Filipino Martial Arts impressions
Inspired by a recent post on the blog of Dean... I've decided to post some of the knowledge I've picked up in the few years I've been trying to study Arnis...

One thing I noticed is how similar the development was to the stereotypical "Kung Fu Western". There wasn't a set system, per se... just different fighting styles or techniques. More often than not, the philosophy was to have a tight set of basic manuevers that your practiced over and over again.

Then the neighboring rival (or enemy) village or region would be on the receiving end of this technique and develop a counter-technique. The techniques (and skill with them) would then escalate. Techniques were guarded closely, for reasons similar to the "Kung Fu Gunslingers"... constant challenges.

Interestingly, teaching the Filipino Martial Arts made you a target. Teachers were hesitant to allow students to teach other students because any dude walking by with a technique or skill could challenge them to prove their technique's viability.

Sikaran is our version of a kicking martial art. Someone I knew from Arnis actually competed in some Saudi Sikaran tournaments. It's pretty vicious... closest art would be Tae-Kwon-Do, but Sikaran has some great close-fighting kicks. There was allegedly a kick that Tae-Kwon-Do adopted from Sikaran, but I've never seen it. I wouldn't be able to vouch for the lineage even if I did. Sikaran has a cool advantage though - some of its kicks look very different from kicks from other styles and they can throw off your opponent for a while. My friend did that when sparring against a TKD man.

As for Arnis / Escrima / Kali - it tends to borrow and adopt things between schools. Modern Arnis (the style I currently study) originated with the late Grandmaster Remy Presas. But, his parent style was the Balintawak Style. Comparing the two, the Balintawak style is superior in one-on-one toe-to-toe fighting. It's a duelling style. Modern Arnis assumes more than one opponent and so has footwork that supports that philosophy. There's another style that never retreats. There's another style that is for fighting in the jungle and therefore allows for strikes from around tree trunks and through branches and allows for using trees and plants as cover or shields.

Arnis follows a different philosophy from the Japanese arts. In most Japanese arts, you start barehanded and only use weapons when you've become advanced. In Arnis / Escrima / Kali, training begins with weapons - only when you're advanced do you learn the mano-mano (barehanded) applications of the art.

We currently do drills called Sinawali - allowing us to get used to the increasingly complex interwoven movements of two sticks and the footwork and distancing necessary. We drill at largo, medio, and corto ranges. We also practice the basic strikes and blocks (force-to-force and with-the-force variations), use the abanico for both blocks and strikes...

Feh - enough for now.