Informative Issue No. 52 2013

Bram FrankBram Frank

The BoloThe Bolo

History of the Bolo Combat Must Be Simple: Its Not Rocket Science! Biomechanical Cutting: De-animation of the Opponent Biomechanical Target Zones Abecidario: The Alphabet of the Angles of Attack Modern Arnis Strikings: Traditional Modern Arnis Blade Abecidario Walking the Cuts with a BOLO Application Demonstration The Truth in Using Sticks

Each issue features practitioners of martial arts and other internal arts, other features include historical, theo-retical and technical articles; reflections, Filipino martial arts, healing arts, the culture of the Philippines and other related subjects. The authors, publisher and owner of this online magazine are not responsible for any injury, which may result from the instructions contained in this online magazine. Before embarking on any of the physical activates described in the magazine, the reader should consult his or her physician for advice regarding their individual suitability for per-forming such activity. The ideas and opinions expressed in the FMA Informative online magazine are those of the authors or instruc-tors being interviewed and are not necessarily the views of the publisher, editor or owner of the FMA Informative. The articles are the property of the author’s that wrote them and cannot be used without the permission of the author. The FMA Informative is for the promulgation and promotion of the Filipino martial arts and the Culture of the Philippines. NO issue can be printed and Sold for Monies, without the express permission of the Owner and Publisher of the FMA Informative.

The FMA Informative is fortunate to have Grandmaster Bram Frank share some of his knowledge on the Bolo. An elite professional practitioner he shared his program “Learn in 6 - Teach in 12” which was the 2nd issue of the FMA Informative. If you have not seen it, it’s highly suggested you download it. Usually the FMA Informative says something about whoever they are featuring in an issue, however we at the FMA Informative think you should check out his book “Conceptual Modern Arnis” to really learn about Grandmaster Frank and realize the vast knowledge that he has.

Further information and to Order: Click HereAssisting Grandmaster Frank with the demonstration photo’s in this issue are: Amy Chittenden Kirschner, Protégé #1 to Bram Frank / Daughter #2, Senior Student CSSD Conceptual Arnis & Modular Tactical and Sonia M. Waring, Personal Business Director of Grandmaster Bram Frank, Protégé Modular/Combat Arnis Latin American Director, CSSD/SC Advanced Instructor: Women’s Self Defense and CRMIPT - Gunting - Modular Knife.Common Sense Self Defense/ Street Combat (CSSD/SC) is a tactical combat art based

on the Filipino martial art of Modern Arnis as developed and Founded by the late Professor Remy Presas. Bram Frank the Founder of CSSD/SC is a first generation student of the late Professor Presas, a Senior Master of the style recognized as such here and in the Philippines. CSSD/SC Arnis-Modern Arnis is the only Filipino style officially recognized in the country of Israel. Bram’s style of Knife use is used by many groups in Israel, where he teaches the yearly Knife Counter Knife camp: The Commandments of Steel. Through Dr. Dennnis Hanover, the Founder of Dennis Survival Ju Jitsu who is recognized as the Father of Modern Israeli Combat, Bram was recognized as “the Father of Israeli Knife Combatives” .He owns several knife design patents and utility patents and his newest knife was awarded “Tactical Knife of the Year 2007” at IWA. Bram’s knives are in use in many theaters of combat, Security work and simple Self Defense Response situations in the real world. Bram is the Chief edged weapons Instructor at the S2 Institute and CIS Security Company out of Clearwater Florida where security, military and Law enforcement receive new and or ongoing education as well as Security Teams that deploy around the world..He and his team are available for seminars, private lessons or team training.Grandmaster Bram Frank: Many times observers have asked me, “Are you sure you do Modern Arnis?” “What you do doesn’t look like the Modern Arnis I’ve seen.” “ Modern Arnis is twirling sticks and that Seniwalley stuff!” Many years ago Graciela Casillas was teaching a seminar with me for the first time and as I taught she’d pull me aside and ask “ Ok what is this really? Are you sure it’s Modern Arnis? I’ve seen those guys who claim to do Modern Arnis and this isn’t like that” “Bram, what style is this really?” I always respond to all statements like that in the affirmative. “It’s Modern Arnis... Of course I do Professor’s art”. “ I do Modern Arnis… I have no idea what others are doing, but YES I do Modern Arnis. In Modern Arnis translation and innovation are everything. One needs to understand where Modern Arnis origi-nally came from and where it’s going. Modern Arnis embodies the conceptual core of Filipino fighting arts. The understanding of the conceptual use of those arts is the goal of those that study the art. It is the art within the art. The soul of Filipino fighting is the blade. The soul of Modern Arnis is the blade as well.

Download Click Here

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© Copyright 2012 Bram Frank, all rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

History of the BoloAndrea Bonifacio and the Katlpunan used the Bolo knives to secure the freedom of the Philippines from Spain in the 1890’s.WWII made the hidden Filipino martial art of the bolo came to public light as many were taught to defend the Philippines using their native large knife!

The Bolo is a Long Knife not a Short Sword: it is Filipino Freedom in Steel

A Bolo is a long knife not a short sword. There are two types of bolos, agricultural and “Fighting Bolos”. Agricultural bolos are like machetes with wide broad blades that sometimes widen towards the tip to give extra weight and mass where the impact zone is. Since the mate- rial being cut by an agricultural bolo is usually fibrous, woody or vegetative this shape, like that of a classic machete is a typically effective design. There are Bolos made that have Bowie style ends, cutlass ends and all sorts of blade configurations. “Jungle Bolos” or “Fighting Bo-los” have none of these features. A “Fighting Bolo” has a very nar-row tip, is light and fast, with a thin profile to the blade allowing it to be used for cut and thrust as well as lightening quick cuts with its long edge. They usually have a slight distal taper and they have a point that rests at or below the center line of the handle: assuring making point, tip rips and an acute cutting edge from tip to heel. Most “Jungle Bolos” or “Fighting Bolos” have a thicker spine or back of the blade and are usually as in frontier knives (basic very sturdy ex-tremely sharp knives used by the frontiers-men of the old West)

ground into a flat grind sometimes originating from the spine or the midpoint of the blade. The late Professor Remy Presas was from the Visayans specifically the island of Occiden-tal Negros. Grandmaster Cristino Vasquez, the late Grandmaster Leo Giron, Grandmaster Leo Gaje, Grandmaster Nene Tortal, the late Grandmaster Sony Umpad and others known for their Bolo and blade work come from this same region of the Philippines. Most of the Bolos from there and the words have the prominent “birds head” butts and brass fitting fer-rules and guards. The blades are full tang and terminate outside the rear of the birds head. These Bolos have been used throughout the Spanish rule and occupation till modern times to gain ensure the freedom of the Filipino people. The Bolo gained modern fame during WWII with the fighting actions of the Filipino Bolo Bat-talions in the jungles against the

Japanese invaders: they were feared by the Japanese for their intense close quarter blade work, effectively negating the Japanese sword. Professor Presas’ father, un-cle and grand- father Leon taught the Bolo battalion and others in the use of combative bolo: it was from them he learned the art of the bolo and what would become known as the Presas style bolo.Wikipedia: Bolo: A bolo is a large cutting tool similar to the machete, used particularly in the jungles of Indonesia, the Philippines, and in the sugar fields of Cuba. The primary use for the bolo is clearing vegetation, whether for agriculture or during trail blazing. The bolo is called an itak in Tagalog while in Hiligaynon, the blade is referred to as either a binangon or a talibong. Bolos are also used as military weapons and as such they were a particular favorite of the Filipino

resistance during the 1898 Philippine Revolution against Spain, the Philip-pine- American War, and the Commonwealth period. Since the bolo was first used as a farming im- ple-ment, it was used in combat because during colonial times the ubiquitous bolo was readily available to the

common person. For this reason the study of the bolo is common in Filipino martial arts, such as Balintawak, Pekiti-Tirsia Kali and Modern Arnis. The failed assas-sination attempt by Carlito Dima-hilig on Imelda Marcos on Decem-ber 7, 1972 was done with a bolo. She still bears the scars on her arms. Bolos are characterized by having a native hardwood han- dle, a full tang, and by a blade that both curves and widens, often consider-ably so, at its tip. This moves the centre of gravity as far forward as possible, giving the knife extra mo-mentum for chopping vegetation. So-called “jungle bolos”, intended for combat rather than agricultural work, tend to be longer and less wide at the tip. Bolos are a unique type of bladed weapon/tool. They aren’t swords nor are they short swords, they are really a large knife, just larger than most people expect. Bo-los are like most knives or blades shrouded within historical context and filled out with public percep-tions and imagery. People imagine and expect Bowie knives to be the size of field knives or medium hunting knives with a classic post WWII shape: the typical clip point blade with the tip sometimes at a sweeping high point compared to the middle line of the blade. When people see a “real” frontier Bowie (most actually made by Sheffield of England in the early 1700’s - 1800’s) or the classic fighting Bowies of James Black, Rezin Bowie or the like they exclaim that’s not a Bowie knife. They are long bladed, mostly flat ground, with a distal taper and the clip is a severe “drop clip” drop-ping the point of the knife to the middle or lower than middle of the blade. The guards are large to

protect the hands and the handles designed to hold the knife securely in one’s hand yet allowing quick movement. The blades and knives themselves are not slow clunky hunks of metal but light, fast and sharp. Bill Bagwell, Wendell Fox, Rob Patton are modern day Bowie makers and their Bowies reflect this “fighting Bowie” standard: and clearly respect and reflect the fighting Bowie of old. One glance shows a striking similarity to the “fighting Bolos/Jungle Bolos” of the Philippines. Clearly the “fighting bolo/Jungle Bolo” like a fighting Bowie is de- signed and purpose driven as a tool for self defense and use as a weapon against one’s mortal enemies. With President Marcos’s “Modern Society” after WWII, many variations of Arnis and the use of bladed weapons were forbidden or discouraged. Since the Bolo is a representation of the fighting spirit of the Philippine people against tyranny and injus-tice, and its symbol greater than the tool, and with an eye to stop-ping patriotic rebellion or simple uprising, use of knives, Bolos and swords were unwelcome in Presi-dent Marcos’ regime and version of history. Because of this influ-ence the use of the Bolo has lan-guished in modern interpretations of Arnis / Kali / Eskrima: many assume since they know the way of the stick that a simple exchange of tools is sufficient to know the art of the Bolo and therefore don’t bother to learn or explore the art of the bolo, and instead of the knowl-edge growing in its base, it slowly recedes from the forefront of use and understanding. The problem lies within the art of Arnis/Kali/Eskrima itself for the art is a con-ceptual art based on principles of

motion and in some ways and in essence those that claim to know Bolo through use of a stick are conceptually correct: except in ev-ery physical way they are wrong. A bladed weapon is unlike an impact weapon: their use and function are at extreme opposites of the spec-trum, one smashing into an object the other separating the object through the act of cutting. These are diametrically opposed actions. The form used in these conceptu-ally alike motions is also radically different from each other because a stick or impact tool lacks a leading edge. The axiom in stick work is to imagine that the edge of one’s blade (be it sword, bolo or knife) is aligned with one’s second set of knuckles even though one is holding a round or oval stick in one’s hand. This is approximately correct in actual positioning of the tool/weapon within the hand itself except the stick motion is then carried out with an imagined blade and in that motion one commits the mistake all make: the impacting of an edged tool onto another’s edge. With a stick this motion resounds, BAM, the sticks hit and the prac-titioner moves into the next strike and one can continue whatever Filipino martial arts drill is in use, banging edge to edge while think-ing and deluding one’s self that one is actually learning and practicing the art of the blade. Nothing could be further from the truth! All one is learning is how to damage one’s blade, ruin one’s edge and possibly break one’s blade. The most impor-tant part of a bladed weapon/tool is the edge, for a bladed weapon /tool is a wedge used as a matter separator, with the matter going up both sides of the wedge, separated by the wedge and the length of the

Asparagus knives - Asparagus knives (top) were used by the Filipinos to practice their art in secret while working in the fields cutting asparagus. A typical “jungle” bolo

(bottom) that was used in WWII. Its blade was about 15-17 inches long with an overall length of 24 inches or so.

edge is doing the actual cutting of the matter that gets separated. An axiom of blade use is the longer the edge is in con- tact the deeper the cut. When a sword or blade is made the spine and the sides are softer than the edge. A good blade should bend up to 60 degrees out of true and return to true when the bending force is released. The spine and flat of the blade can absorb the incoming attack without ruining the edge and can in the act of blocking do possible damage to the attacker’s edge. This is where Palis Palis and Abaniko come from: the passing of an incom-ing attacking blade with the spine or the flat of the blade bringing

the blade’s edge into play for the counter attack. There is no edge to edge blocking for that would bring the thinnest, hardest parts of the blade, the edges into each other and something would have to give. One could crack a blade, chip a blade, cause micro fractures or fractures in the blade or actu-ally snap a blade where any of the above mentioned could cause ones blade to fail and be severely injured or killed. Another difference be-tween the teachings of the stick and the blade is the capturing of the opponent’s tool. This is much more easily accomplished with the impact tool where one can let the tool be trapped by one’s own body

or body parts or simply grabbed with one’s own hand. One cannot do any of those simple trappings with a bladed tool for the tool will cut the good guy as quick as the bad guy: don’t let the edge of the blade touch anything you don’t want it to cut. All blocking and trapping must be done with the flat of one’s own blade, especially in contact with one’s own body, contact with the opponents tool can only be with flat of their tool and all trapping of the opponent’s tool must be owns own hand on their hand: anything else could lead to loss of fingers hand arm or other parts.

Combat Must Be Simple: Its Not Rocket Science! Combat must be simple. During a confrontation memory gives way to instinct which quick-ly de-evolves into the animal response of survival. Detail work and fine motor skills quickly vanish leaving only gross motor skills to remain. With this duress induced deterioration is the com-bined syndromes of time distortion and tunnel vision: both accompany the physical deterioration of skills. Colonel Rex Applegate one of the fathers of modern close quarter combat stressed these facts during his lifetime. After many years of personal experience in actual combat and the subsequent train-ing of soldiers for that combat, people such as the late Colonel Re x Applegate came upon certain truths that are considered true principles of combat. He advo-cated simplicity, directness, atti-tude, targeting, and use of weapons on a sliding scale from possession of weapons down to empty hand.

(A situation he advised was to be avoided at all costs!) Martial artists take a dim view of Colonel Applegate for they are conditioned to believe that their techniques or tricks will always work on an opponent. Empty hand will win over any adversary including one with a weapon and believe the axiom “Karate” the art of empty hand comes from the warriors. It was developed to fight other warriors who are using weapons. Proper martial art technique can and will predominate over an armed oppo-nent. This myth prevails, contin-ues, and is self perpetuating. Some instructors teach martial arts techniques that they say will be the cure all for combative situa-tions. Some are glib enough to try to say that these things actually work in military combative situa-tions. This is a sure way to add death, destruction and insult to those brave men in uniform. Other

current day “Grandmasters” actually advocate restraint holds that they claim will allow an average citizen or student of the arts, to stop an enraged attacker. Others claim that grappling will be the answer. Ever grapple with full “battle rattle” on? Locking up an opponent with a joint lock, BE-FORE the opponent has been disabled is almost fantasy. A few current self-defense instructors with real time experi-ence advocate a true old fashioned method. Intercept the attack, “Destroy” the limb, trap the limb or opponent, then joint lock them. This is a serious street effective way to locking up an opponent. The opponent is rendered inca-pable of response and then taken out. It almost works on the street. And the art of joint locking, grap-pling or restraint is a last resort to be used on one’s opponent in Modern combat or interpersonal physical conflicts on the battlefield.

Why almost? I say almost because of the reality of duress in combat. Human beings have a three speed brain and a two speed body. At the top level humans have high speed low drag fine motor thoughts and skills, at the second level there is Complex thoughts and skills, and at the lowest level Gross motor thought and skills: below that is fetal compliance, non functionality. Most martial arts function is done with fine motor thought and fine motor skills. Mix a bit of stress, duress, adrenalin, accelerated heart rate and fear into the mix and we lose our ability to think fine thought or perform fine skills. The big rub is that with training, Mar-tial artists can drop from fine motor skills to only the next level down: Complex thought. Complex level is where problems arise. As our minds drop down a level so do our physical skills and ability to func-tion. Unfortunately while our minds are three speed our bodies are two speed, so what we have is the ability from training to know what we should do only our bodies won’t let us. And of course one needs to add into the mix the unfortunate reality of empty hands do not defeat tools. If they did soldiers would not carry weapons! People are tool users. And combat rein-forces many truths and destroys many urban myths of fighting. Reality says steel cuts flesh, sticks break bones, and bullets cause traumatic shock with exsanguina-tions. Instead of looking at com-bat, especially street combat as a living opportunity, some instructors of today try to teach learned re-sponses to spontaneous situations. “The attacker will do this, and then you respond with this!” Well that

line of reasoning doesn’t work, for while a student is doing the script taught to him /her from page three, the attacker hasn’t seen page three. More than likely the attacker has no idea that a script exists and while the student tries to mold the situation to fit page three as de-scribed by the instructor the attacker is adlibbing his way through. Spontaneity wins over a prerecorded response almost all of the time. Yes, there are a few exceptions to the rule and it’s these exceptions that are used to estab-lish the pre- recorded response rule for the masses. Certain martial artists can actually pull off what seems to be prerecorded responses to actual attacks. What is really happening is that these highly trained people are actually re-sponding a ½ beat to a full beat ahead in thought and action over the attacker. To the casual observer the martial artist is reacting with the known answer to a supposedly random attack but in reality the martial artist is acting to a stimulus not reacting. Simplicity is the key; especially with self defense on the street or street combat. Simplicity is all that exists in real combat. Mistakes in any form of combat do not lead to a simple loss, they lead to a loss of life or limb. In real combat tools are used. Tools exacerbate the situation for any mistake can become a lethal mistake. What has all this to do with the article you are reading about the Bolos use under duress? What has this to do with my innovation in teaching called modular? I want you to understand why what I’m going to show you is not rocket science. I want you to understand why it looks so simple.

As the Modern Arnis family, JKD clan and other self defense groups have discovered this is easier to say than to do. It takes constant practice, reality of training, perse-verance and a good amount of luck. Due to this fact, practitioners of any reality style stress that combat, especially street combat must be simple. Simplicity. It is a concep-tual understanding of the principles of combat. Is it teachable? My in-structor, the late Professor Remy Presas taught conceptually, for that was the best way to teach combat simply. Teaching combat a lot of times is the act of teaching basics to one group who then spread out and teach the same to others. Only con-cepts can be taught like this. Details cannot be taught en mass for we get what children call the “telephone game”. We start with the statement of the red cart pulled by a white horse and as the statement is retold as it goes around the room and it becomes the gilded chariot pulled by the purple dragon. So in interest of what one has taught one group staying the same over generations the information needs to be simple and conceptual. Professor Pre-sas, the Founder of Modern Arnis used to say after all these years of teaching and training that he is just beginning to understand the art and always asks his students: “Do you see? It is all the same. Do not make it too hard!” “See, it is all the same, the same difference. You can do this, or you can do that!” Profes-sor Presas and his family taught combative arts for use during the Guerrilla actions during World War II. Many have looked at Modern Arnis-Presas style Arnis and said “it looks too simple…” Professor wanted us to find the translations, the applications of the concepts, the core concepts of use and to under-stand its simplicity.

It has to be. Otherwise one could never do it under duress, when the bad guy is really trying to kill you, when guns are blaring, people screaming, bombs exploding in the background: it’s CHAOS. It’s been said you can tell a Master of Martial arts by their understanding of footwork. This holds true in combat as well. In combat it’s very simple: “Don’t be there”, not don’t be in combat but don’t be in line with the attack. For example look at a firearm. It’s a projectile weapon that uses a straight line. The best defense is not to move your hands but to get yourself off the line of fire. This is amazingly similar to the basic rules of Stick fighting in Arnis and combative Sword work: move off line of the attack first. It is the exact opposite of sport movement. In Sport my hand moves first and my body follows. Basically it is the same in Dueling. But not in combat: in combat my body moves and my hands follow. Before you get too upset with that statement try doing this with a protective vest on, with “battle-rattle” on, with armor on, or with full Law Enforcement or military gear covering your body. One can’t move one’s arms because of the gear, nor reach across one’s own body so the basic rule of survival is move off line. There’s another factor in stepping off line, its something that one can do at a gross motor skill level. As baby’s we learned to step, as toddlers we did multiple steps for balance and as adults we use stepping all the time. Not sliding, not skipping, not pivoting, not hopping, not drag steps, but actual stepping. Stepping can save your life and move your body out of harm’s way. One’s body is slow; one’s hands are fast,

move the body and the hands make up the difference in time! Our arms do move and some of the simplest moves duplicate themselves as either defensive or offensive movements. One of the most basic moves is from an open position to a closed position. The way our bodies are built this is a downward diagonal. Yes I know you can train yourself to keep your arms up, but it is natural to go from high outside position to a low inside (across one’s body) the next motion is bringing the arm back to an open position, a horizontal motion. And of course protect one’s head, a vertical motion that everyone can do and does. If we couldn’t in-stinctively bring our hands up and protect our heads there would be no people. Of course it is also a basic hammering motion. It is a survival skill. Old style Combative Sword schools and Arnis practitio-ners recognize these motions as a simple drill called Sumbrada: Shadowing. It has survived all these years and across different cultures that use bladed weapons because of its simplicity and usefulness. That means anyone can do it. When I teach Security teams or Military I simply call it 1-4-12: 1 a downward diagonal motion, 4 a horizontal motion and 12 a vertical motion. It is an offensive and defensive set of gross n motor skills. I need one more image to be held onto. The image is that of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. King Arthur cuts off the black knight’s limbs one by one till only a torso is left and the black Knight calls out to King Arthur “It’s only a flesh wound, come closer so I can bite you”. Human beings have three

major weapons: two arms and one leg. Yes, one leg because cut off or injure a leg and a person is a gimp, no kicking, no moving no balance. Cut or hurt one arm and the other is still a threat. Just like in old days of the knights it’s very hard almost impossible to armor completely one’s arms and legs because one needs to be able to move them. Bodies can be armored. Bodies are not a threat, but hands and arms are. Cut limbs, such as hands and arms cannot hold weapons, set off bombs, pull triggers making them the primary targets. By the way the goal is not to kill bad guys but incapacitate them and if they are enemy combatant’s we want them alive but injured, for injured soldiers need several others to take care of them: dead ones are just left where they lie. Remember we are bio–mechanical creatures: we have cable operated pulley systems with a hydraulic fluid pressure system. Our muscles and connec-tive tissue are the cables, our joints are the pulleys and our blood and internal fluids are the hydraulic system. Cut the cables, no motion, cut the hydraulic lines, pressure drops and motion stops. Note that hidden within the cable system is the electrical wiring we call nerves. Bio-mechanical stoppage really is stoppage! Most people don’t under-stand the most effective way to use an edged tool is what medically is considered a non lethal use. People like to mix apples and oranges and talk of the overall class of force of the situation as ultimately the title of the class of force used. It is understood that use of a tool such as a knife is a lethal force situation in general. Legally it is a lethal force tool and a lethal force situa-tion, but the optimum use of the

edged tool is that it is used to severe or completely cut the cables that make the system work rather than to try to terminate the system. People are actually hard to kill: we bend, spindle, break, and cut very easily. For example cutting across the bad guys biceps will not imme-diately kill him/her but it will effectively shut down the use of the arm. No arm, no ability to continue to attack or harm anyone.OK, now we’re ready to rock. What are perspectives within using a bolo or edged tool in martial arts or combat? Perspec-tives are a way to look at things. Artists understand that there is a primary point of perspective within a painting and many other perspec-tives or points of view to visualize what goes on within a painting. It can be traditional like DaVinci or eclectic like Picasso... take the statue of David by Michelangelo: it can only be viewed from one perspective to give the illusion of strength and nobility. Viewed from the wrong perspective, David is not only out of proportion but lacks beauty and nobility .Perspec-tive is everything! In Martial arts that Point of view or Perspective changes slightly with each combi-nation be it which limb is involved or what is in the limbs grasp. In combat the relationship of one op-ponent to another has only 16 total possibilities. When we are talking of perspectives of position we have only 4 possibilities. We are talking of each person’s natural position.#1) Standard Position: A good guy

right hander against a bad guy right hander. #2) Backwards Position: A good guy left hander to a bad guy right hander, #3) Mirror Image Position: A good guy left hander to a bad guy left hander. #4) Backward Backwards Posi-tion: Good guy right hander to a bad guy left hander Combat must be simple. How we look at Combat must be simple. Simplicity works under duress! Anything more is frivolous at best and fatal at worst! Therefore when two people face off with edged weapons, there aren’t thousands of possibilities of how they face each other before engagement. We have only four basic perspectives: Standard (right to right), Backward (left to right), Mirror Image (left to left) and “Backward backwards” (right to left). Most of the world is right handed; it’s about 89% right now. We are physically designed to easily go from an open position to a closed: therefore what is com-monly called a #1 strike in many arts especially in Arnis. It is the most common strike, coming from one’s right side downward diago-nally to one’s left side. The second easiest strike and the return motion to a number #1 is a horizontal mo-tion from left to right, from closed to open position called a Number # 4. The last strike used naturally in this basic sequence is a downward vertical, from basically cover one’s head which we call a number #

12. Since a #1 attack is the bio-me-chanically easiest to do, we learn to defend it first. When the attacker cuts a number # 1 attack, we step up with one’s right foot; intercept the attack with our blade. We stop the attack with our blade, and then we make use of the edge and draw it through the target. The longer the edge is in contact the deeper the cut. We use the same #1 motion to intercept the incoming #1 attack and cut the hand, wrist or arm, check it with our non weapon hand and counter with a #4 cut to the leg or hip flexors. To stop the #4 attack, we step back with our right and with our non weapon hand intercept the attack, below the arm. And then bring the knife to the attackers hand and cut the attack-ing fingers off, countering with a #12 vertical attack. To Stop the #12 attack, step up right and raising the knife intercept the attack. Here’s where some of the trained people make the big mistake. They check behind the blade rather than under the blade. If one checks behind the blade or the common “roof block” and a struggle or panic motion occurs, one cuts one’s own wrist, arm or hand. If one inserts ones hand under one’s own weapon arm, even in panic the motion of “um-brella” clears the knife away from one’s own hand. In umbrella one is moving the knife edge up and the checking hand down: both mo-tions move away from each other with no intercepting points in the motion. From this point a number #1 is the counter and of course the learning drill repeats itself.

Biomechanical Cutting: De-animation of the Opponent

Biomechanical cutting means to stop all mechanical function of the body. It does not mean to end or cease the func-tioning of the body or terminate its life. Street combat needs bio-mechanical cutting to achieve its ends while military combat needs to stop not only bio-mechanical function but in most cases termi-nation of the unit in general. The goal of bio-mechanical cutting in street combat is to stop a body’s mechanical function. If one stops the mechanical function of one’s opponent several things become clear in combative reality:

• The threat of attack is removed. If one’s opponent cannot make a physical action happen then the opponent’s desire or intent doesn’t matter • The opponent’s mobility is gone. One’s escape can be imple-mented. The opponent cannot follow. • The opponent’s condition is a deterrent to others wanting to take similar action • Drugs, alcohol, lack of pain, great strength or other mitigat-ing factors, which might help an opponent in aggressive street combat, are negated and become moot. • Legal ramifications are kept to a minimum: Death is hard to reconcile

The human body is basi-cally a complex mechanical unit. There is a frame work, an interior structure that maintains form, and function with tissue that connects the pieces and connective tissues the extend or contract the pieces.

There are fuel lines, lubricants, and a complex electrical system with on board computer hook up. By interfering with any of these systems, the mechanical unit shuts down. Cutting any of these connections, joints or electrical pathways damages the unit till it can be surgically repaired. Cutting is the imperative word here for percussive striking may or may not do damage. One can suppose or speculate on percussive damage by theory or by inferred results but cutting is different. Every one cuts and bleeds. Steel cuts flesh. Sever-ing living flesh and the working human mechanical system bring obvious results. Humans are very easy to in-jure, maim, and destroy parts of rather than terminate. The human body and spirit are very resilient and that resiliency keeps people who should have died from their wounds alive and fighting. Emer-gency rooms are full of should have died patients. War heroes are given posthumous citations for somehow surviving an attack and then saving others and killing the enemy before expiringthemselves. This makes combat very complex! One could deliver a “death” blow and as one waits for one’s opponent to die, the opponent somehow manages to counterstrike and deliver his own death blow back at one. Tie score. Both die. This is an unacceptable combative solution. In combat therefore, instead of looking to terminate the opponent with no biomechanical cessation of function, one should “destroy”

the opponent’s operating system then terminate the opponent as the progression builds. In street combat that option does not ex-ist. If one terminates an opponent one can end up in jail or in court or both. Therefore biomechanical cutting is of utmost importance in street combat. Without terminating one’s opponent, one stops all pos-sibility of threat or aggression by stopping the opponent from func-tioning. Just like the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail. The Black Knight has both arms and legs cut off by King Arthur and the hopping torso keeps yelling, “Come on! It’s only a flesh wound. Come closer so I can bite you!” King Arthur rides off into the sunset. Important: many people will gladly tell one that lethal force is allowed to be met with lethal force and “Don’t worry, In a court of law jus-tice will prevail!” Only on paper, in certain circumstances, with cer-tain people involved, is lethal force the accepted response to lethal force. Worse yet, those that would judge one for using lethal force, a jury of one’s peers, is never of one’s peers and they are truly the common people with nothing in common with the one they judge.If one’s opponent or opponent’s family doesn’t file criminal charges, the state may file criminal charges for one’s ethical self-de-fense actions that aren’t socially or legally acceptable. If one beats the criminal charges the same groups may file civil charges.

Biomechanical Target Zones: Pulling the Plug!

Note: Humans have a reflex of looking at our injuries. Humans go into some form of fetal position upon shock or injury: contrac-tion rather than expansion. Intent does not count with biomechani-cal cutting. The opponent may have intent or the most will power in the world but function is func-tion: if the parts don’t work all the prayer, wishing or swearing will not make them work again until surgically repaired. This is not an anatomy lesson. There are many more muscles involved than those mentioned. There are many nerves and circulatory vessels involved. This is to show why biomechanical cutting works at the simplest Level to understand.The Fingers, Hand and Forearm: The Filipino’s call it de-fanging the snake, or breaking the snake’s teeth, Sword-fighters of old called it “disarming” (liter-ally!) and there are many cultures that used the concept of attack the attacking weapon. This is the first strike that one can apply to one’s opponent for the opponent willing-ly brings the weapon toward one’s defensive zone.

• Cutting the fingers of one’s op-ponent usually stops an attack. Fingers house lots of nerves, ligaments and tendons and if damaged, fingers cannot be used till they are surgically repaired. Fingers are no bigger than chick-en legs and can easily be broken or cut off. • Cutting the hand back or front can stop function. Cutting the back extensors can cause severe damage and bleeding and stops the fingers from opening. Cutting the front or palm of the hand will cut flexors causing severe dam-

age and forces the hand to open. There is a lot of meat that can be cut including the opposing digit, the thumb.

Note: cutting the thumb can end the use of the hand immediately until the thumb is surgically re-paired. Fingers don’t work well without an opposing digit to hold them in place.The Forearm: Has Many Target Areas Unto Itself and is an Easy Zone to Reach.

• Cutting the muscles on the out-side of the forearm cuts the ex-tensors, which uncurl or extend the fingers. The nerve functions that control grasping are located on the outside as well. Catching a cut up by the elbow and pull-ing down toward the thumb can send a fillet over the opponent’s hand. The fillet may go down to the bone. • Cutting the inside forearm con-tains the ateries and main nerves that control the wrist and the fist.

Severing the nerves and /or the muscles will cause the flexors, which keep the hand closed not to work, or will destroy the needed nerve impulses to accomplish the same function. Fillets can be cut from the inside of the forearm as well as the outside forearm.The Middle Arm: Biceps and Tri-ceps are Only Big in the Gym.

• The function of the biceps other than to look great is to pull the lower arm to the upper arm. Cutting either of the heads of the muscle, the belly of the muscle or picking pieces out of the biceps impairs the function. When the biceps don’t work, the

arm will not contract or the lower forearm cannot be raised to an upright position. With the biceps cut or impaired it is easy to get an opponent to give the classic straight arm as used in arm bars or elbow breaks. • The Triceps extend or straighten the arm. Cutting, picking pieces out of or impairing the triceps gives one an opponent with the lower arm contracted against the upper arm. This is the classic position for enacting the classic gooseneck locking.

The Upper Arm: Shoulder: Tra-pezium, Deltoids and the Chest As one works one’s way up the arm it is easy to access the shoulders. Cutting the anterior Deltoid (the one that faces front) and the lateral deltoid (the one that makes shoulders look so good) stops the function of rotation of the arm as well as horizontal adduction of the arm. Cutting the back deltoid stops extension of the arm. The junction of the arm and torso has the connection of the chest or pec-toral muscles. The insertion point is the upper arm. Cutting these muscles at the junction stops ad-duction, horizontal adduction and rotation of that arm. Cutting the Trapeziums (the muscles that give one that powerful look from neck to shoulder) stops upward rotation of the arm as well as lifting of the arm.Note: Working one’s way up the arm one could cut the deltoid or the external pectorals or even higher, one could cut the trapezium muscle to impair function. There is no need to cut the torso of the op-ponent. One might need to justify one’s cutting actions in a Court of Law before a Judge and Jury.

Everyone has cut a finger or a toe, most have gotten cut hands, and some have even got-ten cut arms…people can relate to that. No one can relate to being stabbed, organs pierced, bellies cut open, throats slit, or testicles cut off. For biomechanical cutting one cuts limbs only and the cutting is to IMPAIR function not to inflict lethal injuries or de-animation of one’s opponent. The legs and hips present another type but equally as good a target. Cut or impair the legs and /or the hips and mobility and bal-ance are functionally stopped. This includes the Gluteus Maximus or as commonly known as the butt. Before I start this section I need to state the obvious. Mobility is paramount in self-defense and in most physical situations. The quar-terback of the Miami Dolphins, Dan Marino stepped back and popped his Achilles tendon. End of Marino’s mobility, boom onto the turf. Pick any Football, Soc-cer, Basketball or Baseball player that pops a leg muscle and see how well they move; they don’t move at all and get carried off the field. These are tough, conditioned, professional athletes and they drop like sacks of potatoes. Kick boxers routinely target the legs. Benny the Jet stopped many opponents with leg kicks and in the early days of the PKA-WKA many Ameri-can fighter who ventured to fight overseas found out the hard way. Dead legs mean no mobility: End of fight. Ever get a shot in one’s butt from let’s say a nurse “Ratch-et” and one cannot move one’s leg except in great pain with limited mobility? I have. On board ship, I was given a shot in my butt with a normal needle that felt like six

inches long and I couldn’t walk for several days… Actually there were several of us on the ship in that condition. All from a tiny needle stuck into the Gluteus Maximus.Legs: No Legs No Mobility Cutting the legs of an op-ponent works. Most people do not expect to be cut or hurt in their legs. Cutting legs stops one’s mo-bility and ability to balance. The perfect attacker / opponent is one lying on the ground still screaming “ I’ll get you, come closer so I can grab you and I’ll get you” Ah, the infamous scene from Monty Py-thon and the Holy Grail. King Ar-thur tries to go across a bridge and is challenged by the ultimate bad guy, the Black Knight. The Black Knight will not let King Arthur go by him to cross the bridge. They battle intensely. Arthur cuts off the Black Knight’s arms and legs and this torso keeps screaming at King Arthur to come closer so that he can bite him. King Arthur shrugs his shoulders and “rides” away across the bridge. It works like that in real life as well except the torso will not be screaming for one to come closer so that it can bite one.Upper Leg: Cutting, piercing, cut-ting pieces out of the opponent’s quadriceps (front) or hamstrings (back) immediately stop the ac-tion. Transitional cuts from arm to leg usually end up cutting the Sartorius. Cut the Sartorius andthere is no pick up of the leg, no flexion, no abduction, and no lateral rotation. Ever pull an old style shade and let it go? It rolls up very quickly. That’s what the Sartorius will do around the knee. Aim for the Sartorius and miss and

one hits the flexors and abductors of the hips. Cut these muscles and the legs pivot outward just like de-boning a chicken. An opponent with no legs is in no better posi-tion to advance on one and attack or counter attack, than someone in a wheel chair. Ok, that’s wrong! A person in a wheelchair can have mobility and an opponent with non- functioning legs has none!The Butt: Great Glutes! OK… it sounds very funny except when it’s your butt that got hurt. One of the largest muscle groups in the body is the Glutes. When the Glutes are incapacitated the body cannot move. Ask a foot-ball player who has torn a Glute. A hurt butt keeps him on the bench and off the field for many weeks. One needs the Glutes to be able to stand, move, walk, run and pivot. Poking the opponents butt with the tip of one’s knife can cause im-mediate stoppage of the opponent’s movement. Tip ripping with the knife and popping a snow cone divot out of an opponent’s butt will end the confrontation. The oppo-nent can still grab but the opponent cannot chase, run or stand. If that doesn’t finish the confrontation, then it can be a great opener to any other biomechanical cutting mo-tion. In a court of law, when it is pointed out by the attacker, that while in the act of attacking one, to mug, rape or rob, the attacker was hurt in his butt by the defender, (yes, see you’re smiling already!) the jury will be smiling because the situation seems funny. Again this is perception not reality but people in general have a hard time taking butt injuries seriously. Especially if it happens to the bad guy!The Knee: A Fragile Hinged Joint

The knee can take moder-ate amount of percussive abuse. Straight on the knee can absorb some impact, from the side the knee cannot take any substantial blunt trauma. Cutting the “knee” causes severe damage and bio-mechanically if the knee doesn’t work, the body stays in one place. The Quadriceps Femoris Group actually inserts below the knee and act to extend the knee joint. If any of them are cut the knee can-not bend nor can the hip flex. The Rectus Femoris is a quad muscle that actually crosses both hip and knee. It is readily accessible to a direct cutting motion. The thick cords felt behind the knee are actu-

ally the end of the hamstrings and they control extension of the hip, flexion of the knee and rotation of the knee. Cutting through these muscles takes little effort and is as simple as removing a chicken leg from the thigh. Cut the connecting tissue and nothing is there. This is what old time “hamstringing’ was; the cutting of the hamstrings at the bend of the knee.The Calf: Gastrocnemius Looks Great, Cuts Easily The Gastrocnemius or Gastro is Greek for “belly”. This muscle can act on the knee or the ankle separately but not simultane-ously. A cutting of this muscle will totally immobilize an opponent till

the muscle is surgically repaired. Ask Dan Marino. He stepped back to pass and the tendon ripped. No Achilles tendon, no movement. BOOM. All fall down!The Foot: Protected by the Shoes OK. So the opponent has shoes on, sneakers on (high tops no less), or boots. Stab right through the top of the shoe pinning the foot to the ground. Stab directly into the toes, injuring them or cutting them off. Ignore the foot and use the top edge of the sneaker or boot as a cutting guide and cut across the leg. What happens then? Go back and read the above section on calves. No feet, no movement, no mobility.

Abecidario: The Alphabet of the Angles of Attack

Angles? Angles like those where lines intersect? Like in a geometry class? Angles? Exactly, angles just like in geometry! Filipino martial arts such as Mod-ern Arnis use angles to understand motions of attack and defense. An angle #1 is a downward diagonal. An angle #5 is a straight-line center thrust. An angle #7 is an inverted thrust. These different angles of attack describe “universal planes of motion” which change in orientation and rotation in relation-ship to each other. The angles and planes of attack which fill a three dimensional space in front of and around a each person’s body are used as “universal planes of mo-tion”. These “universal planes of motion” become a sphere of attack and defense occurring in real time

space. The intersection points of these angles are the defensive planes of “motion”. These planes of motion are bounded by the person using them: principles of motion that work within the parameters of natural response of human bodies. Conceptual usage of these angles and planes of motions must be understood to allow for one to be in combative reality. At first glance, the Filipino martial arts sound like a geometry class. In reality the Filipino martial arts have a unique way of getting practitioners to understand the foundations of the art. All motions are tied to a basic alphabet of movement the Abecidario, the numbering system. A numbering system based in a conceptual format. Abecidario a conceptual

numbering system which shows the way to combative reality. Every style of Filipino martial arts has their own number-ing system. The numbers reflect the teacher’s conceptual ideas of important motion. Numbering systems though different usually embody the same planes of motion and the same angles even if the label on each angle is different from one style to the next. The difference in actual labels is the stamp of uniqueness between each style of Filipino martial arts in general. Some of the numbering systems believe that less is more; feed very basic motions and the practitioner will grow to under-stand these simple planes as the whole sphere of motion. Others give the practitioner every conceiv-

Note: Abecidario as a term itself has several translations and usage by many instructors. Some consider it the teachings of strikings with the counters included. Some consider it the feeding of unorganized strikes with or without counters. Some call the basics by the name Numerado: the feeding of strikes with foot-work. I personal-ly consider the additions of the counters part of Sumbrada or box drills. My reference to Abecidario as the basic alphabet is not meant as an insult to others that teach the meaning or translation as something different.

able angle and plane of motion to start with, each angle unique unto itself and allow the practitioner to fluidly use multiple angles that really express the basic planes of motion. More becomes less. Neither is better than the other just different approaches to the same study. How did the Filipinos of all the martial arts come up with such a unique way of teaching? What made the Filipinos decide that angular attacks were the best way to deal with teaching and learning while all other martial arts styles didn’t? The truth lies in the history of the Philippines itself. The Filipino people occupy a space in the world that allowed contact with many cultures. Traders, pirates, official navy vessels, invaders, and immigration brought them into contact with many cultures and styles of fighting. Many cultures gave to the Filipino way of life. Only one group of peoples coming to the Philippines would truly influence and meld with the native martial arts of the area. In Europe around 1100 AD to 1600 AD some of the best sword fighters in the world were the Spanish. They believed in the use of mathematics and the mysti-cism of the way of the sword. Of all the classical styles of sword work the Spanish used principals of motion and conceptual usage of those motions. They taught these motions. Not that others didn’t know these motions or concepts but the Spanish organized schools of swordplay. They were the embodiment and spirit of the true warriors. In the name of God and the Pope they set out to convert the world and bring home the riches to Spain.

Spain itself responded to this by making the warriors of god the Conquistadors. These warriors threw the Muslim warriors out of Spain and waged war for Spain for almost 200 years. Spanish swords such as those forged in Toledo, were some of the best swords in the world. Damascus was not just the domain of the Japanese. These swords were carried by the Span-ish soldiers and the Conquistadors all around the globe, and used in actual combat. Spanish steel tasted steel from other lands for centu-ries. Spanish methods of sword-play met sometimes losing, most of the time beating other styles of swordplay. Many countries like England were saved from the Spanish only by divine interven-tion, natural disasters which at the last minute devastated the invad-ing Spanish armadas as no human force had ever been able to do. Where the Conquistadors went the Spanish culture arrived. The Spanish came in force to the Philippines while trying to find their way around the world. The Spanish explorer Magellan came to the islands of the Philippines in the 1500’s and established a base of operations. Magellan himself died after a bloody encounter with the native Filipino warriors led by the Chieftain Lapu-lapu. Wherever the Spanish went they claimed the land as their own in name of the King, Pope and God. They brought with them their ideas and concepts of living and their cul-ture. A cultural point of view tempered by the fact that the Spanish culture was being spread its “supreme” warriors. Warriors that viewed combat reality as the way of survival and spreading the word of GOD and of Spain itself. They brought acclimatization of

Spanish culture with them. What the Spanish brought to the Filipino martial arts was a western approach to fighting. A style of fighting totally unlike that of the easterners. This style influ-enced even the Japanese through the person of Miyamoto Mushashi who had encountered and learned the art of double blade from the Spanish. ( yes, this is a radical thought but it has been discussed many times in recent histories) The sword was the soul of the warrior to the Spanish and many famous schools had been teaching the art of the blade for hundreds of years. Spanish fencing schools were famous throughout the world for teaching conceptual footwork and body movement. The edged weap-ons taught by the Spanish were the short sword, long swords, cut and thrust swords, rapiers, short sword and long sword, dagger and rapier, buckler and sword as well as saber and two handed swords. Over the years the secrets of movement and use of the sword as taught by the Spanish was sought out by anyone intersected in surviving edged weapons encounters. The Spanish literally wrote the book on the art of the sword. As with their sailing “rutters” or navigation books, Spanish fencing manuals were treasures that were bought, stolen and traded. They were then trans-lated into French, Italian, German and English The basic motions used in Spanish fencing are the angles of attack. “Universal planes of mo-tion”. Intersecting angles and planes. This is why no other eastern martial art offers angles of attack. They were not exposed to western fencing. The Spanish and others came and went to many eastern cultures but the Spanish

found the Philippines to be a center of transportation and a stopping point for their imperial navies. For over 350 years the Spanish “ruled” the lands of the Filipino people. During that time the Filipinos rebelled against the attackers constantly with each encounter bringing with it new insights. Contrary to popular myth, a lot of Filipinos absorbed and adjusted to the ways of the Spanish. Many Filipinos went to Spain to be educated and some went to the famous fencing schools that ex-isted at those times. Fencing masters came to the Philippines to teach and open schools. The cultures blended. War and oppres-sion make strange bedfellows and the ways of war merged. Western fencing using rapiers and cut and thrust swords was a serious affair, some people died others were maimed. Thou-sands gave their lives in personal duels and tens of thousands died in inter European warfare. Use of the blade was important with the competition between the use of the cut or the thrust rising to para-mount importance. Encounters with the blade were swift and deadly. Countering attacks made with over three feet of steel in-volved intersecting angles of the attack and immediate counter attack along the opened line. To establish this as a learned response the Abecidario was invented. Students at places like the famous Toledo fencing schools practiced cutting along charts on the walls with the 8 universal planes of motion on them. They practiced footwork on charts drawn on the floor depicting proper foot motion, stepping in quarters and triangular stepping. Disengagement’s, parries and counters were learned. Death

could come in an instant from attacks so responses were made instinctive. The Abecidario taught that the type of weapon wasn’t as important as the incoming angle of the attack. Learn to deal with the angles and the answer was appar-ent; one intercepted the attack and responded with the counter. Counters came at intersecting angles that were made more accurate by body shifting and walking the circles. The Abecidario has be-come the main stay of Filipino martial art. The Filipinos saw it was good and took this method of teaching and cleaned it up. Teach-ing in the Philippines was done tribal style, from one to the next, everyone different, sharing con-ceptual motions without regard to linear learning as in the old formal schools of Europe and even the Far East. The Abecidario was and is an easy format to learn. Com-plex motions are hidden inside but the basic foundation is simple to see understand and to use immedi-ately. It is a people friendly way of learning a deadly art. In Modern Arnis for example there are 12 angles of attack. These angles establish the planes of motion that Professor Remy Presas had determined were the core movements to be under-stood by his students. The angles taught in Arnis teach downward and upward diagonals, back and forth horizontal, upward and downward vertical and intercept-ing straight line thrusting, along with upward diagonal thrusting. Within these 12 angles are the natural body movements necessary to make them work. Modern Arnis is a bladed weapon art. By being based on the Filipino BOLO, Modern Arnis truly reflects the

Spanish angles of cutting. Other styles of Filipino Martial Arts reflect the same intents and lessons of learning. There are in existence hundreds of numbering systems. None are better than others are, just different, for the difference was in the founder’s interpretation of the motions, the order of the strikings, for the angles themselves are the same. The Abecidario of many Masters of the art of striking are preserved in the Filipino Martial Arts. By recognizing the angle of attack rather than what is attacking all secondary thoughts is put aside. A learned, correct and immediate response comes into play. This comes from the tribal aspect of teaching, as one is sharing the knowledge with another, one is also learning. As one learns the attack, someone else is recognizing the attack and the counter; the fencing aspect of learning the angles. The attacker sees the counter from the attacking side giving rise the ability to see and deliver a counter to the counter. The Defender sees the attack and responds and then recognizes the counter -counter. This endless cycle continues with each person learning from the other. There is no central figure teaching by handing out or with holding knowledge. The angles of Modern Arnis, just like the other Filipino arts are just conceptual angles. At first the twelve angles are taught as specific attacks to certain parts of the body. As time goes on and experience builds they become methods of attack delivered to any part of the body or as counters. This innovation of using the attacks as conceptual allows the Abecidario to become a Rosette Stone, a key to understanding the

basic offensive and defensive planes of attack in Filipino martial art. Since these attacks can be delivered anywhere it forces the practitioner to think, to imagine “what if?” and move on. As one practices the Abecidario it be-comes natural to move with the strikes almost in a dance type motion adding to the effective use of the strikes. This natural state of motion is when the Abecidario calls into play what Professor Presas and other Filipino masters and instructors calls translation drills. Even though the strikes are conceptual, the base strikes are aimed at specific targets. By aiming for specific target zones one is familiarized with the vari-ous planes of motion and begins to understand the conceptual usage. These target zones also reveal the

history behind that specific Abe-cidario. The zones targeted show if the art comes from the later generation of stick fighters or the earlier generations that based the Abecidario on the striking patterns of the Spanish blades. The stick fighters patterns allowed for percussive striking to hard bony surfaces where the stick could do damage. Stick mashes bone. The art of the blade called for slicing motions usually cutting from soft tissue area into connective tissue area. Steel cuts flesh. Blade to bone though workable, could chip a blade, the blade could become embedded in the bone or glance off with little or no damage. The Abecidario tells the secret of origin of the strikes. Conceptual usage of the Abecidario comes from striking or cutting the angles. As the under-

standing of the universal planes of motion comes into focus, concep-tual usage is understood. Form follows function, therefore as one understands the conceptual usage, a single plane of motion becomes several “intersecting” or “continu-ing” planes of motion. At this point of understanding the conceptual usage of the planes of motion, one can apply the conceptual motions in combat reality. This understanding of combat reality rises from the foundation of the simple Abecidar-io. The warriors and soldiers of the past such as the Conquistadors, learned combat reality by doing the Abecidario. The principals of combat, the actual base realities lie within the practice of the Abecidar-io. All one has to do is build on the foundation.

Basic Stick Strikings 12 Strikes with Conceptual Thrust and Cut

Modern Arnis Strikings: Traditional Striking with Impact tool or Stick# 1: Strike to left temple-head # 2: Strike to right temple-head # 3: Strike to left shoulder # 4: Strike to right shoulder # 5: Thrust to stomach -solar plexus # 6: Thrust to left chest # 7: Thrust to right chest # 8: Strike to right leg-thigh /knee # 9: Strike to left leg-thigh /knee # 10: Thrnst to left eye #11: Thrust to right eye #12: Strike to top of head-crown Body shifting, stepping and angulations make the 12 strikes harder, faster, less easily seen and are essen-tial in all phases of Modem Amis. The practice of these attributes makes something simple like the Abecidario have feel, live energy or as we say: stick use with impact! One must know the 12 strikings or else the foundation isn’t complete: the Abecidario is the base letters upon which the words of Modem Amis are built.

Modern Arnis Blade Abecidario: A slightly different perspective than impact tool or stickOpen is from right to left – arms open Closed is left to right – arms closed

1) Cut #1 Diagonal Downward Open, 2) Cut #2 Diagonal Downward Closed, 3) Cut #3 Horizontal Open 4) Cut #4 Horizontal Closed 5) Thrust #5 Middle line 6) Thrust #6 Palm Down Open 7) Thrust #7 Palm Up Closed 8) Cut #8 Redonda –Circular cut Closed 9) Cut #9 Diagonal Upward Open 10) Cut #10 Diagonal Upward Closed 11)Cut #11 Rompida-Upward Vertical 12) Cut #12 Downward VerticalModern Arnis-Presas blade Abecidario teaches Conceptual cutting motions: Figure 8 Upwards - Downwards: (Cuts #1-2-9-10) Redonda:(Cut #8) Rompida: Open & Closed (Cut #11) Band y Banda:(Cuts #3-4) Vertikal: (Cuts#11-12) Sungkitti– Thrusting Triangle: (Thrusts # 5-6-7) The motions are conceptually the same blade or stick. staying within confines of body and making use of the edge. The longer an edge is in contact the deeper the cut. A Bolo is really a BIG knife not a small sword, its use echoes that of a knife NOT a sword. The act of Cutting is not a percussive action although hacking or percussive action does cut with an edge: Like a tomahawk which cuts upon impact of the edge. Edge orientation is important. Only the edge of a blade cuts even if the side and back of the blade is used to block and redirect, a knife or sword must use an edge designed to cut flesh. MostAbecidario or Numbering systems or Alphabet of Strikes I cuts teach the easiest and direct Bio mechanical gross motor skill flow from one position to the next.

The Bolo or Itak is the true way of Arnis: concepts are the same as with stick but the results, the attributes and the actual use is very differ-ent. Body shifting is important not swinging, crossing or weaving one’s arms while staying rooted in place. One must weave through space and distance. By Body shifting as Bram is doing with Ms Amy, he is constantly moving himself out of the line of his own blade and by angu-lations making sure his cuts and thrusts are more effective all the while controlling her blade motion. Arnis is about mobility: weaving through space, mobility through space is called Sinawali. Body shifting to get off line, use of the flat of the blade are all important in Bolo work. They can be forgiven mistakes if not done with a stick but with a Bolo or bladed weapon there can be severe or dire consequences if one stays in the way of an opponent’s incoming blade. The acts of redirection and reorientation: seeing things from changing perspectives are and can be the only difference between life or death, Avoid the weapon, intercept the weapon, control the weapon, counter strike the opponent and continue to deny the opponent any significant targets is a must. Plus do not cut yourself, do not put the sharp upon your own body! The Jungle Bolo is designed for lightning fast cuts and tip rips. It is a large knife capable of doing hits with its spine or side, Palis Palis going with the force is Abaniko using the side of the blade for redirection, Abaniko or fanning is the blocking with the flat and the edge is strictly for cutting.

“What should be emphasized, however, is the fact that the cane is only for practice purposes, for its basically less lethal in nature. For in actual combat, the stan-dard weapon is the bolo or any bladed weapon which is more suit-able and convenient for this idea of combat technique.”

Professor Remy Presas

Walking the Cuts with a BOLO: cut /check against #2, cut / check against #1, step up to the right umbrella against a #12 , step up to the left slant block against a #12 , step back right low block/cut against a #9, step up right and cram block / cut against a #4.

Walk the Blocks / Cuts was created by Bram Frank for Professor Presas

Step back left-Low block I cut against a#10, step across right vertical block /cut against a #5, step up left roof block/cut against a#12, step back right vertical block /cut against a #4. Bram and Ms Sonia do the same flow with bolos in real application.

Block with flat of the blade and cut with the edge: Do Not block with the edge!

Walking the Cuts with a BOLO Application Demonstration

The Truth in Using Sticks: Steel Hidden Inside Professor Remy Presas: The Prac-tical art of Eskrima 2nd Edition Manila, Philippines 1980Eskrima or Modern Arnis today is popularly played with the use of the cane, it being less lethal then the bladed Itak or Broadsword.

The sound of banging sticks. The smell of burning wood. Impres-sions not forgotten as one enters the area where Modern Arnis is being taught. Everyone has come to know Professor Remy Presas as the “man with the sticks” The man with the “Flow”. What’s Modern Arnis? It’s the art of using sticks: Redonda X, Sinawali, Tapi-Tapi, and Abaniko. The art of Filipino stick fighting: with its new univer-sal translations to empty hand. Modern Arnis and stick fighting, the two terms have be-come interchangeable. To most people they mean the same thing, except they don’t. Arnis is really the art of the blade and so to is Modern Arnis’ soul the Art of the Blade. When Professor Presas developed Modern Arnis one of the things he did was change one of the old Filipino customs of protect-ing the weapon. People used to hit stick onto flesh even in practice for the belief was that the stick was sacred, therefore one didn’t hit stick to stick; one hit stick to hand. This was a common urban myth of Arnis; that of the “scared stick”. It was a practice that stopped lots of people from learning Arnis. The old practice for learning Arnis was synonymous with pain. This belief was a common way to protect the hidden secrets of the Filipino martial arts of Kali, Eskrima and Arnis. Modern Arnis and the Filipino arts in general, used this system for many years. Only true warriors underwent the pain will-ingly, which was a means unto itself to keep the art of the blade secret. Professor Presas changed that practice, which allowed many to come into the world of Arnis.

But it didn’t change the meaning inside. It changed its perspective and practice but not the soul. Hitting stick to stick wasn’t sacred. A stick is only a stick, driven by the hearts and souls of the warriors wielding them. Hitting flesh wasn’t the way. Hitting flesh just proved how tough the practitioner was. Hidden inside the art of hitting was a sensitivity drill, a conceptual motion that had to be learned. Hitting contained a conceptual usage that needed to be felt and passed on. The concept contained in the old style of the Filipino martial art was of “steel to flesh”. Hitting steel to steel ruins ones blade. Hitting steel to steel exists in the movies to add excitement and noise. In combat one strikes steel to flesh. Direct response to direct action. Eliminate the offending weapon. Destroy the opponent’s weapons’ hand. The art of “De-fanging the snake”. The culmina-tion of Filipino fighting arts is the use of the blade and to preserve this culture it was hidden within the context of stick fighting. The Filipino’s simple stick fighting was the living library of the old way of steel. The etiquette of steel is strong and is a common denomi-nator in many cultures. In many arts the blade is sacred, the blade embodies the soul of the warrior. The use of the stick was “magic”, the art of misdirection, so the art of the blade wouldn’t be stolen or misused. The art of the blade was revealed only to those that sur-vived the art of the stick. When the Spanish came to the Philippines they brought with them some of the deadliest forms

of blade fighting ever seen by mankind. These skills were honed over hundreds of years fighting all over the world: Espada y Daga, Double Daga, Espada Largo, as well as the art of stepping and motion: In-quartata. In-quartata became the stepping of the triangle, male and female, instead of the stepping in quarters. These fighting systems blended with the native arts and continued through to today. The Spanish also brought with them blade etiquette, the respect for the blade and a pro-found feeling of honor about the use of the edge and the point. The merging of these two cultures, along with the myriad of cultures already in the Philippines containing martial arts, ensured that the use of the blade would be hidden from the common eye. Teaching and learning this deadly art became the grounds of stick fighting. The art of steel was hidden in dance, tradition and the art of the stick. An area where the uninformed and the unknowing changed the striking techniques to reflect the percussive aspect of the stick rather than the cutting aspect of the edge. An area where as in playing the telephone game the story never seeming to change actually changes with each retell-ing. The result was that the art of the stick truly developed unto its own. An art bathed in the aspects of Spanish blade but with the soul of the new Filipino warriors. As the

art grew the knowledge of its origins became hidden even from those that practiced the art. Some misinformed instructors to this day point out techniques that grab or deflect thrusts with empty hand as examples of stick art, rather than as corruption of the art of the blade. No one realizes that the art of grabbing the blade lives on. Misdirection is rampant and as in the telephone game each retelling loses more and more contacts with the true telling. For around 400 years the Spanish occupied the Philippines. Rapiers along with cut and thrust swords, were the pre-dominant weapons for most of those 400 years, and the Spanish used the art of deflecting live blades with their gloved hands. They used quick patting or deflec-tions on the flat of the attacking cut and thrust blades to give a moment to counter attack. Rapiers in specific have no discernable edge except for the tip end of the rapier, which was like a dagger and grabbing the blade was an extremely effective technique. Killing was done with the point. Grabbing a rapier gave moments’ pause to allow for the finishing blow. Grabbing a stick leads to painful joint locks and takedowns. Sticks have different conceptual usage than a blade. Today no one attempts to find the difference between the two arts. All people talk about is how the arts are the same. They use the same concep-tual usage for the two weapons when they are not interchangeable. Ignorance wrapped in self-secure knowledge. The end result of misdirection and the telephone game. If one listens carefully, to Professor Presas when he teaches, the truth slips out. “He cannot

touch you, he is cut, you see this is cut.” “He touches you and you cut this”. One example of this is Professor Presas’ favorite motions of Abaniko double action. This conceptual motion works well with a stick, but is deadly with an edged weapon. Watch the Profes-sor carefully. As a strike comes at him, he strikes with his stick in a fluid motion while exclaiming “you cut this”. “ If this was a sword this would be cut. You have cut him .”He uses a stroking motion: a conceptual usage based on an edged weapon not a blunt one. The first motion of the combi-nation against a number one angle attack slices the opponent’s flex-ors. The second motion, the first Abaniko motion, thrusts the eyes and rotates cutting the outside carotid. The second Abaniko motion cuts “blue worm” the lower intestinal line and the third motion then cuts the abdominal aorta followed by a cut to the throat. Translation in Modern Arnis is everything. Over the years the Profes-sor has taught many students the basic concepts of Modern Arnis. Almost all of these people have exclusively used sticks and the Professor himself tells of the real horror of killing that he learned from his grandfather. That killing, that horror, that reality of Arnis is not what he wants Modern Arnis to be. Modern Arnis is no longer taught as in the old days, where the victor went home and the loser went into the ground. The respon-sibility for being a good person is tempered by the art as reflected in today’s society. No one is taught the art of the blade to ensure that it cannot be misused. The Professor and others like him will not take the responsibility on their souls of

maybe teaching the WRONG person the art of the blade. They want a good image for Arnis, and a long future. They have turned their backs on the old heritage for fear of the connotations of using the blade. It is a choice they have the right to make. Some of the Professor’s students have taken it upon them-selves to duplicate the moves as they know them into knife move-ments and attempt to teach knife as part of their Modern Arnis curricu-lum. The problem is that Knife teaches stick not the other way around. Sticks call for percussive motion. Hard beats out of time. Edged weapons like knives need stroking NOT striking. Using an edged weapon like a knife de-mands sensitivity and the under-standing of “FLOW”. The knife asks that the user understand planes of motion and of breaking those planes to keep edge orienta-tion. The knife demands that the user understand conceptual usage and the interplay of planes of motion. Knife asks that the user understand life and death. One can-not truly learn knife from stick. The stick can be casual, the knife demands attention. Loss of atten-tion spells injury or death. Many of Professor Presas’ students today are content to use the sticks. This is OK. Sticks fighting and twirling demonstrate the beauty of the art and it is effective as a fighting style. They play at TAPI-TAPI drills as if it the drill itself represents the reality of combat. As if any one drill can hold the completer secrets of an art:Tapi Tapi DOES contain all the conceptual elements of Modern Ar-nis. Several of Professor Presas’ personal students have gone the other route. Who are they? There is

actually a group within the flock of Black Sheep. They are the Ren-egades of Modern Arnis They use Modern Arnis to illustrate the truth in combat. Some have seen the truth in steel. They have learned the art of the blade to understand conceptual motion. The art of the blade tells them conceptual usage of the planes of motion, of how to mix and match them. They see the conceptual motions as ways of utilizing the edged weapon to its fullest. Steel cutting flesh: Arnis as it was meant to be; souls wrapped in steel. These are the Renegades, the Black Sheep of Modern Arnis. who own copies of and had seen old copies of the Professor Presas’ original book from the Philippines, which showed the primary weapon of Modern Arnis as a “Bolo”. A

Bolo is a small Filipino sword, with approximately 22 inches – 26 inches in overall length. A Bolo is just about the same size as the standard stick used in Modern Arnis today. Add to this the fact that they truly listened to the Professor talking as he taught. It’s hard not to be captivated by the Professor as he teaches. The Black Sheep have found what the Profes-sor said captivating because they saw it was the way of the blade. It was so obvious, yet it remained hidden from the others here in the USA and EU. No one really believed the art of cutting was what the Professor was teaching and most of the other Modern Arnis guys in the West thought that it was different from the art of the stick. The art of the stick can

be intricate with trapping, counters and locking while the art of the blade is finality. The blade teaches mortality and an understanding of the worth of human life. The soul of Professor Presas resides in the Renegades… those Black sheep of Modern Arnis. This was what was taught back in the Philippines. The Art of the Blade: the Soul of Arnis! Over the years Professor Presas had become the man with the flow, the man with the sticks. He abhors violence and as other Filipino masters, he fears what the blade can do in the hands of a trained person. He has become content to not teach the blade. But the truth of it remains, that Modern Arnis is truly the art of the blade.

“What should be emphasized, however, is the fact that the cane (of Modern Arnis) is only for practice pur-poses, for its basically less lethal in nature. For in actual combat, the standard weapon (of Modern Arnis) is the bolo or any bladed weapon which is more suitable and convenient for this kind of combat technique.”

Presas Bolo’s

Presas bolos and Presas bolo trainers can be ordered from Grandmaster Bram Frank directly or from the website:

www.CSSDSC.com

Demonstrating the Presas Bolos: Bram and Grandmaster Cristino Vasquez Demonstrating the Presas Bolos: Bram and Ms Sonia

Bolos Bolos come in many shapes and sizes de-pending on the region, family and the family art its used in or the jobs its employed for. Most combat bolos have tips that either narrow or on the same plane as the blade. Depending on the purpose bolos can be shorter or longer. The blade may be straight or turned. A bolo is often widened shortly before its end to give the stroke more power. Bolos ending in a sharp tip were frequently used in military combats.

Bram Frank’s Conceptual Modern ArnisPrinciples and Concepts of the Filipino Martial Art of Professor Remy Presas Translations and Innovations by Bram Frank Covering Filipino: Stick, Knife and Empty hand fight-ing.

The final version called “Conceptual Modern Arnis” is currently available from LuLu publishing. Production Book version is $69 USD from Lulu.

Click HereThe book is on Amazon.com

Click HereThe book is on Barnes & Noble.com

Click Here

This book is for informational purposes only. The techniques and concepts demonstrated herein are not to be used in public, on others, nor is any claim made to the effectiveness of anything shown in the book The techniques shown are classical Filipino fighting techniques with empty hand, bolo or knife and are not intended for any use but are for the study of Filipino martial art and the study of martial art in general. Do not ever practice these techniques without proper supervision and instruction, do not EVER use a live blade ( sharp blade) to enact, copy or practice anything shown in this book. The author and publisher of this book accept no responsibility or liability for use, misuse, or abuse of the techniques within nor any injury or damage coming from the use, misuse, abuse of the techniques and concepts depicted within this book.

From Bram Frank My Arnis book is done in regular production version from LULU is $69 USD and custom hand done version / printed by printer: laser copies. Color cover front and rear, signed copies with my seal are $175 USD each for the 502 page book with step by steps and history of Arnis Blade work... shipping $10 USA $35 outside USA.Paypal: Arnisman@aol.com

WHFSC By Bram Frank This book is for informational purposes only. The book describes and brings to life the Grandmasters that belong to the WHFSC and some of their techniques and ways of their arts. The techniques and concepts demonstrated herein are not to be used in public, on oth-ers, nor is any claim made to the effectiveness of anything shown in the book The techniques shown are classical fighting techniques with empty hand, bolo or knife and are not intended for any use but are for the study of classi-cal martial art and the study of martial art in gen-eral. Do not ever practice these techniques without proper supervision and instruction, do not EVER use a live blade( sharp blade) to enact, copy or practice anything shown in this book. The author and publisher of this book accept no responsibility or liability for use, misuse, or abuse of the techniques within nor any injury or damage coming from the use, misuse, abuse of the techniques and concepts depicted within this book.Due to be Published February or March 2013

WHFSC Filipino Masters in this book are: Grandmaster Remy Presas Grandmaster Ernesto Presas Grandmaster Rene Tongson Grandmaster Cristino Vasquez Grandmaster Sonny Umpad Grandmaster Max Pallen Grandmaster Bobby Toboada Grandmaster Raffy Pambuan Grandmaster Abon Baet Grandmaster Erenesto Jan-Jan Presas Grandmaster Cacoy Canete Grandmaster Dong Cuesta Grandmaster Jimmy Tacosa

Grandmaster Rene Latosa Grandmaster Dan Anderson Grandmaster Kelly Worden Grandmaster Graciela Casillas Grandmaster Ramiro Estalilla Grandmaster Vincent Palumbo Grandmaster Vincente Sanchez Grandmaster Rob Castro Grandmaster Vincent Cabales Grandmaster Proferio Lanada Grandmaster Baltazar “Bo” Sayoc Grandmaster Florendo Vistacion Grandmaster Jurg Ziegler

Common Sense Self Defense / Street Combat has been designed to meet the needs of today’s environment. CSSD/SC is not a particular way or style of martial art or fighting. It is principles of motion that are tied into conceptual patterns. It is easy to learn and implement. After all, it does no good if it’s too complex to remember in combat.

Common Sense Self Defense / Street Combat CSSD/SC 3737 SW 50th Court

Ft Lauderdale, FL 33312-8219Bram Frank: (727) 458-8892 Email: bram.frank@cssdsc.com

Sonia M. Waring - Business Director / Advanced Instructor (305) 608-1953 Email: soniam.waring@cssdsc.com or sonia@waringindustries.com

www.CSSDSC.com

The Bolo - The Soul of Filipino Martial Arts By Bram Frank

Principles and Concepts of the BOLO knife the soul of Filipi-no martial arts based on the family art of Professor Remy Presas.This book is in progress. It will be available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and LULU in the near future.

Presas bolos and Presas bolo trainers can be ordered from Grandmaster Bram Frank directly or from the website:

www.CSSDSC.com

www.FMAinformative.info

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