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Filipino Martial Arts
American Grit verses Muslim Fervor Print E-mail
Written by William Pehush   
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 16:17

In the Spanish American war the United States defeated Spain and acquired vast amounts of territory, and the conflict was soon referred to as “a splendid little war,” but for the U.S. army troops fighting Muslim fanatics in the Philippines things weren’t so splendid. The initial conflict only lasted four months, but as so many times before the mission was far from accomplished, and U.S. forces went from liberators to enemies quickly.  While the conflict had come to the end by the end by 1902, several groups held out and among them were the Moros who’d fought the Spanish for the last 300 years, and they weren’t about to back down in the face of the U.S. Army.  What would follow would be some of the most brutal fighting in the island nation’s history, but American forces would prevail thanks to their determination and weapons.

 
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Filipino Martial Arts Print E-mail
Written by Damian Ross   
Thursday, 05 March 2009 16:28
The three major branches of Filipino martial arts are Arnis typically from the northern Luzon regions, Eskrima from the central Visayas regions, and Kali from the southern Mindanao regions. Within these branches dwell a long line of masters, families, systems and history. Most Filipino systems will associate with one of these terms and their respective regions of the Philippines.

As a guerilla combat art it has proved to be extremely effective. The local warriors would make use of whatever they had around them to use against many invading cultures. Today is it widely practiced as a exploration into the history of the Filipino culture.

The use of the stick and the dagger is most common in all of the Filipino martial arts, but like all traditional martial arts it has gotten away from simple and effective to complicated and useless.

At its core, the indigenous martial arts of the Philippines are based on the bolo, a machete like weapon used for everything from farm work to fighting. Born from guerilla combat, Filipino martial arts are not a systemized form of combat.

Traditions and teachings are transferred from father to son, master to student. Teaching methods vary and documentation of these methods only occurred over the last 2 decades.

Most traditional martial arts fall victim to this same problem. Instructors begin to make things complicated in order to fill up time and keep students occupied. Take a look at the Japanese during the Edo period. With no one to fight, the samurai warriors began to over analyze, write poetry and arrange flowers. The same is true with the Filipino martial arts, from the basic techniques of what actually worked, today we have a complicated and confusing symbolic representation of what happened in the jungle.

For effective fighting technique and real self defense it does not need to be complicated, just simple and adaptable to the today's modern world.
Last Updated on Monday, 19 October 2009 17:18
 


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