Masirib Guro Joe Habis
Kali Circle Combat System

Pioneer of Kali and Pencak Silat in Lebanon since 1993, Guro Joe Habis is a master martial arts instructor with over 40 years’ experience at the highest level, and the creator of the Kali Circle Combat System.

A 7th degree master instructor in both Filipino Kali and Pencak Silat under Dakilang Guro Jeff Espinous, he is also a certified instructor in several other martial arts including Thai Boxing, Kickboxing, Boxe Française - Savate and Jiu Jitsu.

He’s the founder of the Dojo, School of Martial Arts, in Beirut, where legendary teachers such as Masanori Fukami, Royce Gracie, Felix Valencia, Fred Evrard, Joakim Engberg, Jean-Jacques Aoun and Jouhaïna Dib - to name a few - have taught and shared treasures of knowledge.

Founder of the Lebanese National Kali Committee, he was the first to introduce Kali and Silat into the Middle East. He hosted the first Kali Silat public seminar with Jeff Espinous in 1995 and for 24 years after that.
A pioneer of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Lebanon, and a founder member of the Lebanese Jiu-Jitsu Federation, he hosted Royce Gracie in 2012 and the Atos Jiu-Jitsu Team, the first to teach BJJ in Lebanon, whilst training with them himself for a number of years.

In this dedicated space, and throughout a lifetime of practice, Guro Joe has built up his own unique approach to combat. The Kali Circle is his personal vision of a highly effective reality-based combat system, tested and perfected over decades of training and teaching.

As a former philosophy teacher, he recently published a Kali Circle Combat Philosophy that emphasizes the ethics and concepts at the foundation of his art.
His system also includes a Kids' program, a Women's Self-Defence program, a Psychomotricity university curriculum and a Military and Law Enforcement Tactical program, that has been part of the Lebanese Special Forces training since 2010.

Over the years, his teachings have produced a vast number of highly skilled students and instructors, some gone onto become World champions, others achieving Master ranks and teaching worldwide. They all started with him at the Dojo.

Today the Kali Circle Combat System is part of the International Kali Arnis Eskrima Federation (IKAEF), and has certified instructors in over 10 countries, including France, England, Germany, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Switzerland, Dubai and Canada…

Ranks

Guro Joe Habis started martial arts with Judo at the age of 5. Since then he went and studied different martial arts, Japanese of origin, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Filipino, Chinese, Russian, French, American, Brazilian ...
Today he is ranked in about 12 different systems.