PTI Blog

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

The specific purpose of this article is to gives details on the PTI Police Baton vs Knife Instructor’s Notes video and to explain my thinking as to why each technique was chosen. 

Dear Certified Firearms Instructor: Think of this article as a way to help decide which tools you should pull from your toolbox first, when teaching LEOs and CCW citizens basic handgun defenses against a knife, coming from someone with long experience in both types of weapons.

The way I teach Pekiti-Tirsia advanced hand vs knife has evolved over the years.

When I first learned the system from Grand Tuhon Gaje, hand vs knife was divided into two stages:

A few techniques from the Sagang Labo drill of Pekiti-Tirsia. There is much more to this drill than what you commonly see at seminars. Sagang-Labo translates to “Block” and “Hack or Slash” in the Hiligaynon version of Visayan from the island of Negros.

Grand Tuhon Gaje would often tell the story of how he began Pekiti-Tirsia training at the age of six, under his maternal grandfather Conrado Tortal. Conrado began young Leo’s training with three long years of footwork. Conrado started Leo on a rickety old table in the home, moving in forward and reverse triangles, while his grandfather tapped his leg with a stick at the apex of the movement to get him to move faster. After a few weeks of this Conrado moved his grandson to training on the halves of three coconut shells, while stepping with only one foot at a time on each shell.

Blades discussed in this article: (Top) CRKT Kangee T-Hawk. (From Left to Right) Cold Steel Gurkha Kurki Plus, Ontario OKC Kukri, Ontario SP10 Marine Raider Bowie, Ontario SP5 Survival Bowie, Becker BK5, Cold Steel Drop Forged Survivalist, Cold Steel OSI, Cold Steel Rajah 2.

Three longtime Pekiti-Tirsia instructors have been promoted to the rank of Tuhon by Tuhon Mike Popolizio. Read their martial arts biographies belo...

Back in the 1970s, when I first started learning Pekiti-Tirsia knife work, Tuhon Gaje had us do many exercises to strengthen our grip. Things like doing push ups while holding our rattan sticks with the butt end braced on the floor, as well as striking and thrusting our sticks full power into a stack of car tires.

While a fighter needs to know just a few good techniques that work for him and his own fighting style, a teacher needs to know many more techniques, since he can’t predict what type of fighter will come train with him.

Here are a few ways to help your students refine their personal fighting style and which techniques, tactics and principles best fit that style.

( In this article I will discuss how to train using equipment such as the tire stack, heavy bag and focus mitts and which weapons are best trained on each training tool )

Several PDFs and JPEGs of important PTI documents did not make it over to the new web service when we had to change services this September. Here are some of them all in one spot for ease of viewing.