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  • Filipino History

    Read for yourself, is this a parody article or desperate marketing?

    Source:

    http://ezinearticles.com/?Kali---The...ting&id=617956

    Article:

    Every culture throughout history has created some form of martial art so their people can defend themselves in a time of crisis. But the only true test of a martial art is actual combat.

    Known as Kali in Europe and the United States, the knife and stick fighting based art is actually called Eskrima or Arnis by the Filipino people. It is said that the art was developed over centuries during many intertribal conflicts and wars with outside invaders.

    Those who practice Kali claim that is more then just a cultural art and remains an effective form of self defense that can be taught to someone quickly. And while on paper Kali seems like it has a lot to offer, both its historical data and self defense methodology say otherwise.

    Many Filipino martial artists cite the Battle of Mactan, which occurred on April 27, 1521 as proof that their system works in battle. Warriors of Lapu-Lapu, a chieftain of Mactan Island, defeated a landing force of Spanish sailors and soldiers under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan's forces were armed with crossbows and muskets, but were heavily outnumbered by the natives. The overwhelming tribal warriors cut them down and the famous explorer was killed.

    The major flaw with this isolated example is that it is the only successful battle of hundreds throughout the sad but true history of a conquered people. The Spanish Conquistadors went on to conquer all of the islands with ease and held them until the United States invaded in 1898.

    The conquistadors were skilled warriors even without muskets and cannons, because they forged their skills on the battlefields of Europe for centuries fighting the also highly skilled Muslim invaders…Not a bunch of tribal natives. Spain's fighting men conquered huge amounts of territory, and destroyed ancient empires with discipline, superior tactics, and hard training. The unfortunate tribal warriors of the Philippines (and their cultural fighting art of Kali) were no different than any other native conquest to the Conquistadors.

    But historical insignificance is not the only chink in the Kali armor.

    While it isn't fair to discount Kali simply because its practitioners main focus is blades and sticks (they also do practice some grappling and empty hand techniques), but this kind of training is hampered in the real world.

    It has not been socially acceptable to carry a sword in public in over 100 years and there are many restrictions on smaller bladed weapons. And although Kali stick fighting looks impressive to the untrained eye, I have yet to hear of one person beaten to death by a pair of Escrima sticks. All said and done, someone armed with an ordinary wooden baseball bat or axe handle, could undoubtedly finish off one of these so called “dangerous” stick fighters in a heartbeat.

    Like any cultural fighting art, I don't condemn anyone for spending their time practicing Kali because it seems like a decent physical conditioning method and a heck of a lot of fun. And while weapons training can be a great addition to your close combat toolbox, learning from these conquered people is not the answer as it is clearly not a legitimate method of self defense.

    For more information on Chris "Lt. X" Pizzo former soldier, cancer survivor, mercenary, barroom bouncer, educator, and hand-to-hand combat instructor, and his incredible FREE Accelerated Battlefield Combatives close-combat learning system, visit http://www.TopSecretTraining.com

  • #2
    Response

    Here's just a small sampling of quotes from those who were actually present and witnessed first hand the combative prowess of the natives from various periods of time. Each tribe has shown their expertise with weaponry and we should allow those who there on the opposing side to tell the truth.


    --Rafael--

    "In hand to hand combat our soldiers are simply no match for the Moro. If our first shot misses the target, we rarely have time to get off another."

    This quote was written by Cornelius C. Smith, Jr - Thirty year US Army veteran of the Indian wars (he fought Apache, Comanche, Lakota etc.) and the Moro campaigns.

    Smith received a Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry against the Sioux. For his gallantry he was sent to Mindanao to fight the Moros.
    ----
    In the latter part of 1642, the Conquistador Capitan Morales with 150 Spaniards and 450 Visayan warriors went on an expedition to Parang.

    This was the conquistador's final mission.

    The warriors of Parang funneled the Spanish forces deeper into the interior of the Sulu jungle.
    Morales was said to have called these warriors "dogs" along the way until a well aimed bamboo spear silenced him forever.
    Along with Morales, 39 Spanish soldiers also died in this battle.
    The Parang Sulus numbered 70 but their tactics enabled them to defeat 600 Spaniards and their allies. Info from Muslims in the Philippines, Majul

    -----

    " while the Spaniards were in the open, and there was no path by which to mount, the Spaniards began to fall dead and wounded; while the Moros received no damage..." from Blair and Robertson

    -----

    The death of Captain Lopez Suarez
    "a brave soldier" along twenty six other Spanish soldiers at Basilan. The use of a Moro spear is noted as impaling another captain named Ome, who was said to have defeated the Moro who ran him through. It is not indicated whether Ome used a sword, lance or firearm but one would suspect that at the longer range of a spear, his weapon would possibly be of equal or greater range. Eventually, the Spanish retreated with the wounded Ome. The skirmish was described by the Spanish as a "great loss" ...

    ----

    Datu Achen
    was compared by the Spanish to the "most destructive of African pirates". His reputation was of slaying and making prisoners of Spaniards and their Indian allies. Datu Achen overran the Pintado island (Visayas) and "carried away (Spanish) artillery and firearms" . Datu Achen's and fellow Mindanaons and Joloans' ships were described as "remarkably swift and so have great advantage over ours (Spanish ships)"

    ----

    "When the Spanish ruled in the Philippines, they had made a few attempts to tame the Headhunters by force, but were repelled with heavy losses." pg. 31 Sun, Slaves and Sinners, Travels in the Philippines 1964, by Karl Eskelund
    ----

    "... But their natural weapon is the bola (sp note: 'bolo') , or native knife, used in peace and war.
    The one weapon above all other with which they gained such advantage as they did with the Spanish. It has no regulation size or shape. The most common type used in warfare is between two or three feet in length, including the handle, and has a wide, thick blade edged like a guillotine. When wielded by a frantic Philippino in the heat of battle, it is a formidable instrument of death, which is capable of cutting a human head clear from its seat at a single blow, split the body from shoulder to hip, or cleave a skull in twain. At the call to charge, these native troops discard all other weapons and spring to wild attack hand to hand, wield the bola with a terrible effect." Major General Joseph Wheeler, 'The New America and the Far East' page 303. copyright 1901, 1910
    ---

    "We fear them (Filipino natives) more than we do the Spanish."
    Lieu. G.F. Teller 2nd Regiment, Infty, OR USV
    Stationed in Cavite, July 18, 1898

    ---

    "Spain failed to conquer them because she feared the general hatred of the Moslem for the Christian. Our soldiers will find them to be fierce foes at close quarters. They take great care of their arms. On making an attack they make hideous faces to scare their opponents. They protect their heads and bodies with immense shields, below which their legs are kept vibrating to resist missiles. When bayoneted they seize the barrels of the soldier's muskets and drive the steel further into them, that they may get close enough to kill their adversaries before falling....They behead their enemies by a peculiar continuation of the same movement with which they draw their huge knives.” Colonel Hilder, US Army

    ----
    "The courage of the warrior and the skill with which he wielded his weapons always aroused the respect and esteem of the individual in the group." PG. 73 Peoples of the Philippines - by the American historian, Krieger 1942

    ---

    It was a battle on September 13, 1900 where 37 Filipino bolomen led by Maximo Abad defeated an American force of 100 soldiers in one of the few hand to hand skirmishes of that time. The Americans retreated after suffering a lot of casualties and were eventually trapped the next day. Brutality ensued as the bolomen hacked many of the soldiers to pieces before Abad could control them.

    It was a serious lesson for the US troops and few hand to hand skirmishes followed after the Pulang Lupa defeat.


    ----

    General Henry Ware Lawton a hardened Civil War, Apache and Spanish American veteran and Medal of Honor recipient. Under General Miles, Lawton led the expedition that eventually captured another Geronimo... the famous Apache chief on September 1886.General Lawton wrote about the Filipinos:

    "Taking into account the disadvantages they have to fight against arms, equipment and military discipline, - without artilley, short of ammunition, powder inferior, shells reloaded until they are defective.... they (Filipinos) are the bravest men I have ever seen... What we want is to stop this accursed war... These men are indomitable. "

    General Lawton was eventually killed in battle in the Philippines.

    ---
    on the 23rd of July, after five days of non-stop shooting and hand-to-hand fighting, the Spanish defenders finally raised the flag of surrender.
    On July 23, 1989 General Federico J. Cevallos and his Spanish forces capitulated. There was much rejoicing as the Filipino revolutionary forces finally succeeded in booting out the Spaniards from the province of Pangasinan.
    ----

    The REAL Conquistadors disagree with the above article:

    "They (Filipinos) kill Spaniards so boldy, that WITHOUT THE ARQUEBUSES WE COULD DO NOTHING. (snipped)... The Indians have thousands of lances, daggers, shields, and other pieces of armor, with which they FIGHT SO WELL." Francisco de Sande in his report to the Crown of Spain for the Legazpi expedition dated June 8, 1577
    ---

    Also, isn't it interesting how Pizzo uses the comment:
    "learning from these conquered people"

    Is this a cheap shot to self promotion?

    Doesn't he realise Spain was ousted from the islands during the revolution? Their only saving grace was that the American forces waded in when the last remnants of their empire was huddled in Intramuros awaiting a darker fate?

    "..awaken your consciousness of our past, already effaced from our memory, and to rectify what has been falsified and slandered."
    Jose Rizal, from his 1889 essay, ' To The Filipinos '

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Sun_Helmet View Post
      Read for yourself, is this a parody article or desperate marketing?

      Source:

      http://ezinearticles.com/?Kali---The...ting&id=617956

      . . . All said and done, someone armed with an ordinary wooden baseball bat or axe handle, could undoubtedly finish off one of these so called “dangerous” stick fighters in a heartbeat.

      . . . And while weapons training can be a great addition to your close combat toolbox, learning from these conquered people is not the answer as it is clearly not a legitimate method of self defense.

      I have seen this guy's desperate attempts at marketing before. He obviously has had zero training in FMA and doesn't have a clue. "Top Secret Training"--give me a break! His misinformed view of FMA drives his slanted view of history. GME Giron used his Art during WWII and it seemed to work pretty well.

      Johnathan Bolton

      Comment


      • #4
        What a Joke.

        Hoy Kuya Raf, In browsing through the various internet forums over the last week, I caught this poor misguided souls marketing campaign on several forums. It is nothing more than slanderous ill planned self promotion. In one other forum I beielive it was fmaforum.org. There is a link to a review of HIS COMBAT TAPE series. In which the reviewer essentially stated that it was 30 minutes of white board jargon which made no sense except that through kinesthetic excercise you could use "both sides of your brain" , he wore a funny ski mask, had a camo backdrop superimposed onto the screem and then did forward rolls and a couple of breakfalls before concluding the tape. He also had no idea on how to orally transmit the information despite his supposed being a master instructor lol.

        Ive never been a fan of the two page self promotion deadly master secrets revealed type ads, but these ones jus plain give me gas

        btw: I as a Pinoy and Ex Soldier would love to meet the "Lt. X" under ANY conditions or circumstance for a kindly test of "soldiery".

        Palataya sa bathala,
        gabriel.

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks for the responses Johnathan and Gabriel.

          He's even made some claims to teach several SF groups which is interesting because NO ONE has ever mentioned him before as a trainer of any note and that's a very small circle.

          He might be ex-military, etc. but in terms of marketing, he's going backwards if people are talking about how badly one is representing himself.


          Of note is that we have many students and instructors who train in the Kodokan system, or are aware and think highly of the Fairbairn principles of combatives. The issue is not with Pizzo's source material but Pizzo's fundamentally poor understanding of FMA and the culture's combative history.

          Insulting a whole art and their culture in this manner verges on parody.
          Maybe it is.

          I'd like to add this quote from Carl Cestari, who Pizzo lists as his instructor. Perhaps next time he labels FMA the art of a "conquered people" he will study his own instructor's words of wisdom:

          "When labels become a tool or device for divisiveness and enmity we really fall into a trap that should be avoided at all costs. The root problem here is the very same fundamental problem that is the wellspring for most, if not all of mankind’s ills. The EGO. The absolute need for self-validation at all cost. ANYONE who engenders all or most of their feelings of self-worth and validation from their TRAINING ALONE(or even in major part) needs to immediately CANCEL their registration at all forthcoming seminars on the latest evolution of NHB holds from the mount or the latest innovations in submission “whatever” imported directly from the planet Venus(or perhaps more accurately Uranus) AND SEEK PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING! And do it QUICKLY!"

          --Rafael--

          Comment


          • #6
            Nice research Rafael! Maybe he should actually listen to his instructors.

            Unfortunately, although we know this guy is not legit, people surfing the internet may read his B-S advertisement and think that it is true. Kudos to you for finding it, bringining it here, adding some research of your own and giving us the ability to comment on it.

            We can only hope that a Google search on this guy will bring up this thread so that people can see that many of us disagree with this guy's B-S propaganda, especially when he has no legitimate basis to make the statements he makes.

            One thing that strikes me as illustrating that he really doesn't have any clue what he is talking is the fact that he doesn't acknowledge that our Art is a blade art and that the "sticks" are only part of the training method.

            It is also interesting that he neither claims to have defeated a FMA practicioner personally nor claims that he personally could finish a seasoned FMA practicioner with a bat or axe handle in a "heartbeat." I suspect that he is smart enough to know that such a statement could be construed as a direct challenge to some very dangerous people in the FMA community who might just accept that challenge.

            In the meantime, let's just poke more fun "Lt.X"!

            Johnathan Bolton

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by JBolton View Post
              Unfortunately, although we know this guy is not legit, people surfing the internet may read his B-S advertisement and think that it is true. Kudos to you for finding it, bringining it here, adding some research of your own and giving us the ability to comment on it.
              I would like to give credit to a Sayoc practitioner who is in the Army and stationed in Fort Bragg for bringing this to my attention. Yes, perhaps these threads debunking his claims will bring up the truth. Several counter articles were also posted on ezine in the comments section but so far none of them have been uploaded by the ezine moderators.

              A similar thread has been started in the Dog Brothers forum. I believe other FMA forums are starting to pick up on this article.

              --Rafael--

              Comment


              • #8
                Great stuff Tuhon Rafael! It's good to see how we have an FMAer on this forum who knows Filipino history well enough to defend the culture and the FMAs from those who attack it and know little to nothing about it.

                I hope I can learn as much as you someday.

                God Bless,
                Mike

                Comment


                • #9
                  the fruitcake in question reminds me largely of someone from the "Ashida Kim school of Martial Arts sucker-baiting". Before, it was ninjas, now he's using "elite military" as his front. I don't dig it.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    hi therenegademonk,

                    it'd help by studying the various swords indigenous to the philippines. from there, let it take you to the history of our people.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Sundang View Post
                      hi therenegademonk,

                      it'd help by studying the various swords indigenous to the philippines. from there, let it take you to the history of our people.
                      Hey Sundang. I've actually been heavy into the research of the various swords of the Philippines for the last 4 years or so. The Kampilan, Pinuti, Barong, Kris, Itak...all of which with their own distinct flavor and history.

                      I hope one day I can learn as much as Tuhon Raf...he always knows just what to say when it comes to historical discussion regarding the Philippines and it's fighting arts.

                      ~Mike

                      Comment

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