FMATalk LIVE!

Coming up this week we are excited to have Maha Guro Brian "Buzz" Smith - founder of American Maharlika Kuntaw Association one of the first organized Filipino Martial Arts associations in the US.  Buzz began his Martial Arts training in 1968 when he stumbled onto a Green Beret, home on leave from the Viet Nam conflict, training on a beach near his home. Buzz became an active training partner, playing the aggressor and learning defensive tactics while being thrown to the sandy beach.  In 1969 Buzz enlisted in the Navy and was stationed at the Great Lakes naval Training Center near Chicago.  On base, he discovered, was a Tae Kwon Do class.  All of his free time was spent there learning TKD.  By the time he finished his Naval Training School, Buzz had attained the rank of Green Belt.  His next duty station was a ship bound for the South China Sea (Viet Nam).  His overseas homeport was Subic Bay, Philippines, where he continued his studies by joining the base Kyokushin Kai