arnis

apparently sepak takraw has no longer been the philippines' national sport for four years now. it's quite sad, i really enjoyed watching sepak takraw games during palakasan in college. not that the sport will no longer be played in the country, it's just..i don't know, the feeling you get when you're awarded something and it's taken away from you. i feel you bro takraw, hahaha. i greatly admire the players for their skill in handling such an inelastic ball of rattan with only their feet and head because i just find it difficult controlling the ball with my feet. i couldn't even do takyan properly, hahaha. and it hurts, too, hitting it with your head. ouch! i particularly enjoy watching more advanced players do amazing spikes. they look like they're doing gymnastics with all the jumps, and splits, and mid-air tumblings (did i get the term right? rotation, or something. where did all my english go?).

meanwhile, our new national sport is called modern arnis. truth be told, i don't find it as interesting as sepak takraw but, looking at it's significance historically, i guess i don't mind arnis being the national sport at all. comapred to sepak takraw, arnis is as authentic as a filipino "sport" can get. of course, it didn't start out as a sport, it's actually a martial art using a stick (or sticks, or even a stick and a knife) for self-defense. coooool, right? i've heard of arnis all my life but we're never really allowed to try it because it's quite dangerous. it would take time to learn how to control how much strength you put in a stroke so beginners might end up bruising their sparring partner unnecessarily. this is why parents don't usually take their kids to summer school learning arnis and instead prefer the "safer" ones like karate and taekwondo which are japanese and korean in origin. so we have this really interesting martial art and it's slowly dying out, being forgotten, because there aren't many filipinos who want to learn it.

the main reason arnis was made national sport is to keep this culture alive. of course, it underwent a few transformation from the original (balintawak eskrima) to make it less dangerous and that's how we have modern arnis, developed by Dr. Remy Presas. one of the big changes, i believe, is that originally one is discouraged to hit the baston itself, treating it like a sacred object, and the main aim is hitting your opponent's hands or body in an attempt to disarm him. in modern arnis hitting the baston is considered acceptable hence making the art less dangerous especially to children. it's almost like fencing but with a purpose hehe.

we had karate when i was around thirteen, i guess. now i want to learn arnis. and beat people with sticks nyahaha. but i want to learn more than just the sport, i want to learn arnis as a martial art itself. i want to learn balintawak eskrima.

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