Martial arts club attends seminar

The River City Kali Club of Demopolis traveled to Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City recently to participate in a two-day Filipino Combat System workshop that also included a rape prevention seminar.

The rape prevention portion of the workshop was presented by Stan Tippins, who has been involved in law enforcement for over 17 years.

Retired from the Fraud Investigation Department of the State of Alabama, Tippins is currently a full-time assistant professor in Criminal Justice at Faulkner University, an adjunct teacher in Criminal Justice at Central Alabama Community College and a teacher at the Institute of Criminal Justice Education in Montgomery. He has trained for many years in Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Kali.

Tippins gave an informative Power Point presentation that included startling statistics, personal stories and many easy, commonsense ways to avoid becoming the victim of a crime at home or while out running everyday errands.

During the last half of the presentation, Tippins taught the participants a short Tai Chi form. The movements of the form seemed simple, but they actually included easy, quick ways for practically anyone to repel an assailant.

The workshop also included an intensive martial arts classes taught Friday and Saturday by Tuhon Ray Dionaldo, the founder of Filipino Combat Systems. Dionaldo has studied martial arts most of his life and is an expert in Kali. He draws some techniques from about 14 systems that he has studied.  He teaches between 40 and 50 events in various countries around the world, in places as varied as the United States, South America, England, Belgium, Spain and Japan, to name a few. He is often hired to help train military groups and law enforcement organizations,  including SWAT teams, in hand-to-hand combat.

Dionaldo feels that one of the strengths of Kali is its longevity. The art of Kali is over 2,000 years old. It is a practical, adaptable, user-friendly martial art. Because he wants his students to think, rather than simply mimic, Dionaldo teaches concepts along with skills.

He feels that the practitioner of martial arts should look at all disciplines available and adapt and use what works best in any given situation.

The students at the workshop learned a variety of skills, including sticks, knife work and empty   -hand techniques. They brushed up their current skills, learned some new ones and had an enjoyable, educational weekend.

To learn more about Kali, visit the FCS website at fsckali.com. For questions about River City Kali, call 216-1469.

Story written by Lynda Ray.