Back in Ibiza for the third time!

Pekiti Tirsia sun & fun at the beach

Third time's a charm, also true for Pekiti Tirsia in Ibiza

In September 2008 Pekiti Tirsia returned for the third time to the party capital of the world, Ibiza. This time the managing director of Pekiti Tirsia Europe, Maginoo Mandala Uli Weidle, announced a family training camp. The camp was a great opportunity for participants to bring their partners and children for a holiday in the beautiful Balearic Islands while getting some intense Pekiti Tirsia training. From the 7th to the 13th of September, the Pekiti Tirsia families gathered at Club Cala Pada for a week of sun, fun and good Kali memories at the beach.

A get-together of friends and family

Mandala Weidle called for a meeting of the families, and they came along with a smile on their faces. Roughly fifty people came to the training camp, many of them with their spouses and children.
We were pleased to welcome a large number of attendees who were involved in the early days of Pekiti Tirsia Europe. Some people had been away for a long time, so tied up in business and family that others thought they were lost. But they came and showed that true friendship can't be broken by time or distance.

As they say, no one is an island. We're not designed to live alone. "Ultimately, it's all about friends and family. That's what we're protecting, what we're working for, what we're fighting for – it's all about family." Mandala Weidle kicked off the Pekiti Tirsia family camp with some inspiring words, explaining the reasoning and deeper meaning behind it. He went on, "It's all about family, that's why we're here. We train as friends, close like brothers and sisters, helping and supporting each other so that we can excel to the best we can be. We're like a family and we're here to bring the family, so that we can all experience and enjoy this extensive energy."

Bringing together the Pekiti Tirsia families and letting them enjoy the Mediterranean summer together while sharing the training experience with their friends and family created a fantastic atmosphere. While the Pekiti Tirsia friends were getting stuck into the intensive training, their spouses had the chance to get to know each other and become friends too. Other family members took the chance to join the training, with children playing together while their parents trained in Pekiti Tirsia.

The Cala Pada club offers a great setting for a family-type training experience, with a wide range of family and sports-oriented services and a delicious food buffet. At the Pekiti Tirsia family camp, the bond between Pekiti Tirsia warriors grew into a bond between the whole Pekiti Tirsia family.

The training schedule

Training was scheduled with 6 hours of intense Pekiti Tirsia training every day. Between training sessions was ample opportunity for everybody to spend quality time with family, relax at the beach, meet friends, use the many recreational activities in the club or intensify the training with small group or personal training with Mandala Weidle or one of the many instructors.

Pekiti Tirsia: superior effectiveness and beauty in action

Every morning before sunrise, the group gathered at Cala Pada beach to start the day with some Pekiti Tirsia training. This followed the triple-E Training progression, which is designed to develop intuition, spontaneity and awareness. The exercises emphasise refined foot and body positioning, 360-degree awareness of energy flow and special breathing.

In one of his lectures, Mandala Weidle explained the triple-E progression. "The main thing any beginner martial artist wants to know is how to be effective. He wants to know: Does it get the job done? Once you've got the basics down, you start to think about how you can work more efficiently. How can I make it work better? The martial artist who goes all the way to achieve this will find the importance of elegance. How can I make it feel good? How does it become natural? These stages of development, "EEE" as in effective – efficient – elegant, are the keys to one of the less common understood mysteries of Martial Arts: superior effectiveness is an expression of beauty. This may very well serve as a definition of Pekiti Tirsia at the highest level.

The morning sunrise was the perfect backdrop for our training session! The sandy beach, clean air and waves of the seashore provided the ideal booster for our exercises. There was an incredible, special energy in the air! While doing the exercises, we were able to connect deeply with our inner selves and feel our surroundings on a level that can only be described as spiritual – it was incredible! For many of our group, that was a truly incredible experience that we hadn't had in Pekiti Tirsia before. In the final testimonials, an eight-year veteran of Pekiti Tirsia shared that he was able to take his skills to a whole new level. These sunrise sessions offered a unique and amazing insight into the hidden gems of the Pekiti Tirsia system.

One for all, all for one

The afternoon training was very functional and practical, the way we all know and appreciate the training with Mandala Uli Weidle. But this time with an extra twist: From the third day forth we split according to skill level and personal interest into three distinct training groups. Each training group working on different topics. Utilization of sophisticated angulation, basic and advanced footwork, unusual body weapons, pre-fight situational control, tactics for empty hand versus knife, powerful blow by blow drills, infight and ranging strategies is only a few of the many topics that were covered. In the different groups those topics were trained from beginner to advanced level.

How Mandala Uli managed to satisfy the needs of the three groups simultaneously remains a mystery. Whenever we needed him he was there to explain techniques, correct mistakes, answer questions and deepen our knowledge on Kali-related subjects.

That way everyone was able to gain a deeper understanding and to improve his personal level of skill in the Pekiti Tirsia combat methods.

With a little help of my friends

With the last day of training the time of examination had come. In the morning we all met at the beach, where every participant showed what they had learned in the past few days. Without exaggeration it can be said that everyone did great. Many were nervous before this final test, but with so many members of the Pekiti Tirsia family around and the vigorous energy flowing between them, they were able to excel and showed really awesome performances.

I shall return

Those days in Ibiza will long be remembered and we are all looking forward to the most awaited training camp in Italy next year and many others to come.

Acknowledgement:

Authors: Dominik Mayer, Thomas Müller
Photos: Alessandro Crizman, Bernd Altenhöfer

An honorary mention is given to Ulf Homan from Pekiti Tirsia Paderborn group for successfully arranging the logistics of the event.