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History of LESKAS
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Maestro Elmer Ybanez was born on August 13, 1953 in Cawayan, Masbate. He began his martial arts journey in the 60’s and 70’s and engaged in Japanese and Filipino martial arts as well as the sports of tennis and boxing. It was during his time as a student of Modern Arnis under Master Vic Sanchez that he discovered the brand of Arnis called Lightning and met its founder Grandmaster Benjamin Luna Lema. After watching “Mang Ben” at the Grandmasters Tournament in 1979 and the speed, accuracy, power, and finesse that he displayed during the event, Maestro Elmer decided that Lightning Scientific Arnis was the system for him.

Elmer was already a practicing Certified Public Accountant studying at the San Beda College of Law taking after his father and brother, when he decided to shift to a degree in Sport Science at the University of the Philippines. He had been devoting his time and effort to “de-coding” Mang Ben’s system alongside his fellow disciples Shaun Porter and Luis Pellicer in order to make it easier and faster for people to learn it.

After realizing the level of complexity of Mang Ben’s system and the degree of difficulty involved in learning it, Guro Elmer thought of designing a method of propagating Lightning Arnis using sport science principles and physical education concepts to make it more accessible to a larger audience. This initiative became what we now know as the Lema Scientific Kali Arnis System christened after the Old Man of Lightning.

After dedicating almost a lifetime to the development of Arnis, Maestro Elmer migrated to the United States in 1998 with his wife Maribel Padua Ybanez to raise a family. In 1999 he established the LESKAS School of Stickfighting in Seattle, Washington and taught his unique method of learning Lightning Scientific Arnis until he passed away in March 2004.

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Maestro Elmer Ybańez, Mang Ben, Master Shaun Porter

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