Welcome!

Welcome to the newest incarnation of the ITO Newsletter, 1st Issue vol. 1 2011. Previous services costed too much to maintain, but the ITO site (http://www.ito.inayan-eskrima.com) has been upgraded with the ability to provide a newsletter. You might be surprised at this new issue sitting in your inbox, if you wish to continue membership, do nothing. But if you do not  wish to continue membership to this newsletter;  there is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this newsletter issue. Expect features to be added and for this Newsletter to grow from a simple text e-newsletter to a full HTML flashy e-zine.

ITO Newsletter name "Who, What, Huh?"

We need a name that sizzles more than just "ITO Newsletter", I have a few of my own ideas, and some of the Inayan Guros have expressed their own inspirations, we are interested in what you have to say too. So comment, blog, or message us and let us know what you think the name of the new newsletter should be. The easiest way for us to see your comments will be to come to the newsletter page at:

http://ito.inayan-eskrima.biz/ITO_Newsletter_April_2011_Suggest_Name

And put in your own suggestions, if you are a member to the site, we will see the comment right away, if you decide to make an annonymous suggestion that is ok, however it will have to go through approval first. So register and subscribe today if you have not. If there are many suggestions, we can always put up a poll for you all to vote for your favorite name.

Pass it on

This newsletter is intended to provide useful, informative, and educational content. Share the love please. We all have a passion for the Filipino Martial Arts, if not martial arts in general, and many of you are deeply passionate about the Inayan System of Eskrima specifically. Share that passion with others and together we can help the vision of my father, Mangisursuro Mike Inay, to proliferate the Inayan System of Eskrima.

Useful Links:

Home of the Inayan System of Eskrima on the Internet

www.inayan-eskrima.com

Suro Jason Inay's Personal Website

www.jason-inay.com

Home of the Inayan Training Organization on the Internet

www.ito.inayan-eskrima.com

Dedicated Site to Mangisursuro Mike Inay

www.mangisursuro.com

Flickr Galleries of Inayan Historical Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20373420@N05/

Facebook Group Page of the Inayan System of Eskrima

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=145749228785236

Wikipedia Link for Mangisursuro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Inay

Some of Suro's Picasa Photos

https://picasaweb.google.com/Jason.Inay/462011StanfordEskrima?feat=directlink

(On a side note, it is interesting how many times the Inayan info on wikipedia has been changed, so much so that the entry for Inayan Eskrima has been deleted. I noticed names of students of my father kept being changed removed or added over the years... I suppose thats what happens when people try and tinker with stuff. Incidentally I have never done more than add one of the weblinks.)

Click, share, blog, link, like and all that jazz. If you blog, add our RSS and linkback to us, post here and linkback to your site. Share... its a 90's thing.

The power of practice

It is pretty common for people to ask me "so how do I get good?" I have heard different versions in different contexts that amount to the very same exact querry. Everyone is trying to answer the question "Are you good?" or "Am I good?" If more often than not you feel lost, or discouraged, or if you haven't, then maybe you have seen someone else recently go through this, and maybe even sympathized and empathized with them, vicariously experiencing the same kinds of quandries. They say, "Prefect Practice makes Perfect".....

What does that mean anyway? "Perfect", "Perfectionist", "Perfecting".... These words mean different things to different people. And if you know exactly what that meaning was, for both you and anyone evaluating your for perfectness, what does it mean to practice perfect? These are perhaps the beginning of a line of inquiry that can help anyone get good at any martial art let alone any human endeavor. The act of thinking and moving and learning is a process, as all things tend to be. Understanding the process leads to proficiency, proficiency in many contexts leads to mastery, mastery is often mistaken as mere perfection.

So what are we really looking for, mastery in terms of performing a repeated  choreographed movement in an aesthetically pleasing way? Is it running 5 miles for your Black Belt test at the local YMCA Karate class? Is it a contrivance learned over many hours, so that one may regurgitate it on command by the Sifu/Sensei/Guro/Ajarn/Sigung... etc? I think not, and you might be nodding your head in agreement with me at this moment, for we know the ideal perfection of martial arts has nothing to do with a test in the Dojo or Kwoon. It's something more, a calm under pressure, a grace under fire. And it almost never happens in a well lit room with padded floors, after you have warmed up and stretched. So are you good? Or are you lost?

Within the Inayan System of Eskrima, we find, we find the way through this confusing forest, however never forgetting the trees... Practice has to do with every aspect of your intended purpose. In terms of the Inayan System of Eskrima, calm under pressure, and grace under fire; practitioners in the Inayan System of Eskrima endeavor to incorporate a full immersive experience in training for the relevant contexts that any particular individual would encounter, and need the skills and abilities that an accomplished Inayan Eskrimador is known to have. In Inayan we find, we find our way out of the forest and into the clear.

So what contexts? How about these:

1. Office Argument
2. Verbal Argument
3. Job Interview
4. Stressful Day
5. Street Fight
6. Protecting a loved one
7. Getting the job done...

All this and more is covered through the process of training according to the tenets prescribed by Mangisursuro Mike Inay. And, at the same time emulating the calm Mangisursuro posesses and demonstrated when he was in such situations. An ideal of grace under pressure is a defining factor of Perfect Practice makes Perfect. Perfection speaks of a quality of action and experience, to even be able to speak of it means at some level you know what that would be. It is as good as having a dart in hand, the board in sight, toe to the line and ready to throw... Why is it then that you find yourself throwing anywhere but at the target you intend? Perfection is a process, Mangisursuro's Inayan explores this process. So this begs the question; "Are you good?"

Keep Practicing

Suro J. Inay

Congratulations!

A big congratulations to Sursuro Jena Inay-Wheeler, and her husband Robert Wheeler for the birth of Dylon Michael Inay-Wheeler 4/7/11! The Inay family has sired another future Eskrimador ;-)

Articles and Subjects by Request

There exists a list of subjects for forthcoming articles. However if you all want to see something in particular please leave a comment on the newsletter issue page and we will see what could be written!

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