®
Click logo to
return to main page
Teaching
I
have been teaching Serrada
Escrima in the Bay Area since 1985, starting at the School of the White
Tiger in Oakland, where I also studied and taught Kenpo, until 1989. From 1989 to 1992 the program became
“Serrada of Berkeley” (the SOB’s) but then I moved north to El Sobrante and
classes went south into Oakland. Since
then I’ve also taught in San Francisco, Mill Valley, Lafayette, Danville, Pleasant
Hill, Pleasanton and San Ramon, so the program also became known as “Bay Area
Serrada Escrima” (BASE) which also reflects my philosophy of stressing good solid
basics as the foundation for mastering the art.
Class Update: May 2007
Currently
I am only teaching one public group class weekly but expect to add more classes
this year. Currently this is on
Wednesday evenings, 7:30-9:30pm, and starting this month we have moved to the Gracie
Sports Center, located at 150 Longbrook
Way #D, Pleasant Hill, 94523. which is located off Taylor Blvd, about ½
mile south of Diablo Valley College. Unfortunately
this is not close to BART. Click the address for a map and directions. Class fee is $75/month; visitors are always
welcome.
Private lessons
Privates
are available by appointment; location is flexible. I generally charge:
$60
per class at my location, up to 90 minutes.
$70
within a 14 mile radius (Berkeley or Vallejo)
$80
if I travel 15-30 miles (San Francisco, Marin, Danville).
Arrangements
can also be made for teaching private group classes of two or more. A good training partner (not just in class) is
worth their weight in gold, and this allows cost sharing.
Most
private instruction in the Bay Area for any art (music, dance, etc.) starts
around $60/hour, and many martial art instructors with my level of experience
and expertise charge $120-150/hour.
(For example, one of my former students, a national champion and Olympic
coach in Taekwondo, charged $120/hr for lessons – in 1991!)
You
can contact me directly at (510)222-0332, or by email. (If you call and leave a message, PLEASE speak
clearly when leaving your phone number!
People know their own number by heart and so tend to say it so quickly
it often is difficult to figure out!)
Registration/Release
Form – For convenience of those who want to fill this out prior to the
first class, it is here in Word format.
Stickman’s Three Rules for Classes
1) Train Safely. If you hurt your partners unnecessarily,
they won’t work with you. Without
partners to help, you won’t progress in skill.
2) Have Fun. If you don’t enjoy what you do, you won’t
put in time and won’t progress.
3) Practice! Here’s the hard part; if you don’t work on what you are taught, you won’t progress in skill. J
Simple rules, right? Why
make things more complicated than they have to be!
Teaching Philosophy
(For those who don’t mind “complicated”)
As
my teaching has continued to evolve, I coined the word SEPAT, an acronym meaning “Self-Empowerment
Practice And Theory”, pointing towards inner awareness as a key for learning to
act for oneself. According to the late Sonny
Umpad, this is also a Tagalog word meaning “wild child”, a nice synchronicity
that captures the intense flavor of the Filipino martial arts.
Essentially
what this means is that one’s state of mind affects performance, making our inner
game a significant contributor to overall performance. What we see, feel and think are entirely subjective,
even as we must face real-world experience.
Habits developed early in training affect the course of subsequent development.
Learning to monitor one’s own performance
cuts down on programming errors that must be corrected later.
Classes
are a form of laboratory, so students are encouraged to question what they
don’t understand. If something doesn’t
work, we examine their process so they can determine for themself the validity
of the concept.
As
a teacher I draw on my experience not only in martial arts but from
hypnotherapy, NLP and an MA in holistic health education. I believe we learn much faster when we focus
on positive achievement rather than negative results. This synchronizes both our conscious and unconscious actions and
goals, allowing ourselves to tap deeper into our intuitive nature to become more
free in thought and action.
Here are some testimonials from current and former students.
