Secrets of the Filipino Martial Arts

Joined
Feb 9, 2006
Messages
2,192
How about a thread to discuss all the interesting and great things about the Filipino Martial Arts?

We all know hard work and perseverance are the real "secrets". Still, there are many other "secrets", you might even call them tips, stories, or advice. For example: special exercises, go to techniques, warm-ups, workouts, worthwhile equipment, injury prevention and healing, tips for training into later years, etc.

This has been a discussion I've been meaning to start for a while. Anyone have anything?
 
A bit of advice that always stuck with me. And needless to say well taken. :)

"If you see a Moro walking towards you wearing white and a turban, and he has his Barong resting on his right shoulder, don't walk to his left side or he will turn and cut off your head." -Angel Cabales-

Matador-
 
Last edited:
Among the various and sundry apocryphal and esoteric aspects of the FMA, one bit of practical advice that was passed on to me by both Guru Kimo Talaroc and GM Rene Latosa is that attitude is everything. Treat everyone with respect and make an effort to avoid trouble, but if trouble is unavoidable or if you are challenged in your school, treat it as an offense that cannot go unpunished and make up your mind to win ahead of time.

Kimo equated it to pride and holding oneself like a rooster or peacock. GM Rene calls it the "so what?" theory.
 
Here is a few general ones:
  • Work towards mastery of a skill, not just mastery of a drill.
  • Practice, so you are prepared and confident.
  • Eat right, so you are healthy inside and out.
  • Train for strength and endurance, so you can avoid injuries and set-backs.
  • Realize, there is always something left to learn.
 
IMO one of the biggest "secrets" of FMA is the footwork. Truly being able to use the angular footwork based on the various triangles is what sets apart a real escrimador from other martial artists and even novice stick fighters. Most fighters are very linear with their footwork when they attack and defend. They may be circling when they're at outside range but when they actually attack or defend they revert to straight forward and/or straight back.

In addition to footwork another "secret" is using rhythm in conjunction with timing or what Guro Crafty calls "hitting on the half beat." FMA footwork combined with timing based on rhythm makes for a very deceptive fighter.
 
I agree with MM....Footwork is key. And of course hours and hours of stroking. (light sticks to heavy to light again. ie, rattan-kamagong-pipes-kamagong-rattan, is a great drill to build up speed). (And yes I am chiming in as somewhat of a "lurker" but I figured I'm not being DB so it's okay :-D)

p.s. This might sound pretty obvious, but warm up those shoulders and wrists REAL well, then stretch them out AFTER training. Keep those shoulders loose and strong or they WILL go out on you after a few years of solid training. I've seen it over and over and over again.
 
p.s. This might sound pretty obvious, but warm up those shoulders and wrists REAL well, then stretch them out AFTER training. Keep those shoulders loose and strong or they WILL go out on you after a few years of solid training. I've seen it over and over and over again.
Oddly enough, the shoulder of my "live" arm recently went out while delivering a pass check. The shoulder of my weapon hand, having had much more exercise over the past fifteen years, is still going strong.
 
This may not be a secret but Ray Floro mentions that the older systems much more practical and easy to learn but now alot of systems are padded and much more complicated than they should be and in his opinion useless in a real confrontation
 
^^That's interesting because we were discussing this after training yesterday. Our conclusion was, and I think this is a not so secret secret of many martial arts including FMA, that unless you are trying the stuff out in fully resistive sparring against a variety of opponents you can't really "know" if something is fluff or solid technique.

Basically, another secret of FMA is that we spar. We test our techniques against fully resisting opponents. We're not the only ones that spar. Judo, bjj, boxing, fencing to a name few do it too. But many do not, to their detriment IMO.
 
To spar without the consequence of pain and fear of pain teaches bad habits.
Habits that with real weapons in real combat will get you dead quick.

IMO the secret to good PMA is that the old timers that learned the lessons from old school training and real life duels are still around or can be seen in video.
 
To spar without the consequence of pain and fear of pain teaches bad habits.
Habits that with real weapons in real combat will get you dead quick.

IMO that is too general a statement. There are many types of sparring that are beneficial for teaching various aspects of combat. IME, everything else being equal, somebody that has sparring experience will do better in a fight than somebody who has never sparred. There are things that you learn from sparring that can't be taught any other way.

OTOH, if all you do is light sparring without acknowledging devastating blows you are training bad habits. It's a balance; having enough realism that you're not training bad habits but not so much realism that everybody is too banged up to train.
 
I think that the biggest "secret" of the martial arts in general is that there are few real "secrets" unless you're in it for 20 years or so. Body dynamics is body dynamics and there are only so many ways a human can hit, kick, stab, bonk, etc. another person. Certain forms focus on certain things and other forms focus on other things, but there is a phenomenal amount of similarity between arts that share a common focus.
 
Yeah, secrets is kind of a misnomer. Maybe concepts is better. Either way, it's true, as Solomon wrote "there is nothing new under the sun." That said, each style has it's own emphasis and therefore develop concepts relative to that emphasis. So when some body starts to learn a new style these refined concepts seem like secrets.
 
Greetings all.
A "secret" that I've been working on lately is to make sure that anything you do with a stick (single or double) also works from a system point-of-view with a knife (single or double) and empty hand. If you take any drill (something meant for a stick) and bring it to knife or empty hand, does kali principles hold?

A guy that like like a lot as a teacher here in Chicago told me once "anything less than a three inch blade is still empty hand". That took me back and started me down this road.

happy holidays to all.
 
IMO one of the biggest "secrets" of FMA is the footwork. Truly being able to use the angular footwork based on the various triangles is what sets apart a real escrimador from other martial artists and even novice stick fighters. Most fighters are very linear with their footwork when they attack and defend. They may be circling when they're at outside range but when they actually attack or defend they revert to straight forward and/or straight back.

In addition to footwork another "secret" is using rhythm in conjunction with timing or what Guro Crafty calls "hitting on the half beat." FMA footwork combined with timing based on rhythm makes for a very deceptive fighter.

I don't think these qualities are unique to FMA -- they're shared by other worthwhile martial arts and systems. Wing Chun Kung Fu is one good example; Silat is another, if we're not using a definition of FMA that's already been bent and stretched to encompass it.
 
IMO one of the biggest "secrets" of FMA is the footwork. Truly being able to use the angular footwork based on the various triangles is what sets apart a real escrimador from other martial artists and even novice stick fighters. Most fighters are very linear with their footwork when they attack and defend. They may be circling when they're at outside range but when they actually attack or defend they revert to straight forward and/or straight back.

In addition to footwork another "secret" is using rhythm in conjunction with timing or what Guro Crafty calls "hitting on the half beat." FMA footwork combined with timing based on rhythm makes for a very deceptive fighter.

I don't think these qualities are unique to FMA -- they're shared by other worthwhile martial arts and systems. Wing Chun Kung Fu is one good example; Silat is another, if we're not using a definition of FMA that's already been bent and stretched to encompass it.

Agreed. I believe I addressed that to a certain extent in this follow up post:
Yeah, secrets is kind of a misnomer. Maybe concepts is better. Either way, it's true, as Solomon wrote "there is nothing new under the sun." That said, each style has it's own emphasis and therefore develop concepts relative to that emphasis. So when some body starts to learn a new style these refined concepts seem like secrets.

I don't mean to say that FMA has a monopoly on any concept particularly footwork and/or rhythm. But I do believe that there is a uniqueness to how footwork is taught in FMA and particularly that in many FMA styles there is a heavier emphasis on angular footwork and zoning to a "zero pressure area" from early on in the training.
 
While I spar and enjoy the benefit of doing it, I would just like to point out once again that Floro Villabrille never used a sparring partner. Nor does his successor Ben Largusa.

On the other hand, Villabrille did test himself in the challenge matches, killing somewhere between nine and twelve men and maiming a lot more.
 
Back
Top