Filipino Martial Arts - Bull Whip

[lhommedieu]

San Miguel Eskrima includes whip technique but I was not formally taught. Recently I picked up Anthony DeLongis' instructional DVD's and have put in about 10 hours of practice at this point. Lots to correct based on what I see so far but I think it's a good start. Later on I'll add a clip based on the corrections that I think need to be made, and I'll add a clip of the same sequence using a Filipino rope whip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfPm8BL3M-o

Best,

Steve

[GiggityZZ]

very interesting. whips are one of my favorite weapons to use. but that whip in the video looks a bit too heavy and big. i dont know much about whips tho, so i could be wrong.

[lhommedieu]

Yes - it is almost too long to use! The point of practicing with the whip in San Miguel Eskrima is to build attributes that the founder, Momoy Canete, thought were essential to the development of stick and dagger and sword and dagger technique. Chief among these were the development of "relaxed power" that comes from the waist and not from the arms and shoulders, and the ability to project one's intention into the tip of the weapon. This makes San Miguel Eskrima something like a Chinese internal martial art in terms of its training methodology.

Momoy used a 15' rope whip upon occasion. I've found it impossible to find rope whip that long and so I'm currently practicing with an eight footer that someone gave to me as a gift. It's interesting to note that the 11' kangaroo leather whip I'm practicing with in this clip is much easier to use than the 8' rope whip.

Whips used for fighting in the Philippines are generally four to seven feet long. An excellent resource is The Filipino Fighting Whip, by Tom Meadows.

This is a long-term project for me. I'm at the point in my training where training with this kind of weapon makes sense for me. I've got about 10 hours in on this weapon and expect it will be several hundred, if not thousands, of hours of training before I start to develop the attributes that Momoy thought were important.

Best,

Steve

[lhommedieu]

Recent practice with the rope whip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exViD1lLpq8

Best,

Steve