Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 03:01:46 -0700 From: eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: Eskrima digest, Vol 10 #218 - 2 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Subscribed-Address: fma@martialartsresource.com List-Id: Eskrima-FMA discussion forum, the premier FMA forum on the Internet. List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Help: Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: Send Eskrima mailing list submissions to eskrima@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Eskrima digest..." <<---- The Sudlud-Inayan Eskrima/Kali/Arnis/FMA mailing list ---->> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2003: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. 1600 members. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima/FMA list at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! Today's Topics: 1. sport sparring (John Titus) 2. Blast from the past (Ray Terry) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: "John Titus" To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:57:16 -0700 Subject: [Eskrima] sport sparring Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Can anyone give any information on upcoming US tournaments? I'd like to watch/participate. Thank You. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail --__--__-- Message: 2 From: Ray Terry To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net (Eskrima) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 20:14:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Eskrima] Blast from the past Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Knife Fighting Styles By David E. Steele from the Shooter's Survival Guide September 1981 Most fighting can be divided into two categories, based on intent: the desire for simple dominance, and the desire to kill. The first type includes most domestic or civil disputes, the adolescent "I'm bigger, so what I say goes" syndrome. These battles for dominance, coresponding to primate and other animal threat displays, are usually conducted with empty hand or nonlethal weapon (stick or tear gas) techniques. The second type of fight includes most military actions and violent criminal activity. This type of fight is normally conducted with firearms, though edged weapons are still used under special circumstances. The lethality of these weapons is tied directly to their capacity for penetrating the body cavity, causing death by organ damage or bleeding. Of course, there can be some crossover. Occsionallv a man is killed with fists, feet or stick. Likewise, many a criminal is held at bay by the sight of a firearm without its having to be used. A knife is one of the most versatile of weapons. When used agsinst an armed ememy it will normally be employed with a killing thrust, but it can also be used to cut or huttstroke an unarmed but dangerous opponent. For example, in the following account a knife is used effectively. but without lethal or legal complications. This particular incident occurred in Canada, where handguns are not available to the general public. "A friend and I were returning to our car after some Christmas shopping. In the parking garage two Indians approached us and asked for spare change. We simply said no. One pointed at my bulging front pocket and told me to empty it. I drew my Gerber Mk II from a special pocket in my parka. We were now at a stand-off. Unfortunately, my buddy decided to come out with a wisecrack to the effect that the only good Indian was a dead one, which provoked a resumption of hostility. "I gave my man a good hand cut, followed by a short jab at the face which connected. He headed off at the high port. My friend was amusing himself with #2 on the ground. I decided to contribute to #2's discomfort by buttstroking him to the head. "Our encounter lasted all of about thirty seconds. I was pretty sure we had relatively few competent witnesses. Never-the-less we decided to discreetly exit on foot and mingle with the shoppers for an hour or two. I have since learned that the cops never heard a peep about the incident." In general, stranger-stranger confrontations can he handled quite well in this manner, unless someone ends up dead or maimed, which will invarably bring out the detectives. However, notice that actual violence could have been avoided by using the right words rather than an ethnic insult. In a similar incident, which occurred in Los Angeles, a young man went into a liquor store to pick up a six-pack of beer. When he came out a Mexican, probably an illegal, approached him and asked for money. My friend turned away (his first mistake) and muttered something insulting under his breath (his second mistake). The Mexican stabbed him in the leg with a Buck folding hunter. My friend brained him with the sixpack and drew his Bali-Song butterfly knife. By this time the Mexican was running away, but my friend managed to slash his arm fairly deep. The cops came, took the report, gave my friend back his knife, and told him that the Mexican would probably head back across the border or hole up someplace till he bleed to death. Since he was not likely to seek formal medical treatment in this country catching him was unlikely. For this type of street fighting some of the best training would be saber fencing. This type of training emphasizes distance, timing. feints, and 'stop cuts' (the hand cut in particular). However, its main advantage is that training is widely available across the country. Oriental knife fighting styles are rarely taught outside Los Angeles or New York. Also, Oriental styles, since they were developed through centuries of warfare and vendetta, emphasize the killing thrust. Still these styles can be devastatingly effective, especially since they combine knife techniques with empty hand blows, low kicks, and joint locks/breaks. Perhaps the best known Oriental style is that developed in the Philippines. The original art was called Kali, meaning blade. Although there are still styles called by this name, most systems are referred to now as escrima or arnis de mano. Spanish terms used in different parts of the islands. Probably the best known escrima instructor in the United States is Danny lnosanto, who was also a friend and student of Bruce Lee. Danny runs a school called the Filipino Kali Academy in Torrance, CA (23018 S. Normandie). Most of his training is conducted with the stick particularly the boston (two-foot rattan stick), and the bolo or kris style blade, although a fair amount of time is devoted to the daga or short blade and to empty hand fighting. The student quickly realizes that quite a few moves, notably what would be called parries and beats in fencing, can be accomplished with the stick and long blade which would be impossible with the dagger. Although all schools of escrima and arnis teach stick, knife, and empty hand, some of them emphasize certain weapons and fighting distance more than others. For example, Leo Gaje, who is world cmmissipner for the National Arnis Association of the Philippines (NARAPHIL), stresses infighting with the dagger land empty hand. Those who have seen him teach at his school in New York City (556 Fifth Avenue) are always impressed by his power and speed. Leo was the only grandson of an arnis master named Conrado C. Tortal. This man and his four brothers taught Leo from the time he was six years old in the style they called Pikiti-Tirsia Leo's family owned 24 hectares of land as a homestead in the Negros Occidental area of Visayan Island. Arnis was used, along with conventional legal means, to protect the homestead from encroachments by the big landowners in the area. Fighting spirit is an essential quality for a propertied man in the rural Philippines. For example, one time after he had grown to manhood Leo accompanied a pair of trucks that were bringing the payroll from town to his workers. He stayed in the back of one of the trucks, concealed behind the cargo with a semi-automatic Remington 12-gauge. Suddenly, the lead truck pulled to a stop in front of some trees fallen across the road. Anticipating an ambush Leo stood up to look around. He spotted a man hiding in the darkness with a rifle. Leo fired several rounds from his shotgun, providing cover so the trucks could turn around toward town. Pikiti-Tirsia is an infighting system. It emphasizes closing with an enemy quickly, finishing him off before his friends have a chance to close in. The system presumes that you are fighting at least three opponents. The main techniques taught are: 1) Solo haston 2) Double baston 3) Espada y daga (sword and dagger, usually a bolo and balisong) 4) Daga or daga y daga(one or two knives) 5) Mano-mano (empty hand fighting, with blow, locks, and throws) Footwork is essential to the system. A reverse triangle serves as the pattern for evading an opponent's attack and concealing the direction of one's own counterattack. A right and left sidestep serve to take one out of line with an opponent's thrust; this may be combined with ducking and other evasive tactics. In Pikiti-Tirsia training begins with the short knife, partly because this is the weapon most likely to be encountered on the street. If the student can use and defend himself against the dagger he has little to fear from empty hard fighting. Knife thrusts are performed from the Sak-Sak (hammer grip, blade forward) or Pakal (icepick grip, blade downward) positions. Sak-Sak thrusts are directed from three angles: 1) strike upward between anus and groin, 2) backhand thrust to solar plexus toward heart, and 3) downward thrust above the heart toward solar plexus. Pakal thrusts also go through three angles: 1) downward toward the left side of the neck, 2) downward toward the right side of the neck, and 3) straight downward toward the crown of the head. Technique is practiced by a process called "knife tapping." Each man combines thrusts with defensive footwork, "third hand" (left hand) blows, disarms, low kicks, locks/breaks, and throws. The favorite targets for knife thrusts in Pikiti-Tirsia are the armpit, the nape of the neck, between the anus and groin, inside eye, above the breastbone into neck, and directly into the kidney. These blows are called "fatal," with the connotation of instant disablement. Pikiti-Tirsia is practiced fast and furious. The student is inundated with techniques, and he must learn these as he tries to keep up with his footwork This inundation is typical of Filipino styles, which deliberately confuse the student in order to open up his mind to new ideas (in effect, a kind of brainwashing). Japanese styles also try to open the student's mind but in the opposite manner, by giving him very few techniques which he must master down to the tiniest detail before going on to the next step. This sort of tedious attention to detail will weed out all but the most dedicated students. One man who preserves the Japanese arts in their traditional combat-oriented form is Donald Angier, who has a small dojo in Lynwood (11057 S. Atlantic), a suburb of-Los Angeles. His school is called Shidare Yanagi Ryu/Aiki Jiu Jitsu (Weeping Willow Style/Mind Blending Art of Gentleness). This art was developed on the island of Hokkaido by Kotaro Yoshida from an earlier art taught by Sokaku Takeda. Mr. Yoshida passed on his style to his son, Kenji, who passed it on to Mr. Angier. Master Angier teaches the empty hand art of aiki-jujutsu, which might be described as the northern style of classical jujutsu (the art of suppleness, also translated as gentleness). Almost all new students are required to study this art before they go on to weapons study. The main weapon arts taught are kenjutsu (sword art), naginatajutsu (halberd art) bojutsu (staff art), and tantojutsu (knife art). None of these weapons fit the concealable or modern category except the tanto (Japanese fighting knife). This art is almost never taught to anyone who has not spent seven years in empty hand and the other weapon arts. Don has studied the samurai arts since 1939, taking time out to fight in the Korean War (with extensive hand to hand combat experience) and to make a career as a Long Beach police detective. His pension from the police department and his current job with the film studios allow him to run his dojo without concern for making a profit. Therefore he is very selective, even elitist, when it comes to picking students. An aspiring student must take ten empty hand lessons, after which he may be told to leave if he does not measure up. In feudal times the tanto was used mainly by three classes of people: by samurai women, by officials of the court, and by brawling samurai or ronin ("wave man," a masterless samurai). Women carried the knife as their primary weapon to protect their honor, offensively or to commit jigai (neck cutting, the female version of seppuku). Court officials were forbidden to carry a sword within the castle walls, so they might have to use the tanto to defend against a midnight ninja. The ninja assassin, of course would be armed with a sword, since court edicts meant nothing to him. Finally, during the Tokugawa period (1600-1867) samurai were forbidden to engage in duels. Duels, of course were conducted with the katana (two-hand sword, the "soul of the samurai"). Therefore vendetta and brawls were often managed with the tanto (12-inch blade) or ko-wakizashi (18-inch blade). There are a number of hand positions In tantojutsu. The "guard" position hides the knife behind the right wrist/forearm with the pommel resting against the curled first finger. The left hand, of course, is held in an identical position, so that the opponent does not know if the artist is armed or which hand holds the weapon. Other hand positions include: thumb against the pommel, palm against the pommel with blade forward, hammer grip with blade forward, icepick grip with left hand against pommel, et al. The student is taught not to take a "death grip" on the handle, so that he can change hand positions quickly as tactically required. Tantojutsu is not a style for those who want to "fight next week." Mastering the subtleties of balance, footwork, and blade technique is usually a matter of years. Just finding an instructor who actually knows this very secret art and who is willing to teach it can be a matter of years. Once learned, however, tantojulsu strategies of attack and defense can add substantially to a knife fighter's skill. Incidentally, the hand positions in tantojutsu do not require that a knife have a guard. In fact, a guard can get in the way of certain hand positions as well as limiting the types of sheaths and carry positions from which the knife can be used. Don Angler removed the guard and shortened the handle on a standard Solingen dagger, making it appropriate for some of his demonstrations. Using this knife as a starting point I have been discussing with knifemakers Jody Samson and Bo Randall various designs that would be appropriate for a new tantojutsu style fighting knife. The knife fighting styles mentioned are not the only ones, but they are among the best. Used with skill and imagination the knife can counter most personal weapons (at contact distance). The techniques shown in the accompanying photographs do not illustrate conventional knife against knife style since on the street or on the battlefield (ancient or modern) the knife is often opposed by all sorts of weapons. One must "go with the flow" as Danny Inosanto says. --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Eskrima mailing list Eskrima@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima http://eskrima-fma.net Old digest issues available @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2003: Ray Terry, MartialArtsResource.com, Sudlud.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember 9-11! End of Eskrima Digest