The Art of Combat

I've always wanted to study the martial arts.

That want has increased all the more in the past few years. I've been re-examining how I define myself and how I spend my time. Especially after travelling to the Philippines in the past year, I've felt a stronger need to re-connect with my Filipino roots.

The past couple of days I've checked out two different schools that teach the Filipino Martial Arts of arnis/kali/eskrima (all different terms to describe the same martial art form). I figure that it'll achieve my personal goals threefold: social interaction, physical activity, and finally, studying what it means to be filipino.

The style is pretty bad-ass. It basically teaches you to defend yourself and take down your attacker in a lethal way. It's so brutal that it is officially not considered a sport.

Either way, I think I'll be learning FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) at least for the next 3 months. Just need to figure out where the money is coming from, and also which school to study at.

Here are my options thus far: Combat Science or Kali de Leon. I have friends who study at both. One is female/gay friendly, the other very traditional and hard-core.

Anyone know of any other schools that teach FMA in the Toronto/Scarborough area? I should think that a Filipino-oriented city like ours would have more schools?