Another New Martial Way to Truth . . .

[zepedawingchun]

Last night in class, a student of mine asked me if I had ever heard of the martial art (or philosophy) called Keysi. A friend of his (who teaches karate locally) heard there is someone in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, teaching this method. His friend said it looks like they do some form of trapping in it and wondered if we had ever heard of it.

I told my student no, cause I don't know of it. He claims it was what was used in the movie 'Batman Begins' a couple of years ago. Anyway, my student found and sent me a link to what Keysi is all about. Seems like the founder is a spanish Bruce Lee, dis-satisfied with TMA and came up with his own, better idea of how to prepare for combat. Looks like he's using several philosophies and theories from Wing Chun/JKD and such. The founder even claims to have studied with Guru Dan Inosanto. Here's a link:

http://www.***************/martialarts/keysi.html

Also, there is an organization or something like it called KFM or Keysi Fighting Method, which you can do seminars or pay to become an instructor in the KFM.

http://www.keysikfm.com/

So, anyone heard of this?

 

[naneek]

i couldnt get the first link to work but the second one was interesting, thanks for posting.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi,

Yeah, I know of Keysi Fighting Method (KFM). According to their claims, it was developed from "Spanish Gypsy street fighting" in the 1950's, so it is not "blinded by old and primitive traditions". However, it only really came to light when Chris Nolan was looking for a "new" method of combat for Batman in his film. So although they claim Bruce Wayne studied Ninjutsu, the Keysi guys provided the choreography.

Keysi uses a lot of elbows, and some very odd twisting of the spine in close. Essentially, it looks to me to be just another movie system, designed to look good on film, but with little else to recommend it. The founders of the system area couple of stunt guys/martial artists named Justo Dieguez Serrano and Andy Norman. According to early reports, it was developed purely for the Batman movies, there have then been the later "histories" come out. They have also been spreading the system over the last few years, with a degree of success.

 

[Tez3]

We came across them about five years ago when one of the British Keysi clubs brought across a 'champion' MMA fighter from Spain to be matched on one of our shows. From what we saw of them, and we didn't see any of their MA, they seemed nice guys, sadly though their fighter was well beaten and actually had to go to hospitall with a broken cheekbone, two black eyes and split lip. All I can judge is their MMA as done by this one fighter and it wasn't very good. I would question however whosever judgement it was to send him over to fight professional rules, semi or am might have been better. I didn't realise until now though that the style originated in Spain, it would explain the Spanish fighter lol though I didn't take much notice of his nationality at the time.

 

[Nolerama]

I thought it was something made up by two Hollywood stunt men, and then they started teaching it, riding on Batman's cape.

 

[jarrod]

based on the bit i looked at, it could work so long as your opponent stays in very close range & never backs up, circles, clinches, or otherwise breaks choreography.

jf

 

[J Ellis]

I heard it was only used in choreographing the second Batman film by Nolan, Dark Knight. Bale's fighting style seemed noticeably different from the first to the second film, but I may be mistaken.It's bar fighting. I'm not saying it wouldn't be effective, in certain situations. But if I had a dollar for every time Bale cocked his fist over his shoulder to punch in the Dark Knight...Black Belt had an article on it awhile back. I saw it in the bookstore and thumbed through. If any of you are wanting to pay an instructor to teach you how to bite an attacker's face, Keysi appears to be the system.I wonder how you practice that particular technique for reps?Joel

 

[Chris Parker]

Nah. it was used in the first one as well. But it seems to have "developed" between the movies...