It Was Never About Money
By Senior Master Knut Peacock
Great Grand Master (GGM) Braulio Pedoy always made each class a unique event. Since he retired, he has looked forward to his students coming to his house for class.
The training was dedicated to the pure traditional movements of Derobio Escrima. The class was serious, but we had such a good time that we were ready for more. During the evening, the neighbors would hear screams and then loud laughter; although the class was painful, the GGM made it entertaining.
The GGM made each class fun while we were learning; he was such a wealth of knowledge that we were always getting new moves and techniques and the essential core of the original Derobio Escrima.
The GGM was small in stature (5’ tall and about 100 lbs.) but never used force against force. Everything he did was to use leverage instead of power to overwhelm opponents regardless of their size. This is one of the keys of Derobio.
For Derobio’s1,728 locks and counter locks, he always had a getaway technique and a quick move to lock his opponent that would make them scream in pain. So many counters and getaways were overwhelming for us instructors, so we took detailed notes and filmed the GGM. He had them all memorized, and it astounded us that he could remember them perfectly; his only reply was, “easy if you know.”
After class, we would have a wonderful meal prepared by he and his wife, and we would “talk story” and tell jokes into the night. The class was $20 a month, two to three days a week, and since his instructors were all in our twenties and we could eat a lot, there was no way he made any money on us. Plus, he always wanted us to take some leftover food home every night.
Teaching Derobio was never about money to the GGM. Neither was it for The Bakitan or Senior Grand Master Gary Largo, but this will be explained in separate articles.