Satori Academy Owner Shines in Filipino Martial Arts Championships

Nancy Walzog, owner of and Edison/Metuchen, recently attended the Fourth Doce Pares World Congress and Invitational Tournament, in Cebu City, Philippines. The two-week trip included intensive training in stick and knife fighting with legendary Grandmasters in Filipino martial arts and a World Championship tournament with martial artists from 15 countries participating.

Only two years ago, Walzog, a Sensei and third degree black belt in Satori Academy’s blended style of karate, kickboxing, grappling and combatives self-defense started training in the Filipino arts to broaden her skills with weapons but fell in love with the style and decided to start competing.  At the tournament, Walzog won World Championship Titles in Women’s Traditional Form and in Women’s Single Stick Fighting.

While the Filipino arts may be less well known than Tae Kwon Do, karate or MMA, Walzog explains, “It is a very beautiful yet practical art with a great history dating back to 1520 when native people of Cebu led by Lapu Lapu used eskrima to successfully fight off an invasion by Magellan’s Spaniards at the Battle of Mactan.  The art of stick fighting is a very fun and interesting addition to our curriculum and develops, in both kids and adults, great hand-eye coordination, focus and concentration.  Kids really love the “light saber battles” too!”

This was her first visit to the Philippines and, she said, the trip of a lifetime.  “The fellowship with the Filipino people and other martial artists from all over the world, the amazing food, and the intensive training at the Doce Pares beach and mountain training camps were all unforgettable experiences.  But, being a 48-year-old mom from New Jersey interviewed on Filipino TV as a World Champion and performing a demonstration with a world-renowned Grandmaster in their native art was completely surreal and it’s something I’ll never forget!”