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The Founding Father
Balintawak Eskrima or Balintawak Arnis is a Filipino martial art created by Great Grandmaster Venancio "Anciong" Bacon in the 1950's to enhance and preserve the combative nature of arnis. It is named after a small street in Cebu where it was founded; in which members reportedly trained in the back of a watch repair shop owned by a friend and student of GM Bacon.
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GM Anciong Bacon parted ways with the Doces Pares Club in 1952 and soon after established Balintawak Street Self-Defense Club with a limited number of other individuals who had also seceded from Doce Pares. Some of his more notable students were José Villasin and Teofilo Velez. Villasin would eventually organize Bacon's teachings into the 'Grouping Methods', a teaching structure that balintawak practitioners use to this day. Both Villasin and Velez would eventually assume leadership of Bacon's school during a forced absence, in which he was charged with homocide. Though Bacon had acted in self defense, the court ruled it as irresponsible use of knowledge, and Bacon had to serve time in prison.
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Upon his release on parole, Great Grandmaster Bacon furthered his teachings as a guiding presence at the school until his death a few years later.
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