Emptyhands eating challenging a Pinoy who's eating with his hands could even be more dangerous. If the Pinoy was eating the usual stuff Pinoys eat when doing "emptyhands eating"...egad! Do you have any idea what his hands would smell like? Here's a possible emptyhands eating menu: 1. Itlog na maalat with kamatis (salted red eggs with tomatoes) 2. Bagoong (fermented fish or anchovies, either the red or mud-colored kind) 3. Pickled/fermented talangka (small stinky crabs) 4. Fermented aligue (Crab roe) 5. Daing or tuyo (various types of sun-dried, salted fish) 6. Kare-kare (Oxtail with peanut stew, matched with bagoong) 7. Adobo (Soy sauce, garlic and vinegar stew) 8. Any of the following internal fluids/organs: chicken gizzard, chicken intestines, squares of clotted chicken blood, all served in skewers 9. The fermented pork the Northern highland tribes eat. They put fresh, raw pork inside a bamboo container and bury the thing for several days. Then they come back for it when it's all black and worm-and-beetle infested. They "clean" it up then bon appetit! Plus any of these dishes could be served with strong smelling vinegar/bagoong/calamansi/chili pepper/garlic/fish sauce/soy sauce dip...the same did that gets into your fingers when eating emptyhands. I won't mess with any Pinoy who's "emptyhands eating." Hey, get away from me! Don't touch me! Wash your hands first!
That's why the best Pinoy to challenge would be one who's eating siopao (bola-bola or asado) because, since the "mystery meat" is inside of the bun, his checking-hand won't dirty your fave shirt in corto-range juego todo
You were just kidding?!? Heck, my cutlery hangs on my wall...in the forms of huge, wooden spoons & forks!
filipinos should all embrace and be proud of our "emptyhands eating" techniques. from experience, i never knew who've previously used those table utensils. god knows what they did and how they've used it. :cry: :cry: :cry: at least with my hands, I know where they've been and how they've been used.
Interesting thread. One thing i'm wondering is whether some unarmed training is taught while learning the weapons? Also how long is it until unarmed combat is properly introduced? I ask because your probably not gonna have a stick handy in a fight, and although you get to know how a weapon works, which should make it easier to deal with if confronted by a nutter with one, i wouldn't want to wait x amount of years before i trained my natural weapons (arms, legs, knees, elbows), the very weapons that i would likely use first in a fight.
Whilst learning the weapons you are in fact also learning the empty hands without realising it, if you drop your weapon learning another way to do something e.g. techniques specific to empty hands will not only make it harder to learn but will also confuse matters. How long before your shown the empty hand transition from the weapons skills, well that all depends on 2 things, 1. The instructor and how he/she teaches and 2. how quickley you can grasp the basic principals and concepts of FMA. I generally show most of my students the empty hand transition as soon as they look like the have got what I am trying to show them weapons wise, that night and sometimes this makes it easier for them (especially people who have an empty hand base) to uderstand the whole FMA thing. Best regards Pat
As Pat said, depends a lot on the teacher. I'm a big advocate of doing specific empty-hand training. I agree with what Pat says about a lot of the conceptual stuff carrying over from weapon to empty hand. But targeted empty hand practice is still required (as Pat was also saying by describing how he teaches the empty hand application of a concept after a student has grasped the weapon application). I doubt I'd been studying arnis for a year before we started to learn some empty hand applications. But that'll vary. When I teach, I introduce empty hand earlier still. I consider it my focus these days. Your point about not wanting to wait x number of years to learn to use your natural weapons is well taken. At the same time, it could be said of virtually any aspect of martial arts training. I don't want to wait x number of years to learn 1) weapon defenses, 2) defense against multiple opponents, etc. Ideally, the whole body of knowledge could be conveyed immediately. But in reality, that's impossible. We're stuck with a much longer methodology. The thing I like about FMA's methodology, though, is that it's reductionist. You're going from more to less complex. By the time you get down to empty hand, you've worked through the more complex areas of manipulating a stick, two sticks, a stick and dagger, two daggers, one dagger, etc. I prefer that to the gradual increase in complexity seen in some other teaching methods. Stuart
Good replies. This actually makes a lot of sense. I do see why some styles start beginners with the basics and ease them in, but if the complex parts of the style are trained and understood first, everything else should then seem easier and more natural to grasp.
And the good news is, more and more people are discovering this fact as more and more people take up FMA, in the UK for instance it is fast becomming more and more mainstream and more styles have recognised that the FMA has a whole lot more to offer than just stick fighting. More Power to the FMA I say Best regards Pat
Hi all, Not sure if this has been covered but the history that I knew and what my Guro has taught me was that the reason for the use of sticks is because when the Spanish colonized Luzon (northern region) they banned most edged weapons. Only farming tools were allowed, these obviously became a weapon. But in anycase, the use of stick was the replacement for the edged weapons. And the defined ranges played a significant part into combat. Long swords/sticks were used for long range attacks during fights. As they got closer the weapon changed or shortened to the standard escrima sticks. Serrada sticks were different due to their lenght and because of the dense vegetation in the region. And the next range was the use of the knief and eventually to the real close hand to hand. Thus why Kali is so different than Karate or TKD's training method. Both start with the hand to hand then move out of range to the use of weapons. As most of you already know the training method for Kali is weapons first then progresses to hand to hand.
When I tell people I did TKD, they say of thats that kicking stuff. I say okay hit me. They do and I fall down in pain. and They what that stuff. I say its that kicking stuff.
@Homer J, Owen, Pat I have been training Kali for a few months now and I would say that I did my first empty hand work within the first month of training. This may seem very early, but I actually think it worked well. My Kru starts everyone with double stick patterns, and from there focuses on footwork and timing. Depending on who else is in a class, you will work at range or in close, with sticks or hands. This works well because, as everyone has said, FMA are angle based, not move based. The stick is the knife is the hand, and so doing the odd hand to hand class helps to fill in the space between the three ranges. I know that after working a hand class my stick work is better- I look for breaks in timing, entry points... not just a different way to work at range.
I believe the reason why is that TKD is so commercialized now a days, but I have heard of a combative version of TKD which not only deals with high kicks.
