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The Empty Hands of the Filipino Martial Arts

To most people and martial artists, the Filipino Martial Arts purely concentrate on the use of Sticks, Knives and Edged weapons. To those who have some knowledge of the arts they know that it contains a large section of empty hand fighting skills.

These empty hand skills are derived from the movements with the weapons and are taught within the framework of weapons techniques. For instance, the footwork and arm positioning used in a snake disarm would also be used in delivering an uppercut or hook punch to the ribs.

Footwork

Footwork is one of the key things which bind all the various fighting areas together. This is basically around a boxing format with the notable addition of the triangular footwork patterns. As any eskrimador will tell you the footwork is the primary means of evasion to an attack.

Male and Female footwork is based around two triangles placed on the floor in the shape of an X. If you stand in the centre point, the triangle growing away from you is the female triangle and the triangle going behind you is the male triangle. If you keep one foot in the centre and step out into a boxing stance to one of the points or backwards keeping your lead foot in the centre you will gain the basic footwork.(Fig 1)

Female Triangle

Male Triangle

fig 1.

If you add a large square around the X pattern you can then practice your step and slide around the X then go through the X and make your own patterns up.(fig 2)

The shapes can either be made up from sticks placed on the floor or you can use tape to mark the pattern out with on the floor. I prefer the latter method because you can use different coloured tapes for the triangles and the square which makes it easier for you to pick them out if you only want to practice one particular form of footwork.

Another important piece of footwork is that of the arrow. If you imagine a straight line attack towards you, such as a right cross, is the shaft of an arrow you can step down either side of arrowhead to avoid the attack.(fig 3)

Direction of Attack

fig 3. Application of Female Triangle

Empty Hands(Panantukan)

The empty hand skills taught are essentially a modified boxing format with one key difference, the fighting range. In Western Boxing the fighting range is from the end of the punching hand to your opponents chin, the Filipino styles however have their fighting measure from the end of the punching hand to a distance where you can attack the attacking limb. For example, where you can elbow strike your opponents cross to prevent him from punching you again. A lot of these movements are tied in to the use of the knife, where evasive footwork and parries followed by an attack to the weapon hand is often preferred.

This limb destruction is also due to the fact that by applying forward pressure to your opponent you are preventing him from hitting you as effectively and you are closing your opponents attacking tools down, i.e. "Defanging the Snake".

Limb destruction is commonly performed with 2 tools at the upper body range, these being the hand and the elbow. Of these the elbow is by far the more potent weapon in terms of destructive power, the only problem is unless you are attacking the hand you have to close the gap to employ it.

Common methods in which the elbow is employed is by using the point of the elbow on the fingers of the fist, or driving into the bicep or pectoral. Against a side kick the point of the elbow can also be dropped onto the side of the calf.

The major hand attacking method used in Limb Destruction is Gunting(Scissor type motion). This is where one hand parries an attack and your other hand attacks the limb which attacked you. For Example :

Your opponent attacks with a Right Cross, you step to the outside of the punch, parry to your right with your left hand and you hit the nerve between the bicep and tricep with the knuckles of your right hand.

The Gunting can be delivered either horizontally, vertically and in either direction, up or down. The choice of tool you use is up to you, it can be the knuckles, backfist or knife hand.

One important thing to note with the use of the Gunting is that in certain situations you are open to very subtle counters which will probably destroy your own limb. This is where your opponent either drops or bends his elbow as you attack. This can be applied against you if you are attacking from the outside line or if you are attacking vertically upwards.

There are no blocks per se but rather parry's and evasions as used in boxing, these are often used with a limb destruction as described above. These include slapping blocks and jams to hinder your opponent whilst you setup your own counter. Twisiting of the body is stressed to move your vital organs out of the line of attack and to present as small a target as possible.

The elbow can be brought up to cover the side of the face whilst the arm covers the side of the head. If you step forwards as you do this it can also be used as a strike to the pectoral or shoulder joint of your opponent.

The major striking tools are the fist (In the major boxing punches), hammerfist, knife hand, knuckles and elbow.

Flowing attacks are commonplace where once you close the gap you hit and hit until your opponent is incapacitated. Remember the art revolves around the flow, you must be like water, moving from one obstacle to the next, you either go through it or around it. This may well be due to the fact that most fights in the Phillipines involved weapons and you could not afford to let your opponent gain the advantage over you. For instance :

You counter with the gunting as desribed above, then eye jab your opponent with your right hand, wrench the attacking arm back as you deliver a left hand elbow strike to the bicep, then grab the head and leg sweep your attacker to the floor and finish.

To see a sample technique click here : Technique Illustrations

Your stick striking patterns can also be applied into your empty hands, such as Heaven 6 by replacing the sticks with hammer fists or knife hands.

Empty hand skills are also taught against the stick and the knife, in terms of a street attack in the USA or Europe your are probably more likely to face the knife and Eskrima has plenty or parries, evasions and tie ups for facing a knife attacker following up with strikes or disarms. It must be stressed however that these are desparate measures when all other options such as getting away from the area are not available options. I recommend you see a qualified instructor if you wish to learn these techniques.

Dumog

Dumog is the Filipino form of wrestling involving Joint locks and Off balancing techniques. It is basically designed to keep your opponent from hitting you whilst you hit them.

A favourite technique is to use your forearm to wrench the bicep of an opponent down this will drag your opponents upper body down enabling you to headbutt, elbow, take down or lock. This technique is effective no matter how big your opponent is, if they happen to be a bit of a Goliath then step back slightly as you perform it.

Locks are usually taught in a flow during Dumog this is done to help you flow from one technique to another as mentioned above and if your opponent is wriggling out of a lock teach you to quickly change to a different one. The flow I was taught begins with a basic one handed wrist lock and finishes with a figure four armlock, working up the arm from wrist to elbow to shoulder.

Locks are generally not sought after but if there is an opening to use them you should know how to apply them, there may also be a time when locking somebody is preferable, e.g. if a friend or relative is drunk and behaves irresponsibly you may not want to take their head off. A lot of the locks tend to dominate the head, this is because if the head is moving the rest of the body will follow.

One main characteristic of Dumog throws is that they are not very easy to fall from, like Silat they often involve twisting and turning the opponents body during the throw the aim being to cause as much damage as possible. Remember that there are no mats out there on the street just good old tarmac and concrete so the harder your opponent falls the worse off they are going to be when they land.

Kicking (Pananjakman/Sikaran)

The Filipino arts do not kick very high, instead they prefer to kick at waist level and below, the primary targets being the thigh, knee, and shin. The kicks are not very pretty to watch but are delivered with body weight behind them and usually from punching range.

You may be asking yourself "Why from Punching Range?", this is because at this distance you will be trying to counter your opponents attack and the kicking techniques are used to distract your assailant, destroy his mobility and if possible take them to the floor. You should be able to put these low level kicks in whilst punching or locking.

Striking Tools

The most common Kicking tools are the Knee and sole of the foot, occasionally the ball of the foot is used. I have never seen the instep used this possibly being due to the fact that the instep does not give you as much penetration of power.

Oblique Kick(Sipa) - This is delivered with the sole of the foot, usually from the rear leg to the knee or the shin. This type of attack will cause instant pain and is intended to stop the forward motion of the attacker. This kick will also keep pressure on the opponent whilst allowing yourself time to manouver into a better position.

Front / Point Kick - The Eskrima front kick is generally delivered with the ball of the foot or the toes. This gives more penetration to the kick. The kick can either be used as a straight attacking tool or as a counter attacking tool.

Knee - The knee is primarily used to attack the thigh. The points to attack are the Sciatic Nerve ("Dead Leg"), the back of the thigh (Hamstring) and the front of the thigh. Kneeing the front of the thigh is usually done to stop your opponent moving forwards. This is not to say that obvious targets such as the groin are not taken advantage of. The knee is also used in pushing attacks to off balance your opponent, this is done by pushing your opponents knee either to the outside of his body or by pushing the knee straight back. This is sometimes done in conjunction with a foot trap to provide a lever.

Shin - The shin is usually delivered in a roundhouse fashion, either to the side of the thigh, similar to a Muay Thai kick, or to the front of the thigh which has to be felt to be believed. This is usually delivered to help bend your opponent over. The kick to the front of the thigh is delivered from the side and is done in conjunction with a trapping move to the arm.

Feet - The feet are also used to apply trips and sweeps to the lower leg to put and opponent down. Stamping is also another viable form of attack. As said before this is usually done in conjuction with another form of attack to keep your opponent off balance and confused. The heel is also used in a hooking type of kick to attack the rear of a opponents leg, this would be to the Knee, Calf or Ankle.

The preferred targets are the knee and the shin. The knee if pushed from either side is very easy to collapse and will result in your opponent taking a tumble. The shin is very easy to contact and can cause a lot of pain if contacted with boots or shoes.

Sensitivity Drills

Filipino Martial Arts are one of only two arts that I know of which contain sensitivity drills, the other being Wing Chun, the sensitivity drill of the FMA is called Hubad Lubad.

Hubad as it is commonly called is used to train sensitvity in your limbs so you feel how your opponent is moving, this will help you to keep contact and flow from one technique to another.

Hubad can be practiced in many forms and in any number of counts. The easiest method is probably 4 count. This is difficult to explain in words but I will do my best.

1. Your partner throws a straight right punch at you.

2. You parry his wrist with your left palm.

3. Now scoop his wrist to his inside zone with the back of your right hand. This should be in front of your left hand.

4. Slap his arm down with your left palm.

5. Punch towards him with your right fist. The sequence now reverses and your partner has his turn.

This is only a basic Hubad but at even a slightly higher level it includes changeovers from right arm to left arm and also changing from the outside of the arm to the inside.

If you want to learn Hubad I suggest you do so from a qualified instructor.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is more to the empty hand side of the Filipino Martial Arts than first meets the eye. The only level of combat not really covered is the horizontal grappling / ground fighting area. If you would like to know more I recommend you find a qualified instructor to learn from. The lists below will never match qualified instruction but are worth looking into if a club is not available if an eskrima club is not available in your area.