VEA Martial Arts Academy

Students Sunday January 24th Class is cancelled. We will meet again on January the 31st. Continue to practice the following stick drills. Cuentenda Drill, escalas 1, 2, and 3 Largo Corto Drill... Tres Cabellero Carenzas. Cheerio, Maestro Mike

Tomorrows Class agenda. 1/17/2020. 9am-10:30am Moring exercises: ... USA's all racks forward and reverse punch Situps by the dozens (bwahaha!) Alll Class Lesson: Continuation of the Cuentenda Drill Belt Curriculum. As far as this page is concerned, unfortunately leaving facebook in its entirity is easier said than done as I am held hostage by the years of many photos posted of my kids, my family and of martial arts that I don't have anywhere else. LOL. Anyhow, I will see most of you tomorrow. Our next student focus is on Tony, Amanda, Colton, Porter and Angelina. This means is that we are putting a little more focus on their training to get them to their next belt level. On another note, when the weather warms up and we spring forward I plan to have a weekday park training session for anyone who is interested, the class will just be for an hour and no exercises just training on various things outside of curriculum, details about that will be shared later as the flowers begin to bloom and birds begin to sing. -Maestro Mike

To all my friends, acquaintances and students, I will be leaving FB and moving to MeWe. I cannot in good conscious continue to utilize a platform that engages in censorship. I am not posting this for debate or discussion, just letting people know that if they wish to get a hold of me they may have to do it via 1980s methods, phone call, email or letter in the mail. But if newer technology is your thing you can find me on MeWe and Parlor. I wish everyone a happy and bright future. Signing off Facebook: September 2008 - January 2021 mewe.com/i/michaelcardenas3

Congratulations to Gregory Collins, and Andrew for passing their test from yellow belt to orange. They really put in the work today and had to push through their exhaustion to keep on fighting, while sparring. I am very proud of them for their effort today and proud of their fellow students for helping them push through the pain. The mind will always give up before the body. Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club! New Year new belts!

First class of 2021! Sunday 1/3/2021 Agenda, 9am-10:30am. All class lessons: Review of Serrada Stick drills Cuentenda 2 person drill (From Guro Justin)... Curriculum and possible belt test for Gregory Collins. Looking forward to seeing you all for our first class in 2021! As always, if you are not feeling well or if someone from your household is sick please stay home. To the hunt and to an exciting New Year! Maestro Mike

On behalf of the VEA Martial Arts Academy, the VEA Martial Arts Collaborative Organization and the Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club, we would like to wish Sifu Damon Naeem a very happy birthday!

Great class today, I love seeing everyone helping out their fellow students, today Amanda took on the role of coach to a large contingent of our white belts. Today's all class lesson focused on Guro Justin Hensley's fundamental cuentenda drill. Video of those lessons and add on's to this fundanental drill will be posted later today on our private black wolf page.

Congratulations to Tony Valdez's daughter Nanni and his son Tonio for earning the first stripe on their white belts today. They were tested by Guro Robert May.

From my historical Archives, my former DeCuerdas teacher, a young Master Art Gonzalez way back in the day teaching empty hands. I plan to share more historical videos of him, GM Tenio and Sr. Chief Eliab over the next year or so, so that their legacy can continue to grow for years to come. https://youtu.be/Bak4Wr80CeY

GM Art and Sr. Master Jorge Magana at a 2011 DeCuerdas Workshop. GM Art teaching portions of our DeCuerdas Diestro Fighting Systems curriculum known as "bad boy".

Fun class today, started off with Gonzalez boxing (USAs), I then taught some Serrada and DeCuerdas Stick. The Serrada taught in our system comes from Sr. Chief John Eliab which in addition to GM Tenio of Tenios DeCuerdas were GM Art Gonzalez primary teachers.

Sunday 1/10 Class agenda. 9am-10:30am Continuation of Guro Justin's cuentenda Stick drill with added variations. Belt curriculum ... Guro Mike Cardenas

Well as 2020 comes to a much needed close I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has supported the VEA Martial Arts Academy and the Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club. It has been a crazy year, and although I am truly disappointed that we didn’t get to host two more planned VEA Martial Arts Collaborative Events as well as additional cross share events, I am grateful that I still had an opportunity to train with my students even if we had to reduce class sessions to o...nly one day a week. We had to introduce new protocols for entry into the school and sanitizing practices but other than adding a few extra minutes not much else changed and those who did find themselves feeling under the weather stayed home in order to not pass on any illnesses to there fellow students, I appreciated this common sense maturity from everyone. Even with all of the turmoil in 2020 the year did bring about new opportunities in the martial arts community as I was invited to teach some of our basic principles to the eskabo dan school via zoom and I got to meet new martial art friends from the bladed mind through the connection made via the learning lab Ohana. I also took full advantage of the extra time I gained by my work from home situation and no longer having to commute to work by focusing heavily on my old notebooks and plethora of old videos and lessons from GM Art Gonzalez which required some tweaks to the belt curriculum I developed years ago, some things needed further clarification and improvement, such agility and process improvement is the essence of DeCuerdas, while our foundation which is built on concepts and principles remain the same, other valid and skill building drills were added to hopefully continue on the path to seeking a state of being Diestro. Also my son showed a new desire to return to the dojo and continue his training, I think it was mostly from watching batman cartoons and movies and realizing that batman was doing martial arts to fight crime and to defend himself, he saw a move similar to a move we do which turned on the light bulb and renewed his interest in the arts, for me I a just glad he wants to continue learning the art that I truly love. I hope 2021 brings in a new year of hope and that we can put this pandemic behind us and once again gather to train, eat, drink and socialize, such moments are needed as we are tribal by nature. I hope to continue to create new friendships and organize events along with my friend Sensei Larry Acaya that will benefit the martial arts community. I wish you all a very blessed new year and a promising 2021! See more

VEA Martial Art Collaborative and VEA Cross Share dates for 2021 will be announced soon. Still not sure what the future holds for gatherings but one can hope an...d pray that we will once again be able to train with one another in 2021. Stay tuned. Maestro Mike Cardenas VEA Martial Arts Collaborative VEA Martial Arts Academy Black Wolf DeCuerdas Eskrima Club

Sharing another pre weighting training warm up drill. This stuff comes from our DeCuerdas stick boxing and these drills are used to learn how to punch with the stick yielding hand in close quarters. Other aspects of these drills are added later like using all portions of the stick for a variety of strikes and use of the elbows. The primary purpose of these drills is to hone those close quarter skills. You can add to it however you like and blend in your own styles and influences. Train Strong to remain strong and I hope you all have a great New Year. This short warm up drill was filmed to share with my friends from the learning lab an organization of like minded martial artists just sharing what they love.

Sharing a short clip from my archives, the late GM Art Gonzalez with Sr. Chief John Eliab.

Going over historical videos from my archives. Some really good stuff in these old videos. I still have to go through them all.

Perfect rainy day to review old historical FMA videos from the archives, Tenio, Elian and Clarence.