Passing the Torch

I don’t hand out promotions very often, about once every 10 years or so. To me, rank is extremely personal, and I don’t have anything resembling “group promotions”. Since I don’t teach for the money, I don’t feel the need to offer such things as rank, belts, certificates, blah, blah, blah. If you earn it, you’ll get it. If you don’t, no need to ask why…You didn’t earn it.

So when I award someone a full instructor’s license, it’s eclipse-level rare.

Joel Rosales was one of my first students when I opened the school back in 2001, and of the original gang of 12 he’s the only remaining member. He’s seen the school turn over several times, students come and go, curriculum's change and various visiting masters. He’s always been a mainstay at the Edmonds Academy, attending regularly and working hard during class.

Joel is a natural fighter, driven and bloodthirsty. At 4 foot 11 inches, he barely comes to the chest level of everyone else in class, but in sparring he bullies his opponents across the floor like a bulldozer. You don’t stand in front of Joel if he’s had his second cup of coffee, and it’s difficult to tell if he’s so at one with his weapons that they form a natural extension of his body, or he actually sprouts them from his forearms when needed.

He’s also directly responsible for scaring off over half of the newbie students who have came through my doors the past decade. Joel takes it as a matter of personal pride when he causes someone to quit because they’re scared they might have to spar him. He calls it “weeding out the insincere.” I cal it “being an arrogant prick”, but who am I to judge?

Joel has stopped being my actual “student” for a few years now. Not to say he has every little trick I can teach, he doesn’t. But his fighting ability is good enough to put me on the run at full speed, and if the opening presents itself he won’t hesitate to let me (or anyone else) have it. We actually leapfrog each other at this point, some months I’m better than him, then he’ll inch forward ahead of me, I’ll learn to counter his new moves, etc. He’s become an integral part of my personal growth process as well.

That, to me, makes him a peer.

A few years ago, Doce Pares Grandmaster Cacoy Canete saw Joel at a seminar, came over and told him he fought well. He inquired about his teacher, and Joel pointed to me, across the room with another attendee. “Oh yes, Baboy (my Filipino name) knows how to do it.” That was a hell of a feather in my cap, especially since it was Joel that attracted his attention in the first place.

Joel realizes I copied his certificate off a Chinese menu. A cheap one at that.

I can’t take full credit for Joel, however. He came to me with several years of various martial arts and his own family system of Eskrima under his belt before I got ahold of him. His movement was already solid, if anything, all I can take credit for is fine-tuning the machine.

"Hey! You misspelled "Joel!"

I always thought that it wasn’t too big a deal if the teacher was gifted; can you pass it on to your students? How does someone with 5 years of classes with you move? Can you point to someone and say with pride “Look, that’s a result of training with me.”

This is my friend Joel Regis Rosales, full instructor in the Edmonds Martial Arts system.

I couldn’t be prouder.