Modern Combat Masters: Guru Besar Marcelino De Thouars

My name is Marcelino de Thouars. I am the 2nd son of Paul de Thouars, and 1 of 4 children. From my earliest memories in the early 70's there was never a time when I didn't see my father training students in our garage or in a studio. At that time my father was teaching traditional Serak, and he began training me when I was 8 or 9 years old. I didn't always understand what I was doing, but I was doing it. In the early 80's I also trained with my Uncle Bill and Uncle Victor, In 1986, the early years of promoting Bukti Negara, my father, brother Paul Henri, Stevan Plinck, Steve Oosterhoff, and I participated in the Asian Expo along with Pak Vic and his group. In the early 80's my father was perfecting his subsystem of Serak, calling it Bukti Negara. Before that time, Maha Guru Stevan Plinck introduced my father to Dan Inosanto, and they got together. Dan Inosanto began promoting Bukti Negara, and my father was teaching it at the Inosanto Academy in Marina Del Rey. Shortly after, I began working for Dan and his wife Paula at his studio doing general service work and also answering phones in their office. There I was able to observe different styles of martial arts. I worked for Dan for about a year. In 1988 and 1989 I stayed with family in Holland, I trained with my father's family in Europe. In May of 1990 my father and his 3 brothers had a training camp at the Inosanto Academy. After the camp I went back to Holland where I continued to train with my father's family. I returned to the U.S. in 1991.I didn't always train with a group of students in a studio, but I have decades of studying and training with my father. Growing up as my father's son, I also have had the unique advantage of being able to watch my father train other students on a regular basis in our own home, I hope this sheds some light on the history of my father's art and my involvement with it.