PTI Blog

Like most of the advanced work in the Pekiti-Tirsia system, Espada y Daga is taught in techniques grouped around core principles specific for that weapon or the fighting style of the practitioner. These are divided into three levels or “sets” with each having a specific grip of the dagger.

Set 1: The daggers of both you and your opponent are held in Hammer grip.

Set 2: You are switching between Icepick and Hammer grips, while your opponent remains in Hammer grip.

Set 3: Both you and your opponent hold your daggers in Icepick grip.

Each of these three sets has a subset of 12 Attacks, 12 Disarms, 12 Contradas (“Counters”) and 12 Recontras (“Recounters”). This gives us 144 total techniques in Pekiti-Tirsia Espada y Daga.

I started training in the Pekiti-Tirsia system in February of 1975 and therefore, February of 2025 begins my 50th year in the system. In addition, I started PTI in July of 1995, so next July will be my 30th anniversary as President of PTI.
Here are some ideas I have to celebrate these events.

Here are some scans from old martial arts magazine articles. I believe all of these magazines are out of business, so there should be no copyright issues with my posting them here. In some pictures you will see a skinny kid with a mop of black hair on his head acting as a target for Grand Tuhon Gaje. Good times.

I’ve been playing around for many years trying to draw a diagram with all the footwork patterns of Pekiti-Tirsia on a single grid. This experiment started after seeing so many FMA teachers adding various triangles, diamonds and other patterns to the floors of their schools to help their students understand FMA footwork. I thought it was a great idea and wondered if it might be a fun mental exercise to try and have as many patterns as possible within a single framework. Call it my Unified Field Theory of FMA/PT footwork.

This video contains samples from the Alphabito, Numerado and Offensa-Defensa sets; one of the last techniques I learned in the Pekiti-Tirsia syst...

    Eddie Jafri, myself and Warren Brown during a performance at the June 1981 Philippine Independence Day celebration at the World Trade Center i...