# Is your FMA "flavored" by another martial art?



## geezer (Nov 19, 2011)

Some FMA practitioners are very concerned about "the purity" of their arts, others are equally proud that their arts spring from diverse roots. Some of these arts are ancient hybrids of Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese and native Filipino arts, while others show more recent influences from Japanese-Okinawan sources, Chinese arts, and Western boxing. For example the arts of the Presas brothers appear to show a heavy influence from Karate and Jiu-Jutsu, Latosa Escrima, Torres DTE, and others have a lot of boxing, Dog Bros. "Kali-Tudo" has a lot of grappling derived from BJJ as well as native Filipino sources. And, it seems that often these eclectic or "blended" FMAs are as successful as a good Filipino "adobo". 

So my question is this, "Is your FMA  blended or do you see it as something "pure"? And if it is a blend, what other martial arts influenced your _personal expression_ of the FMA you practice?"


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## billc (Nov 20, 2011)

I am currently practicing Dekiti Tirsia Sirada kali, and my instructor also does Indonesian Silat, wing chun and boxing, but he tries to keep them seperated.  The boxing tends to show up in the Kali because of the Panantukan in the art.  There are times where he will show the differences in the arts when we are practicing one or the other. I think if you train in multiple arts it is difficult for them not to influence the other arts at least a little.  That isn't to say that you can't keep the arts separated in techniques but you can't help but notice similarities and differences and comment on them as you train.


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## Blindside (Nov 20, 2011)

Hi Bill,

Does Dekiti "punch" as part of its mano y mano curriculum?  In Pekiti a big emphasis is made on open hand slaps, hacks etc along with the usual elbows, but none at all on boxing style punching.  I usually hear of "panantukan" from the Inosanto systems, but never before in reference to a Tortal family system, so I am curious if there is a philosophical difference between the lineages with regard to punching.  Thanks!


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## billc (Nov 20, 2011)

So far, for Dekiti, the empty hand is slapping, edges of the hand, bottoms of the fists,  elbows and forearms.  The boxing is more for the FMA in general more so than for Dekiti in particular, at least so far.


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## geezer (Nov 27, 2011)

I'm not sure exactly how I would answer the question I posed in the OP myself. I've been exposed to a little bit of several styles of FMA but have really only pursued two for any time, Latosa PMAS and more recently Torres DTE. My other art is Ving Tsun. Although I keep the FMA separate from the Ving Tsun, they do influence or flavor each other, especially at the conceptual level. Mostly, Ving Tsun's emphasis on simplicity and directness color my Eskrima. Similarly my Eskrima has added some dimensions to the Ving Tsun.  I suspect that someone else with the same FMA experience but who studied Karate, Kenpo, JuJitsu, or another art other than Ving Tsun would move and fight very differently.


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## MJS (Nov 27, 2011)

We have some ground stuff in our curriculum, though some BJJ material has been added in.  This is material that is not part of the current IMAF Inc. material, yet, so currently its just taught at seminars/camps, just to spice things up a bit.  Of course, we still try to keep the FMA flavor to it.   There are also kicks and punches that could appear to be Karateish.  

If anything, I'd say that the FMA that I do, flavors my Kenpo.


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## Blindside (Nov 27, 2011)

Well, my kenpo flavors the pangamot of my Pekiti, but most of that blend has gone the other way with the Pekiti flavoring my kenpo.  I really wound up opening up some circles and adjusting some angles (particularly on blocking) to reconcile the movement patterns.  The most obvious is the footwork emphasis, I had the footwork already but the highly mobile approach of PTK really emphasized it more.  The last main change is a part of the teaching methodology where I categorize approach to a technique by the descriptions of "are you ahead or behind on time," since then I have heard other kenpo instructors use similar references but I learned it first in Pekiti.    

In terms of the core art, I have heard GT Gaje talking about him going to learn dumog, and it wasn't part of the family art so clearly his Pekiti got flavored by that.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Nov 28, 2011)

Good Filipino Martial Arts are always evolving and growing.  If they are not doing this then it is time to look elsewhere!  It goes against the core of what they should be!  Growing, improving, etc.  Not just the practitioner but also the system!  All of the instructors that I have had were always trying to improve their craft.  Not just their skill sets but also their systems!


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## Mark Lynn (Dec 16, 2011)

Blindside said:


> Well, my kenpo flavors the pangamot of my Pekiti, but most of that blend has gone the other way with the Pekiti flavoring my kenpo.  I really wound up opening up some circles and adjusting some angles (particularly on blocking) to reconcile the movement patterns.  The most obvious is the footwork emphasis, I had the footwork already but the highly mobile approach of PTK really emphasized it more.  The last main change is a part of the teaching methodology where I categorize approach to a technique by the descriptions of "are you ahead or behind on time," since then I have heard other kenpo instructors use similar references but I learned it first in Pekiti.
> 
> In terms of the core art, I have heard GT Gaje talking about him going to learn dumog, and it wasn't part of the family art so clearly his Pekiti got flavored by that.



I do Modern Anris/Kombatan Arnis and American TKD/ Karate, I'd say my Modern Anris has flavored my karate/TKD training and teaching more than the karate flavoring it.

Although the years of doing the long stances moving up and down the floor has helped me move in and out of range doing the stick work and empty hand.  Oh and the anyos.  But the applications of anyo techniques greatly influenced my teaching on applications on my TKD forms.  As well as what I teach as empty vs. weapon defense in my TKD curriculm.


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