Over my forum travels its hasn't been uncommon for me to find guys looking for recommendations on a filipino Martial Art to train. Often these guys have at least done minimal research and decided FMA is the art they want to train. When finding a school I'm an advocate of "see what's near you, and what you can afford, and attend schedule wise" and narrow it down from there. Style is usually one of the last things to consider unless you live in a populated area. That being said maybe we could learn a little about the other FMA out there by recommending an FMA school for a fictional potential student. However, in the exercise of recommending a school i'd like to see if everyone can actually give three recommendations relating to the following criteria:
1) your system, naturally many of us will recommend our own style if it has multiple branches, briefly mention why it's worth seeking out.
2) an FMA other than your own you've personally trained or witnessed. Again briefly mention why its worth checking out.
3)an FMA you haven't trained. Briefly discuss an FMA you may have read about or seen on video that you think is worth checking out. This will likely be one of the bigger name FMAs that someone looking for an FMA school is apt to find in their town that gives you a postitive general impression.
In summary, this is kind of an exercise to see what people think about different systems and what image those systems give other FMA practitioners. The goal is to recommend schools to potential students seeking FMA training that may or may not have a martial arts background. Try to list your biases or disclosures if you have any. For example for #2 you may have trained in it for a few years before finding your current system, or #3 may be a system your good friend trains. Hope this isn't to lame. I'm taking a Practical research class right now so maybe this thread is just some bleed through from the stuff i've been reading but it might be interesting.