2009 was the inaugural year for the PTK San Francisco Group. We don’t have an indoor facility. We train outside in a park. We have a small dedicated group. Quality is what we are looking for, not quantity.

What separates us for other schools? Quality of training. We are lucky enough to have direct access to the best blade/impact combat instruction in the world. Grand Tuhon Gaje is a living legend in martial arts world. We may have to travel a little to get that knowledge sometimes but that is all part of the adventure. Also with Tim Waid coming here twice a year our group is set up for progress.

After the Combat Tactics magazine feature came out I stopped advertising other than having this site. I prefer to have people find us. Those are the ones who know what they are looking for.

As we look back over our first year we’ve had some significant events in our growth:

1. Training in Bacolod with Grand Tuhon Leo Gaje, Philippines in Feb
2. Hosting Tim Waid in Berkeley in June
3. Supporting PTK Socal at Tim’s Doble/Espada y Daga seminar there
4. Attending the Annual instructors seminar in Dallas with Tuhon Phillip Gelinas and Maginoo Tim Waid
5. Being Featured in ‘Surefire Presents - Combat Tactics’ Magazine
6. A student traveled to train with the Manila Pitbulls

Pretty good for our first year.

My goal is to top this next year.

Mike

Last June (2009) at the first Bay Area Tim Waid Seminar sponsored by PTK San Francisco we were lucky enough to have the world class photographer Ichiro Nagata come in and shoot the seminar. Ichiro does the Surefire catalog, the Sig Saur catalog and many, many gun magazines. Ichiro is also a competitive shooter.

The magazine, ‘Surefire Presents Combat Tactics, Fall ‘09, (thumb below) just hit the newstand today.

The author, a Bay Area PTK practitioner, touches on the history and tactics of the art. The article accurately describes the dynamicism of Tim Waid’s seminar instruction.

This will help bring quality publicity to our art and to Bay Area Pekiti Tirsia Kali.

I’m hoping to have Maginoo Tim here at least once in 2010, and I’m hoping for twice..

…And go grab a copy before they sell out!

June 6th and 7th marked the first PTK San Francisco Tim Waid seminar.

Maginoo-Mandala (System Elder) Tim Waid taught a 2 day intensive Pekiti Tirsia Kali seminar covering portions of the Doce Methodos, specifically 5 attacks and the knife system.  The participants were taught attack strategies and footwork from 5 attacks, long range and close quarter knife, jabbing, running, and tapping.

The methods emphasized combativeness and are quite different from what you might normally see.  For example the drill Sagang Labo (often referred to as ‘hubud’) is applied differently than what I’ve seen anywhere else.  The seminar closed out with an overview of the Doble Dirty Dozen, a series of double stick/kalis conditioning drills.

Tim is a gifted teacher and put’s on a top notch seminar.  I’ve been attending seminars since the mid 80’s and I’ve seen everybody.  Tim has an uncanny way of communicating the subtleties of the motions of the system.

Some student comments on the seminar:

• “Fun and educational. Will definitely attend again next time!”

• “It opened my mind to what the system is all about.”

• “I learned more about practical weapons combat in one day with Tim than I had in 10 prior years of studying various Chinese and Filipino martial arts”

• “It was a very good seminar that displayed the speed, power, versatility, and efficiency of the beautiful FMA of Pekiti Tirsia!”

PTK San Francisco would like to thank The Ralph Gracie Academy Berkeley (Big Dave, Eduardo, Pete, Drew, etc…) for the generous use of their facilities.  While we were having the seminar they were off competing in the Jiujitsu Mundial’s (World’s) tournement.  Also thanks to Jenn Christensen for taking the pics for the website.

As a special surprise the seminar was shot by noted photographer Ichiro Nagata (www.tactical-life.com) for use in an upcoming magazine article.  These articles usually take about 6 months to go to print.  We will keep everyone posted.

I’d like to personally thank everyone who attended for their support in developing Bay Area Pekiti Tirsia Kali.

Seminar photos can be found here.

Mike