Maori fighting arts link

[Black Jack]

Here is a interesting link on Maori combat arts and where you can find them in the land downunder plus articles on their culture and healing methods.

http://maori-arts.com/martialarts/

Here is also one on an indian form of staff fighting called silambam

http://www.silambam.com/

[chen zhen]

look under the "healing arts" of the maori website. you would expect something qigong-like, but it sounds more like an episode of dr. phil.

[joedoe]

I just got back from NZ and I must say I returned with a fascination for their weapon arts. Given that they successfully fought the British to a treaty, their fighting techniques would be worth having a look at. I have a book at home about the various Maori weapons that I am dying to get into. Most fascinated by the taiaha - brutal weapon.

[Souljah]

Silimbam Is a very elegant art.
I was lucky to learn a little when I was in Sri Lanka last year, I had a m8 who had been practicing it for a few years (previously without telling anyone) and went to his class a couple of times...

thanks for the link

greg

[African Tiger]

Hmmmm....Silambam, thank you ma'am!

Sorry, I couldn't resist :D

But kudos to Black Jack for keeping KFO real, and free from any more incipid political rants. Just wish there were some photos of Maori fighting forms!

[Liokault]

Given that they successfully fought the British to a treaty

Hell we gave every one a treaty....even the yanks and look where it got them!!! I dont see any one being interested in yank fighting meathods based on the way they hid in swamps did hit and run attacks on civilians and begged the french for help!!

[joedoe]

Originally posted by African Tiger
Hmmmm....Silambam, thank you ma'am!

Sorry, I couldn't resist :D

But kudos to Black Jack for keeping KFO real, and free from any more incipid political rants. Just wish there were some photos of Maori fighting forms!

I asked one of the guys about how they train and couldn't get much out of him, but I got the impression that they do not use forms for teaching. They have a bunch of techniques that they teach, and they practice against each other with the techniques but they do not use forms.


Hell we gave every one a treaty....even the yanks and look where it got them!!! I dont see any one being interested in yank fighting meathods based on the way they hid in swamps did hit and run attacks on civilians and begged the french for help!!

Yeah, but the Maori really did a good job on the Brits ;)

[SevenStar]

Good stuff - I'd never heard of silambam before.

[carly]

Great site, thanks Blackjack.

[jon]

Wierd timing.
I actualy sparred with a Maori just last week.
He was brought up on Maori martial arts and also studies Kyokushinkai Karate (sp?) and a bit of our internals.

If you ever want to find out just how quickly your balls are capable of retracting into your abdomen, get challenged by a Moari.

Seriously he was actualy a very nice guy and we had a lot of good fun mucking around.

He also showed me a fair wack of his traditional arts, mainly the spear.
I was darn impressed with his spear work, it was mixed in with dance as is a lot of Maori arts now but you could still see many very applicable movements.



From what he told me and also what ive read:
Maori arts are pretty much tribal and will vary depending on the tribe which initiated it.
There is a large element of dance to the movements and anyone who has seen the NZ Rugby team will know that Maoris like intimidating people though dance.

One of the more interesting aspect of the art IMHO was the use of fear and emotions. Maori fighters will poke there tounges out stamp there feet and generaly look like they want to rip your head off and feed it back to you with a spoon.
They will also shout loudly at oppotune times and will use a mixture between very hard powerfull movements and quite soft supple ones to try to confuse.

Another thing i found interesting was the way that force was generated.
Nearly all movements where round in some way and basicaly none where strait. He would use a bit of straits and crosses but the majority of his hand works was either backhand or large slapping style movements - also some *mean* hook punches.
The only thing i could really attribute this to was the build of most Maoris being so large accross the sholders. I tried to imagine a Maori guy doing Wing Chun and started to come to a bit of an idea of why so many of there movements are so large, i mean heck if you have that much mass you may as well make good use of it.


All in all it was a good experience and im looking forward to training with the guy again.


PS That websites school seems to be in my city, if i get a chance ill drop in there over the next couple of weeks and post back with some impressions.