To all of the people practicing martial arts, this Easter was not only a Christian holiday, but a time of fulfilled dreams! On the 23 and 24 of April one of the best masters of eskrima, Jeet Kune Do - Richard Bustillo - did a 2-day seminar in "Universiada Hall" in Sofia. The main credit for organizing the event goes to sifu Lyubomir Yordanov - the director and Chief Instructor of IMASTI (the International Martial Arts and Special Tactics Institute), a long-time student of the master himself and the official representative of Richard Bustillo's school in Bulgaria.
Richard Bustillo is one of Bruce Lee's first students, a long-time partner of Dan Inosanto, the president of the IMB academy in Los Angeles, a Grand Master (GM) with a 10th dan in Doce Pares Eskrima and Eskrido. He is also a master in Muay Thai, boxing, grappling, and last but not least - an instructor in police training for the Los Angeles Police Department.
The seminar gathered about 100 people - people from schools from Austria, Serbia, Macedonia, and, of course, from all over Bulgaria.
The first day began with official proceedings during which sifu Yordanov handed GM Richard Bustillo an honourary diploma from the name of IMASTI for his contribution in the development and spreading of martial arts.
On his part, GM Richard Bustillo handed sifu Lyubomir Yordanov a plaque with which the Cacoy Doce Pares World Federation proclaims him as a „Valuable Martial Arts Instructor”.
However, the international recognition of sifu Yordanov didn't end here. Instead, it escalated with a surprising news - despite his young age, he was given the title of Grand Master - a title usually bestowed upon people above the age of 60, but due to sifu Yordanov's contribution, an exception was made. The IMB academy has made such an exception only for two other masters in Europe; the Bulgarian master was the third. This shows not only the respect Lyubomir Yordanov has, but also the international respect towards Bulgarian martial arts as whole.
After giving some interviews for television and electronic media, GM Richard Bustillo started the seminar with some Filipino martial arts (arnis and eskrima). The weapons of the ancient eskrimadors took over "Universiada Hall". The Grand Master showed fighting with two weapons - sinawali (done with two sticks), methods of defense and disarming with a single stick (solo baston) and self-defense with a knife, as well as the relation between using bare hands and weapons and using the same principles with both.
The second day came unnoticeably. It was devoted to methods and techniques in boxing, Thai boxing, as well as Jeet Kune Do trapping which were further developed into finishing locks or grappling strangles (dumog - Filipino wrestling).
Due to the high interest in knife-fighting GM Bustillo made a change in the initial timetable and gave more information in wielding a knife.
In the end of the seminar GM Yordanov said: "I'm noticing a new trend - the more the crisis increases, the more people turn to the spiritual and start looking for themselves, and martial arts are a way of self-expression. So they find what they are looking for in martial arts."
The seminar finished in a spirit of friendship and satisfaction from the achieved results and ended with lots of pictures, autographs and questions to the master whose personality was so magnetic that the participants didn't want to leave - to many of them GM Richard Bustillo epitomizes not only the living memory of Bruce Lee, but the legendary spirit of martial arts as a whole.
Bozhidar Stanchev
translated by Velin Dragoev
Apr. 2011