The Piper System Blog

I am a Piper guardian. My name is John Taino Morales, I am known as Kaya. My passion in life is African and African-derived combat methods. My introduction to an African combat method came in 1989. I did not recognize it as that at the time. My cousin came to live with my family after doing time in Elmira prison New York. He showed me how the people with “skills” were fighting in the prison. He called it 52. Its dance like rhythm and posture matched perfectly with our attitude and posture. We were poor Puerto Rican kids from the projects of New York. It was a perfect match for our Hip Hop/Caribbean culture.

As I got older and had more experience with street fights, I began to realize the value of 52 from a martial artist perspective. I began to search for 52 practitioners (for lack of a better word) and to get serious with my research of it. Through my research, I began to realize that 52 was one of the combat methods created by the African Diaspora in the Americas. Through that realization I began researching native African combat systems. I would and still do spend hours on the internet, digging for anyone and anything that would leave me a clue.

On the net I kept running into a South African knife fighting method called Piper. The rumor was that it was a prison fighting method that was very rhythmic. That intrigued me greatly because it sounded very similar to what I was studying with 52. The problem was that there was no one in the states who knew it. Through the Urban Shield website, I got the phone number of Nigel February, the man that systemized “Piper”.

At the time that I called Nigel, I was working a security contract in Afghanistan. I contacted him through an internet line and the connection was horrible. It was a struggle to communicate but we spoke for about an hour and a half. We spoke about ghetto life in NYC and Cape Town, politics, 52, Piper and Form style (South African empty hand method created in the reformatories). From that point on we would talk a couple of times a week for a few months. The similarities between Black and Colored life in Cape Town, and African-American and Afro-Caribbean culture in NYC was to similar for me to ignore. I had to feel Piper and their culture for myself.

Nigel welcomed me into his home and I brought my friend and business partner Nikko along for the adventure. When we first met we all laughed at how Nigel and his family could pass for Puerto Ricans and we could pass for Cape Town Coloreds. Where we were coming from and what we had been through as a people was so similar that we created an almost instantaneous family bond with Nigel and his family. For three and a half weeks we practiced day and night. While we were in the car we “shimmied” our blades. While we lay down to rest we practiced passing the blades from one hand to the other as if possessed.

Nigel was funny, articulate and passionate about Piper. He would show us new things as the wind blew through the day or he would hold class and the Piper family would come down. Different Master Guardians would take us for a couple hours or a few days at a time and show us there perspective. I remember Jason showing us Nguni stick fighting. We practiced with him and he showed us how some of the knife movements came from the stick movements.

The rhythm, deceptiveness and similarities of Piper, Form Style and 52 are so great that our learning curve was extremely fast. It was as if something was awoken inside of me that was always there. It was very familiar. I am a former Marine sniper; I currently am a high threat protection specialist. My business is combat. I learn whatever I can from the warriors around me. I can say this, I have never picked up (learned) any combat movements as fast as I did in Cape Town in my life. The energy was flowing such that Nigel told us he has never taught anyone at this accelerated pace. The master guardians and Nigel would teach us. The guardians would help us along and we sparred with them. So we could feel the contact we used rubber and wooden blades twice. The rest of the time we sparred with real blades at high speed. We would start slow, learning control. Then we would work our way up the speed ladder. Nigel’s reasoning was this. You want to feel the pain of wood hitting you so you learn to move, but you also need to feel the intent and fear of the live blade when someone has the capability to cut and stab you.

The culmination of our training came with what Nigel called the Piper trials. We had to perform a series of tasks displaying and testing our Piper skills. I won’t explain the trials in detail because you really must experience it, but I will say this about it. The trials aren’t just the showing of techniques and performance of them on an immobile or willing partner. We did movements while running, jumping, squatting, crawling and dodging obstacles. We did movements while men physically held you down. After all of that you sparred full speed with the guardians. Live blades coming centimeters from stabbing each other. The event ended with South African stick fighting. After all physical tasks were complete there was hugging and cheering and acceptance into the Piper family.

My knife skills were next to nothing before I went to Cape Town. I am by no means a master knife fighter. But I can tell you this. Since learning Piper I have met and practiced with several martial disciplines and knife fighters. I have sparred with guys who have been knife or stick fighting for years. They respect my game and are shocked that I have been doing it for such a short time. In the years to come it is going to be a blessing to see what Piper evolves into. I am blessed to have Piper be a part of me.

AXE

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Hi all

I wanted to put this up on the web site, which I will do, however I felt it was relevant to post as a blog. Japie Cilliers is one of our affiliates, an instructor in the Piper System (and many others) who knows has a rich history in the military, law enforcement and the martial arts. Even he has come under undeserved fire from elements in the local MA world. Japie is a great guy, as is his whole community of instructors and students. English is not Japie’s 1st language. Here’s Japie in his own words.

People may feel that because we are in Kimberley we are all country bumpkins. To begin dispelling that view, here is a short martial arts history of myself. First , I am not a sensei, shihan, guru, maha guru, fundi, or what ever, I am just Japie Cilliers, martial arts enthusiast. I have been doing martial arts for 51 years now, having started when I was 5 years old.

I have numerous ranks in different martial arts, all forming my own martial arts jigsaw.

• COMBAT KARATE - 7TH DAN
• TRADITIONAL OKINAWAN KARATE - 7TH DAN
• TOKUSHIMA BUDO INTERNATIONAL - 6TH DAN
• WAKO (KICKBOXING ) - 5TH DAN
• KODOKWAN JUJUTSU - 5TH DAN
• FILIPINO DOCE PARES - 4TH DEGREE

I am a certified and registered instructor in Goju Ryu karate (my instructor certificate was personally signed by Grandmaster Gogen Yamaguchi, 10th dan Hanshi).

I have the following teaching licences from the Tokushima Budo Council International - Renshi and Doshi.

I am a certified instructor of the Doce Pares International organization (certified by Grandmaster Dionisio Canete, 10th degree).

I am also a Piper instructor, having hosted Nigel and Lloyd on several occasions.

I am instructor registered in Kodokan Jujutsu, close quarter combat (SA).

I started studying Chinese Kuntao when I was 5 years old. When my instructor died his family moved back to Canada and Hawaii. He always told me to study as many arts as I can, and it must be a lifelong journey. I then started learning Judo from Sensei Norman Robinson. He used to travel to Kimberley on a Friday from Johannesburg, take classes on a Saturday and get back on the train to Johannesburg on Saturday night. I also started to train in Karate under James Roussouw sensei, who used to come from Bloemfontein to Kimberley every second Saturday morning. The biggest moment of my life came in 1962 when I graded to yellow belt in Karate. When James moved to Johannesburg I joined the JKA, later achieving my Shodan in front of the late great Enoeda Sensei.

I was then sent to the army at the Army Gymnasium at Heidelburg. At that stage it was an infantry junior leadership school. This changed my whole martial arts life, overnight. I first witnessed an unarmed vs knife demonstation by an ex Rhodesian named Captain Ben Mangels. This guy was out of this world, his knife system was like nothing I have ever seen. This sparked my interest in knife “fighting”, and then something happened which really changed my life - I was sent on a Hunter Group course for ten weeks.

Here I met a man who would change my whole way of thinking - Joe Grant-Grierson. He was the armed, unarmed and quick kill instructor and, like Ben Mangels, an ex Rhodesian. Joe had trained the Rhodesian SAS. We immediately found an ever-lasting friendship, which continues to this day. I still regard Joe as my mentor, teacher and Grandmaster. Joe is by far the best armed and unarmed instructor ever in South Africa, past and present.

The army then did me another great favour - they sent me to Mozambique to study Guerrilla Warfare with a guy by the name of Danny Roxo. An ex big game hunter turned terrorist hunter, he taught me the most valuable martial arts lessons of my life - survival. He taught me the value of a knife as a survival tool and not a weapon. I returned fom the army and continued my martial arts research, continuing my contact with my old instructors.

Later through my connections with Hawaii I managed to contact Dionisio Canette, this was about in 1979. Unfortunately South Africans were banned from the Philippines, so my instruction came via Super8 films, and by the periodic visits to Durban by a Filipino freighter. Usually I would get a letter long before hand, then I would catch the train to Durban. I would meet a Filipino who would show his method of training. I was fortunate, as I saw a lot of different systems. In 1989 I was set to go to the Philippines, but because of our policies of that time my visa was turned down although I was already an accepted Filipino student. It would only be in 1994, after election of the ANC government that I would have the opportunity to meet my Grandmaster.

This was a very tearful meeting. One thing that would stand out in my mind for ever is the double standard of teaching. Most foreigners would be taught one way, and the Filipinos another way. We were lucky we were taught the same way as the Filipino Instructors. I asked one of the seniors why we were taught different from the other foreigners, he then explained that unless you are accepted in the inner circle you would only be taught “El Tablio” - in other words for the table, show system. Only a handfull would be taught the “El Materdor” or fighting the bull, the real art. You must first prove yourself.

I was also very very fortunate again, in 1994 I spent a week on Badian Island in the Philippines with some of the greatest Filipino masters, who shared their knife techniques with me. Grandmasters Mamoy Canette,Tatang Illustrisimo, Itin Carin, Hortensio Navales, Richard Bustillo, Dong Cuesta, Siok Glariaga, Dionisio Canette.

I returned to South Africa and continued my research in the blade arts, even travelling to Kwazulu Natal, Swaziland, the Eastern Cape and Lesotho to study the different stick fighting methods of the various tribes (This was a very big eye opener).

Then on a fateful day a Sergeant Major of the Kimberley Regiment who was previously a warrant officer in the prison services in Cape Town told me of the gangs in Pollsmoor prison. He did a study on their methods and he mentioned their dangerous knife methods. It had no name, but he was aware of it. He then contacted old friends in the Prison services. I then heard of the names Nigel February and Lloyd De Jongh for the first time, and then the word ‘Piper’ started to appear - the name given to the collection of knife techniques used by inmates of Pollsmoor and the gangs of the Cape Flats by Nigel. But to get hold of them was a different matter. We battled for weeks,t hen a guy I know in Cape Town, Eric Peterman, who unknowingly mentioned that he was also a part of Piper, gave us a telephone number. It was actually at a Karate tournament that one of my students actually met them. He phoned me and a visit to Kimberley was arranged. Eventually the fateful day arrived. They arrived in Kimberley, they looked at us, we looked at them, both sides very sceptical of the other side. We started to share ideas, and when they left the Monday morning they were our blood brothers. We have since then, with the help of Kancho Joe Grant-Grierson, started to experiment with the Filipino systems, Piper and the Special Forces knife concepts.

Today I teach my brand of Filipino Espada y Daga, which is a bastardization of all the systems we learned. Somebody one day asked me if I was ever on the receiving end of a knife. Yes. I was stabbed 7 times. I was a member of the old South African Police Force, serving on the crime squad as a detective, and also later as a narcotics detective. I was stabbed 4 times with a knife and 3 times with a broken bottle. It was a very frightening experience, believe me.

What are the aims of my martial arts system?

To teach people the ability to survive - is my system better than other knife systems? N0, not at all. All the systems: PIPER, AMOK, GOLANI, KRAV MAGA, JKD UNLIMITED, RUSSIAN SYSTEMA, ESPADA Y DAGA of the other Filipino instrucors are all excellent knife systems.
I am aware of a few other systems in South Africa, but they prefer to keep a very low profile. What do I see for the future? To expand my system together with the Piper System and to return to the Philippines in 2008 for a 5 months stay. This has already been cleared by my Grandmaster in the Philippines, Dionisio Canette.

For any references to my martial arts background kindly contact Grandmaster Joe Grant–Grierson (Telephone +2711 485 3963).

Japie.

(My contact details: Mobile +2784 742 3904)

P.S.
I will also gladly give my instructors phone numbers to anyone who wishes it.

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