FMATalk LIVE!

Coming up this week we are excited to have Grandmaster Roberto "Mang Bert" Labaniego - of Eskrima Labaniego. He is one of the most humble and yet skilled Grandmasters of the Filipino Martial Arts. Born in Mambusao, Capiz, GM Bert is a lifelong eskrimador, with his first lesson coming at the tender age of 12, when his father began teaching him Largo Mano the old school way, with lots of full powered strikes and bruises. Mambusao was a farming town, where the carrying of knives was common, and the use of them to resolve conflicts common. This impressed on GM Bert the need to be skilled in bladed weaponry, and encouraged him to keep training. As GM Bert grew older, and work drew him to live in different places, ever open minded, he also continued his own growth in Eskrima by training with the various Eskrimadors that he would meet. Thanks to training under his father, he had a knack for picking things up faster than others.In the 70s he met the late GM Benajamin Luna Lema, and was blown away by