About the Event
Like many Filipinos, Ama Guro Jun DeLeon went overseas in search of a better life. Canada was the beneficiary of not only his hard work and diligence, but also of a particular skill set and cultural export that would make Jun DeLeon a person of some renown in the martial arts world.
Guro Jun, as he’s known affectionately by his friends, is a recognized expert and innovator in the Filipino Martial Arts (a.k.a. arnis, eskrima, kali) and the founder of Kali DeLeon Methodology Martial Arts (KDL). For the past 45 years, he’s built a reputation as an uncompromising and demanding educator who wants nothing less than excellence from students spanning five continents. He’s accomplished just that. Kali Deleon students are known for their skill and discipline.
Guro Jun’s task has been to, in his own words, “produce teachers that are better than I am.” He says that this is the best way to perpetuate the art and promote Filipino culture and history. Living in a foreign land, he wanted to make sure that the succeeding generation of Filipino-Canadians didn’t lose touch with their own culture and history. Ironically, for every Filipino who studied with him many more non-Filipinos also chose to join his martial arts family. It was disconcerting for many young Filipinos to join Guro Jun’s class and be instructed in Filipino language and history by obviously non-Filipino senior students. The passion and dedication created by KDL for Filipino culture can’t be underestimated.
Every year for almost the past two decades, Guro Jun has returned to the Philippines to teach his group of local students and promote the Filipino arts in the land of its birth. Filipino Martial Arts are respected world-wide both as a practical and brutally efficient fighting system and as an aesthetically beautiful artform. It is the edged weapons system of choice for military special forces all over the world. It is also fast becoming the fight choreographers preferred art form in Hollywood movies as can be seen in movies from The Bourne Identity series, to John Wick, to even The Avengers. Guro Jun himself has taught military special forces units from 4 different countries. As well, he and his students have choreographed the fight scenes in various television series like Relic Hunter to major Hollywood movies like 300.
On March 2nd, 2019, Guro Jun will be teaching a seminar in Metro Manila. This would be a good chance to see the Filipino Martial Arts expressed as both combat system and aesthetic artform. Please see the accompanying poster for details. For more about Ama Guro Jun DeLeon please check the following links: www.kalideleon.com and https://magazine.fighttimes.com/interview-with-a-true-filipino-master-guro-jun-de-leon/. His local Philippine based KDL groups can be found at https://www.facebook.com/islamandirigmakali/?eid=ARDe6Vux6l5aV08-uIAGvZgb3GgpXxhzJJK4WPhv_EzWVNaRl0bkOduLT0N9eUSC9v8q02VG7RGi2cUY and https://www.facebook.com/Kalis-Tres-Armas-Kali-De-Leon-Philippines-143844676462368/.