Tales of Bumbling Warrior : My First day of training with a Blademaster
To say i am a rather blundering idiot would be an understatement. While this does lead me to perform some rather silly acts, it also leads to some nice stories.
I decided to write down and share some of the more memorable ones from my Martial Arts training.
This is from my first time training in the Philippines.
For those who don’t know, the Philippines have a rich martial culture dating back centuries. Most Filipino Martial Artists will proudly tell you of how they fought the Spanish, the Americans and then the Japanese and how none of these countries could deal with the Filipino fighting spirit.
I am no expert in history but having met and trained with many many Filipinos, I can safely say that Filipinos can really really fight. They are especially known for their proficiency in the use of weapons. Knives, swords, spears, sticks, blow guns, you name it and the Filipinos are amazing at it.
One of the Martial Arts i practice is a Filipino Martial Art called Pekiti Tirsia Kali or PTK for short. It is an uber deadly fighting system based around the blade, and my master happens to be the Grandmaster and source of the system.
His name is Leo T Gaje, and I along with all other PTK practitioners call him GrandTuhon or GT for short. PTK was his family’s style, it was taught to him by his grand father. GT has spent most of his life spreading this art, and now it is practiced in 6 continents.
Anyway enough backstory. I wanted to write about my first day training with GT in the Philippines.
I had just landed in the city of Bacolod, which is located on the Island of Negros. How I landed up in a city I had never heard off, to meet a man I had never met and only spoken to for 30 seconds over terrible phone network, is a story for another time. I was picked up from the airport by GT’s wife, a lady that I affectionately call “Tita Gigi.”
Tita is an incredibly smart woman who speaks a whole bunch of languages including English. We dropped off my bags at my hotel and proceeded to where GT had spent the day training. After about an hour we reached what I assumed was the ocean, it was pretty dark so I couldn’t be sure.
I got out of the car and was greeted by a giant of a man. He shook my hand and said hello in what I assumed was a German accent, and then proceeded to lift a huge bag into the back of the pick up.
Next I was met by another man who was as broad as the German was tall. This man had an American accent.
I turned around and bumped into another giant wall of flesh. This man introduced himself as Trevor from Kenya. He led me to GT.
I introduced myself, took his right hand and touched it to my forehead, I was told that was a sign of respect.
He was flanked by another American man and two more Germans; one was a lady and the other a man. Thankfully they were all normal sized.
Everyone else jumped into the back of the pick up truck and GT asked me to ride with him in the cabin.
It was all a bit surreal to me and ive forgotten most of that night and conversation. I only remember we stopped for chicken at one point. I being a vegetarian ate ice cream.
Like I said, I don’t remember much of that first night. But the next morning I was woken at 5am and asked to get ready quickly and come down. GT was waiting for us in the reception; he had come to collect us for training.
We went to a resort. I was so excited and nervous to start training that once again I think I blanked out all details of that drive. I did however get the names of all the others. They have since grown into a sort of extended family for me. We shared a lot of blood, sweat, bruises and way too much tequila together.
There was Dipita, Tina and Felix from Germany. Trevor from Kenya. Art and Belton from the US. I also met Jimmy who was a Filipino living in the UK, but had come to Bacolod to train like the rest of us.
Unknowingly I had stumbled into an ongoing course, which from what I could tell blended PTK training with jungle survival.
Since we were now sitting by the side of a pool in a resort, I concluded that the “jungle part” of the course had come to an end.
The last to join us was GT’s son whom we affectionately call Jam Jam. Once we were all gathered GT stood up. It was time to train.
Various bags were opened and an assortment of knives, sticks, swords and whips were produced. I was handed two aluminum-training knives and we were all asked to jump into the deep end of the pool.
Keep in mind; I had absolutely no experience with knives before this. I had done some training in Japanese Swordsmanship but that didn’t really prepare me to jump into a 15 foot pool with a knife in each hand.
30 laps of the Olympic sized pool, with the knives in hand…. This was warm up.
I managed not to stab myself. Everyone else was taken to a side by GT and I was handed over to his son. Jam Jam would take me through the basics of Pekiti Tirsia Kali.
What followed was hours of knife training. And squats, lots and lots of squatting thrusts followed by lunging high thrusts. My neutral position was a sort of medium squatting horse stance. On Jam Jams count id launch one foot into the air and jab the knife into the eyes of my imagined enemy, before he could react I would be squatting low and thrusting my knife into his imaginary groin.
Yes I know how dirty that entire last passage sounds, but I don’t know how else to describe it.
The Philippines is hot. I thought India was hot, but nope, the Philippines is hot! In no time I was sweating more than I had ever though possible. Now I may not be the strongest or fastest or the smartest, but the one thing I had going for me was my stamina. I could keep going longer than most people. Plus this was the first time I was training with GT, Jam and the others. There was no way I was going to stop. There was no way I was going to even puke or pass out. So I kept going and going and going.
Finally when I thought my legs were simply going to detach from my hips and fall off, I was called over the where the others were.
I was told to stand behind a line and in front of me was placed Tina the German. The more I got to know Tina, the more I realised that she is one of the most badass women I know. She will kill you before you have a chance to blink.
Tina and me were to engage in something called distance sparring. We both were armed with one knife each. There was a line in between us, a line that neither of us could cross. If we crossed it, chances were that one of us was going to get hurt. Simply put we had to thrust and stab at each other while maintaining the distance between us and reacting to each other’s movements. When she went high, I went low, when I went high she went low. Turns out Tina’s favorite move was hitting low.
Everyone else formed a circle around us and began counting. Tina and me had to spar till the count of one hundred. After us, all the others took their turns in the middle. I probably learnt more watching them move than I did flailing around with a knife.
They were each built so differently, and used tactics so differently. Dipita was massive and built like a bull, but his every move was precise and powerful. Belton was so broad he sometimes reminded me of a Filipino wall, but when he moved his accuracy, timing and tactics were on some other mystical level. When Jimmy moved I couldn’t see it. He was just to fast. He could go from 0–100 then back to 0 before I even realized he was moving. Art, Felix, Trevor each had their own ways of moving, own ways of tackling the problem laid out in front of them. And they were all really really good at it.
It was then that I became aware of the massive mountain I had to climb. I would have to train like a mad man to catch up to everyone else. It would take a miracle for me to even be able to stand alongside them.
Eventually I am proud to say I managed it, I wasn’t as good as them, but I think I managed to earn a place besides them. They all helped, without them id have been lost in the sea of knowledge that GT laid out in front of us.
Together we came to be called the Tribe of Twelve, each given a name in accordance with his or her skills and aptitude. I was called The Wizard.
