Just goes to show that just because you're in the country of origin it doesn't mean you'll get better instruction. I have a friend whos lifelong dream was to go to Japan to train in his chosen style - Goju-Kai He saved up for years and eventually made the trip to the "Honbu" in Japan. He was gutted - the standard of instruction he received was well below that available here in the UK.
I don't know how true this is, but I once saw in a documentary (either Discovery Channel or National Geographic) that the primitive FMAs evolved from Kalaripayat. It was brought to the Visayas somehow, so the story goes. That is one explanation for the term Kali, supposedly, as the contracted version of the former. :love:
is moro-moro banned? by the way, you mean there's no Filipino you know that is working there? if you know a Filipino ask him if he knows a FMA or if not he knows somebody also in INdia who knows how to. ofcors you have to ensure that you don't burn him out to other people as he might not want to be known as practicing FMA. hope you find what you're looking for.
what part ng Pilipinas do you belong to? well, good bastonero does not go advertise arnis you know. arnis styles even mentioned in the different arnis site don't even form a fraction of the actual styles of arnis here. and those i saw showing arnis in the internet (i don't want to mention what style) are terrible. what sad words you say. but i don't blame you. i agree though. its in the culture or nature of some bastonero or arnista not to discriminately teach or provide info on the arnis they know. and they chose to be inaccessible. blame it to the those who have no loyalty to their teacher. which made these teachers regret they even taught those disloyal students.
um...it would seem that way in the urban areas. the surge of tkd here was in the late 80's to the mid 90's. then kickboxing took over, then bjj and combat submission wrestling. lechon manok and sagu type of craze. wouldn't make that same assertion in the countryside though. i think that arnis, escrima, kali and silat (and all the in between fma arts like mongoose, yaw yan, sarian, etc) fighters still outnumber the tkd and karate fighters. (should convince someone from the cencus office to conduct a survey)
Plus, those people "from the barrios" don't actually belong to "a school", but learning it by watching other people "compete" or competing themselves. My Dad, from whom I got my earliest instruction, learned his Escrima during the time in between the sowing and harvest seasons in Moncada, Tarlac. He is "undefeated", but only because he absolutely refused to go after those blokes who, he says, can kill a field mouse or bird with one stroke of a rattan stick (a skill they all tried to develop, to protect their crops, but meet with limited success). They compete for fun, but sometimes boys do quarrel. One of his friends had to go into hiding from the father of a boy he blinded during a fight. When outsiders go there to learn, they are taught what the locals think are the effective techniques, but not the actual ones that my Dad really feared.
the old way that the art was passed on was intra familial. only relatives (such as nephews, sons, gransons, etc.) could learn from the teacher (or guro). it was much later on (post w.w. two) that outsiders could learn from the teachings of a non-relation. could be myth, could be real. in this country, who knows? :Alien: :Alien:
before and now to add to earlier info about how you learn arnis during the pre and post war era, my father, his brother and cousin learned arnis just like how we learn it today, they learned it through an instructor who's way of living is teaching Arnis. During the pre-war the instructor is the one who will go to your place to teach the art. Just right after the wwII the set-up was changed, student now go to either the instructor place or a designated place (like rice field) to train. My family's Arnis style learned it from Guro Vicente Adel, from what my father remember his instructor is also from batangas, his one of the most respected Arnisador in the Batangas region. During wwII Vicente Adel teaches Arnis to the Guerilla Fighter (free) that camps in Mt.Makulot and the Sierra Madre Area for free. Anybody from this group recognise his name? He use to travel to Mindoro and some Visayan Island for Arnis training. The last time my father trained with him is on 1955 before moving to Manila.
There are still guros who teach the old way.... Muslims or tribal peoples for example won't teach openly.... with a few exceptions they only instruct members of their own clan... These instructors don't like to teach in public places and prefer to come to your home as shooto kali already said.... the reason being they don't like other peoples watching.....
more stuff in addition to what ive said earlier, my father telling me story that Arnis instructor during those days (30's to 50's) are not only limited in teaching stick (bolo) and knife fighting, they are also well verse in hand-2-hand combat and ground fighting.
guro wiley did say in his book that fma styles are meant to be complete systems. not just weapons. personally, the fma systems i've studied (and currently studying) have the complete package (stand up, ground + weapons). choose your system carefully and check what suits you! your life may one day depend on it!
Not so sure..... when I started learning Cinco Terros my guro told me he wouldn't teach me CT empty hands because there are no empty hands in this system (beside disarms).... The fact is some arnis systems didn't have formal empty hands and some peoples decided to add karate or ju-jitsu-tkd to their system..... If you look at some modern commercial schools their empty hands are more or less karate or ju-jitsu .... one group even added capoiera and brazilian ju-jitsu ... The other fma I study (silat) has everything: empty hands, weapon training including projectiles...
Arnis is a complete martial art. one day when we were practicing a friend of my teacher came by just for a visit then stayed to observe which made the visitor kind of curious with our style of arnis, they did a mostra (demo) the visitor using the tapado. the visitor attacks,teacher counters etc etc etc. the visitor even tried to do a deceptive trick with his attack which ended with sensei's baston in his face. teacher exclaimed "talo nga doble baston, isa pa!" (two sticks are no match how much more a single stick) the visitor asked my teacher "what then is the true arnis?" teacher answered "the one with no arnis" good day
you're right there. i guess that some systems aren't so "wholistic" in their approach to combat. some systems, however, are!
I'm guessing it's because it's one of the sports in the Southeast Asian Games (besides boxing) that Filipinos are pretty good at, and is thus promoted more, including the department of education and sports (including boxing and, unofficially, billiards). ...I can remember how fencing was once really popular in the Philippines because an actor (namely, Richard Gomez) got a silver Medal there. He got his ass kicked real bad in the gold match, though
