FMAT: Balintawak "Blade Work"

[Clark Kent]

Balintawak "Blade Work"
By Goatlemon - Fri, 04 May 2007 13:36:46 GMT
Originally Posted at: FMATalk
====================

I see it's all quiet on the Balintawak front, so I thought I would start a thread and hopefully liven things up a bit.

A while ago while training in Corral Arnis my teacher once said something interesting. To paraphrase; "The knife work of Arnis is so good, if I taught it to someone and they attacked me with a knife while I was unarmed, there would be almost nothing I could do about it." Or something to that effect.

Another thing was when doing stick work, (I never made it to blade work), he would sometimes take a technique we were training and explain that while it doesn't make much sense with a stick, it makes much more sense with a blade.

Although I haven't done Balintawak for long I've noticed some rather big differences between the stick work of Balintawak and Corral Arnis. The biggest difference is that I don't tend to see those techniques that make more sense with a blade, everything seems to be designed for a stick.

So then, bearing in mind that Balintawak, and indeed Arnis in general, seems to stress that training in the stick is also training in other types of fighting, does anyone think that the blade work of Balintawak has been watered down as a result of the refinement of Balintawak towards the single stick as a weapon instead of a training tool?

I wish I could word this a little better, but it's been a long day, so I'll hopefully state things clearer later on if there is a misunderstanding regarding my question.


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[Rich Parsons]

Balintawak "Blade Work"
By Goatlemon - Fri, 04 May 2007 13:36:46 GMT
Originally Posted at: FMATalk
====================

I see it's all quiet on the Balintawak front, so I thought I would start a thread and hopefully liven things up a bit.

A while ago while training in Corral Arnis my teacher once said something interesting. To paraphrase; "The knife work of Arnis is so good, if I taught it to someone and they attacked me with a knife while I was unarmed, there would be almost nothing I could do about it." Or something to that effect.

Another thing was when doing stick work, (I never made it to blade work), he would sometimes take a technique we were training and explain that while it doesn't make much sense with a stick, it makes much more sense with a blade.

Although I haven't done Balintawak for long I've noticed some rather big differences between the stick work of Balintawak and Corral Arnis. The biggest difference is that I don't tend to see those techniques that make more sense with a blade, everything seems to be designed for a stick.

So then, bearing in mind that Balintawak, and indeed Arnis in general, seems to stress that training in the stick is also training in other types of fighting, does anyone think that the blade work of Balintawak has been watered down as a result of the refinement of Balintawak towards the single stick as a weapon instead of a training tool?

I wish I could word this a little better, but it's been a long day, so I'll hopefully state things clearer later on if there is a misunderstanding regarding my question.


Read More...


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Balintawak is an optimized Stick dueling/fighting system.

Of course there are some good instructors who have adapted techniques to blade work. (* Even some of my empty hand work with Manong Ted Buot included empty hand versus Blade. The issue was that in some branches of Balintawak the knife work is part of the curriculum, while in others it is not. *)

Enjoy your training with the stick in Balintawak now, later go back and use the timing and skill sets you have learned to improve your others aspects of fighting.

 

[arnisador]

Balintawak is an optimized Stick dueling/fighting system.

That was my uinderstanding too!