Let's discuss the Filipino weapon arts.
I've practiced in various styles of Eskrima for over 6 years now, and it's my favorite style of the ones I practice. I do JKD and MMA too.
I've mainly done Inosanto Kali at my JKD schools, but I've also dabbled in Balintawak, Serrada, Lightning Scientific Arnis, Illustrisimo, Modern Arnis, and Pekiti Tirsia with a variety of different instructors. It is my dream to go to the Philippines to train with the masters there, and become an instructor myself one day.
>What styles of FMA have you practiced, if any?
>Which weapons do you favor, for either training or EDC?
>Do you feel that Eskrima has value in a modern context, and/or is valuable for self-defense?
I know the last question there will probably generate some controversy but I think it's necessary to welcome constructive criticism as a practitioner of any martial arts. I think a lot of people see the flow drills and disarming techniques and think it's an unrealistic way to practice, which is kinda fair, although I also think that there's a common misconception there because the cooperative drills are used to develop certain skills in a controlled way before eventually learning to apply them in sparring. Most martial arts include these types of cooperative exercises for building attributes and isolating certain skills, such as holding pads, glove drills, etc. Yes there are issues with Eskrima skills not sparring enough, which is a common problem in many martial arts schools, but there are also many legit Eskrima schools where we wear the armor and actually beat eachother with sticks and training knives. I see both cooperative drilling and sparring as necessary components to becoming a proficient martial artist.
If you think Eskrima is bullshido, I respectfully disagree, but you're allowed to have your view. All I ask is that we keep it civil and try to have a rational, productive conversation about it.

>>225609 (OP)
>What styles of FMA have you practiced, if any?
Currently practicing Arnis de Mano.
>Which weapons do you favor, for either training or EDC?
The bolo (though you can carry a rattan stick anywhere). I have a pretty heavy aluminum custom-made bolo for training in "Sansibar" blade shape. EDC, I carry a homemade palm stick. I'll probably use an umbrella or a large Chinese folding fan. I wish I can find a fan with ribs made out of metal.
>Do you feel that Eskrima has value in a modern context, and/or is valuable for self-defense?
Oh absolutely. I know many people and family members who successfully fended off muggers and even 1 stabbing attack using things like umbrellas.
>Disarming techniques
We also practice Karate in the martial arts club I go to. Funnily enough, I think learned more on how to actually use karate during disarming practice.
>Eskrima skills not sparring enough
>there are also many legit Eskrima schools where we wear the armor and actually beat each other with sticks and training knives
Wait, this is not normal is some schools? We would wear a helmet and wallop each other with padded sticks during sparring. Then there's uncooperative knife disarming training where you basically do anything and everything (except maybe eye-gouging and cock kicking your club bro) to disarm the attacker (while he does everything to get you with the practice knife or a butter knife).Shit turns into a grappling and striking match whenever that happens. I got cut on my hand in one of those after carelessly grabbing the blade of the butter knife.
>inb4 why a butter knife?
Our instructor was a cop in the 70s and everyone here knows criminals will use kitchen knives, sharpened butter knives, ice picks, and random sharp/pointy objects and not fancy handmade knives (okay maybe balisongs).

>>225748
>Arnis de Mano
Oh hell yeah, that's some legit old school FMA. I'm assuming you're from the Philippines.
>The bolo
I fucking love bolos. Philippine swords have the most badass designs. My favorite style are the Talibong from the Visayas.
>EDC, I carry a homemade palm stick
Nice, what type of wood do you use for that? I'd like to get a proper wooden palm stick for carrying into places that use metal detectors to prevent carrying metal weapons. I normally carry knives, collapsible batons, and/or a tactical flashlight. The flashlight in particular has been insanely useful in self-defense, it's 2300 lumens and can blind motherfuckers in broad daylight, plus works as a metal palm stick. I've used it twice in self-defense, once against a nigger who was stealing from my store and a second time against a mexican drug dealer who was threatening me.
>Oh absolutely. I know many people and family members who successfully fended off muggers and even 1 stabbing attack using things like umbrellas.
Glad to hear that their training in Arnis helped keep them safe. On the note of using improvized weapons like umbrellas and folding fans and such, that's probably my favorite thing about Arnis, that it teaches you to use anything as a weapon. It's not restricted just to specific traditional weapons, but adaptable to any tool and any situation. The blade teaches the hand.
>Funnily enough, I think learned more on how to actually use karate during disarming practice.
Interesting. I've noticed a similar thing with training Catch Wrestling and how it overlaps with Arnis. Could you explain more on how the disarming practice affected your understanding of Karate?
>Wait, this is not normal is some schools? We would wear a helmet and wallop each other with padded sticks during sparring.
It may be more of an issue in certain American schools but it is definitely a common problem to only have cooperative flow drills, not do sparring or resistance drilling. Your school seems legit though.

>>225763
>Nice, what type of wood do you use for that?
I bought a "standard" rattan stick and cut it up out of boredom. I find it too light for my taste since I use the training bolo for practice and use heavier sticks in our club. I really just wanted to simulate the feel of actually wielding a bolo.
>Could you explain more on how the disarming practice affected your understanding of Karate?
I learned that Katas in Karate are the glossary of techniques. Problem is nobody really teaches what those moves really mean, so I have to look for it myself. By perfect coincidence, our guro teaches both karate and arnis de mano in tandem in training. The disarming techniques look so much like some moves in the katas like the basic Heians. One is grabbing the hand with a knife, twisting it, and slamming your other hand onto the attacker's outstretched elbow (to force it to the wrong way). That hit me, it looked like Gedan Barai (lower block) + the function of the Hikite (pulling hand). Shit, even one disarming method (on someone with a stick) where you wrap your arm on the armed hand then basically give very sudden knife-hand smack them in the shoulder looked so much like Shuto-uke, but fucking painful (My bro did that to me after our guro did that to him in demonstration. It felt like forcing my arm out of the socket) I LOVE those uncooperative knife disarming training, when you get up close to a person trying to stab you and you have some idea what the katas are, you just naturally react when to perform joint locks and disarms, when to use elbow, knee, and palm/finger strikes, when to use throws and takedowns (guro uses footsweeps). It's something normal karate sparring can't teach. I wonder that's why old school Karatekas from Okinawa did weapons training as well.
>Catch wrestling and Arnis
That sounds fucking terrifying. Me and fellow students in the club talked about how horrifying it would be when BJJ is mixed with arnis knife work.

>>225763
Also doing the karate blocks as an attack while using a palm stick just makes it so much more fucked up. Not even needing the extensive hand conditioning. Even Okinawan karatekas had the same idea with their hair pin "jiffa". By the way, what I mean with "I find it too light for my taste" is that the standard stick is too light for me to use in normal practice. So I cut it up and got a palm stick out of it.

>>225765
>you just naturally react when to perform joint locks and disarms, when to use elbow, knee, and palm/finger strikes, when to use throws and takedowns (guro uses footsweeps). It's something normal karate sparring can't teach. I wonder that's why old school Karatekas from Okinawa did weapons training as well.
That's interesting, I've never practiced Karate but I've noticed that with other martial arts styles that I've practiced like JKD, Silat, and Wing Chun that they have a lot of overlap with Eskrima and it seems to help develop a more complete understanding of one style by developing understanding of another one.
>That sounds fucking terrifying. Me and fellow students in the club talked about how horrifying it would be when BJJ is mixed with arnis knife work.
Yeah Catch Wrestling is even better since it still has a very in-depth submission and ground game, but has more brutal submissions than BJJ and involves a lot more stand-up grappling/clinch work and takedowns than BJJ. I have trained with an instructor who was a Pekiti Tirsia guy, and he created an entire weapon grappling system by combining Eskrima with Catch Wrestling. It involved a lot of using the stick like a pry-bar to do throws and submissions and such. It was amazing and I think submission wrestling is a perfect compliment to Eskrima since it completes the more striking-focused aspects of Eskrima with a more advanced grappling system. Particularly with knife defense, it's really important to be a solid grappler and know how to retain control of their weapon-wielding arm, have takedown defense, and know how to handle yourself on the ground.
>>225766
>Also doing the karate blocks as an attack while using a palm stick just makes it so much more fucked up.
Yeah I was thinking Karate blocks would work well when wielding a weapon. I use some Karate-inspired blocks a lot too
>So I cut it up and got a palm stick out of it.
Nice, I'd really like to get some kamagong sticks and palm sticks.

>>225778
>I have trained with an instructor who was a Pekiti Tirsia guy, and he created an entire weapon grappling system by combining Eskrima with Catch Wrestling.
>It involved a lot of using the stick like a pry-bar to do throws and submissions and such.
That sounds awesome. There's a junior student in our club who does catch wrestling. Maybe I should ask him where he learnt that. The more you look into the katas, the more you realize that there's so much grappling and throws involved in it. Also I'd imagine wrestling will just make the existing joint locks and disarms of Arnis just much deadlier and effective. Not to mention combing strikes with throws really just goes hand in hand. Tripping (to outbalance) + strikes? Very useful. Short strikes ("Bayo" or hitting with the pommel) + takedowns. Beautiful. Now that you've mentioned groundwork + choking someone with your weapon. I need to learn that. What's the name of his system?
>Particularly with knife defense
Oh that wasn't our idea. We were talking about BJJ and arnis knifework used in an offensive way, particularly against someone in riot gear. A senpai who's a cop said that it sounds like a fucked up idea.

>>225849
Yeah I would definitely recommend looking into Catch Wrestling. It's probably the best grappling system for weapon integration and combines insanely well with Eskrima.
>The more you look into the katas, the more you realize that there's so much grappling and throws involved in it
Yeah I've seen people do explanations on this, and how a lot of people misunderstand the forms and what their actual purpose was. Karate is often just practiced as a pure striking art but, similar to old school Taekwondo and Capoeira, it actually was originally intended to have a lot more grappling, which has become less understood over the years.
> Tripping (to outbalance) + strikes? Very useful. Short strikes ("Bayo" or hitting with the pommel) + takedowns. Beautiful. Now that you've mentioned groundwork + choking someone with your weapon
Exactly. I was fucking mind-blown when I saw how that instructor did all these different throws and submissions using a stick. He also was showing me how to grab the stick at both ends and press it down on someone's shoulder, or put the stick between their legs and lift them up. Absolutely brutal shit. Eskrima + submission wrestling is one of the most practical and brutally effective style combinations I've seen. I'm hoping next time that instructor is in town, he'll also show me how he approaches the ground-game when knives are involved.
>Tripping (to outbalance) + strikes? Very useful
Yeah I've also learned a lot of good foot sweeps and trips from practicing Silat as well, which also pairs very well with Eskrima and has a similar "substitution principle" with different weapons or unarmed being basically interchangeable, but Silat is generally more grappling-oriented whereas Eskrima is more striking-oriented.
>What's the name of his system?
His name is Tuhon Rico Cortes and his system is called Cortes Combat Integrated System. He has an instagram channel where he posts a lot of videos

Is Kinomutai really a thing? the BJJ+biting+eye gouging specific martial art, of FMA?
And, Palankutan; too, is it actually a good bare-handed system? I see many mcdojization of it..it seems, IMO, it would mix perfectly with Keysi.

>>225943
>Is Kinomutai really a thing?
Kind of. Traditionally the term "Kinamutay" just referred to a generalized concept of using "dirty" techniques and wasn't really a formal style in itself, until it was later popularized by JKD and became its own thing.
>And, Palankutan; too, is it actually a good bare-handed system? I see many mcdojization of it..it seems, IMO, it would mix perfectly with Keysi.
Like with any style, it depends on the school and the practitioner. But at its basis, Panantukan/Suntukan is boxing with elbows, headbutts, groin strikes, and eye-jabs, so basically like dirty Muay Thai. Yes some of the demonstrations of techniques get a little far-fetched with certain people, but in most cases it's just that, a demonstration or a drill. You have to drill techniques first and then later learn to apply them through sparring or a more resisting opponent, but there's nothing inherently wrong with drilling something with a compliant partner to develop the technique.
I use a lot of moves that I learned from Panantukan in sparring at my MMA gym and they work really well.

What are your thoughts on Yaw Yan? Is it just Muay Thai with weird "bolo" forearm strikes and angles of attacks that come from Arnis?

I joined a FB group about traditional\indigenous archery styles.Contributing with 2 photos of Pinoy archery martial arts.

>>228530

>>228530
>>228531
Neat, what book is that?

>>228531
I need to know where you can buy one of those anahaw wood bows.

Redpill me on the ginunting.

>>228919
What about it? It's used by the Philippine Marines. You chop people and vegetation with it. You can't say the same thing about a katana or a shamshir.