Filipino Arts

Fighting Arts of the Philippines

Filipino martial arets have been known to exist since the fifthteenth century. At that time, the Philippines were inhabited by Chinese, East Indians, Indonesians, Moros, along with the indigenous tribes of the islands.  The Muslims from Indonesia incorporated the bladed weapons into their dances, who brought about the art of Arnis, or Filipino bladed arts.  The Indonesians also introduced the footwork and hard strikes from the fighting system of Pencak Silat into the fighting arts of the Philippines.  the Chinese introduced the soft or internal techniques into the developement of the Filipino martial arts.

The First exposure of the Filipino martial arts was in 1521, when Magellan tried to convert the island of Mactan into Christianity.  But Rajah Lapu-Lapu and the Muslim tribes of Mactan were opposed to foreign infulences into their religion of Mulsim.  Magellan thought his Spanish armour and Toledo steel would be more than a match for the indigenous fighters.  But history shows that Magellan was mistaken, as the Kuntawistas of Mactan killed him in a fierce hand to hand battle in which Magellan was killed by the bladed weapons and empty hand fighting systems of the fanatical Muslim fighters.

With the defeat of the Spanish in 1898, by the United States, the occupational forces were met with a revolution of the Moros and Mindanao.  At the time of the revolution, the American garrisons were constantly harassed by the Filipino Jurmentados or "Crazy Hermits".  The Jurmentados would wear a red headband symbolizing theor intent to fight until their own lifeblook from their bodies and go forth untilizing the art of Kali to slay those who were viewed as their oppressors. The Jurmentados, whose blind rage and utmost commitment made them rather unstoppable led to the development of the 45 Caliber pistol in 1911.

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The Empty Hands of the Filipino Martial Arts

To most people and martial artists, the Filipino Martial Arts purely concentrate on the use of sticks, knives and edge weapons.  To those who have some knowledge of the arts they know that it contains a large section of empty han fighting skills.  These empty hand skills are derived from the movements with the weapons and are taught within the framewrk of weapons techniques.  For instance, the footwork and arm positioning used in a snake disarm woulf also be used in delivering an uppercut or hook punch to the ribs.

Footwork

Footwork is one of the key things that bind all the various fighting areas together.  This is basically around a boxing format with the motable addition of the triangular footwork patterns.  As any eskrimador will tell you ther footwork is the primary means of evasion to an attack.  Male and Female footwork is based around 2 triangles placed on the floor in the shape on an X.  If you stand in the center point, the triangle growing away from you is the female triangle and the triangle going behind you is the male triangle.  If you keep one foot in the center and step out into a boxing stance to one of the points or backwards keeoing your lead foot in the center you will gain the basic footwork. If you add a large square around the X pattern you can then practice your steps and slide around the X then fo through the X ad make your own patterns up.  The shapes can either be made up from sticks placed pon the floor or you can use tape to mark the pattern out with on the floor.  I prefer the latter method because you can use different coloured tapes for the triangles and the square which makes it easier for you to pick them out if you only want to practice one particular form of footwork.  Another important piece of footwork id that of the arrow.  If you imagine a straight line attack towards you, suck as a right cross, os the shaft of an arrow you can step down either side of arrowhead to avoid the attack.

Empty Hands (Panatukan)

The empty hand skills taught are essentially a modified boxing format with one key difference, the fighting range.  In Western Boxing.

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