I recall spending a lot of time trying to record early Pekiti history with GT at his home. In 1988 and 89 I spent two weeks each summer with him with one of those weeks the PTK camp and three weeks at his home for private lessons. To me this looks like the 64 Attacks used as a basis for the Doce Methodos, instead of what we got in the 70s, which was the other way around, (samples from the Doce Methodos used as a basis for the 64 Attacks).īy the late 1980s GT had laid out the system differently than the original Doce Methados lists we received in the 70s, with much more emphasis on the advanced material and more details on the other weapons beyond Solo. Tim began training with GT in the 1990s after GT had moved back to the Philippines. Here is another Doce Methodos list that comes from Tim Waid’s website. This is probably close to the 5 weapons DM list we received in the 1970s (although I am surprised to see Doble’ omitted from this version of the list, as we learned Doble’ simultaneously with the 64 Attacks.) I also remember that the Solo long weapon version of the DM I saw in the 1970s began with the Abcedario and ended with Pekiti Disarma.īelow is a Doce Methodos list from a student of Tom Bisio. As I recall, everything that was not a two man timing drill in the 64 attacks was listed under its own name in the Doce Methodos. For example, Break in-Break Out and Segang Labo were drills for Seguidas, while 5 Attacks was a drill for Contradas. I do remember that GT told us that each of the two man timing drills from 64 Attacks originally were drills from one of the 12 methods. If I had to guess, I would say we were given the Solo list first, since I still think of the Doce Methodos as solo material to this day.
This many decades later, I can’t remember which list we received first and which second.
Another list we received included all 5 weapon categories (Solo, Doble’, Espada y Daga, Daga and Mono y Mano) as part of the 12 methods. Getting back to the early Doce Methodos: one list we were given had the 12 methods as all the single long weapon techniques, basic through advanced.
#Tom bisio arnis full#
This is not surprising, since he was mostly teaching his home dialect speakers in Negros and, even for those coming from overseas to train, learning the names of all the techniques in their original language would be part of the full immersion experience of training in the Philippines. It did seem that GT returned to using those terms once he moved back to the Philippines in 1990. I can understand the lack of emphasis on Filipino names of techniques after the breakup of the organization headed by Filipinos and then focusing on teaching a broader spectrum of Americans throughout the 80s. (Not that we didn’t train on the material from the DM lists he gave us in the 70s he just didn’t mention the name during his teaching during this period). I joined him in Texas by that summer and remained there for the next three years, during which I assisted at many of his seminars but I don’t recall him mentioning the Doce Methodos list during that period. For example, we began training on the first set of Seguidas in 1980 and we finished the 3rd set just before GT left for Texas early in 82. Training for our group in NY was on advanced sets of material and the focus was on learning each set in turn. See note below.)Īs for the Doce Methodos name, I don’t remember GT mentioning it in the 80s at all. was disbanded in 1979 by GT after one of the organization’s officers defrauded the students of some money. I recall seeing two lists of the Doce Methodos from Grand Tuhon Gaje (GT), around 1976 or 77 during the days of his first organization, the Arnis America Organization. During my research into the Tri-V formula, I was asked about the Doce Methodos (DM), as this material is often referred to as the older teaching system used for Pekiti-Tirsia when instructors are learning the Tri-V.