I hope ya’ll are doing well. As you can see by the temporary street sign, we are ready for classes.

I was thinking about how many people don’t know much about FMA. What better way to explain than to link to some information on Wikipedia. It is Wikipedia, so take the information with a grain of salt.

To try Latosa Concepts, FMA …  be at the club in Vanløse a few minutes before 17:00 on Tuesday and Thursday. You can see some information about the class in earlier blog post. Here’s a link to google maps. Just look for the Truemax building across from the “Aktivitetscentret Jydeholmen”.

Revised training times: 

• Tuesday: 17:00 – 18:30
• Thursday: 17:00 – 18:30

That’s it for now. I’ll see later.

Be Proactive in Life and Training

CW & MA

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“Mano Mano”

Mano Mano is the empty-hand component of Filipino martial arts, particularly eskrima. The term translates as “hands” or “hand to hand” and comes from the Spanish word mano(hand). It is known as suntukan in Luzon and pangamot in the Visayas. American colonists referred to it as “combat judo”.

Mano mano includes kicking, punching, locking, throwing and dumog (grappling). Filipino martial artists regard the empty hands as another weapon and all the movements of mano mano are directly based on weapon techniques. In eskrima, weapons are seen as an extension of the body so training with weapons naturally leads to proficiency in bare-handed combat. For this reason, mano mano is generally taught in the higher levels of eskrima because advanced students are expected to be able to apply their experience with weapons to unarmed fighting.

Pananjakman

Pananjakman is a component of eskrima which focuses on low-line kicks. Some claim that pananjakman is an art in and of itself but this separation was probably made for the purpose of marketing the art as a new system. Pananjakman is never taught by itself in the Philippines, and this practice is only done in the West.

Pananjakman can be regarded as the study of leg muscles and bones and how they are connected, with the goal of either inflicting pain or outright breaking or dislocating the bones. Most striking techniques involve applying pressure to bend the target areas in unnatural ways so as to injure or break them. Such pressure may be delivered in the form of a heel smash, a toe kick, a stomp, or a knee. Targets include the groin, thighs, knees, shins, ankles, feet and toes. The upper body is used only for defensive maneuvers, making pananjakman ideal for when combatants are engaged in a clinch. When used effectively, the strikes can bring an opponent to the ground or otherwise end an altercation by making them too weak to stand.

Fundamental techniques include kicking or smashing the ankle to force it either towards or away from the opposite foot (severe supination or pronation, respectively), heel-stomping the top of the foot where it meets the lower leg so as to break or crush the numerous bones or otherwise disrupt the opponent’s balance, and smashing the opponents knee from the side to break the knee (with severe supination and pronation as the desired result).

Drills

Several classes of exercises, such as sumbrada, contrada, sinawali, hubud-lubud and sequidas, initially presented to the public as a set of organized drills by the Inosanto school, are expressly designed to allow partners to move quickly and experiment with variations while remaining safe. For example, in a sumbrada drill taken from the Villabrille style, one partner feeds an attack, which the other counters, flowing into a counterattack, which is then countered, flowing into a counterattack, and so on. The hubud-lubud or hubad-lubadfrom Doce Pares is frequently used as a type of “generator” drill, where one is forced to act and think fast. Initially, students learn a specific series of attacks, counters, and counter-attacks. As they advance they can add minor variations, change the footwork, or switch to completely different attacks; eventually the exercise becomes almost completely free-form. Palakat, from the Balintawak style, are un-choreographed and random defensive and offensive moves. Palakat in Cebuano means a walk-through or rehearsing the different strike angles and defenses. It may be known as corridas or striking without any order or pattern. Disarms, take-downs, and other techniques usually break the flow of such a drill, but they are usually initiated from such a sequence of movements in order to force the student to adapt to a variety of situations. A common practice is to begin a drill with each student armed with two weapons; once the drill is flowing, if a student sees an opportunity to disarm their opponent, they will, but the drill will continue until both students are empty-handed. Some drills use only a single weapon per pair, and the partners take turns disarming each other. Seguidas drills, taken from the San Miguel system, are sets of hitting and movement patterns usually involving stick and dagger.

Rhythm, while an essential part of eskrima drills, is given more emphasis in the United States and Europe where a regular beat serves a guide for students to follow. To ensure the safety of the participants, most drills are done at a constant pace which is increased as the students progress. The rhythm, together with the southern Filipino attire of a vest and sashed pants, is commonly mistaken to be some sort of tradition when practicing eskrima in the Philippines – perhaps incorrectly derived from traditional rhythm-based dances or an attempt to add a sense of ethnicity. Eskrima is usually practiced in the Philippines without a rhythm, off-beat or out of rhythm. The diversity of Filipino martial arts means that there is no officially established standard uniform in eskrima.

The Live Hand

The live hand is the opposite hand of the practitioner that does not contain the main weapon. The heavy usage of the live hand is an important concept and distinguishing hallmark of Eskrima. Even (or especially) when empty, the live hand can be used as a companion weapon by Eskrima practitioners. As opposed to most weapon systems like fencing where the off-hand is hidden and not used to prevent it from being hit, Eskrima actively uses the live hand for trapping, locking, supporting weapon blocks, checking, disarming, striking and controlling the opponent.

The usage of the live hand is one of the most evident examples of how Eskrima’s method of starting with weapons training leads to effective empty hand techniques. Because ofDoble Baston (double weapons) or Espada y Daga (sword and parrying dagger ) ambidextrous weapon muscle memory conditioning, Eskrima practitioners find it easy to use the off-hand actively once they transition from using it with a weapon to an empty hand. “

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