Anything can be a weapon
One of the reasons I love Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) is the adaptability and the resourcefulness of the art throughout history. Kali teaches concepts that can be applied to our everyday lives, concepts that transcend time. For example, once you learn the basic striking angles, you can apply these angles to any weapon. The stick, the sword, your fist 👊🏽, an umbrella, trash can lids — anything can be a weapon.
(Yup that's me experimenting on Bob with Kali angles of attack but using trash can lids instead of sticks 👆🏽🤣)
Kali teaches us to look at our environment with new eyes. The chair 🪑 you’re sitting on at the bar, or the coins in your pocket, or that scarf 🧣 around your neck — are examples of improvised weapons. These everyday items might not be obvious to the untrained eye, but in FMA, they can be life-saving tools and just as effective in different ways.
In fact, there are an infinite number of things and ways those things could help you get out of a situation alive. What about that pen in your bag? Super dangerous if aimed at someone’s eye, right? (Personally, I carry a tactical flashlight 🔦, you can check out my short video about it here. I teach how to use this tool in both my UMA and CKC classes.)
What if we decided to view self defense as a very practical and embodied form of creativity? Or creativity-in-action? Kali is about being resourceful. It’s about looking at the abundance or potential around you. It’s seeing the world around you as being for you not against you. It’s shifting from seeing your shitty situation as hopeless, to seeing it as an opportunity to cultivate new skills, rise to a challenge, or uncover the inner resourcefulness that you didn’t think you had.
When you can see that anything around you can be used as a weapon — you are no longer a victim. With this slight shift of perspective, you have a chance of surviving. You see options. You have choices. You have power.
We can take this concept from Kali and apply it to beyond the practice of martial arts. Because when you can see a standard pen or a trash can lid as life-saving tools, then you're practicing seeing ordinary things as more than what the world has labeled them. And this creativity of perspective, in my experience, can change the way you look at everything.