Why I Think Filipino Martial Arts is So Awesome

My first experience in Filipino Martial arts was when I was 14 years old. I had begun training under Guru Lee Banda (now Master Lee Banda), in Bruce Lee’s martial arts system Jeet Kune Do.

Bruce Lee thought that no one system or style of fighting had all the answers to combat situations. Most if not all had great applications or something positive to offer the student, but it was still limited to that system. For example a boxer, studying western boxing or Chinese (Kung Fu), is great fighting on their feet, but get them on the ground, and their skills become very limited. Now if the boxer also trains in a ground fighting art like, Judo, Brazilian Jujitsu, or wrestling, then their chances of winning a fight greatly improve.

So Bruce Lee thought that you should take all the good parts from different systems, and discard everything that doesn’t suit you, a concept widely accepted now, but at the time was very controversial.

As a result Jeet Kune Do (J.K.D. for short) has many influences, from different forms of martial arts.

One day in class Lee handed out some sticks about 26 inches long, that looked like bamboo (I later learned that they were rattan cane).

He said that they were eskrima sticks, used in a system called Doce Pares from the Philippines.

We started learning basic strikes and blocks with the stick, we then partnered up and began a partner drill called tres tres, putting the strikes and blocks together, I felt like I was Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook, or one of the three musketeers, it was great fun.

Later that month Lee introduced us to Pangamot, the empty hand part of the Doce Pares System.

With blocking, attacking, and subsequently counter attack drills.

I found my reaction time and coordination greatly improved in a short period of time.

Later Lee introduced me to Grand Master Danny Guba, from the Philippines.

Who showed me how complex and deep the Doce Pares system was, especially when some friends and I went to an intermediate class, and really found our current skills wanting.

Grandmaster Danny explained that Doce Pares had evolved through years of fighting in the Philippines, originally from invaders, then honed on the mean streets of Cebu and Manila in ‘Death matches’.

Both Lee and GM Danny would tell us stories about the President and one of the founding members of the Doce Pares system, Cacoy Canete. How he won over a hundred so called ‘Death Matches’ and how he changed the system by adding curved strikes.

I remember thinking ‘One day I want to meet and train with this Cacoy Canete’. Over the years he became a legendary figure in my mind. Little did I know that one day I would meet with and have training under his supervision.

Years passed and I was now learning Taekwondo, and Kyusho Jitsu under Grand Master David Martin.

Grandmaster Martin has a practical view of martial arts, much like Bruce Lee’s where if something doesn’t work then don’t use it.

He found the real uses for the moves in the Taekwondo patterns, by learning the original Okinawan Karate (As General Choy based most if not all the Taekwondo pattern moves on Karate) pressure point applications, under Grandmaster Paul Bowman.

I must admit that if Taekwondo had sticks and weapons in it, with Grandmaster David Martin’s practical insight, I might not have gone to the Philippines.

That being said he then introduced me to another Filipino art called Modern Arnis, from Grand Master Remy Presas.

(I later found out that Modern Arnis was a derivative of Doce Pares. Remy Presas studied a Filipino art called Balintawak where he based his new system with practical knowledge of his own experiences with death matches. Balintawak came from one of the founding members of Doce Pares, Venancio Bacon)

Modern Arnis is mainly without the curved strikes that Cacoy advocated, but it had combined stick fighting with tactical pressure point striking, adding another dimension to my understanding of the Filipino arts.

Although my stick handling skills were pretty good, I was still a novice. It was like an itch I couldn’t scratch, so I sought more instruction in the Doce Pares system, which lead me to Emar Alexander.

Often just referred to as Alex, Emar Alexander, a many time world champion stick fighter who impressed me with his striking ability, and ambidextrousness. He would often, effortlessly change hands with the stick, as he was more than proficient with both left and right hands.

I was only able to train with Alex for a month due to work commitments, but it refuelled my enthusiasm in F.M.A. (Filipino martial arts), and reaffirmed the fact that I still had much to learn.

In 2012 I decided to make my dream of training with Cacoy Canete a reality.

I travelled to Australia to earn as much money as I could in a year, so I could spend it on training Martial arts in Asia.

In August 2013 I booked my flights to the Philippines.

After I checked into my hostel, and a couple of hours in a Taxi I found Cacoy Doce Pares HQ .

The next day my training began and the realisation of a 16 year old dream.

I was assigned Master Michael Escario (world champion stick fighter) as my instructor, while under Cacoy’s supervision.

At the time I thought that I knew quite a lot a bit about the Doce Pares style of eskrima, but this was not Doce Pares, this was Cacoy Doce Pares. Cacoy was unhappy with the system as it was, he had no time for Katas, and long range fighting. So he mainly concentrated on close quarter fighting with his curving strikes called Korto Kurbada. He believed that if you could fight up close, then being at a distance would be easy, because the closer you are to the opponent the faster your reactions need to be.

So I had to learn a whole new system of fighting.

Michael began by teaching me Grandmaster John Mac’s (Cacoy’s top student) process of teaching a student how to fight like Cacoy.

Grandmaster John Mac is a true genus the process he has added to the system is amazing. It allows the student to learn at their own pace, by systematically giving them to tools to make the next logical step in their training and ability.

Cacoy was truly unbeatable, and a revolutionary figure in Filipino martial arts if not world martial arts. For Grandmaster John Mac to devise a way to teach his unique style of fighting so well is a true accomplishment.

Over the next 2 months of training 6 hours a day 6 days a week my appreciation for the system grew immensely with my fighting ability.

The biggest difficulty with Korto is that you are trying to strike your opponent with your stick, while using your free hand to, parry, deflect and control the opponent’s stick hand, basically doing 2 things at once. But once mastered, fighting empty handed becomes easy. Cacoy was right, long to mid-range training becomes practically redundant when you can fight well at speed up close with and without weapons.

2 years later I went to Plymouth to train with Grand Master Anton James (who also studied J.K.D.). Once again I was humbled with what I was yet to learn.

I remember asking Michael in the Philippines when am I going to learn some Pangamot, because all my time was spent learning eskrima and eskrido (stick fighting with throws). He said you are learning it, it’s all in the system.

Here I was 2 years later and I still had not sussed it out.

Then Grand Master Anton explains it to me with 2 simple concepts, it was all there I had known it for 2 years but I couldn’t see it.

In one way I felt very stupid, in another I was in awe. I couldn’t believe how complete the Cacoy Doce Pares system was, having studied J.K.D. knowing that no one system had all the answers, here I was with the contrary.

When you dig deep enough into Cacoy’s system you will find the answers, even to ground work if you have an understanding of the basic principles (that being said I will always recommend Brazilian Jujitsu).

When I met Grandmaster David Martin (who also studied some J.K.D.) he said J.K.D. gives you tools but you need a core system to put them together. Grandmaster Anton James also shared the sentiment by likening martial arts to a brick wall J.K.D. was the bricks and Cacoy Doce Pares was the mortar. I couldn’t agree more.

Although Cacoy’s system is truly complete, I would never been able to see it without all the other training I had done over the years. Due to the greater insight I have gained over time and the wider perspective given from training in different martial art systems.

I still have much to learn and discover in my martial arts journey, but now I have the road map laid out in front of me, I know where I’m going and how to get there. It’s like being given the keys to the kingdom. But without Filipino martial arts I would have no idea how to read the map in the first place, that’s why it’s awesome.

 

I’m dedicating this Article in the memory of Supreme Grand Master Ciriaco (Cacoy) Canete . He was one of the kindest men I have ever met.

Most mornings I would be waiting to train, he would come out and start telling me jokes, or stories of old rivalries and battles. For me to have my childhood hero know my name and to have him spend 5 or 10 minutes chatting to you was truly mind blowing.

When I first met him he was 94 years old, but you would not have thought it, when you saw a stick in his hand. Still unbeatable, and sharp as a knife.

He was a REAL living legend that sadly died on 2^nd of February 2016.

R.I.P. our S.G.M.

 

By Louis Tandoh, Chief Instructor at Family Martial Arts Gravesend.