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i dont think dan inosanto really believes everything he is telling people. for example, that arnis is the art of the north, eskrima of the visayas, and kali of mindanao. maybe once he believed it, but if he has met and train with edgar sulite and leo gaje, surely they have told him about that. and i am pretty sure somebody who speaks tagalog, told him "gunting" does not mean "destruction, it means scisors. many of the words he misuses, it would be to easy to find out the meanings of them. now, i am sure the kali word use came from one person, so perhaps he is showing respect to that teacher by calling the art "kali", no problem with that. but he is the ONLY person who tells the students that kali is the mother art. you mean, and expert of the philippine martial arts, the most well known of all FMA experts, and he doesnt know simple things like that? come on.
You make many good points. But as I said not defending him just wondering about his perspective. I know that he said that he took a lot of the knife fighting techniques out of his book, due to pressure from some of the old Masters that taught him. I also remember hearing that a lot of the old men wanted to hide their art and were very reluctant to teach people outside of the Filipino community. And that a lot of times when they did teach they held back or taught less effective techniques. I have heard that Danny Inosanto had and has a great deal of respect for the teachers with whom he trained. I wonder if this was his way of protecting these arts or a compromise, so that he could get permission from some of these teachers to publish his book. Just a thought.
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back to 14th style's last point, "kali" and other words you want to use can be anything you want. but when people try to make up a history or connection to the philippines that does not exist, there is a real problem. for example, i read an article about "panantukan masters" in the philippines who like to box with knives ( ), completely ********, i would like to know where paul vunak got that from. this is the style of ted lucaylucay, but that history only goes back to him, yet vunak wants to make it look like this art goes back to the PI and its practiced by filipinos back home.
so Kali means counters moving away from the opponent? fine, but not FILIPINO philippine martial arts.
Unfortunately some people will always put money first. And you will never stop people from saying anything they want about this art or that. I do understand your frustration. I have learned more about my Mexican heritage from my father whom grew up in Mexico then I will ever learn from an American history book. But there will always be misconceptions about my people. That is the way of the world. I think the best way to combat this is to teach what you know and speak the truth as you see it. I know that I am willing to listen.
One last point I was not trying to define Kali when I talked about zoning. I was simply saying, that is how we looked at it.
Yours respectfully The 14th Stlye