Just curious, who on this forum knows fma internal practices? Deep breathing can be found in Silat, Kuntao, Ngo Cho Kun (ancestor of Okinawan Karate, famous in the Philippines).... Old Arnis styles also use oracions, visualisation, hilot.... I usually do dynamic tension exercises associated with breathing, this takes a lot of time because the body has to be prepared before starting.... I also practice visualisation through arnis katas...
pardon my ignorance. ngo cho kun? this is the first time i've heard of it. is this the vietnamese kickboxing that i hear from the bakbakan guys?
I am not a Ngo Cho Kun practitioner (one of my training partners is)... From what I understand one of the grandmasters of the art came to the Philippines and introduced it there (actually he added some techniques, that's the filipino version).... it is very efficient and the tsinoy community picked it up.... Ngo Cho Kun is a southern chinese martial art, many of it's masters went to south east Asia, it can be found in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines.... Some peoples at Bakbakan practice it because of Alex Co.... The right places to learn it are: Beng Kiam athletic association, Kong Han athletic association... Some introduction may be usefull.......
Ngo Cho Kun is Five Ancestors Kung Fu, originally from Fukien (Hokkien) South East China. Otherwise known as Wu Shu Kwan, Wu Zu Quan (In Mandarin etc). Alex Co has done a video and book series for Unique on the Ngo Cho Kun system, which is very good. Most of their Breathing and Dynamic tension exercises are varying degrees of Sanchin, ranging from softer more Chi Gung/ Nei Gung style stuff, to extreme Dynamic Tension style practices.
after giving it much thought, i see kuntao as the only internal based art in the fma universe. i could be wrong.
I don't personally practice any internal stuff from the FMA that I do. I've done some internal stuff in the Silat and Kuntao Silat that I train but not specifically in the FMA. Unless you count the breathing exercises that GM Cacoy takes us through prior to seminars - but with his background in Aikido and Judo, I'm not sure if these exercises are Japanese or Filipino in origin. But I am aware of some internal aspects practiced in the FMA. Orascion, I would think, would be considered an internal aspect. And, not knowing a lot about it, I may be mistaken, but I think Hilot has internal aspects to it. Mike
I don't agree.... Silat and other less known martial arts from the south are internaly based. Besides there are two froms of Kuntao: one is like Silat, the other like hard Kung Fu. The Cinco Terros Arnis style (I guess there are other systems too) has also internal exercises... Then you have Orascion, Hilot, and so on...
oh yes. silat. i agree! the oracion (related to the use of the anting anting) and the prayers of the juramentado are also foci of mind and body for combat. the rhythm of the movement of the fma is also related to the rhythm of the breathing of the practitioner. it too is a foci of energy. kuntao is actually a form of kung fu that was adopted and adapted by the filipinos centuries ago. some consider it as part of the filipino heritage (thus making it fma).
Actually what I heard is that there are two forms of Kuntao... What they call soft and hard Kuntao.... The following is from discussions I had with fellow southern filipino martial artists and could be subjective... Hard Kuntao styles come from external chinese martial arts and were introduced in the Southern Philippines a long time ago by chinese traders... filipino muslims integrated them in their martial culture.... Soft Kuntao is actually silat.... peoples forgot the root of their Silat and called it Kuntao... it is sometimes called Kuntao Silat and also has some chinese influences....
. Ngo Cho Kun WAS popular in Manila because there were two dominant masters there and Ngo Cho Kun peoples won many challenges against other styles.... There is also a large Fukienese community there and Ngo Cho Kun comes from the Fukien province. Actually the trend now in cmas is Wushu and modern Tai Chi, but some peoples are still b keeping the flame alive.... As in Arnis and Silat the older styles are disapearing....
One of the Ngo Cho Kun teachers in the Philippines - Alex Co, passed away last year. He was teaching Beng Kiam style of Ngo Cho. Many of his students continue to teach it locally, among them is Prof. Bot Hokano of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Here is a video link to sifu Alex Co's forms The problem that you will have in discussing "internal" martial arts is that the word's meaning varies depending on... well, many things. Generally speaking, Indonesian internal martial arts will have nothing in common with Japanese internal martial arts. In China alone, when you talk about internal martial arts - there are numerous interpretations of the same thing. There is contemporary understanding, classical understanding and a host of "understandings" which are levels of each, and confusions which blend from both contemporary and classical. From what little I understand of the truth, is that very few people are left in the world who can still teach a classical understanding of the Chinese internal martial arts. The few who do, neither demonstrate nor teach publicly.
While I dislike the idea of particular Chinese systems being labeled "internal' due to the fact that so many CMAs have internal training I must say that as regards systems commonly referred to as internal these last two sentences from your post are an incorrect assumption. Of course I don't know exactly what you may mean by "classical understanding"- classical understanding to myself would simply be a practitioner who can utilize the function of their particular system during unrehearsed violence. Historically speaking,all the cosmological/philosophical/"spiritual"/lifestyle/etc emphases have been attached over years after systems were established.
