The FMA or Filipino Martial Arts are a highly conceptual system in nature. Learn Eskrima at Home by understanding the underlying concepts of this system, which is the answer to being skilled in weapons and empty-hand combat.
In FMA, particularly in Escrima stick fighting techniques, it is important that you know how to transition from major weapons training to secondary weapons, to empty-hands training. And one way to do this by learning the basic attack angles. In here, you retain the angle yet substitute the weapon using your hands.
No Stick of Knife? No Problem!
Learn how you can turn something as trivial as soda bottle into a deadly weapon with this awesome video!
1. How to Learn Eskrima at Home Using Secondary Weapons
The major point here is that it does not matter whether you are using a kitchen knife, a baseball bat, or your fist; a blow is a blow. It will not take too much time to practice to know which weapons and empty hand methods would suit best for a certain attack angle.
One could even be proper for using soda bottles, punching or kicking on uppercuts and horizontal angles.
2. Learn Eskrima at Home – Joint Locking
Even joint lock and grappling could be learned by the student by observing how the instructor removes a weapon out of the hands of his or her opponent. A joint lock takes place when a practitioner manipulates a joint unnaturally, twisting it beyond the motion range or placing a fulcrum under it, and pulling it on the reverse direction of the natural bend.
A practitioner can apply a lock on any joint such as the wrists, fingers, shoulders, elbows, neck, knees, spine, and ankles. He or she can do the strangulation using a stick, soda bottle, or his or her bare forearms. Furthermore, the practitioner gains proficiency by developing the physical attributes that would make these techniques more efficient like speed, coordination, strength, and sensitivity.
3. Using Secondary Weapons to Destroy the Limbs
If a practitioner knows the scientific foundation of FMA, it will widen the options of a practitioner whenever he or she needed it. For instance, the limb destruction concept (defanging the snake) can be interpreted using weapons or your bare hands. In this category, there are two ways to damage a limb; these are using strikes or joint manipulation.
According to modern medical science, Filipino Martial Arts chose limbs as main targets due to numerous reasons. A fractured bone caused by being hit with a blunt instrument poses a huge threat to nearby blood vessels and nerves depending on the break’s location.
Bone fractures can tear surrounding tissues and bodily structures causing hemorrhage. Even though the bone may survive the impact, and no external bleeding is observed, a direct blow on a large artery can rupture it, resulting in arterial blood to leak out. If left untreated, both condition can result in gangrene and may need amputation.
A skilled blade fighter is aware that he or she doesn’t need to stab the chest to kill a foe. Without immediate medical action, a knife slash that cut brachial arteries would cause hemorrhagic shock in only 15 seconds, as well as death in minutes.
A similar knife cut on the radial arteries would result in unconsciousness within 30 seconds, as well as death in a few. Lastly, the femoral arteries are lethal targets when slashed as well.
An Eskrima practitioner could destroy the upper limbs of his or her foe without using a blade or stick. The nerve-rich portion at the lower portion of the arms, the armpits, and the shoulders are lethal targets. The armpit zones are extremely vulnerable that using crutches improperly could damage the networks of nerves underneath it, resulting in paralysis on the wrist extensors and triceps.
Grappling in Filipino Martial Arts
Grappling that dislocate the shoulder may put pressure on the arm bone and the armpit nerves, paralysing a portion of that limb. Any strikes on the different areas of the arm could injure the radial, ulnar and median nerves that lie on that zone. The effect may vary from a pins-and-needles sensation to short motor dysfunction as well as permanent paralysis, depending on the blow’s force.
The FMA’s offensive mindset when needed, which likely hits instead of blocking, could be applied with or without using weapons. The move can be taken as stop-hitting or interception where you strike your foe dead on his track with a blade, a stick, your limbs, or a projectile.
Functional Applications of Secondary Weapons
The most excellent empty hand applications of Eskrima come from a mix of exceptional cover, angular footwork, and unique attack angles.
Footwork is very crucial when you are handling weapons where one strike can kill you instantly, and most Eskrima systems include effective triangular footwork that can be utilised in empty hand fights, which involves cutting as well as moving beyond your enemy’s range.
When a practitioner combines angular footwork with cover, it temporarily puts him or her in an extremely safe position from where he or she will attack.
Conclusion
In Filipino Martial Arts, the stick is just the extension of the arms. Something as trivial as a soda bottle can be deadly in the hands of a trained Filipino Martial Artist. Learn the Eskrima basics and you can use any weapon to your advantage.
