Page 40 - Martial Science Magazine February 2018 dig

Once the student starts using the “alive hand” as form
of striking other than defending, my father added
“BasKa” to the beginner curriculum which comes
from Baston y Kamot or Baston and punching
drill for offensive and defensive fighting.

In fighting, one does not only fight with
baston but should also be able to fight
with or without weapons. My fa-
ther favors the use of punch-
ing and kicking which lead
later as scoring system in
local San Diego tourna-
ments such as Tri-State
Classic hosted by
GM Mike Fugate and
San Diego Grand In-
ternationals during
the FMA stick-fighting
divisions.

To avoid looking like WEKAF style
rules, our San Diego tournament
stickfighting rules were based on kumite
point based system and included punching & kicking
to score points within single round such as 12 point
must system within 5 minutes. Divisions were broken
into light, light heavy and heavy weapon, novice divi-
sion and later open-weapon division. The purpose of the
open weapon division was to include other weapon dis-
ciplines from other weapon-based martial arts using nun-
chukas, bo staff or bangkaw, shinai and tonfa.

Around the same time we start teaching empty hands, we
also supplement the baston was single edge weapons
commonly used in the Philippines like the bolo, pinuti or
any training edge weapon and also substitute the baston
with knife. Edge and tip awareness becomes important
as the student does not cut themselves, there is differ-
ence in the way you strike is not always the same as
striking with a stick.

The next weapon system that we teach is the bo
staff which is called bangkaw which is the visay-
an word for spear and in Tagalog it would called
“sibat”. In Kali which has no spear end it would be
called “belok”. Under Babao-Arnis, our bangkaw
system the weapon is held with two hand which is
referred to as bayonet grip. The appropriate height
for bangkaw is usually eyebrow level.

40 MARTIALSCIENCEMAGAZINE.COM