2025. Help me celebrate my 50th Anniversary year in the Pekiti-Tirsia system.
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Dear PTI Members, Certified Trainers and Guros,
I am strongly encouraging you to attend the year’s PTI Summer Camp (for those in Europe, the same goes for my seminars there). The plan for my 50th anniversary year is to “teach the teachers” and focus on the the improvements I have made to my teaching methods down through the years that makes working in a seminar format more efficient and effective.
First a bit of History: Ever since I started PTI in 1995, I had a focus on teaching the whole Pekiti-Tirsia system and creating instructors who could do the same. I did this by teaching very closely to the way I had learned the system from Tuhon Gaje.
From 1995 onward we had a similar dynamic to what we had in the 1970s and 80s; which was a group of students who came up together through the system and made progress together as a group. It was very easy for me to teach the way I had been taught working with students like this.
From 2000 to 2007, I was also teaching a six hour monthly seminar in a rented room at a dance school near my home. This format of six hours once a month made it worthwhile for people to fly in from other parts of the US to learn the system. This also adhered very closely to how Tuhon Gaje taught us advanced sets in the system; with each number of a set of 12 taking about half an hour to learn (only made possible by everyone in the group being ready for the next step in the system.)
We would learn the “form” of an advanced set in a six hour Saturday class and then spend the next 30 days practicing the techniques and exploring the applications and their variations.
Then, the following month, we would learn the next advanced set in a six hour class and start the process all over again.
In 2007 my wife had a severe heath issue occur that required long term treatment and I had to stop teaching the monthly seminars.
Most of the seminars I did after that were at schools where only a small percentage of the students trained in Pekiti-Tirsia as their main art. It was very common at these seminars that there would be many different skill levels in the same seminar.
Now I had a problem. How to get beginning, intermediate and advanced students to work together at the same seminar and all enjoy and learn from the experience. Part of what helped me was my time serving as a defensive tactics instructor for my department. I was a DT instructor for the NY State court system from 1987 through 2010 and was tasked with getting a lot of material to officers with a wide range of skill levels, in a very short period of time and in a way that they could make use of it, potentially in the very near future.
In the beginning I was trying to use the teaching principles of a martial arts class, (where students have the time to progress, step by step through an art), but quickly found that this would not work. I began to adjust my focus to teach just one thing well per class and hope for the best. I big boost to my teaching methods came in 2000, when I was sent to a two week FBI Defensive Tactics and Firearms training seminar, held in NY for local departments. Prior to that class, my department also sent me to a two week course in Communications for Police Instructors at a local college.
These classes really upped my game when it came to teaching seminars to a group of mixed skill levels. You will find some samples of how I applied these teaching principles in my PTI seminars in the video section below.
UPCOMING SEMINARS & CAMPS:
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Tuhon Bill McGrath’s 2025 European Seminar Tour.
May 24-25 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY:
Doble’ Baston Disarma. Doble’ Baston Contradas.
CONTACT: Zoltan Juhasz. info@pekititirsia.hu
FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/events/645874378245212
MAY 31-JUNE 1 VALKEAKOSKI, FINLAND.
Doble’ Baston Contradas, Seguidas sets 2 & 3.
CONTACT: KAJ WESTERSUND. kaj.westersund@kolumbus.fi
JUNE 6,7 & 8 FROSINONE, ITALY.
PTI Members Rank Testing. Pekiti de Mano. Seguidas set 3.
CONTACT: Andrea Citarelli. info@akea.it
Cell.: +39.347.6711800
JUNE 20-21 SKERRIES, IRELAND:
Palm stick/Pocket Flashlight. Solo Baston and Short Sword Drills.
CONTACT: James Devine via the Facebook event page for the seminar.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1568487267164863/
2025 PTI SUMMER CAMP: with Tuhon Bill McGrath.
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LOCATION:
Bowdoin Park
Pavillion 4
85 Sheafe Rd
Wappingers Falls NY 12590
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DATES: July 31, August 1, 2 & 3. 2025.
EARLY BIRD PRICES: (until June 1st, 2025).
$60 per day for PTI members.
$80 per day for non-PTI members.
LATE REGISTRATION PRICES: (June 2nd to August 3rd).
$90 per day for PTI members. $120 per day for non-PTI members.
THERE IS NO “AT THE DOOR” CASH PAYMENT FOR THIS CAMP. PLEASE PAY ONLINE
PTI MEMBERS EARLY BIRD SPECIAL:
PTI Members, register for ALL 4 DAYS of this camp by June 1st and you will receive your choice of the next four PTI videos on the subjects that you need to study for the next step in your Blue Books.
REMEMBER to select how many days you are buying in the QUANTITY BOX on the CART page.
PTI Members, remember to add your 25% Discount code in the DISCOUNT box and click APPLY to get your discount.
The first 12 people to register for ALL 4 DAYS of the camp will receive the camp videos FREE. This offer is good for both PTI members and non-members.
CURRICULUM: This will be a principles based camp, rather than one focusing on techniques.
Tuhon Bill will show a representative technique from a set and then teach the principles involved with that technique through a 2 or 3 man timing drill. The emphasis will be on developing an understand of timing and distance control. While most prior camps focused on the “How” of a set of techniques, this camp will focus on the “When” and “Why” of the principles behind those techniques.
HOURS:
Registration starts at 8:30 AM each day.
Training 9am to 5 pm, with a 2 hour lunch break.
Testing for PTI members begins at 6pm.
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SCHEDULE:
Thursday 7/31
AM Session 9am to 12 pm. Doble’ Baston Attacks, Disarms, Contradas & Recontras.
PM Session 2pm to 5pm. Abcedario de Mano, Pekiti de Mano
Friday. 8/1.
AM Session 9am to 12 pm. Solo Baston Abcedario & 64 Attacks Drills, Pekiti-Disarma.
PM Session: 2pm to 5pm. Solo Baston/Sword Seguidas, Contradas, Recontras, Alphabito, Numerado, Ofensa-Defensa.
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Saturday. 8/2.
AM Session 9am to 12 pm. Espada y Daga set 1 Attacks, Disarms, Recontras, Contradas.
PM Session: 2pm to 5pm. Espada y Daga set 2 Attacks, Disarms, Recontras, Contradas.
Sunday. 8/3.
AM Session 9am to 12 pm. Empty Hand vs. Knife.
PM Session: 2pm to 5pm. Solo & Doble’ Daga.
REQUIRED EQUIPMENT: You will be required to wear eye protection (such as impact resistant safety glasses or sports goggles) whenever you are in the training area during class.
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NOTE: Prescription eyeglass wearers; most large hardware stores sell safety glasses that fit over prescription glasses.
EYE PROTECTION IS A MUST HAVE SAFETY ITEM! MAKE SURE YOU BRING EYE PROTECTION TO CAMP AND WEAR IT IN ALL CLASSES!
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RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT LIST:
Two Rattan Sticks. Two Rubber or polymer training knives. One polymer training sword.
Metal training knives or swords are NOT allowed in class.
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Vulpes Training is the recommended trainer maker for PTI. Please contact them and ask for their PTI discount code. Website: VULPESTRAINING .
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GLOVES: A pair of lightweight, breathable gloves to prevent blisters during training are a good idea
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WRIST BANDS: A pair of two inch wide wrist bands or sweat guards that can be used by you in summer weather for long periods of time are recommended. Many of the techniques in the Daga sessions involve sliding a rubber training knife across the wrist area to simulate a cut. A wrist band of some type of soft, breathable, non-irritating material will help prevent friction burns or other abrasions.
(Note: You will be asked to remove your watch or metal jewelry from your wrist during class. This is to prevent damage to an expensive item and potential injury to your training partner).
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WRITING GEAR: A notebook and pen for taking notes.
WEATHER GEAR: We will be training in a pavilion, a roofed structure also known as a pole-barn and will likely spend much of our time in the grassy area around this. Therefore, please bring appropriate sun protection gear, such as a sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent and at least one gallon of water or sports drink per day.
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See you at the camp,
Tuhon Bill McGrath.
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CANCELLATION POLICY: Cancellations after June 1st must show proof of a verifiable emergency if you want a full refund. In place of this, you may ask for a credit for the following year's camp. No payment for videos will be refunded for canceled registrations.
VIDEO POLICY: The participants of this camp are forbidden from taking videos of the instructors or other participants of this camp, without their express permission at the time the video is recorded. You may take an occasional still photo during camp, but please ask permission first.
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Some techniques and principles I will teach in 2025:
Solo Baston/Solo Sword.
PEKITI-TIRSIA KNIFE TRAINING: “OLD” VS “NEW”
When Grandmaster Leo Gaje began training us in Pekiti-Tirsia hand vs knife technique, he followed a very specific structure that I often liken to the manufacturing of a modern automobile; as in several sub-assemblies are built and tested before these sub-assemblies are brought together to form a complete whole.
Each level of empty hand vs knife was divided into three sections: each taught, practiced and tested before assembly into a whole unit.
These three sections are:
1. Parrying skills: This is the classic “knife tapping” drill of primary, secondary and tertiary parries. The purpose of this drill is twofold:
A: To learn to deflect the force of a knife attack instead of trying to stop it with a block: since blocking is a difficult thing to do against something as fast and as maneuverable as a knife attack.
B: As an exercise specifically designed to improve your hand-eye coordination, speed and reaction time.
2. Striking skills: These are the “Third Hand” strikes of Pekiti-Tirsia. These are comprised of slaps, eye jabs and gouges, forearm hacks, hammer fists, elbow strikes and low kicks.
Both you and your opponent can strike each other in the middle of a knife fight. While you have to fit these into a countermove for each knife attack angle, so you don’t get cut or stabbed, the guy with the knife does not have to worry about this and so can strike at any time.
3. Grappling skills: Blade reversals, joint breaks & takedowns.
History of how I learned Hand vs Knife 1 and Hand vs Knife 2.
Hand vs Knife Level 1 trained these three subjects (parries, strikes & grappling) against an attacker using just 3 specific hammer grip thrusts; the 5 uppercut, the 8 backhand and the 9 wide hook (numbers taken from the basic Abcedario).
Hand vs Knife Level 2 focused its training on 4 icepick grip thrusts (Diagonal 1 & 2, a vertical and a jab) and hammer grip diagonal slashes (as the later shares the same gross motions as the first two thrusts of ice pick grip), plus a high, straight thrust that looked like a boxer’s cross and which Leo called the “in between” thrust, since it was in between the 5, 8 and 9.
(NOTE: the “Knife Abcedarios” for Sak-Sak and Pakal were just my cherry picking bits and pieces of the advanced material and putting these into a familiar form of a 12 count Abcedario. When we first did hand vs knife material Leo stuck to 3 or 4 attacks per grip.)
There was a few years separation between our learning hand vs knife levels 1 and 2 however, as we learned Solo Knife levels 1 and 2 and did a good amount of full contact, armored knife sparring (with wooden knife trainers), before moving on to hand vs knife 2 and solo knife level 3. If I remember correctly, advanced hand vs knife and solo knife 3 were taught either together or very close in time, as the gross motions are very similar.
THE “NEW” TEACHING ORDER:
I should start by saying that I still teach all the material I learned from Tuhon Gaje, I simply teach it in a different order, which I feel serves the needs of the adult students I train today better than the needs I had as a teenager in the 1970s.
When Tuhon Gaje began training us in Pekiti-Tirsia hand vs knife technique, he followed a very specific structure that I often compare to the manufacturing of a modern automobile; as in several sub-assemblies are built and tested before these sub-assemblies are brought together to form a complete whole. Problems occur though, when people spend too much time in the room used to build the car’s frame or transmission and never get to drive the finished product.
Remember the story of Pavlov’s dogs? Ivan Pavlov was a Russian neurologist and physiologist who was doing experiments on the digestive systems of dogs. When he saw that the dogs began to salivate when his lab assistant went into the dog’s area with food, he realized that the dogs had begun to associate the assistant’s white lab coat with their feeding time. And thus Pavlov discovered Classical Conditioning; {a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food,, a potential rival) is paired with a neutral stimulus (e.g. the sound of a bell ringing). The term classical conditioning refers to the process of an automatic, conditioned response that is paired with a specific stimulus.}
There was a later story of Pavlov’s dogs losing their conditioning. The story was that a fire occurred in his laboratory which kills some of the dogs and the surviving dogs lost all their conditioning and had to be retrained.
The classic way to teach PTK hand vs knife was to start with Corto range and work outward. This began with knife tapping and Leo’s first attack was usually a 5 thrust to the lower abdominal area to begin this drill. I believe this was because the low line thrust was the most common first knife attack in the Philippines, so it was wise to learn to defend against this first.
There were pros and cons to this approach though. On the pro side it helped develop quick reaction time if you were surprised by a sudden attack. On the con side, it trained you to wait until the attacker got within stabbing range before you began your defense.
I use these two examples (Pavlov and early PTK training) because I often see some PT students staying in the “Training Wheels” phase of the knife tapping drill for too long. Why don’t the “Old School” Pekiti guys have this problem? Two things. One reason was we did not stay in the basic knife tapping format for very long and the second reason was sparring.
Full contact sparring was our “Pavlov’s Lab Fire” which made us switch on the adrenaline and put us in condition red as soon as we put on our armor. This moved the distance outward at which we would be on alert in daily life as well, as you knew when an individual entered the zone where they could hit or cut you.
However, there are two problems I see with sparring that many people have today. On one extreme is that some people get into sparring too early, before they have the skill-set needed to enter quickly from a distance and transition from Largo to Medio and Corto ranges without taking what would be fatal injuries in a real fight with edged weapons.
On the other extreme are those who never spar full contact at all. There are understandable reasons for this, mostly due to the differences between learning Pekiti in the early days, (young, single guys with no responsibilities, verses adults having to go to work to support a family).
Today’s litigious society also puts a damper on your risk taking activities as a martial arts instructor. I haven’t been able to find an insurance company that will cover full contact weapons sparring in New York for many years. (Sparring is still important, but most of the sparring done by PT students these days are in venues outside of New York, often outside the US and under someone else’s insurance.)
My teaching of classes for law enforcement has given me some ways to work around these issues to a certain degree. There are generally two types of law enforcement classes I have taught:
1. Academy classes with new recruits (Mostly people in their 20s).
2. “In service” classes. (These are refresher courses for experienced officers that were usually held once a year).
Since administrators take a dim view of officer training injuries that put an employee out of commission for any length of time, we had to walk a fine line between realistic training and training that allowed them to go back to work the next day. Older officers in our in-service classes were especially prone to injuries if pushed too hard in training.
Therefore, here are two principles that helped us teach these LEO classes and still get good reports from officers who had used our training.
1. I’VE BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD BEFORE: It has been shown that officers who have been in a dangerous situation even once, have a significantly better reaction time in subsequent similar situations than do officers who have never been exposed to that situation before.
2. FIRST IN-FIRST OUT: The first techniques you teach are the ones most likely to come out first when under stress. Therefore, teach the things you want them to do first, first.
Here is how I structured my LEO hand vs knife classes.
1. Begin with bag work, teaching the body mechanics of hard strikes with a variety of personal weapons. Give some principles of how to choose what works best for an individual’s body type vs the opponent’s.
2. Calibrate the time it takes them to draw each of their weapons from their duty holsters. Next see how much distance can they cover in that draw time. This will help them decide how soon to go for their firearm or other weapon/tool when under attack. If the attacker is inside their draw-time distance, then their empty hand techniques are needed to buy them time to draw effectively.
3. Teach Pekiti-Tirsia hand vs knife techniques, but string them in a chain of logically needed material, which in my classes equaled: Evade. Strike. Control. Draw. Command.
Evade. This is through footwork at range and a combination of footwork and arm blocks (AKA parries) when in contact range. Your job is to get off the X (the ambush point or the area between his arms, where he can hit you with either hand).
Strike. You choose from your toolbox strikes that will work for you on this opponent.
Control. These techniques control either the distance between you and the opponent or his weapon arm. These can include pushes, locks, weapon reversals, disarms and takedowns.
Draw. This can include drawing your handcuffs, if a control technique is fully successful, or drawing your weapon(s), if you remain in danger from the opponent’s weapon.
Commands. Interspersed before, during and after each of these categories were loud, verbal commands, which tell the offender what you want him to do and get the attention of partners and witnesses.
THE “NEW” HAND VS KNIFE FORMAT:
The first thing I teach are common attacks based on western boxing, as it’s important that students train against realistic, common attacks.
These are shown in the two videos below:
Nomenclature for hammer grip:
1. Grab. (The grab here takes the place of the jab in boxing)
2. Cross. (A straight 9 in PT Abcedario terms)
3. Hook. (A wide 9 in PT Abcedario)
4. Uppercut or body punch. ( A 5 thrust in PT Abcedario)
5. Backfist. (An 8 in PT Abcedario)
Nomenclature for icepick grip: (Note: in the bare knuckle Western boxing of the early 1900s, hammer fist strikes were allowed and often called the “Bolo Punch” because the gross motions resembled a man cutting with a bolo sword. This was around the time when the US took control of the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish-American War).
1. Diagonal 1.
2. Diagonal 2.
3. Vertical.
4. Jab.
When Tuhon Gaje first introduced us to solo knife to knife material, he had us spend a lot of time, with many repetitions and variations with the jab. He had such an emphasis on this that when we began full contact sparring, I began to think of that as “the largo war of stabs and jabs.” It seemed that only after we scored with a hard stab or jab that stunned our sparring partner, could we do any of the earlier material we had learned in the Corto and Medio drills.
INTEGRATED HAND VS KNIFE:
Here are three principles I use when teaching the full Integrated Hand vs Knife course to Pekiti-Tirsia students:
1. Begin with Largo range and work in from there.
2. Integrate the lessons learned from knife sparring into hand vs knife as early as possible.
3. Have students practice in a realistic chain of events, rather than stay in the “training wheels phase” too long.
1. Since the Grab & Stab is the most common knife attack, I begin with defenses against the first part, the grab. This starts with the attackers approach, so the defender is trained to go on alert as early as possible and look to move to positions of advantage and form a plan to counter the attack.
2. One big take away from our full contact sparring in knife to knife work was how much the principles we were taught and the skills developed there helped our empty hand vs knife work. This meant having the timing to attack the opponent’s weapon hand and thinking like a knife fighter, even when empty handed. This specifically means attacking the opponent’s weapon arm with the same gross motions as you would if you had a knife, but converted to effective empty hand strikes.
3. The goal here is to buy you time to do bigger, better strikes to take him out or take him down or create distance to draw your weapon or get to a weapon of opportunity.
The diagram below is based on Pekiti-Tirsia Ranging Footwork and lays out the footwork and sequence used against the grab of the Grab and Stab attack. This is a “Decision Tree” diagram, with the red rectangle with the circle in it representing your opponent standing in a left lead stance. The red arrow is his left arm reaching out to grab you. The items in green represent your choices of directions during the fight.
The video below shows the right side of the diagram in action, with you starting from a left lead.
After the Grab counters are practiced from both right and left leads and both right and left escape routes (and all combinations there-of); we then go onto two step attacks, wherein the opponent attacks with a 1&2 (grab attempt and cross), then a 1&3, a 1&4, etc.
I have them practice all the classic PTK knife parries, but I start with all the primary parries in a chain combined with a strike, a distancing or grappling technique, then a draw or move to an escape route.
Once they have a sample chain to practice for all the common attacks, we can then work on classic material such as the secondary and tertiary parries and lock flow drills. I feel this puts the students on a faster path to usable skills than staying in each section of the classic drills until it is perfected, before moving on to the next drill.
Train Hard, but Train Smart,
Tuhon Bill McGrath
For info on upcoming PTI camps, seminars and classes, visit:
https://pekiti.com/pages/upcoming-seminars
A NOTE ON PTI RANKING: When Tuhon Gaje first learned the system, he was taught in the order of isolated footwork first, then all the solo stick/sword material “A through Z”, before moving on to Doble’; also training A through Z , before moving on to Espada y Daga, and then Daga, with empty hand material coming last. All this occurred over a period of 12 years (with the first three spent on isolated footwork drills. For more on this, see my post “MODERN TRAINING TIME: HOW FAST VS HOW MUCH https://pekiti.com/blogs/news/modern-training-time-how-fast-vs-how-much ).
What you see in the PTI Rank Chart is my own journey through the system and my memory of what material I had when I was promoted to each rank. The original Blue Book I made for PTI in 1995 reflected much of that order (one exception was Leo instructing me to move Pekiti Disarma from the end of Solo Stick/Sword to a spot between 64 Attacks and Seguidas, to act as a buffer between the basic and advanced material in the system. “If they can get through the Disarma, only then will they deserve Seguidas” was how he explained it to me.)
The first Blue Book reflected when I received certain techniques and that explains why you saw anomalies such as Espada y Daga level 2 Attacks and Disarms in one rank (which was in Test Book 1) and the EYD level 2 Contradas and Recontras in the rank above it (which was in Test Book 2). I tried to rectify these anomalies when I made the current, combined test book, putting all of EYD 2 in one rank.
My background:
I started training in the Pekiti-Tirsia system in February of 1975 and therefore, February of 2025 began my 50th year in the system. In addition, I started PTI in July of 1995, so July of 2025 will be my 30th anniversary as President of PTI.
(Lt to Rt.) Phil Gelinas, Dan Inosanto, Bill McGrath and Omar Hakim at a 1996 PTI instructors meeting. This photo was taken in my backyard, where we worked out during the day and then had our meeting at my dinner table later that night.
(Clockwise from upper Lt): Photos from 1977. This is me and one of the Sayoc brothers at the World Trade Center during a Philippine Independence Day demo.
Larry (last name?), Jim Curtane and Tom Bisio at the Pekiti-Tirsia tournament held on the rooftop handball court of the Philippine Consulate in NYC.
Me testing on the 64 Attacks during the forms competition at the 77 tournament.
Me trying to look cool at the WTC.
(top) 1976. Me and my best friend Mike Maddi doing Bruce Lee imitations.
(bottom) When I was a teenager, this was the coolest car in the world. Leo's 1973 Dodge Charger Superbee edition with the 383 Magnum engine.
I think this was taken in 1976 or 77. Me and my buddy Mike again. When I said a was a very skinny teenager with very big hair, I wasn't kidding. Mike went on to become the special effects makeup guy on the TV show "Gotham." I remember hanging out at his parents house, watching him build armatures for movable models of Ray Harryhausen style movie monsters. Good times.
You will find more old photos of my young and skinny former self from martial arts magazines in this section:
https://pekiti.com/blogs/news/pekiti-tirsia-in-martial-arts-mags-1970s-80s