Canada: Philip "Sled Dog" Gelinas

Philip "Sled Dog" Gelinas: Teacher
Guro
4506 St. Catherine St. West
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3Z1S1
phone# 514-935-7055
Email: kenbocan@dsuper.net

Biography

I started my Martial Arts training in 1967 in a Japanese karate style called Chito Ryu. I was 14 years old. I don’t remember the reasons why I started but they were strong enough that when I began I didn’t want to stop.

Over the next 13 years my training was steady if uneventful. I trained in Judo, Japanese Kempo, and Hawaiian Kajukenbo, earning black belt ranks Kempo (1973 ) and Kajukenbo (1975). I was somewhat successful in touch karate tournaments and accumulated a bunch of trophies that I had to dump a few years ago.

It was however in 1980, when my Kajukenbo instructor decided to stop teaching, that the door to a world of possibilities was opened to me 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. I of course immediately started looking for old men with sticks.

The following spring I answered an ad in Inside Kung Fu magazine offering information about the Arnis America Organization. Without going into a long winded explanation I managed to get to a seminar in upstate New York and meet Tuhon Leo Gaje beginning my training in Pekiti Tirsia Kali. A that same seminar I met Billy (now Tuhon) McGrath, Tom Bisio and most of the Pekiti Tirsia seniors from New York. This may not mean much to people from California but Montreal was not the crossroads of the martial arts world in the early 1980’s and we had to go to things because things did not come to us. The seminar lasted from six o’clock Friday evening to when we could hardly move on Sunday evening. A surprise guest was Penjak Silat instructor Eddy Jafri.

That summer I had my first full contact stick fighting experience. The padding used in those days was almost the opposite of what is used today in the Dog Brothers MA. We wore heavy felt body armor, a heavy kendo type helmet, and no gloves other than whatever pads we could find. Strikes were not permitted below the waist and direct strikes to the hands were also not allowed. Boy have things changed.

I entered my 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 we ran out of time. The real story is actually much funnier than I make it seem, ask someone else who was there. I also met Guro Inosanto there for the first time, as well as Eric Knaus.

For the next few years, I participated in various Pekiti Tirsia training camps as well as sponsoring seminars in Montreal with Tuhon Gaje and Tom Bisio.

I was promoted to Lakan Guro by Tom Bisio in 1984, and to Mata-as na Guro, by Tuhon Gaje in 1987.

I was introduced to Muay Thai training in 1985 by Tom Harinck of the Chakuriki school and received my first Muay Thai instructor’s credential through that group.

In 1987 I began my most ambitious non-training martial arts project. I began to compile (what I hoped to be) an accurate family tree of the Kajukenbo system. When I started I had 135 names from a tree that was assembled in 1975. Half of them turned out to be inaccurate. Based on new information I have issued an updated version for the last 9 years. The latest edition has over 2000 names from all branches.

I went to Los Angeles in the summer of 1988. At that time I 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. One of the unique aspects of these sessions with Eric was witnessing his unflinching resolve to try out his “stuff” against any non-bladed impact weapons available, including hardwood nunchakus, three sectional staffs, and oak bokken. A have a home video of him at the academy breaking some shields that had been sent there for inspection. In those early fights we used some heavy steel masks that Eric had made, based on the fencing mask design, but using stainless steel mesh.

Later that summer, at a Pekiti Tirsia camp in Nashville Tn., I had the pleasure of meeting Marc Denny for the first time. After this point I 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, I joined his instructor’s program. I am presently an associate instructor in Jun Fan Gung Fu and Filipino Martial Arts and a level 3 instructor in Maphilindo Silat.

1992 was also the year that I passed my basic level in Muay Thai with Adjarn Chai Sirsute.

Not thinking that enough was enough in one person’s training I started to practice Capoeira under Maestre Deraldo Ferriera of Boston Mass.. It was a lot of fun and I practiced for a couple of years. The method we 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 me from continuing.

My desire to improve my 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. I will have to confront those problems as they arise at the gatherings I plan to attend in the future. I try to follow some of the Shoot curriculum from the Inosanto Academy but it is rough without regular guidance.

I have maintained my particication in Kajukenbo and hold an advanced rank in the Emperado Method, as well as rank in the Chuan Fa branch under the Dacascos group.

In November 1996 I moved into my present school in downtown Montreal. I try to pass on the things I have picked up along the way.

Recently I was lured by friends to begin training in Cimande Silat under Guru Besar Willem de Thouars.

The roller coaster continues.