sure why not... lathi is basically means "Stick" and in India this art is basically used/practiced by villagers/wrestlers. lathi comes in 3-4 different size the maximum can go up to 14 feet, and minimum can be about 2-3 feet depending upon the person... when u start in lathi u start with smallest one in one hand and when u can use small lathi in both hand equally efficiently u start going in for bigger ones... most of indian styles consists of very good momentum power, in each n every strike of lathi u can easily see the momentum generated power(circular motion), the dodges/feints involves jumping/dodging in same fashion(as u hav seen in kalari, i guess u know then u must hav an idea about)... one thing about Lathi is that wrestler don't teach Lathi to just anyone either u should be practicing Wrestling seriously or u belong to high status family in that place... me and my freind both belongs to good n powerful families so we don't hav to go thru the usual routines... the same system goes into kalaripayat same sort of dodging/feints/power generation, the flexible sword is kind of sword which is about 10 feet long n it's used in circluar motions only... -TkdWarrior-
oh mike i couldn't see ur post cuz i was typing ...u r right with ur explanations...but Palm sticks are used in Marma Addi rather than in Lathi, that too in South India palm sticks r too popular, not here in North India -TkdWarrior-
Sounds a very different culture you have, anybody can learn anything over here. Apart from TKD where you have to be rich to get your dan grades What are your families like? Out of curiousity, if you don't mind me asking
>>Sounds a very different culture you have, anybody can learn anything over here. Apart from TKD where you have to be rich to get your dan grades << LoL... yup a different one... >>What are your families like? Out of curiousity, if you don't mind me asking << yea sure... well i belongs to Warrior Family(kshatriya caste)... so of course this makes us very powerful in where we live becuase of our umm bad habbits always talking with swords n guns we needed to learn Wrestling n some weapons due to this...but it stopped before my dad...(my grandfather was a wrestler n fighter) dad wasn't intrested but has the capability to KO anyone in one shot (he served in Indian Navy for 15 yrs too)... this status of ours gives us lots of freedom and jerkheaded to be Martial artists My Freind belongs to "Brahmin's family"/Priests... they too hold very good reputation in India, they can be equal or sometimes better than Khastiryas too, but even his family was involved in wrestling n teaching... In Ancient India Brahmins were teachers who used to teach every caste... be it Martial arts or anything else for that matters... Brahmin does mean "The Educated One" so as u can guess we both are in power state(almost)... now rules in our country is not much biased prefferently to us.. but we still get prefferential treatment due to our fathers/grandfathers. -TkdWarrior-
Yeah, Kshatriya means a warrior. In the epic Mahabharata, the five heroes called Pandavas were Kshatriyas Bhramin are ppl who teach Just to keep it on topic for Andy Arnis FMA sticks, lathi, danda, lakdi, sword etc etc |Cain|
Nice to finally hear about some Indian MA guys. I saw some Kalari Payatt years ago, and was staggered by the similarities with some of the earlier Shaolin Boxing I've come across Why you guys are chasing TKD with all that in your vicinity is beyond me???
>>Why you guys are chasing TKD with all that in your vicinity is beyond me???<< wat's this means??? mind explaining >>I saw some Kalari Payatt years ago, and was staggered by the similarities with some of the earlier Shaolin Boxing I've come across<< hmm i hav felt i seen some CLF and HsingI/XingYi in kalari too... starting from horse form, tiger, peaco(k, snake, and another animal i forgot about ... power generation based on XsingYi theories ...with all those compact n yet defined movements... -TkdWarrior-
And according to Herman Suwanda (RIP), it's incredibly popular in Indonesia as well. He said he thinks it's specifically because it's foreign which makes it seem exotic. Also, the parents look at the TKD, Karate, and Judo students all wearing nice uniforms, then looks at the Silat players wearing ratty sarongs. The parent thinks, "Well, I don't want my kid associating with those ragamuffins. I'm going to put my kid with the ones who look respectable." I think this is pretty universally true. Domestic things are boring. Foreign things are exotic and, therefore, must be more valuable. Mike
hi yoda and mike taekwondo is very very popular in the philippines but i think karate is the most popular martial art in the philippines.....well it was from the 80's to the mid 90's even when i go back on holidays karate schools every where... this year was the first yeAR i went to my wifes hometown of sorsogon me and my brother in law asked around to find a local blend of eskrima we could not find any but plenty of karate schools popped up some with highly respectable masters 6th and 7th dan >>Why you guys are chasing TKD with all that in your vicinity is beyond me???<< wat's this means??? mind explaining i think he meant this as a complement to the great Indian arts that we have yet to see in the west...he means you two should be practising those great arts instead of TKD...... thanks guys terry
oh well it's a tough question.. but here goes some reason 1. i didn't knew much about Indian arts(except wrestling)before joining TKD 2. my TKD teacher is Damn good one. 3. Indian arts are Rare in my parts(North India) and lots of politics involved even for indians to learn 4. thru TKD i was able to understand/achieve wat i wanted. i practiced Muai thai before that but it couldn't hav that kind of effect on me. TKD was like an Eye Opener for me. 5. Even then still i was learning another Indian art which is basically Advance to Kalari. -TkdWarrior-
How did I miss the rest of the posts? The reason TKD is popular is because there's VERY less awareness of the arts here, you could have a kali school just next door and not be aware of it, MOST not all classes are in backyards or abdodned parks. There's probably only one school well known everywhere - Indian Taekwondo ferderation That's about it And it's raining Mcdojos in here for eg - ============================== Master something's martial arts academy We teach aikido, judo, kickboxing, kung fu, muay thai ============================== Sort of like that you see, even the good schools have ads like that, and the practitioners are more than capable of whupping some serious a$$ but till now I hav'nt seen ANY ad promoting kali or wrestling, they are known only by word of mouth |Cain|
As well as Karate, Aikido, & Judo. There are many factors for this. One of them, as Pesilat mentioned, is colonial mentality (which is what Filipinos here are notorious for). Anything foreign is good, while those local are for people who belong to the lower class. Another is the general lack of qualified instructors. I read somewhere that if you wanted a good FMA teacher, go to Hawaii, California, or Toronto- not the Philippines... and this is true(sadly), and makes most of you people very lucky. This is mainly due to two things: One is the general lack of support from the public and the government (read above). Unlike in Brazil where the government helps capoeira mestres in spreading the art internationally, or in Japan where martial arts get support in its preservation, here, people just dont care. Another reason is that most of those who ARE qualified are in areas which are very much inaccessible to the general Filipino public; it's either they're living in some remote village, or they're living abroad (like the places mentioned earlier). As for me, I was taught arnis during highschool and college as part of the school's requirement (It's included in PE class), by people who teach it just because they were instructed to and not because they know something (even a bit) about the art. My highschool instructor would even bring his book on arnis in class and read it while he was "instructing" us. Wow.
