work out. We must insist that everyone wear a cup (males), mouthpiece, and sign a waiver before participating. Please bring any additional gear that you feel would be useful. We also reserve the right to video tape the get together for future reference.

We would like to thank our gym partners, the Seattle Matsumura Kenpo Karate club for supporting us with this session. We hope everybody has fun and can share their experience with us.

1/20/06

Chinese Kickboxing and Filipino Combat Escrima of Las Vegas Nevada has announced that Grand Master Carlito Lanada is coming to Las Vegas, Nevada February 25th for a Kuntaw seminar. In addition, they are celebrating the grand opening of their 2nd school location, located at 3170 E. Sunset #C by holding a stickfighting tournament.

We met this group at the WFMA expo a few years back, and they were a very nice, hard training group. For more info about their seminar and tournament, please contact Bill Garness at 702-871-8883 or 702-604-4761 or email them at ckiusa@cox.net.

12/26/05

LESKAS Seattle has a new training space! Our new facility is located at 1475 NW 85th Street in Ballard (Seattle). For a map of where we are located, click here. Make sure to contact us before hand if you would like to drop by for a visit.

12/15/05

Congratulations to Maestro Nathan Dominguez and his team from UP Sangkil Karasak (LESKAS-LSAI), for placing 1st in the Arnis syncronized forms division of the Southeast Asian Games. Lightning strikes gold!

10/06/05

IMB-Seattle seminar with GM Richard Bustillo. October 15-16. See www.geocities.com/imbseattle for directions and contact information.

3/21/05

Bakbakan is now holding regional qualifiers for their stick and knife fighting tournament. The championship competition will be held at The 2005 FMA Summit and International Gathering of Warriors October 10-16, 2005 Metro-Manila, PHILIPPINES. This is a group that is very experienced with running tournaments, so be sure to check out their site for more information. Bakbakan

3/10/05

The newest version of the FMA digest is now online. This special edition of the magazine covers recently deceased legends of the FMA, including Maestro Elmer. It's a little executable file, which you can run, and opens like a book. We've got a copy of it here.

2/9/05

The World Filipino Martial Arts Association website is now live. You can get information about the WFMA Expo and Laban Laro there, and the event will be held in the LA area this year. WFMA Website

1/10/05

Happy New Year! Thanks to everyone who has wished us happy holidays. Our practice will be resuming after a brief holiday break, at its normal times and place. That would be the Fircrest center, Monday and Wednesday from 6:45 to 8:00. If you are interested in visiting, please contact Chris to get the details and directions.

11/16/04

We are sad to hear that Cindy Balani (wife of Guro Hospecio "Bud" Balani, Jr. of Kapisanang Mandirigma and Lameco SOG) lost her 2-year battle against Breast Cancer at the age of 33. We wish the best for Guro Balani, his family, and his organization.

10/15/04

We would like to thank Punong Guro Myrlino Hufana for inviting LESKAS to the World Filipino Martial Arts Expo and Laban Laro, held at the Palms Resort in Las Vegas Nevada over October 1st-3rd. There were many outstanding instructors there for the seminar portion of the event, and we were honored to be in such esteemed company. We would also like to salute all of the fine fighters, referees, and judges of the Laban Laro competition. For those of you who missed it, be sure to check out the website for the event, see what you missed, and take a look at what's going on for next year.

5/26/04

LESKAS Seattle has been invited to demonstrate and share the art for the Pagdiriwang festival, to be held in Seattle Center on Saturday, June 12: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday, June 13: noon-6 p.m. We will be participating in both the demonstration and the seminar portions of the event. Feel free to come by and say "Hi!", and enjoy the celebration of Filipino independence.

3/31/04

It is with great regret and sadness that we must report the passing of LESKAS founder Maestro Elmer Ybanez today. Maestro Ybanez had been fighting his most difficult battle against leukemia for the last few months, and we will miss him greatly. Nevertheless, his spirit lives on with his family, friends, and students whom will be carrying on his legacy.

3/28/04

We will be moving our training location to the Fircrest gym as of April 5th. Practices will be on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30. The gym is located at 15230 15th Ave NE in Shoreline. Here's a map.

1/03/04

Happy New Year! We will be putting in another order for LESKAS T-Shirts very soon. We'll be going with the black version once again, and should have some extras, but if you want to be safe, please talk to Chris to make sure you get your correct size.

11/16/03

Having secured our current training location, Maestro Ybanez has stated that he'd be open to taking on some new students! We'll be having training several nights a week in the north Seattle area. Please contact Chris Turla for more information.

11/01/03

The demonstration of techniques on Alfredo Rico Acosta's tape are not representative of LESKAS, nor of many Lightning Scientific practitioners. The footwork used, the absence of aggressive checking and tight chambering of strikes, and the power mechanics of the strikes differ radically from the approach taught by Maestro Elmer Ybanez, founder of LESKAS and chief instructor of Lightning Scientific under Mang Ben.

For these reasons we cannot recommend this tape, as the techniques shown do not resemble those of the Lightning systems as they were taught by Maestro Elmer.