Filipino styles

[klonk]

Rays stuff is awesome but what's a double kill?

Where you both "stab" each other in a vital area at the same time during free sparring.

Western fencing has that problem as well.

[Pipefighter,PhD]

Here's some lovely knife stuff from Alvin...even though

Smooth, but not very impressive foot work.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KoHWDUwBoUs
Those guys are both ex mil, current LE. Real world exp. very slow demo on purpose

[Teazer]

I have tens of hours of tatang with tony and Edgar

There doesn't appear to be a "drooling + green with envy" emoticon.

[dspyrido]

Rays stuff is awesome but what's a double kill?

Where you both "stab" each other in a vital area at the same time during free sparring.

Western fencing has that problem as well.

So does boxing, karate or any striking art. As can two people who both go for a throw. Plus you can both leg lock on the ground and a load of other moves. All it says is that both sides really want to win and not waste too much time in the process trying to get a dominant position. This can be reread as real life or in sports "I'm gonna end this fast" where you are not patiently waiting for a gap or trying to lull someone into a sense of confidence or trying to grind them down. Just hit and GTFOOT.

[wayne hansen]

Ray floro has a background in western fencing

[I-mon]

Thanks for the videos guys, I'm starting to watch them now. Just got back from a roadtrip.

[I-mon]

Tatang Illustrisimo

Great stuff, thanks Allan!

[AllanF]

Wayne:

Very jealous of you getting to train with Tatang, must have been a great experience.

I-mon

No worries mate, glad you liked it.

[wayne hansen]

No I didn't train with tatang though I did train with several of his student

[I-mon]

Here's some lovely knife stuff from Alvin...even though it's Indonesian.

Beautiful stuff. Interesting how similar it is to Maul's Silat Suffian Bela Diri stuff. I love that they're not afraid of getting up and down off the ground a lot. Another of my favourite Silat guys is Bobbe Edmunds.

[Andy_S]

I did PMA a decade ago with an Inosanto student. Very good drills and (unlike many MA, where if you stop training, you tend to lose it) they are so well structured that they stay with you, and you can use them with empty hands, knives and sticks. To put it another way: The striking patterns are such that they allow you to pick up pretty well anything and use it as a weapon.

At her request, I have been teaching my 15-year-old daughter some MA recently and PMA is much easier to teach (and more fun to do) than CMA. Also, the joy of the PMA is that it is all about application and combat - very different to most CMA weapons, which tend to be merely solo forms.

I think the heavy emphasis in PMA on the short stick is a good idea to teach a basic template of armed movement. However, the stick itself is, IMHO and IME, a poor weapon, which is why I am a bit surprised that so many people get so attached to it to the point where it becomes the main focus of their training.

I should add that my thinking on this has changed over the years - but to each, his own.

[PlumDragon]

Sorry for the late entrance to this thread, but its rare I see an FMA thread on this forum, so please forgive, I had to post!

In the below videos is my teacher Sir Bob Tabimina. I train with him and his sons yearly in the Philippines and occasionally Ive had the honor of Sir bob staying with me here in the US, where I act as his Central US Chapter head. Enjoy the vids:

[chud]

I think the heavy emphasis in PMA on the short stick is a good idea to teach a basic template of armed movement. However, the stick itself is, IMHO and IME, a poor weapon, which is why I am a bit surprised that so many people get so attached to it to the point where it becomes the main focus of their training.

You said what I have been thinking for some time.
I admire PMA's for their effectiveness, but have never understood why some people get so attached to the sticks since they seem the least practical part of the training.
Knife training makes total sense to me, and empty-hand training is something we all need, but focusing heavily on sticks seems to be the least practical aspect of PMA's (one reason I've never had any interest in the Dog Brothers gatherings that everyone gets so excited about).

[PlumDragon]

Chud,

I cant speak for most other FMA, but for the system I teach and train (Tabimina System from the above videos): The stick is meant to train the empty hand--there is a direct translation. While difficult to describe in text, its pretty easy to demonstrate multiple reasons how working body mechanics, reaction, etc with the stick promotes empty hand and knife proficiency that would otherwise be very difficult without a stick. That is to say, for us at least, that the stick is more of a tool than a weapon. We feel that reactionary response and timing is the most important factor, which is why most of us spend as much time playing urban combat games with various types of guns and empty hand as we do swinging a stick...It all boils down to reaction and timing, regardless of system or weapon...

[I-mon]

Thanks PlumDragon, Balintawak is one of the styles I'm learning at the moment and I like it a lot. The close range stuff is very cool, and the emphasis on the near third of the stick (rather than the far third as in the other style I'm learning) is very interesting, makes it all more "punchy" and a bit less "slicey".

After only a few months of training (the other style I'm learning is some sort of "Kali Illustrisimo" from the Bakbakan group) it's pretty clear to me that the double-stick sinawali ("weaving") training is really just hand and body movement training in disguise. It's bloody brilliant I tells ya!