Top US female martial artists train at Doce Pares International

Fascinated by the Philippines' ingenious form of martial arts, two decorated American martial arts practitioners hooked up with Cebu's famed Doce Pares International in Brgy. Banilad for a two-week training under the guidance of eagle-eyed trainer Percival "Val" Pableo, himself a three-time world champion.

Graciela Casillas, described by the US-based magazine Inside Kung-Fu as the remaining crown jewel among female martial artists, and six-time world taekwando champion Linda Pulido are in town to advance their studies and further sharpen their skills in arnis.

The only female athlete to win world titles both in boxing and kickboxing, Graciela also took up jujitsu, jeet kune do, muay thai and hwarang do, but deep inside her dwells a flaming desire to find more challenges in her martial arts life.

"I need to always feel I am evolving, learning, experiencing. If you are not evolving as a human being and martial artist, you might as well die. There's always something more to learn. The only way to stay on top of my craft is to keep learning," Graciela told Inside Kung-Fu.

Her unflinching quest to scale greater heights has galvanized the road for Graciela to walk down the path of arnis, popularly known as eskrima in US and Europe. It did not take long for her to fall in love with the country's oldest form of combative sport.

"I took up arnis because I want to do something different. Arnis is a well-rounded form of martial arts. It gives the students more options. It is more dynamic, it is more fluid - it just flows. Anyone can do it specially for women because it's graceful," enthused Graciela.

A martial arts practitioner for the past three decades, Graciela spent the last eight years teaching and developing martial arts program at the college level in California specifically at Oxnard College, Ventura College and University of California.

Graciela, who stirred controversy for her appearance in Playboy magazine some years back, said she came here because she finds it inappropriate for her to teach arnis when she had never been to the Philippines and doesn't know the history of the Filipino people.

"My grandmaster in the US Alfredo Bandalan asked me how I could teach the Filipino martial arts when I'd never been to the Philippines. How I could truly appreciate the culture and history of the country and its arts without seeing how they train and experiencing the competition," said Graciela.

That motivated Graciela to plunge back into competitive action.

As a fighter, Graciela and Linda showed they can be at par and even superior when ranged against younger and quicker opposition. Testament to that, they won golds in the full-contact event of the 9th World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (WEKAF) Championships early this month at the Disney World Hotel in Orlando, Florida.

Despite they're already world champions, Graciela and Linda feel they still have a lot to learn about arnis, prompting them to travel a thousand miles just to train at Doce Pares International of WEKAF president emeritus Atty. Dionisio "Dionnie" Cañete.

"We came here primarily to train. As a teacher, I have to learn it so I can teach it properly. I also want to learn more strategies and become better fighter. We're very fortunate to have this opportunity to train at Doce Pares because they're the best. We're very excited to be here," Graciela said.

As for Linda Pulido, she stated: "I also want to be a better fighter. Ive' learned so much at Doce Pares and hopefully it stays on. I want to perfect the art and teach it to my students when I go back (to the US)."