The Martial Effectiveness of Drills in Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) - From Martial Journal
- Thread starter Xue Sheng
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Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
I have always been impressed with FMA, and I think the FMA drills are what makes it rather effective. The critique, yes there are alway critiques, some good some bad. But building muscle memory is always a good thing. The rhythmic drills I do not see in a lot of martial arts, especially with weapons. You drill applications but not in a rhythmic way. Some do, Wing Chun has Chi Sau, Taiji has push hands and 2 person forms and xingyiquan has 2 person drills and push hands, although a bit more aggressive that Taijiquan. Is that reality? Well no, but they can give you reflexes to respond, they can give you what to expect when hit. They have a place in training and what little I know about FMA they are very good at this.
ap Oweyn
Black Belt
All good points.
I think the challenge is not getting wrapped up in the accumulation of drills at the expense of the actual skills the drills were intended to convey. I started properly in FMA in 1989. In the time since, I've been exposed to hundreds of drills. And in the earlier years, I was always scrambling for a notebook or whatever to record them all. But, given the sheer number of FMA styles now, you'll drive yourself absolutely mad trying to record them all. It was bad enough trying to do that pre-internet, when we were picking these things up from seminars or instructional videotapes. (Panther Productions, I'm looking at you.) Now, when there are literally thousands of them at your fingertips on YouTube...
You can definitely cluster your efforts around a smaller set of drills. The obvious ones are the sumbrada box pattern, hubud lubud, and sinawali, just as an example. When I was actively teaching, I definitely used these. If I were to go back to teaching, I think I'd want to do more freestyle drilling, in addition to these set exercises. But that was always built into our progression anyway. So there's nothing new in that idea.
As one of my grad school professors used to say, "the map is not the territory." The drill is not the skill. But having that map does help a bit.
I think the challenge is not getting wrapped up in the accumulation of drills at the expense of the actual skills the drills were intended to convey. I started properly in FMA in 1989. In the time since, I've been exposed to hundreds of drills. And in the earlier years, I was always scrambling for a notebook or whatever to record them all. But, given the sheer number of FMA styles now, you'll drive yourself absolutely mad trying to record them all. It was bad enough trying to do that pre-internet, when we were picking these things up from seminars or instructional videotapes. (Panther Productions, I'm looking at you.) Now, when there are literally thousands of them at your fingertips on YouTube...
You can definitely cluster your efforts around a smaller set of drills. The obvious ones are the sumbrada box pattern, hubud lubud, and sinawali, just as an example. When I was actively teaching, I definitely used these. If I were to go back to teaching, I think I'd want to do more freestyle drilling, in addition to these set exercises. But that was always built into our progression anyway. So there's nothing new in that idea.
As one of my grad school professors used to say, "the map is not the territory." The drill is not the skill. But having that map does help a bit.
