My teacher Tom Weismuller’s teacher is Christopher Petrilli. Chris Petrilli is a former U.S. Army Ranger, and for years Chris trained in the Philippines directly under one of the founding members of the Doce Pares Eskrima system, Cacoy Cañete.
Petrilli is now one of the highest ranked students of Cañete’s, holding the esteemed rank of 10th degree black belt in Doce Pares.
I was impressed, my first day of class, by the informal atmosphere. Everyone is introduced to the program at their own pace according to their abilities and background. There is lots of encouragement, not intimidation. The class time is well structured and makes good use of the time. The instructor uses a broad range of effective but basic and easy to learn techniques that a student puts into action much more quickly than “traditional” schools. My personal reasons for going to this school is that I can get a brisk workout (about as much or as little as I put into it) and learn a skill at the same time. There are no pressures to get to that next rank level. You’ll know if your skills are getting sharper without a new rank to show your friends. After a bad day at work, this is an excellent way to get out those frustrations and get a good nights sleep.