Philip Gelinas started his Martial Arts training in 1967 in a Japanese karate style called Chito Ryu. He was 14 years old. Although now he dosent remember the reasons why he started, they were strong enough that when he began he didn't want to stop.
Over the next 13 years he trained in Judo, Japanese Kempo, and Hawaiian Kajukenbo, earning black belt ranks Kempo (1973 ) and Kajukenbo (1975).
It was however in 1980, when his Kajukenbo instructor decided to stop teaching, that the door to a world of possibilities was opened to him by a casual comment that he made. "As we were talking, after he broke the news to us, he said watch out for the old men with the sticks. A prophetic comment if there ever was one." He of course immediately started looking for old men with sticks.
The following spring he answered an ad in Inside Kung Fu magazine offering information about the Arnis America Organization.
Attending a seminar in upstate New York, GM. Gelinas met Tuhon Leo Gaje and began training in Pekiti Tirsia Kali. At the same seminar he met Billy (now Tuhon) McGrath, Tom Bisio and most of the Pekiti Tirsia seniors from New York. A surprise guest was Penjak Silat instructor Eddy Jafri.
That summer he had his first full contact stick fighting experience. The padding sticks used in those days were almost the opposite of what is used today in the Dog Brothers MA. They wore heavy felt body armor, a heavy kendo type helmet, and no gloves other than whatever pads they could find. Strikes were not permitted below the waist and direct strikes to the hands were also not allowed.
GM. Gelinas entered his first stick fighting tournament at the United Nations school that year and tied for first place with two other competitors. The finals never happened because there were two choirs and two fashion shows that had to go on first and they ran out of time. Another highlite of the tournament for him was meeting Guro Inosanto there for the first time, as well as Eric Knaus.
For the next few years, he participated in various Pekiti Tirsia training camps as well as sponsoring seminars in Montreal with Tuhon Gaje and Tom Bisio.
He was promoted to Lakan Guro by Tom Bisio in 1984, and to Mata-as na Guro, by Tuhon Gaje in 1987.
In 1985 he was introduced to Muay Thai training by Tom Harinck of the Chakuriki school and received his first Muay Thai instructor's credential through that group.
In 1987 he began his most ambitious non-training martial arts project. he began to compile (what he hoped to be) an accurate family tree of the Kajukenbo system. He started with 135 names from a tree that was assembled in 1975. Half of them turned out to be inaccurate. Based on new information he has issued an updated version for the last 9 years. The latest edition has over 2000 names from all branches.
He went to Los Angeles in the summer of 1988. At that time he re-connected with Eric Knaus who had relocated there from NY , and began sparring with him at the Inosanto Academy using his version of full contact stick fighting.
Later that summer, at a Pekiti Tirsia camp in Nashville Tn., he had the pleasure of meeting Marc Denny for the first time. After this point he was invited to come out to Los Angeles to participate in a video shoot. This was the basis of what was to become the Dog Brothers first video series.
In 1992 ,on Guro Dan Inosanto's invitation, GM. Gelinas joined his instructor's program. He is presently an associate instructor in Jun Fan Gung Fu and Filipino Martial Arts and a level 3 instructor in Maphilindo Silat.
In 1992 he also passed his basic level in Muay Thai with Adjarn Chai Sirsute.
Not thinking that enough was enough in one person's training he started to practice Capoeira under Maestre Deraldo Ferriera of Boston Mass.. The method they practiced came from a blend of the Regional and Angola styles, but tended more towards the lower, less spectacularly acrobatic, but more finely controlled Angola type. Eventually a shoulder injury prevented him from continuing.
His desire to improve his grappling skills has been complicated by the fact that Montreal is just about the only major North American city that does not have a transplanted Brazilian Ju-Jitsu instructor.
He has maintained his particication in Kajukenbo and holds an advanced rank in the Emperado Method, as well as rank in the Chuan Fa branch under the Dacascos group.
GM. Gelinas is the KSDI director for Canada.
We have the honor of having GM. Gelinas moderate our "General History" forum.
