Modern classic

 Let's straight it out from the very beginning - what makes a book a classic? Well, in short, it has to be an excellent presentation on the given subject, holding its value over time, serve as a go-to source of information, and ideally reveal new insights with every reading/consultation even years later. In addition to all that, the work presented today was published in the 21st century, hence the term "modern". And the author of the subject of this review is master Reynaldo Galang.

Rey Galang doing what he loves most

Master Rey is a fairly well known name in the world of Filipino martial arts (FMA for short) and held in high regard, both for his teaching ability and penmanship. On the one hand, he is a co-founder and a driving force behind one of the most prestigious organizations in this sphere - Bakbakan. On the other hand, he wrote and edited four phenomenal books on various aspects of FMA, as well as numerous articles over the past couple of decades. Having had the good fortune to attend some of master Rey's online classes, I can confidently say that his dedication to the arts and commitment to students is absolutely of the highest order. This is probably the exact foundation that the success of Bakbakan was built on. 

Bakbakan

Among the four books mentioned, I would like to point to the one titled Masters Of the Blade. Now, the books that seek to portray several, or many, representatives of any martial art (maybe even comprehensive overview of various styles within the art) are not exactly a new idea. In the realm of FMA itself there have been several, including one also written by master Galang (Warrior Arts Of the Philippines). However, there a few features that make the MOB book stand out.

the book

Firstly, instead of opting to cast a wide net of entire art (say, FMA) or geographical region (e.g. Philippines), the author chose to focus on a single aspect of the art, specifically the knife, and then bring in the views and thought from a large number of contributors. To be honest, all of the featured exponents in this tome had been more or less influenced by the FMA approach to handling the knife and dealing with it, but some of them (Tom Sotis of Amok!, Michael Janich, James Keating and Hock Hochheim come to mind) have moved to one degree or the other away from the typical Filipino treatment of the tool. 

Secondly, the contributors are not grouped according to their stylistic affiliations, but rather presented in the alphabetical order. Why is that important? To start with, nobody can accuse the author or favoring his own "tribe" and pushing their agenda to the detriment of another one. Also, it makes for a more interesting read, because the expressions of the topics vary from one chapter to the next, so you will keep focus better. Finally, the absence of style/system chapters eliminates the proclivity for skipping some chapters, and in turn made me discover new people and learn about their insights with a more open mind. 

Thirdly, all the contributing authors were obviously given the full freedom to state their position on the subject, even if it does not align with those of other exponents or the main author, which is a refreshing approach to doing this kind of work. That way, the book serves almost as a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences for the mutual learning benefit of the reader, regardless of his or her previous experience. 

Lastly, the technical presentation makes for a mighty nice package. Excellent print quality on glossy pages makes the photos clear; good binding provides years of perusing pleasure without the fear your book falling apart; format is just right...and at 450+ pages this book is chock-full of great information and will offer many hours of reading pleasure. 

still going strong

Ok, but is it any practical in terms of learning  something from it?

Why, am I glad you asked! If you don't mind a personal anecdote (hey, it is MY blog after all!), pondering this very question lead me to my currently main instructor of FMA. 

Namely, when the book came out in 2005, the quality instruction in the Filipino arts was seriously scarce in my neck of woods, so I would take any opportunity (indiscriminately) to learn something from anybody who had access to real teachers. No wonder that some of those teaching would be contradictory to each other occasionally, system names were just labels to me, and it made me confused at more than one point. Upon going through the book a couple of times, there seemed to be chapters that, if taken in certain order, could constitute a solid training progression. And then, I shared my thoughts in this regard on one of the more active knife forums of the day. Here is what I wrote:

1. Start with the chapter provided by Roger Agbulos. It is dedicated to what I feel is the groundwork for any fighting endeavor, i.e. footwork and non-telegraphic movement. After you've done that on your own for a few days...
2. Find yourself a partner and get into drills nicely featured in Steve Grody's chapter. It will teach you how to stay in a long range, where your skills are most likely to give you the advantage over an untrained opponent (as they say - "proximity negates skill"), and you'll be pushed to use your footwork from the step 1 in a situational environment of sorts.
3. If you've been doing the above two steps for a few weeks, and started developing some timing and feel for keeping your distance, maybe entering and disengaging comfortably to some degree, you might be ready for basic medio and corto drills, so turn to Hospecio Balani's portion of the book. There you will also get a feel for working with a reverse grip. I'd like to add that you should not stop working on previous material, because we all need constant improvement and brushing up in those areas. The same principle applies in further steps too.
4. OK, once you have your live hand in sync with your weapon hand, you should move to more demanding tasks, such as those shown in the chapter by Dave Gould. This is where all your previous skills will be put to test, along with your mental perseverance, ability to cope with stress and failure in training and struggle with your ego.
5. At this point, which in my estimation is after few months of regular training, you should have your solid foundation in place, so you can start adding other material from the book, in accordance with your needs and interests - empty handed against blade concepts or stalemate solutions from Steve Tarani; solo training forms, techniques and drills and their applications from Rey Galang or Michael Janich; empty handed scenarios from W. Hock Hochheim and John Jacobo; multiple adversaries or VIP protection scenarios from Atienzas or Bakbakan; drills for overcoming knife defense attempts from San Miguel Eskrima and Krishna Godania; insightful and thought provoking writing from AMOK!, Ron Balicki or Jim Keating...and so on.

In essence, after you have your essential skills included in your functioning arsenal, you can go out and do research on your own, as the above is just a basic outline/framework, based only on a single book, although a great one.
Finally, The fact that I haven't mentioned some people who contributed to the book (Ray Dionaldo, Bram Frank, Felix Valencia...) is not to say that they have nothing valuable to offer. It is just that I tried to make this as simple and functional as possible. After all, refer to the section on "doing your own research"...That's why they call it a homework - you do it on your own!

As it turned out, the person who was mentioned first was also a member of the forum ad reached out to say thanks about the review. We really hit it off from there, and have become friends, to my great learning and training benefit for 15 years now. 

Also, I soon figured out that the next three instructors mentioned, just like the first one, were all practitioners of the Lameco Eskrima system of FMA, so that effectively made my decision on which path I would like to pursue in this regard. 

In conclusion, this book has stood the test of time, especially if you keep in mind that it was published in the pre-Youtube era. While several new name instructors and training approaches have emerged in the meantime, most of those featured in the Masters Of the Blade are still pretty active and further honing their material. 

If you get a chance to get this book - don't waste it! It will be a staple of your martial art library. That said, while eagerly awaiting for master Rey's next book, I'm off to check a couple of things in my copy...