Slipping Through My Fingers Saturday, Sep 20 2008

Another CD is blasting endlessly in our family car.  It’s the soundtrack of the movie, Mama Mia, a musical based on the songs of the immensely popular 1970’s band, ABBA.  And surprisingly, its my daughter RP who would insist that this CD be played over and over again.  I never thought that my daughter will appreciate and love the songs of a group who last performed as a band was when I was only 7 years old (1982). Perhaps its because of the highly entertaining plot of the movie wherein a young girl who’s preparing for her wedding, dreams of finally meeting her father and wants to him to walk her down the aisle.

Of the almost two dozen ABBA songs that were featured in the movie, one song stood out for pulling several strings in my heart.  It’s the melancholic piece, “Slipping Through My Fingers”.  The song clearly captured the emotions and thoughts of a mother who tries to be a part of her daughter’s world, but no matter how she try, her child keeps on growing and is slowly slipping through her fingers.

Whenever I hear this song, I can’t help but be very emotional.  Every word is the exact expression of what I feel seeing my daughter growing up.  My daughter is already 9 years old and I realized how short is the time I have left to enjoy her company.  I often said that I will consider myself the luckiest Dad in the world if at the age of thirteen, my daughter would still prefer my company rather than the company of her friends.

Come to think of it, parents “have” their children for only a few years, then they will eventually have their own circle of friends.  And for a few years more, they will start building their own lives and career, until for a few more years, they will have their own family.

It is the thought that I only have a few precious years left before my daughter would grow up, spread her wings and seek her own destiny that stirred me to be always there for her, and to be a constant witness to every milestone she would experience, be it the first time she went to a certain place, or the first time she tried a new sport, or whenever she would receive an award.

Perhaps the best reward that I ever received is my daughter telling me; “Da (this is how she calls me), some kids still have to look for a best friend.  But me, my best friend is my Daddy.”

Side Note:

Although the song, Slipping Through My Fingers was written on the point of view of a mother, the composer and lyricist is a father, Bjorn Ulvaeus.  He composed the song while thinking of his daughter Linda Ulvaeus as she was growing and is slipping through his finger.

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Sa Barangay Ni Kuya Daniel Saturday, Sep 13 2008

Last May,  I wrote about being interviewed by GMA Ch. 7’s late night show, 100% Pinoy.  That episode is about people who would join various competitions  with the hope of making it big.   Most of the people featured are participants and winners in singing competitions and beauty pageants.  And perhaps to provide another angle, they interviewed me because I was a former champion of local and international quiz competitions.  The interview lasted for several hours but when the show was aired, my segment was only 1 minute and 10 seconds long (like I said in my previous article, I am not complaining.  In fact I feel sorry for the segment producers because their topic is too broad to be contained in a 1 hour show, less the commercial advertisements.  And also, I said yes to these interviews in the hope that I could make a positive impact on the lives o the youth).    Well, I think that personal record is already broken.  Last Monday, I had my shortest TV stint when I guested at UNTV’s daily morning show, Sa Barangay ni Kuya Daniel.

Mr. Diwa Dadap, an events manager, will be promoting in UNTV’s early morning show, Sa Barangay ni Kuya Daniel, their upcoming nurse expo. Being one of the exhibitors, he invited me to join in the interview.   But I have one humongous problem. The call time is 7a.m.  And I have problems making it on time for appointments earlier than 8a.m.  My circadian rhythmn has been set at me waking up at 7:30, it is for this reason that for a long time, I’ve been planning to compete in 10k runs but couldn’t do so because the race starts earlier than 6a.m.

But sometimes, you have to get out of comfort zone (waking up at 6a.m. for me is getting out of my comfort zone. He he he)  And I made the appointment on time (well a few minutes late).    The staff of UNTV are very friendly and accomodating.   When it was our turn to be on air, I thought that it will be an interview.  Instead, it is just a plugging for the expo.   So I was only given an opportunity to speak for about 30 seconds, then its over, a personal record is broken.  

I’ve observed that the staff and hosts of Sa Barangay Ni Kuya Daniel have a very different kind of work attitude that I’ve seen in other TV stations.  It seems like they are just a big family having some happy, quality time and not like some TV shows whose life existence is to rack up the ratings game.     

When I entered the UNTV building, I saw hundreds of people waiting for their turn with the free medical assistance program of the TV show (or perhaps the TV station itself).   Let’s be pragmatic for a second, it takes money to run a TV station, and these businesses get their revenues from advertisements.  But I don’t think that their shows get enough viewers attention to convince sponsors to advertise, which translate to low revenues.   With UNTV still being able to do these free medical assistance programs (plus their other public assistance pprojects) is a strong testament of their intense desire to be of service to their less fortunate brothers, and I really commend them for this.  Religion aside (I don’t belong in any, I’m an existentialist)  I praise the members and church workers who makes the public service programs of UNTV possible.   

Side Note:  UNTV is closely associated with the religious group of Bro. Eli Soriano (anybody from this group, please pardon me if I am mistaken).  One of my closest friend, Glenn, used to be a free thinker like me.  But he was converted to joining Bro. Eli Soriano’s religious group.  Even my father who used to be an agnostic had a change in belief and become a member of the same sect.

 

With the main host of the show, Daniel Razon and Diwa Dadap.

 Diwa posing on the set of the morning show. I met Diwa when he invited my company to be an exhibitor in the 1st Pinoy Nurse Expo.   He is a nephew of Maestro Jerry Dadap, a known composer and conductor.  Back when I was the Student Council president of my college, I helped in organizing a concert by the Maestro together with his choral group as a fund raising campaign for the various projects of my college.   It is a small world.

 This is Badong Valdueza,  one of my brothers in Yaw-yan and in Muay Thai. He holds the distinction of fighting in two professional bouts in one night.  In December 2005, he won his MMA match in URCC held at the Aranete Coliseum. Then he has to rush to the other side of the metropolis for his kickboxing match held at Rizal Memorial Stadium, which he also won.  Nobody has ever done that before until today.    He is now a security aide of Ben Tulfo, who is known for his TV show, Bitag, which is also aired in UNTV.  

The show also have a public service segment.  Shown in these picture are the poor and indigent patients waiting for their turn with the medical staff.   

 

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Victory Snatched From The Brink of Defeat Saturday, Sep 6 2008

I learned one very valuable lesson in my recent muay thai fight:  Never be a tournament organizer and a competitor at the same time!  My bout is literally a victory snatched from the brink of defeat. 

The desire to fight is really there but my krus at Ultra, including Ajarn Pudpadnoy told me that I will not be able to focus on my fight because I also have to mind the staging of the tournament.   Like I said, I over estimated my capability to multi-task and it took its toll on my performance during my fight.

My opponent for the 5th NCR Muay Thai Tournament is Mr. Ed Canape from MAP-Los Banos.  I want to avoid this guy because he’s a fellow member of the forum pinoymma.com.  And there’s an unwritten code that all members of the forum are friends (except for a few trolls).   And I requested the match makers that if possible, to avoid me from being matched against Ed.    Either the match makers didn’t hear me correctly or they didn’t like the idea of being requested for a match up.   I ended up fighting Ed. 

It will be Ed’s first fight and so I thought, being more experienced and having trained hard, this might be an easy match.  I forgot another very valuable thing my krus have taught me, never underestimate your opponent, you’ll get very overconfident and reckless.  

Because of the tasks that I have to do to ensure the smooth flow of the tournament, I am already tired when I stepped on the ring.  I totally forgotten about my gameplan and I just want to get this over with quickly so I can work on the ongoing event.  My mind is more focused on holding the tournament, rather than my own fight.   A big, big, humongous mistake.

Since I want to end the fight early, I rushed in and didn’t took the time to study my opponent.   At the early part of round one, I got very, very careless and I got staggered by a punch.  And the last thing I saw are stars and birds flying in circles over my head.  I was thinking, damn I’ve never been knocked down before, and I never lost before.  I wouldn’t want to lose in the tournament that I organized.   I made the mandatory 8 counts and went back to the fight.  I am still punch drunk and I know if I retreated,  Ed will be able to catch me.  So instead of backing down, I rushed and discovered his weak spot.  He is poor with the clinch.  

Last year, when I trained at Kaewsamrit Gym in Bangkok, I watched one of Anuwat Kaewsamrit’s fight for the Songkran Festival.  He got staggered by his opponent and to prevent himself from being knocked down, he engaged his opponent in a clinch, until he recovered from the punch.  That is what I intend to do but I then realized that I am stronger than my opponent in the clinch and shifted my fight strategy to closing the gap, tie my opponent in a clinch, get a dominant position and execute several knees. 

The strategy is only half effective as  Ed was able to connect some punches, but when I close in, I get to land some knees, which the judges score higher than punches.   On the second round, I also made another strategy.  I’m still punch drunk and I can’t think clearly of my combinations.  So I did a counterpunching strategy.  Whenever he would execute a roundhouse kick, I would catch and scoop it and execute a leg sweep.  This earned me  lot of points as these are clearly muay thai techniques. 

In the third round, I feel that Ed is already losing steam.  I got to land some unanswered teeps on his abdomen.  Then I landed clean a right low kick-right straight combination, my punch staggered Ed and I was able to get him in another dominant clinch position. I landed around 2 knees on his head.  Then the closing bell rang.

Waiting for the decision, I am not sure if I got the nods of the judges.  Round 1 is clearly Ed’s because of the knockdown.  But I think I garnered enough points on rounds 2 and 3 to take the victory.   Fortunately, the judges saw my clear points and they declared me the winner of the match.    A victory snatched from the brink of defeat.

Later after the fight, Ajarn Pudpadnoy asked me,”What happened to you? You don’t want to fight your opponent, you want to kill him!” I answered that I have to rush because my opponent is ahead on points because of the knock down.  Then he said that next time, that I should never be a a tournament organizer and a fighter at the same time. 

Another Kru, Kru Jun Dellosa of Makati told me that I won on techniques and “gulang”.   I admitted I’m guilty of it, but I didn’t broke any rules, except for an instance that I connected a punch when Ed is going down.   I apologized to Ed and to the referee for that.   Kru Zhie Vallega of QC later told me that its a good thing that I have good conditioning that I was still able to continue and win despite the knock down.

To Ed Canape, it’s a great fight man. To think that its just your first fight, you gave me a hard time.  Keep on training.  Its an honor to face you in the ring.  Goodluck with your training and your fights in the future. 

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My messenger, Raffy is the one taking the pictures.  He’s using my Canon DSLR set to muti-shots.   I think he got so happy with the rapid clicking of the camera that he took almost 200 shots of my fight.   The funny thing is,  he forgot to take pictures of the most important part of my match, that is the referee raising my hand in victory.  Oh well, I guess I have to train him further in photography

 

The face off.  In this picture, I looked much bugger than my opponent.  But official weigh-in records will show that I am half kilo lighter than Ed.  Thanks to an effective weight cutting program.   I got this from Kru Pedro Villalobos, a Spanish muay thai fighter.  At least two nights before the fight, he will limit his food intake to almost a few spoonfuls and dehydrate himself until the weigh in.  I did this and overnight, I lost 1.5kgs.   But immediately rehydrated and voraciously ate some foods after the weigh-in to regain my strength.  

This is me going down after being staggered by a punch (I don’t know if its just a left hook or a straight). 

 I sensed that my opponent’s weakness is the clinch.  So my fight strategy focused on closing the gap, get the dominant position in the clinch and then throw knees.

My another strategy is to lure my opponent from doing roundhouse kicks and then execute a counter by scooping the kicking leg and sweeping the supporting leg.  Here, my opponent went down after doing a leg sweep. 

Towards the end of the 3rd round, I was able to get a very good clinch on my opponent and I was able to land at least 2 knees that landed on his head. 

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5th NCR Muay Thai Tournament Friday, Sep 5 2008

 The 5th NCR Muay Thai Tournament was held on August 30, 2008 at the Mandaluyong Gym.   It is the biggest NCR Tournament so far, with 34 matches. The number of participants exceeded 80, but some didn’t have any opponent in their respective weight division and the number of bouts was thus reduced.   It is also the tournament with the most number of MAP Chapters participating.  The following MAP Chapters fielded fighters in this tournament:  Pasig-Ultra, Pasig-Red Corner, Makati, Quezon City, Ateneo, Antipolo, Caloocan, Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Calamba-Laguna and Los Banos-Laguna.    Andy Galvez, the Vice President and Technical Director of MAP remarked that this event is much bigger than the national muay thai finals.   

Trophies were given to the winners of the individual matches and a big Over-All Trophy was also awarded.  MAP-Ateneo led by Kru Andre Puertollano bagged the Over-All Championship trophy with 4 wins against 1 loss.  MAP-Pasig Ultra, led by  yours truly, is the second runner up with 6 wins against 3 losses. 

The 5th NCR Tournament was supported by Red Corner Boxing and Fitness Club by providing the trophy, food, equipment and other give aways for the NCR Chapter.  

I had the honor (or should I say the misfortune   ) of being appointed as the organizer of the tournament.    The August tournament was assigned to another chapter head but at the last minute, uncertainties in the commitment of the said kru, led the President of MAP, Robert Valdez to designate the organizing of the said event to me. 

Taking charge of holding a muay thai event for me is a gargantuan task.   First, unlike other MAP Chapter Heads, I am not really a full time Chapter Head nor Muay Thai Kru (in fact I am reluctant to hold this position because I am not worthy of the title) and I have a day job that takes up most of my time.  Second,   since I am not a full time chapter head, I don’t have any manpower (students) at my disposal whom I can assign tasks to.  Third, the responsibility was assigned to me barely one and a half month before the tournament date.  Fourth, I am scheduled to train in Thailand for 2 weeks on the last week of July until the first week of August thereby reducing my time to work on the this event. 

Thanks to the support and encouragement of MAP NCR President and MAP-QC Head Kru Zhie Vallega,  MAP-Makati Head Kru Jun Dellosa, and MAP-Vice President Andy Galvez.  Special thanks to Rea Villa and to the owners and staff of Red Corner Boxing and Fitness Club, without their support, it would be impossible to hold this tournament.

I also like to thank Kru Andre Puertollano for his kind words after the tournament.  He told me that given the time frame and my limited resources, he praised me for still being able to pull off this tournament with such a big number of participants. 

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I think I have over-estimated my capacity to multi-task.  Doing three roles in one day; tournament organizer, chapter head and a competitor took its toll not only in my performance during my own match but it also prevented me from taking a lot of pictures. 

You can see the fatigue in the face of Kru Billy and Kru Asiong.   They just weighed-in more than 80 participants for the competition. 

The parade of chapters.   In previous tournaments, they would line up the participants for the parade.  Now, with the number of contestants, only the representative of the chapters paraded and went up the ring.  Here’s Robby Reyes holding the banner of  MAP- Pasig Ultra Chapter

The trophies for the individual matches and the over-all championship trophy that are up for grabs in the tournament, courtesy of Red Corner Boxing and Fitness Club

 The tournament venue and the battle arena

Giovanni Cruz of MAP-Makati facing off his opponent.  Giovanni won his match.

Kru Eugene Toquero raising the hands of Marlon of MAP-QC.  When I saw Marlon wearing the Philippine Flag designed muay thai short during the 4th NCR tournament last May, I vowed never to wear my own muay thai short with the same design in any tournament again.  To ensure that I will have a different muay thai short, I ordered a custom made short from Kaewsamrit Gym when I was in Thailand (that is my only vice in muay thai, I want to wear a short that nobody else is wearing.  Its my only personal idiosyncrasy).

 Joel Bohol of Red Corner Ortigas going for his first muay thai match.   He’s one of my sparring partners in preparation for my fight.   Joel won handily over his opponent. 

Joel doing a bodybuilding pose.  I often joke that its a good thing that this guy is on my team, because I am sure that I will not have the misfortune of being matched against him (Joel fights in the 71 to 75 kgs weight division, the same weight division I compete in).   His muscular body and shaven head earned him the monicker, Mr. Clean.  He’s also called The Hulk.

 Ouch! This will definitely hurt after the match.   Robby Reyes of Pasig Ultra Team is the “proud” owner of these legs (after the tournament, fighters would often show and sometimes brag battle scars like these).  Robby received several low kicks but still managed to edge out an awesome victory over an older opponent.  (Robby is just 17 while his opponent in his mid 20’s)

Kru Robert Valdez with Mr. Robert Reyes Sr. giving trophies to the winners of their bouts.  Mr. Reyes is  from the well known cooking clan that brought us Aristocrat’s, Mama Sita’s and Reyes Barbecue.  His  son, Robby is the fighter wearing black sleeveless shirt and red and orange muay thai shorts. 

Me and Mr. Robert Reyes Sr. handing out trophies to the winners. Mr. Reyes is an uncle of my friend and fellow muay thai practitioner, Toby Reyes. 

The Chapter Heads of the different NCR, Laguna and Antipolo Chapters that participated in the tournament.   Holding the Overall Championship Trophy is Kru Andre Puertollano, Head of the Ateneo Chapter. 

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