PEKITI-TIRSIA INTERNATIONAL MISSION STATEMENT

PEKITI-TIRSIA INTERNATIONAL MISSION STATEMENT

There are No Secret Techniques in PTI: If all techniques are listed in the course outline it keeps the instructors honest. An instructor cannot say to a student “Do this for me (pay for private lessons/bring a large group to my seminar/etc) and I will teach you these secret techniques.”

A Known Rank Structure: If the techniques needed for each rank are listed in a public place (in PTI’s case, on its website) then it will help keep the students honest. It’s hard to claim a higher rank when you don’t know the technique required for that rank.

Consistent Techniques: One complaint you hear from the students of the older generation of Filipino instructors is that you could rarely get them to do the same technique twice. This was common in the daily one-on-one teaching traditionally done in the Philippines, but it is difficult to use this same teaching method in a large class that meets twice a week as is common today. PTI instructors teach from an instructor’s notebook so that they will know what to give a student who misses a class and a student who moves across the country can go to his local PTI school and pick up his training exactly where he left off.

Don’t Say “Thank You” With Rank: In PTI, people who do good things for the art are given a gift like a knife or sword, even a “Thank You” plaque, but never an instructor’s rank. The title of Director is given to seminar coordinators or people who do other things to promote the art, but not an instructor’s rank. The only way to get an instructor’s rank is to pass an instructor’s test.

This is a Martial Art, Not a Cult: Two things can turn a healthy martial art into an unhealthy cult: Encouraging the students to believe that they are the servants of the art rather than the other way around and an unhealthy hero worship of the top instructor

PTI would guard against these two dangers by focusing on the needs and goals of the students during training rather than a focus on things that glorify the instructor or even the art itself.

The PTI Test Book. Each page of the PTI test book has two sections. The first section is stamped when you are instructed in the technique. This means a certified instructor has taught you and explained to you the technique. After you understand and become proficient with the technique, you can test on that technique with a certified PTI instructor. Pass the test and your book is stamped as passed for that section of technique: clean, clear and simple proof that you have passed that section of instruction.

Respectfully Yours,

Tuhon Bill McGrath