Effectiveness of FMA styles as self-defence

Been developing some serious interest in FMA lately and at my area the only alternative is Kombatan (from what I know - very well established clubs with the instructors travelling to Filippines frequently and also lots of seminars by guys from the mother country of the art and other high-quality FMA instructors (not necessarily always Kombatan).

Also besides the Kombatan club operates an art "modern mano mano" which is only considered to empty hand self-defence. It has all the empty hand tehcniques from Kombatan and it´s kind of an add-on art or a sister art to it.

Modern Mano is, as Kombatan created by GM Ernesto Presas too.

So what I wonder - do ppl here have experience about the street effectiviness of Kombatan? I mean it is mostly promoted as a self-defence art first and foremost and bearing this in mind - in Finland (where I live) we are not allowed to carry ANY things that can be qualified as weapons, not even small pocket knifes - nothing. Except if you have a very good explanation like you are going to train etc.

So - probably the best thing to do would be to learn both Kombatan (which in itself includes unarmed tehcniques yes) and Mano Mano since they are like a different sides of the same coin.

If there are practitioners of Kombatan here - feel free to comment on above, but what I actually really liked to hear, do some ppl here have stories to tell survivning violent encounters with their FMA learning?

I am just curious to hear. I do not doubt the effetiviness of FMA generally since they have been tested - and probably still are even in life/death situations countless times.

But would be interesting if anyone would have something to share?

Here some links of Mano Mano Presas Style and Modern Mano Mano;

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcqw-D5lun0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcqw-D5lun0[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Trxdi7beGQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Trxdi7beGQ[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C1rtore-Z0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C1rtore-Z0[/ame]

And here one a bit longer one which include both stick/weapon drills and mano mano

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQltqe2FFcE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQltqe2FFcE[/ame]

 

By the way your links do not show, just though I'd point it.

 

Thanks for your attention. I posted in a bit too hurry + I am not expert in using messageboards. They should show now.

 

Well it looks very twirly. From looking at the videos, I wouldn't go there to learn how to fight.

 

I have my serious doubts they teach you to twirl around in a real self-defence situation...Probably Wing Chun guys don´t teach you to sticky hands drill with attacker too nor karate ppl perform solo kata

Any Kombatan practitioners here?

 

"I mean it is mostly promoted as a self-defence art first and foremost and bearing this in mind - in Finland (where I live) we are not allowed to carry ANY things that can be qualified as weapons, not even small pocket knifes - nothing. Except if you have a very good explanation like you are going to train etc."

"I have my serious doubts they teach you to twirl around in a real self-defence situation"


So if it's promoted as a self-defense art, why would they focus on twirling if it wasn't part of what they're selling?

 

If it is good then it is good, twirly or not.

 

In my opinion, there is only one twirl in FMA. When someone gets past your stick and attacks, and you have to twirl the stick to get it between you and the stick. They can keep all that baton twirling. Of course I'm only 20 sessions deep into the stick work at this point but it doesn't keep me from having strong opinions.

 

Just because a system twirls does not mean it is ineffective and if you cant see past what looks just like twirling then your missing the point, not only does twirling train the arms and wrists, it is also used to change direction mid flow, to knock peoples weapons out of the way to clear the target and a whole host of other things.

Yes there are some people who twirl because it looks pretty and good luck to them, but they may as well join the majoretes, but there are others who understand why it is done and what advantages it can give you.

Simply sticking to caveman strikes is all well and good but it can also be a limitation and be a disadvantage too in some respects, understanding how to apply both twirling combined with caveman can give you a distinct advantage and understanding.

Dont knock it until you understand why it is done.

As for the effectiveness of the empty hand techniques of FMA (including twirling based techniques), well it served me well both on the streets and on the doors of nightclubs and bars.

Best regards

Pat

 

Twirly Cavemen- Neanderthals doing rythmic gymnastics?

What I thought was flowery was some unnecessary spinning and turning one's back to the opponent.They were just playing,of course.

Was kinda surprised at the amount of higher elevation kicking if it truly is "mostly promoted as a self-defence art first and foremost" .

 

Hope I'm not twirly (too early) with this! :fight1:

While I don't personally like systems that 'twirl' too much, I can see the self-protection benefit of using twirls to keep someone out of range or similar with multiple attackers. Then stop twirling and hit 'em 'ard! :woo:

 

Twirly-wirlies...

Arco 6 count.

This very basic drill is not easy to execute. The golden maxum I was taught, was TURN the stick i.e. no zorro trirly-wirly stuff, but always away from you, TOWARDS the opponent.

Recently tried this with a saber, instantly much, much better. Sometimes the stick seems to be too easy to fall into twirly-wirly factor, but the saber really forces you to work harder and use your whole body AND your wrists i.e. its heavier and sharp.

Just my 2pence worth.

 

Twirly is ok, all FMA's are twirly. At least it is strengthening your wrists. I want to say couple of words about the videos. Ernesto Presas is really great, I saw him first time and I highly impressed. He is fast, agile, coordinated and very confident of what he is doing. Still, he is twirling. Non of above I can say about Finnish guys. It looks to me they simply never fought, I wonder have they had any sparrings? Set aside the "aliveness", their technique just poor.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcqw-D5lun0"]YouTube- Modern Mano Mano Finland[/ame]

0:22 - guy doesn't even know what to do with his own hands. 0:47, 0:52 - these are not kicks of instrutor claiming to teach how to defend oneself on the street. Girl doing some shoto-kan style high kicks, beautiful, but as far from FMA as from self-defence.

What is my point, if a proper man (Ernesto Presas for example) doing mano-mano - it appears pretty workable, with or without twirling.

 

As an independent observer with a small amount of FMA exposure I found it interesting how the 'Dog Brothers' group developed there training days with 'stick grappling' as a means of testing their skills. I have the impression that they reflected on what they thought were effective techniques and decided to put it to the test. They do show alot of chutzpah and you can see where their stuff could be effective.

powchoy

 

Interested to see empty hand based "twirling techniques" , anyone got any youtube clips

 

No sarcasm intended, just like to see how twirling relates to emptyhand.
Just never seen an empty hand strike/ parry/ tap done with a bent wrist.