Introduction to Albo Kali Silat

[KaliGman]

The Albo family Kali was developed in the Philippines and traveled with Cornelio Albo when he immigrated to the Big Island of Hawaii. Albo taught the family system to his grandson, Hasting K. Albo, who learned the art, originally, in the form of eight dances which had long been used to hide the techniques of the art. Hasting Albo furthered the art by adding insights he obtained during his studies of various other martial arts, including Indonesian and Vietnamese styles of silat, and which complemented the family kali. Apohan Tuhan Hasting Albo was the first to teach the family system outside of the Albo clan, the first to codify the system, and the originator of the name of the art, Albo Kali Silat. It was he who set down the terminology utilized to describe concepts and teachings in the art, concepts most often expressed in Pilipino, Spanish, or English, but also in Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and other dialects. Some of the terms are the same as used in other arts, but describe different techniques than the terms as used in these arts. Apohan Tuhan Albo also chose, within Albo Kali Silat, to use the spelling “Tuhan” rather than the more common “Tuhon.”

Apohan Tuhan Albo moved from Hawaii to El Paso, Texas and it was there that he really began to teach his family art. I was the only student taught all eight of the original dances of the Albo family system and was the head student in the art. Having been promoted to Tuhan by Apohan Tuhan Albo after several years study with him, he told me and many of his other students that I was to be his successor as head of Albo Kali Silat, should anything happen to him. I fully expected Apohan Tuhan Albo to have a son, and expected that I would be an “uncle” to my friend and teacher’s son. I expected an Albo-by-blood to head the system and bring it honor in the future. Apohan Tuhan Albo died on February 14, 2008, in a tragic automobile accident. He had no children. I assumed the duties of head of system of Albo Kali Silat shortly after his death.

Albo Kali Silat is a very complete system of fighting. The emphasis is on combat. The belief is that stick trains knife, and knife trains empty hand. Some of the hallmarks of the system include fighting on the vertical as well as the horizontal planes, the use of double blades or sticks with one held in a forward and the other in a reverse grip, an emphasis on empty hand techniques and applications of all motions and techniques used with weaponry, and a view that the fight will be what it wishes to be not what you wish it to be, so that all ranges, weapons, and combat styles, to include grappling with and without weapons, must be studied. The body mechanics and motions necessary to develop power and speed in striking are studied in detail. The vital points of the human anatomy and the ways to manipulate and attack them are taught. The disruption of balance, destruction of joints and connective tissue, and breaking of bones is taught within the system. Leg attacks, immobilizations, and joint locks and breaks are components of the art. The ability to go from a high line (standing) and transition on the vertical plane to a low posture (kneeling or sitting in various fashions), while continuously attacking and defending oneself is emphasized. Albo Kali Silat has no preference in range. Long range, medium, and short-range techniques and footwork are taught. The use of flexible weapons, the karambit, and other weapons than the standard baston and knife, as well as using everyday objects as improvised weapons, is taught. A core belief in the art is that the student who learns the deadly and maiming techniques and develops a high level of skill and the ability to flow will be able to use less deadly and debilitating techniques when deadly force is not required to stop an attack. Students are first taught what they need to survive a fight for their life, then taught how to modify techniques to show compassion and mercy to an opponent if it is possible to stop the particular opponent in question without using deadly force, or if the situation warrants a response that is less than lethal or permanently debilitating to the attacker.

I hope that everyone enjoys this forum. More information on Albo Kali Silat is available on the Albo Kali Silat website: www.albokalisilat.org.

Thank you for stopping by this forum.

Jon Holloway

[PG Michael B]

Kamusta kana...I am pleased to see you get a spot here. I haven't heard of the system but I am intrigued. I have seen some of your video work..very nice, tight and concise. I wish you all the best and perhaps one day we can work togetehr. Mabuhay Albo kali Silat...salamat

PG Michale B
Bahad ZuBu KA'LI Ilustrisimo

[Shaun]

Welcome to the forum. Albo Kali Silat is great authentic Filipino martial art.

I look forward to reading and seeing more.

[KaliGman]

Kamusta kana...I am pleased to see you get a spot here. I haven't heard of the system but I am intrigued. I have seen some of your video work..very nice, tight and concise. I wish you all the best and perhaps one day we can work togetehr. Mabuhay Albo kali Silat...salamat

PG Michale B
Bahad ZuBu KA'LI Ilustrisimo

Thank you Punong Guro Blackgrave. I appreciate the feedback on the video. I would definitely enjoy training together. Under Apohan Tuhan Albo, one thing that Albo Kali Silat stressed was respect for other's training. I know for a fact that no system or person can be the "source of all knowledge," and that if one person was the "source" that person would not be me. I am always looking to learn new concepts and skills, and am intrigued by some of the things I have seen in some other FMAs. I don't get to Texas as often as I used to, but will definitely drop you a line if I am in the area.

Jon

[KaliGman]

Welcome to the forum. Albo Kali Silat is great authentic Filipino martial art.

I look forward to reading and seeing more.

Thank you, Shaun. I know that there are many FMA systems that are well known, and many systems that are taught only inside a particular family. I went in search of kali to learn knife and knife defenses to augment my years of training in the Japanese arts and to help keep me alive in my law enforcement career. At the times and locations where I was searching (I moved around a bit during this time frame due to work), I found a lot of people who had gone to a few seminars and who were now teaching and not much in the way of good combative based systems. Of the few instructors whom I found who appeared competent, the majority had a lot of "attitude." When I found Albo Kali Silat and convinced Apohan Tuhan Albo to train me, I discovered a very complete system taught by an instructor who was a very nice and humble person. He knew he had great skill, but had no need to rub anyone's nose in it. Kali students were treated as family, as it was a family art. Rather than learning just a few knife techniques, I learned some bio-mechanical concepts, martial theories, and training methodologies that completely changed the way I fight and gave me a deeper understanding of many of the techniques and strategies I learned in my previous martial arts training.

[tim_stl]

The Albo family Kali was developed in the Philippines and traveled with Cornelio Albo when he immigrated to the Big Island of Hawaii. Albo taught the family system to his grandson, Hasting K. Albo, who learned the art, originally, in the form of eight dances which had long been used to hide the techniques of the art.

can you elaborate more on the eight dances?



tim

[KaliGman]

The dances were taught to Apohan Tuhan Albo as empty handed movements. There was no martial context in these dances, at first, and it seemed to Apohan Tuhan Albo that they were just village/cultural dances. He actually told me that, when he was young, he felt that such dances should be performed by girls, but that he learned them because he loved his Grandpa and wanted to please him. He started training in these dances while a young child. Apohan Tuhan Albo was a bit of a rascal when he was younger (at least that is the way he described himself to me) and said that he had a hot temper. When he was a little older, wiser, and less hot headed, his Grandpa took two bolos, placed them in Apohan Tuhan Albo's hands, and said, "Now dance." Apohan Tuhan Albo trained in the dances and in other ways with his Grandpa until, when he was a teenager, his Grandpa died. He then analyzed the dances and, of course, continued his study of the family kali as well as other arts.

There are eight dances. The dances contain the majority of the techniques, footwork, strategy, and concepts taught within Albo Kali Silat. Interestingly, many of the moves in the dances can be used against multiple attacks. For instance, in Dance One, in the empty hand application, there is an arm break if the attacker uses his left hand to attack and a bridge, arm fold and trap if the attacker uses his right, all from the same series of movements. The dances have multiple applications in regard to weaponry. Every dance has empty hand applications. In addition, every dance is to be conducted with double baston, forward grip, double baston, reverse grip, double baston, one forward and one reverse, and the same types of grips using knives or bolos. Also, single weapons (stick or blade) are used in various grips when doing the dances. Doing the math, you can see that there are a lot of variations possible, and that the basic movements can be used and expanded to cover many situations.

The dances feature principles of balance disruption, and some feature some very low kneeling and other postures, all of which are similar to some silat style movements. In fact, the reason that Apohan Tuhan Albo said that the art was called Albo Kali Silat and that he had added a bit of silat to the family system, was that, when his Grandpa moved empty handed, there were huge similarities with silat styles that Apohan Tuhan Albo was also studying. In particular, Dance Three and Dance Seven, if done with blades, destroy an opponent's base with attacks to the legs and finish him after a takedown.

There are several of Apohan Tuhan's students who were taught Dances One and Two. Currently, Dance Three is reserved for Guro level, and Dances Four through Eight are at the Tuhan level. Apohan Tuhan Albo always saw the dances as a cultural heritage and direct link to his Grandpa, and wanted these dances closely guarded. For this reason, all the footwork displayed in the dances and most of the techniques, though not all of the combinations and concepts displayed in the dances, are taught to the students in separate drills, earlier in the curriculum, rather than in the form of the dances. When students see Dance One and Two, a light seems to go off, and many of the separate concepts and movements they have been taught seem to come together into a whole. Dance Three helps with low level technique. Dances Four through Eight serve to polish an already well honed edge.

I hope the above description helps.

[tim_stl]

thank you for the description. why were the techniques of the art being hidden? who created the dances?



tim

[KaliGman]

Apohan Tuhan Albo was told that the dances had been in the Albo family for generations. The system was described as an old and combat oriented system, where, as Apohan Tuhan Albo said, "Every part of the system works. The Albos who tried something that didn't work pretty much died while attempting to do the stuff that didn't work. Anything that didn't work was never added to what was passed on." The techniques were hidden in dance in order that those practicing the art not be identified as warriors by any occupation forces (the Spanish, the Japanese, etc.). In addition, Apohan Tuhan Albo was of the more "secretive" school of thought, as was traditional in his family art. I do not mean secretive as in "You will never learn these secret techniques that are the core of the art" but secretive in that he liked to present a quiet and unassuming appearance. I have always seen this as the "secretive" versus the "dominant" theory of street survival. Apohan Tuhan Albo believed in being seen by any potential aggressor as a relatively small (he was around 5 feet 3 inches tall and about 135 pounds), non-threatening man, so that, if he was attacked, the first inclination the attacker had that he might have bitten off far more than he could chew was when the fight was already over. He moved in balance, but did not project "threat" to predators. The "dominant" school of thought is to exude and project competence, awareness, and dominate any space you enter with your presence. The projection is "bigger predator" or "not a meal" rather than "prey" to any potential aggressor. The upside to this school is that, if you can pull it off, you don't have to fight as much. The bad news is that, when you are attacked, it is often by someone who expects you to be competent and dangerous and they often come on very strong and deadly. Due to my particular training, upbringing, and later experience working in some interesting locales as law enforcement, I tend to be of the "dominant' school. Apohan Tuhan Albo and I often discussed this. In any case, I believe that part of the reason that the techniques continued to be hidden in dance was due to the "secretive" theory being the prevalent one in the Albo family.

Apohan Tuhan Albo studied multiple arts which originated from multiple nations, as have I. Based on our discussions and studies, some parts of the dances appear to be related to some aspects of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian techniques and strategies seen in other arts. I saw some things that seemed very similar to Japanese Jujitsu and Chinese Chin-Na joint destructions. The Philippines has long been a melting pot, and it is probable that multiple cultures influenced Albo Kali Silat. Of course, there are only so many ways to move a human body and only so many ways to do combat, so what came from where or from whom is hard to say.

Lastly, I will say that I do not know much about Master Cornelio Albo. I have only information from a few conversations with Apohan Tuhan Albo, and these were mostly concerned with fighting technique. I asked a few questions about him when I began to do the Albo Kali Silat website. Apohan Tuhan Albo was supposed to get me some photographs and write down some family history for me so I could include it in the website. I wanted details on what part of the Philippines he was from, personal history, history of his instructors, and the like. Apohan Tuhan Albo died prior to getting me this information. I was always most concerned with learning the art and being the cataloger of the techniques and strategies of the art. This was the role appointed to me by Apohan Tuhan Albo, as I am kind of a "technician" and tend to note body placement and mechanics in an art and I have some modicum of skill as a technical writer. Apohan Tuhan Albo was a kinesthetic--he learned by moving. To teach a concept or technique that he had not reviewed in awhile he would close his eyes and simply move. When it "felt right" he knew he had recalled the technique correctly. What ended up happening was that I spent a lot of time and effort trying to catalog and record the teachings of the art and develop a coherent training syllabus. By the time I got to beginning an in-depth exploration of the art's history, it was too late. I have a few things that were given to me by Apohan Tuhan Albo that I am still researching and I will check with his family (none of those in Hawaii, aside from Apohan Tuhan Albo, studied the family system) and will continue to see what I can discover. The most important thing, though, is to keep the teaching alive and provide it to future generations.

[shrapnel]

That's some nice info there. Too bad Apohan Tuhan Albo died before he could give you all the historical info. I, too, am curious what province the Albo family originally came from before they migrated to the US.

[dekiti]

Welcome to FMA talk!!!

[KaliGman]

Thank you all for the interest in Albo Kali Silat and the warm welcome received when starting this new forum.

[arnisador]

This thread is already the #6 result on Google for Albo Kali Silat.

[gagimilo]

I wonder if there is some particular learning/teaching progression in this system. I mean, are some weapons prerequisites for others, or do you teach some of them at the same time etc.

[KaliGman]

Gagimilo,

Please see the post I made under the thread in this forum started by Brock "Training Progression" for some answers regarding Albo Kali Silat training.

Thanks,

Jon

[Imua Kuntao]

LOL, sorry I'm late, welcome to the forum. Hope meet you soon one day.
Joel Morales

[KaliGman]

LOL, sorry I'm late, welcome to the forum. Hope meet you soon one day.
Joel Morales

Thank you for the welcome. I'll let you know when and if I get down "San An-tone" way again.