For you Kali folks...

[ewallace]

I had the opportunity to meet Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje on Tuesday. After our salute we were told to hold position. Then my teacher walked back into the room and introduced him. I, for one, had absolutely no idea he would be there for our class. He was in town for a seminar this past weekend.

For those of you who do not know, Tuhon Gaje is the "Grand Master" of pekiti-tirsia Kali. Although a bit difficult to understand at times, he was quite funny and described some pretty nasty encounters as a child growing up in the Philippines.

The Pekiti-Tirsia summer camp will be held in San Antonio next summer. For anyone that can make it, I highly recommend attending at least one day.

There is no real point to this thread.

[apoweyn]

that's excellent, ewallace. :)

first time i met the grandmaster of doce pares (ciriaco canete), i was about 20 years old. trying to be all serious and austere. i kneel on one knee, take his hand, and press it to my forehead in the formal greeting... and he busts out laughing. that was a long few seconds.



stuart b.

[ewallace]

i kneel on one knee, take his hand, and press it to my forehead in the formal greeting
Did that too sans the one knee. Everyone else did it too so I didn't feel too awkward.

[yenhoi]

Thats badass, Could he still kick your ass? Did he conduct the lessons for the day or just tell stories?

[ewallace]

He would tear my ass into little shreads. Actually he would cut it into shreads.

No lessons that night since he had just given a 3 day seminar. He really just talked about the history of the art, and about his experiences as a child. Then he got into where the art is headed in the future. He did rough up my teacher a bit though.

[ewallace]

Also, from what I've been told, if he ever asks you if you have a knife (real blade, not training knife) on you, if it's a really nice blade you probably won't see it again. You will have to take it from him. I don't know of anyone that has been successful doing that.

[yenhoi]

Neat.

Blade art? Long and short?

[ewallace]

Both. But more emphasis on short blade from what I have seen. We also do a lot of stick work always keeping in mind that it acts the same as a blade.

[apoweyn]

ewallace,

the one-knee thing kinda comes in handy in a way. since this is essentially bowing, there's a display of relationship. usually the one being respected occupies a higher position than the one doing the respecting. but that's kinda hard to do when all the teachers are 5'5" and all the students are 6'2".

:)

[Taomonkey]

One of our Filipino students in the Garimot System, Christopher, has
forwarded this interesting article regarding the influence of the FMA's
on
the design of the curved lightsaber used in Star Wars. It's from the
Homing
Beacon, the Star Wars.com Newsletter. # 69 Thursday, September 19,
2002.
Enjoy!

"Count Dooku clearly does things his own way, but his ideology is not
the
only thing that sets him apart. His lightsaber handle design is unique
among
the Jedi weapons fans have seen to date in the saga.

The distinctive curved lightsaber first appeared in early sketches of
the
new Sith enemy, and this direction was later expanded with the help of
Art
Department Assistant Roel Robles, who brought in some of his own
cultural
roots to the design table.

"I started bringing in my arsenal of various Filipino swords, spears,
and
knives to give the Art Department a different feel than what we had
before.
At one point, we had a room full of artists playing with these deadly
balisong (butterfly) knives before a meeting," he recalls. Robles'
collection included a wide variety of blade types, but his favored
weapon
was the barong, which featured a curved handle to prevent weapon
slippage
during combat. "It looks cool, sharp and deadly," he says.

At one Art Department meeting, Design Director Doug Chiang had Robles
lay
out his weapons for George Lucas to inspect. "George picked out the
barong,
which I was really happy about not only because it was my favorite
blade,
but also since it was a Filipino blade, it had cultural and historical
bonds. I am proud to say I was able to put a small part of my Filipino
heritage into the film," says Robles.

As further inspiration to his fellow Art Department members, Robles
arranged
a demonstration of escrima, a Filipino martial arts employing multiple
bladed weapons. He and a friend, Jonathan Soriben ("one of the best
Filipino
martial arts masters that I know," he says) reserved the basketball
court at
the Skywalker Ranch fitness center and went at it with sticks rather
than
knives. "So as not to scare anyone," Robles clarifies.

"When Dermot Power came up from London to work with the team, Iain
McCaig
encouraged me to set up a demonstration. Iain and Dermot were designing
the
Sith at the time, and were very impressed. They began to do more work
on the
Sith with escrima in mind," says Robles. "

[ewallace]

That's pretty cool. I'm sure I would find it cooler if I had seen that episode though.