okay here goes
Kali (also called 'arnis' and 'escrima') is primarily a weapons based art with the empty hand techniques being derived from the weapons- the rationale being that you should always fight with a weapon first and that you only use empty hands when disarmed. This is the opposite of many CMA which teach hands first and weapons last.
There are typically 12 'angles' of attacking with a blade/stick- three stabbing angles and and 9 slashing angles.
The slashing angles correspond roughly to all the ways you would hit a tennis ball- e.g. forehand, backhand, overhead, lob, scoop, volley etc
Also there are three main types of slash
-lobtik-striking through the target
- witik-strike at the target
and
-redondo- wrist twisting strike
Then there are three main fighting ranges
-largo- long range- here the target is the enemys outstretched arm which is holding his weapon
Medio- medium range- here the target is the enemys body
Corto- short range- here again the target is the opponents body but this time the butt of the weapon is used.
There are drills to train each range (called sumrada (counter for counter drill at medium range) and hubud (counter for counter drill at short range - has similarities to wing chun chi sau and tai chi push hands) as well as to transition smoothly from one to another.
There are two vertical refence points i.e. heaven/high (stick points up) and earth/low (stick points down).
If you are using one stick then the live/empty hand also comes in to play - to check/parry.
Two sticks together is called sinawali.
Shadow boxing is called carenza.
Also there are
guntings (limb destructions)
dumog (grappling/joint locks)
Panajackman and panantukan (hand/feet boxing/strikes)
and kino muntao (biting)
apologies for spelling/errors
regards
Last edited by Nick Forrer; 04-04-2004 at 11:43 AM.
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