A typical training session in Kuntaw Kali Kruzada covers single stick and double stick techniques, moving on to unarmed defense against boxing, kickboxing and grappling followed by defense against a knife attack. We do have pre-patterned drills in our curriculum, but our goal is to enable our students to break out of the set patterns and feeds. Training reflexively in un-patterned freestyle drills where the feeder can start out slowly and work their way up to full speed attacks from random angles. This can be practiced with single stick, double stick, stick and dagger, empty hand, knife against empty hand, knife to knife and in multiple attack scenarios both armed and unarmed.

Our goal is to keep the training in our system as close to what might happen in a real altercation, incorporating unexpected angles of attack from all sides. Simulating both the speed and aggression of a real attack. This is a very difficult method of training that our students have to steadily work their skill level up to, but we believe that the more mistakes our students make in the training hall, the fewer mistakes they will make outside where it really counts. The Kuntaw Kali Kruzada curriculum has been designed to provide beginners and advanced practitioners alike with a complete set of armed and unarmed self-defense skills.

Many students that have studied with us have had to use what they have learned to defend themselves and others. Our students have successfully defended themselves in knife attacks, bar fights, mugging attempts and mass attacks. One of our Black Belts survived an altercation involving 20-plus armed assailants against himself and eight of his cousins in the Philippines unscathed. In another incident one of our new students prevented a woman from being raped by five assailants in the subway on the way home to Brooklyn, using a single rattan stick.

Aside from its focus on effective combat techniques and principles, Kuntaw Kali Kruzada is also a traditional system of Filipino martial arts that places great importance on moral and ethical development, with equal emphasis on imparting knowledge of Philippine culture and traditions. We are a system that prides itself in our connection to the Philippines, staying true to our cultural roots by propagating the FMA as they are taught in the Philippines.