Guru Carl, At what age did your father first introduce your brothers to the arts? Did he begin with live blade or baston or something else? I'm curious for my own knowledge in the instance I'll children of my own some day.
Hi Crucible, I started learning at the age of five... We started with sticks or wooden swords...by the time I was ten years old we owned our own live blades and trained with them....inder the supervision of my father of course. carl atienza atienza kali
Hi Two Swords, Been reading a lot on your website. Could you maybe give us an idea of the kind of "group on one" or "group on group" training you cover.
Welcome to MAP CArl, Glad to have you aboard and share your ideas of our beloved FMA. I see that in your site your father trained with LEo GAje and your ties with Chris Sayoc. Was this the same time when Chris Sayoc Trained with him too in the 70's? HOw much of Pekiti Tirsia is influenced with Atienza Kali or similar? You guys seemed to have practiced since a very young age, would you recommend that KAli be taught at a young age ? I have my reservations about teaching kids weaponry as I have boys of my own but though they watch, play and want to learn, I sent them off to gymnastics and reserve MArtial Arts training for a later time. Questions, questions but we're glad to always get different perspectives. CHeers!
I have seen some of the older PT stuff from the 70's. My father taught us his version of what worked combatively from his own experiences...I believed PT helped him there. By the time we were in our teens PT practitioners didn't recognize what we were doing. We weren't doing witiks combatively (for instance) and we fought in long and medium range (because of the live blade work and mass attack). For the longest time we thought we were doing PT. Just like the developement of any system ....it is based on combative experiences...what worked for that person and how he trained to make that fight better. Drills, excersises, sparring etc... A system is born. Yes, I believe it was the same time as Tuhon Chris was with the organization...I was very young though. At that age I wasn't very aware at what happened in that group. I know Tuhon Chris and my father hung around together... All I really remember from Tuhon Chris is that he was around to help when I had gang troubles...or any troubles for that matter. As far as training children in kali...thats a tough question. Personally we (my brothers and I) were pretty much forced to train. We didn't like the hard regiment, what 5 yr old wants to feel that much mental and physical pain. But my father knew what kind of environment we were in and felt we needed it...he was right. By the time we were in our teens we had seen the emergency room for blade lacerations and punctures alot of times. We trained bleeding from blade injuries...my father believed that you should get used to seeing your own blood in combat. Just so you know where we're coming from... I do know that I am starting my children at a very young age...at least keep them exposed to the material.
Hi Two Swords, Been reading a lot on your website. Could you maybe give us an idea of the kind of "group on one" or "group on group" training you cover. __________________ hig Our group on one material is really based on a family fighting off violent threats...we call it reverse mass attack. A way for a father and his sons (in our case) to defend the babies and the mother from harm. It can be from a robber coming into the house in the middle of the night to a street encounters where the family may fight to secure the younger children and mother in a car to drive off safely. A systematic way a family can attack a group of aggressors sytematically and succesfully. Projectiles and hand weapons are used alot. We don't teach reverse mass attack to the public often...It doesn't apply to any persons real needs these days. We do teach it to special forces groups for sentry removal..they found the info very valuable. The mass attack ( one fighting many)we train is the counters to the reverse mass attack in our system.
I train kids from about the age of 6 & 7, my boy is 4 and he picks his sticks up once a week when I am teaching, I don't force him and he can go and play anytime he wishes (his attention span can range from 5 minutes to al night) and when he gets older, if he has no interest then that is fine too. I have also sent him to gymnastics to build up his strength and agility and he loves it, he also loves daddy to train drills with him but prefers mummy to watch, although he prefers mummy to show him Thai Bocxing and daddy to watch. Maybe he knows something I don't I beleive the younger you can train someone the better. Although I do limit what I teach kids untill I know I can trust them to use their knowledge with common sense. For instance even some aldults don't get all my knowledge for the simple reason I am still not sure what they are like as a person outside the class. Best regards Pat
Thanks for the info The "training my kid" thing is something I'm looking forward too Just now he's 16 months & has his own little plastic sticks that he likes to hit things round the house with (we had to make him them as he kept pinching mine Min-Hig ) think the hard part for me will be accepting it if he doesn't want to train when he's older. Still if I don't push him & keep it fun (the way pat described) then I can but hope.
