Kali and The Filipino Martial Arts

Kali Background information The Philippines have an excellent array of martial arts covering all forms of hand held weapons and empty hand fighting. The system we teach at The McLeod Academy emphasizes the weaponry portion of the art, namely Stick Fighting and Knife Defence. This system of combat has many similarities to JKD in it's directness and emphasis on real combat. Why the similarities? Kali is a weapon based system and Bruce Lee based a lot of his principles on Fencing. The weaponry training improves a students reactions, reflexes, timing, coordination, body mechanics and positioning in relation to the opponent. This can be compared to a boxer who chops wood or a modern mixed martial athlete who pounds tractor tires with a sledgehammer to develop torque in his body (body mechanics). Kali has a unique concept of dealing with attacks. It does not view a punch or kick as something to block but more as a valid target. This concept of 'defanging the snake' comes from the weapons combat ie striking the opponents hand to disarm him, but is expressed just as efficiently in empty hand fighting. This concept has been shown to be extremely effective in Mixed Martial Arts competition with many fighters adopting what has become known as Crazy Monkey boxing.