Gatka - The Martial Art of the Sikhs

[10,000 Hit Combo]

Very interesting. I'm not much into weapons though. I bet they have some great unarmed techniques.

 

[Langenschwert]

Welcome aboard! Nice to see more Canadians and sword enthusiasts here!

Best regards,

-Mark

 

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

I am very impressed by this Art. Above all in the second video, the tribute to the late Master. It is unbelieveble how they can be so precise in both attacking and defending at such a great speed. It all comes pretty clear when the Master defends and counter a couple of times with a man in a very slow way. You can tell there that those quick movements are made of many small movements carried out with great precision.
Amazing...

Forgive my ignorance in this Art, but is there also bare hand fighting or this is an Art based only on the use of weapon?
And what is that circular weapon that they keep spinning? By the effort they seem to put in rotating it I would say it is pretty heavy...

Yess...well when you first learn gatka you learn the foot movments and how to move around...the movements are very open. Ex. The sikhs were always outnumbered in battle against the enemy so they needed something so that they cuold move aroudn and fight multiple oppenents at a time as demonstarted by our late master when he was taking on the whole team...as you can see combining those steps and strikes is very effective on taking on many oppenents.
And yess there is bare hand fighting but since not many people have been educated about gatka it has been lost...lost but not completlely...many people still teach bare hand fighting but it is always with dagger...our later master had taught it..but there is more to it than just that..again its something weve lost but we need to revive becasue its still out there...but for the most this art is mostly weapon based right now.

As for the Circular weapon...its called a "Chaker" it represents god has no start and no end...because of its circular shape...these are made a net material with heavy wooden balls on the ends to balance it so it keeps spinning...today these are made of nets but when sikhs used them in battle they were made of chains with mases on the ends and sharp objects...there were used by putting men infront and making a wall of spinning chakars so the arrows of them enemies would not be able to get through to the sikhs. Many people think this would tangle the chaker but the metal chains would just knock the arrows strait to the ground. It was a very tiring proccess but the soldiers were able to switch roles and also throw the chakers to eachother.

Stick sparring is also a very essential part of gatka...it is one of the first things taught. First you learn al of the strikes to the body and how to block them...Defending is more important that attacking...As our master said why attack when you wont no how to defend, the one who knows how to block is more succesful..block your hit and then strike...dont strike at the same time as the other. block their hit since it protects yourself from an attack and second it opens up much more space on the oppenents body before they can get back into their position. block and quiclky strike back. I still remember how we trained for blocking. we would take turns with him..we were not allowed to strike until we blocked..he was reallly quick and we never could tell where his stick would end up going...and when he hit..he hit hard..But in the end it was all worth it, we learned what he wanted us to learn. There are many gatka players in the world who are really good and quick at attacking but they cannot block very well.

Anyways there are many weapons that we use...if you saw the long strip of metal that our master was swinging around it was used in the forests if there were any enemies hiding to attack the sound of the weapon was very loud and it would scare the enemies away or it would slice them as it would go through bushed and around trees.

i will be posting some of our stick fights as soon as our next practice...this weekend. Alright..feel free to ask anymore questions...ill be happy to answer

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

Nice vids. Like 10,000 lions.

D.

 

[tellner]

Then there's the multi-bladed ribbon whip-sword. I think it's called the urumi. This must be Sanskrit for "43 times more likely to kill you and your entire squad than the enemy".

 

[CuongNhuka]

Sikh, intresting. Aside from a Martial Artist, I'm also a bit of a philosopher and theologan. So expect me to ask you and Carol about your faith at every oppertunity I get. just warning yah! Oh, and ah my Great Aunty lives up in the iceberg you folks call home.
welcome to Martialtalk!