Hi all, The topic says it all, How good is FMA as an unarmed self defense system? I've heard that they teach you how to fight unarmed using the armed movements as a basis, but how good is it compared to other unarmed martial arts?
FMA is a great all round system - but if it's unarmed you're interested in you'd be better off looking elsewhere. FMA has unarmed methods just as, for example, some Karate systems have weapons or as Muay Thai has some throws - I wouldn't, however, go to a Muay Thai school with the objective of learning to throw - hope that makes sense.
Thanx for your response! Yeah I know what you're saying. The reason I'm asking is because I found a great source for learning and althought I wasn't looking for a martial art that involves weapons in 90% of the art I think I can't let the oportunity pass. My friend and I were looking for info on hapkido and came across a Filipino Kali dojo's address and phone number. We looked for the dojo and it was no longer in that address. We called and the GM told us that he no longer had the school, but he could give us some classes. He told us he would train us(my frined and I) personally Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays two hours a day on Filipino Kali... Should I take it?
Don't know if you'll know who he is because he is in Puerto Rico, but he told us he was a direct student of "Remy Presas" I just remember he's teacher's name because I wanted to look for more info on his background. I don't Remember his complete name, but I have it on a paper with his phone #.
Suggest you throw his name out here (if you want to). Anyone can call themselves a grandmaster and many who are "direct students" of grandmasters are guys who have trained once with them. Not saying he's not the real deal but it's better to be sure. Anyway if he's for real he shouldn't mind having his credentials checked
I would in no way try to argue or contradict Yoda since his MA experience is WAY beyond mine, but I see great potential in FMA weaponless techniques. I haven't studied Kali very long but what I have learned and what I have seen demonstrated by my instructor in regards to weaponless techniques is impressive. You might also find after you get started that you really enjoy working with the weapons too. Even if you are not interested in learning to use them you may appreciate learning how to defend against them. Just because you may never plan on walking around with a stick, bat, knife etc. doesn't mean that your attacker doesn't. If you have the chance to train with this guy, assuming he has the credentials he professes to have, then at least try it for a while and see what you think. Anyways, just my humble two cents worth.
I didn't even comment on the feasibility of unarmed FMA. much of what I've seen in the unarmed FMA works in a similiar way to Thai boxing. I don;t know if that's just my school or a generalised thing but I'd imagine it would work quite well. However most of the time it's better to learn from people who excell at what they do...not people who do something as an add- on. FMA excels in the weapons dept. I feel there are better things for unarmed self defance - however depending on the availability of MAs in your area you may be better with the FMA guy. If the choice was between FMA and TKD/Kung fu I'd pick FMA every time. Same goes for most karate/and trad ju jitsu. If the choice was between FMA and thai I'd pick the dedicated thai coach. If you got an MMA school close to you i'd check that out too.
hi. "FMA is a great all round system - but if it's unarmed you're interested in you'd be better off looking elsewhere." yoda he was asking about FMA and not just eskrima, there are plenty of systems of filipino martial arts pilipino silat has very good empty hands these systems can be found in basilan. ( if you ask KRYS HE HAS EXPERIENCE IN PILIPINO SILAT) but if you talking eskrima and arnis the empty hands are usually no existant or very basic. it is probably best to cross train. thanks Terry
The Filipino version of KunTao is pretty groovy. If you can find a class near you, it's well worth looking into, although represents a distinct Niche in Filipino Martial arts. I don't know if MoroMoro is talking about KunTao when he mentions Silat above? Sometimes the two terms are used interchangably.
aside from basilan, there are other places which have good unarmed FMA styles. But like all things, there comes in various flavors. Some are mediocre and some are quite good. I'm not going to declare which styles are good or bad in this department coz my exposure to FMA is somewhat limited to my style and observing some of the other styles. I guess if you want to do high kicks, you will have to go outside of FMA to train for this. Same with UFC style submission fighting. But overall, for plain street fistfights and weapon attacks, FMA is pretty good.
As far as I know there are very little empty hands techniques in TRADITIONAL arnis. First thing my Cinco Terros instructor told me is that he wasn't going to teach me Cinco Terros empty hands because there are no empty hands in this style and he didn't want to deceive me..... only baston, double baston, espada y daga. and Cinco Terros is a very old style that few peoples practice today.... Actually he takes his empty hands from other arts..... Many instructor of commercial styles just mix empty hands from other martial arts and claim is it original in order to get students..... Concerning filipino silat-kuntao, there is: #pure filipino silat. #kuntao: silat with some kung fu influence, sometimes called kuntao silat . #kuntao: kung fu with some silat influence, most famous is tausug Kuntao. These systems are not commercial, therefore very efficient.... the stances are very natural. different from malaysian and indonesian silat.... it is more on combat than dancing as there is really hard fighting going on in the places these styles come from....
You can also find good high kicking fma arts :Sikaran (not really my thing...).... Good fma wrestling arts: Dumog and Buno... Mabuhay ang FMAs!
Thanx for all the info guys! Basically I just wanted to know how good would I be against an attacker with me carrying no weapons. Guess I can be good enough with FMA training
YOU SURE CAN. but there is one statement which sums it up. ITS IN THE MAN NOT THE STYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! peace
if you want a good filipino striking art there is bakbakan and panantukan. if you want a fancy filipino art sikaran is you choice. Dumog and buno for groundwork. For a combat art totally geared towards street fighting, you have sari-an. yawyan is another great FMA that is similar to muay thai
