Club Information

Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, England

Tuesday 7.00pm-8.00pm Westmoor Community Centre, Benton Lane, Westmoor

Mobile:

07834 465 817

Members
Employed £3.50
UB/Student £2.50

Non-members
Employed £4.00
UB/Student £3.00

MEMBERSHIP

(includes insurance)

Adults £25.00 p.a.

Children £15.00 p.a.

FILIPINO MARTIAL ARTS

What do they cover?
The arts cover every area of combat, but are best known for its weapons basis. Most martial arts are known for a select area of expertise - Wing Chun is known for close range attacks: Thai-Boxing/TKD are known for their kicks: Karate is known for its discipline and power: Silat is known for its ground level fighting - so the FMA are best known for the use of weapons.

What areas can I train in?

You can choose to train in all areas after the initial beginners course (see (Adults) or(Children)). The FMA's cover weapons (single and double) and empty hands (Filipino Kickboxing: Trapping: Grappling). Depending on the path you choose to follow you can learn forms, take part in tournaments, or train specifically for street defence.

Why Weapons?

The Phillipines is an agricultural based economy, and so the carrying of weapons (i.e. tools for harvesting etc) is commonplace. Secondly, the Filipino's believe that you only use your empty hands for fighting if you have nothing available to hit the attacker with!

The weapons are taught from day one partly because the use of weapons promotes improved distancing, timing, body mechanics for power generation and reaction speed for the same length of time spent training without weapons, and partly because the increased use of weapons on the street means that dealing with weapons in a classroom helps diminish the freeze response we all experience when faced with the unfamiliar.
I don't carry weapons!

Good! But more and more often the less desirable elements in society are doing just that with the aim of stealing or simply hurting those they view as victims. As the use of bladed weapons becomes more prevalent, so effective defence against their use becomes more important.

The body has a number of natural weapons of its own: The knees and elbows are effective striking units, as indeed is the head, none of which need conditioning when used correctly!

Mano-Mano

The empty hand section of Eskrima relates closely to the weapons art. Most of the drills performed with weapons translate directly to empty hands applications. There are three areas of empty hand work:

1) Panuntukan (Pangamut): this is known as Filipino (or dirty) boxing. Within this art headbutting, arm wrenching, the knees and elbows are used along with both the closed fist and the open hand. The use of the elbow for destruction of the opponents weapons (either fist or leg) replaces the knife which would be held in the hand. Strikes which are considered unfair or 'dirty' in Western Boxing, ie kidney shots,rabbit punches etc, are held to be reasonable in Panuntukan. A recognisable technique is the Gununting, or scissor motion. This involves striking a target, such as the biceps, whilst parrying the incoming strike. Trapping is an integral part of this section. The close range, or Corto range, is the most dangerous as there is the least time to react to an assault. The trapping art is often taught using knives to give an added incentive to get the technique right!!

2) Pananjakman (Sikaran): this is the kicking art within Eskrima. It uses ballistic stomps and low line strikes to distract and disable the opponent whilst giving them less time to register, and therefore react to, an attack.
Pananjakman is also considered a separate art and is sometimes called Sikaran. There are many games played around this art, all of which are aimed at improving the students balance, timing and accuracy. Students will recognise some of the kicks as the South East Asian continent has very similar terrain and so the resulting arts tend to display similar attributes. As an example, some systems of Eskrima and Silat (an Indonesian martial art) have the practitioner drop to the ground the moment combat begins. In our concrete floored cities this may appear foolhardy, however when the nature of the ground in the areas where such systems develop, a strategy for dealing with muddy, and therefore slippery, land makes a lot of sense.

3) Dumog (Buno): this is the grappling art within Eskrima. Dumog has only attacking manoeuvres, no defensive ones. Most of the dumog techniques are based around a standing fight, based on the idea that going to the ground when being attacked by more than one person is not a good strategy. Techniques involve taking the opponent off balance so as to leave them in a poor position to counter the follow-up (a headbutt, punch, kick, throw).

Locking is taught as a continuation of a strike, so the student learns to hit the opponent before attempting to lock or control them. Foot traps are used to limit the opponents movement, as well as creating an opportunity to damage the foot/leg at the same time as strikingto the face or head.

Flow drills are taught so that when the occasion permits the student can apply the appropriate lock, and also know when to leave a lock which has failed and go for a strike, throw, choke or strangle.

FULL-CONTACT FIGHTING
for both sport and street

Dionisio (Diony) Canete, of Doce Pares, helped develop a sport from Eskrima, by the use of armour. Quite primitive at first, the armour has developed to ensure that the participants are protected from all but the most powerful and accurate of strikes. The World Championships are held, usually in Cebu City, Philippines, and consist of various weight and age categories to allow better spread of competitors and to create a more balanced tournament.

Rules have been developed such as no thrusts, punches to strikes to unprotected areas, in order to improve the safety and to decrease the likelihood of serious injury. Some groups (the Dog Brothers in America and the Black Eagle Society here in Britain) have foregone the use of armour to a large extent, fighting full contact with only gloves and helmets (often only fencing helmets at that!) and allowing kicks, punches and grappling to take place. The stated aim of such 'No Rules' contests is to test both the competitor and their art within as close to a real combat situation as is safely possible.

Jimi McAvoy

Blind Princess Escrima

One of our main systems is based on Latosa-Serrada. Bill
Lowery has trained in the system for over five years
under the tutelage of Jimi McAvoy, who trained
under Jay Dobrin. Jay was one of the first three
people to train in Escrima when it was introduced
into the UK by Rene Latosa, along with Bill Newman
and Brian Jones.

Other Eskrima Systems

We are proud to be associated with the Doce Pares
Eskrima system, founded in 1932, in Cebu City,
Phillipines.

Mano-Mano The empty hand section of Eskrima relates closely to the weapons art. Most of the drills performed with weapons translate directly to empty hands applications. There are three areas of empty hand work:
	1) Panuntukan (Pangamut): this is known as Filipino (or dirty) boxing. Within this art headbutting, arm wrenching, the knees and elbows are used along with both the closed fist and the open hand. The use of the elbow for destruction of the opponents weapons (either fist or leg) replaces the knife which would be held in the hand. Strikes which are considered unfair or 'dirty' in Western Boxing, ie kidney shots,rabbit punches etc, are held to be reasonable in Panuntukan. A recognisable technique is the Gununting, or scissor motion. This involves striking a target, such as the biceps, whilst parrying the incoming strike. Trapping is an integral part of this section. The close range, or Corto range, is the most dangerous as there is the least time to react to an assault. The trapping art is often taught using knives to give an added incentive to get the technique right!!
	2) Pananjakman (Sikaran): this is the kicking art within Eskrima. It uses ballistic stomps and low line strikes to distract and disable the opponent whilst giving them less time to register, and therefore react to, an attack. Pananjakman is also considered a separate art and is sometimes called Sikaran. There are many games played around this art, all of which are aimed at improving the students balance, timing and accuracy. Students will recognise some of the kicks as the South East Asian continent has very similar terrain and so the resulting arts tend to display similar attributes. As an example, some systems of Eskrima and Silat (an Indonesian martial art) have the practitioner drop to the ground the moment combat begins. In our concrete floored cities this may appear foolhardy, however when the nature of the ground in the areas where such systems develop, a strategy for dealing with muddy, and therefore slippery, land makes a lot of sense.
	3) Dumog (Buno): this is the grappling art within Eskrima. Dumog has only attacking manoeuvres, no defensive ones. Most of the dumog techniques are based around a standing fight, based on the idea that going to the ground when being attacked by more than one person is not a good strategy. Techniques involve taking the opponent off balance so as to leave them in a poor position to counter the follow-up (a headbutt, punch, kick, throw). Locking is taught as a continuation of a strike, so the student learns to hit the opponent before attempting to lock or control them. Foot traps are used to limit the opponents movement, as well as creating an opportunity to damage the foot/leg at the same time as strikingto the face or head. Flow drills are taught so that when the occasion permits the student can apply the appropriate lock, and also know when to leave a lock which has failed and go for a strike, throw, choke or strangle.
FULL-CONTACT FIGHTING for both sport and street
	Dionisio (Diony) Canete, of Doce Pares, helped develop a sport from Eskrima, by the use of armour. Quite primitive at first, the armour has developed to ensure that the participants are protected from all but the most powerful and accurate of strikes. The World Championships are held, usually in Cebu City, Philippines, and consist of various weight and age categories to allow better spread of competitors and to create a more balanced tournament. Rules have been developed such as no thrusts, punches to strikes to unprotected areas, in order to improve the safety and to decrease the likelihood of serious injury. Some groups (the Dog Brothers in America and the Black Eagle Society here in Britain) have foregone the use of armour to a large extent, fighting full contact with only gloves and helmets (often only fencing helmets at that!) and allowing kicks, punches and grappling to take place. The stated aim of such 'No Rules' contests is to test both the competitor and their art within as close to a real combat situation as is safely possible.

Jimi McAvoy
	Blind Princess Escrima
	One of our main systems is based on Latosa-Serrada. Bill Lowery has trained in the system for over five years under the tutelage of Jimi McAvoy, who trained under Jay Dobrin. Jay was one of the first three people to train in Escrima when it was introduced into the UK by Rene Latosa, along with Bill Newman and Brian Jones.

	Other Eskrima Systems
	We are proud to be associated with the Doce Pares Eskrima system, founded in 1932, in Cebu City, Phillipines.