Balintawak and Dog Brothers Martial Arts

[yomitche]

Hi all!  I'm just curious about how a style that appears to address more "corto" range techniques (such as Balintawak, as I have seen it practiced... which arguably may not be representative of all Balintawak practicioners) fare in free flow sparring against those who practice "longer" range styles.  I have the very greatest respect for both, and this is not to decide which is better, but rather to illicit the observations of others who may have been able to observe the two in application against each other.  I realize that individual attributes can often lend much to an engagement, regardless of style, but am just wondering how they have been observed in either stick or knife fights.  Thank you very much.

[bjung]

Answering a question with a question is never appropriate, but regardless...

How do you, as a balintawak practitioner, close the gap to get to corto range? I'm guessing there is something in the system to get from point A to B, or is the fight begining at this range?

[maija]

Ah yes, the eternal question ...... how to close?
What does 'corto' do if it can't get past 'largo's' tip?
What does 'largo' do if 'corto' gets past that tip?

[Guide Dog]

Great topic!  I teach at an academy that starts all of it's stick curriculum at medio to corto range.  We don't address largo until much further into the training progression.  I usually try to squeeze in largo material when my head instructor is looking the other way, but it's frustrating.  I taught a class last night where I tried to squeeze in information about largo for some of our new students.

Closing scientifically is one of the many great benefits of exploring DBMA material.

[yomitche]

Thanks for the responses! 

Closing from largo to corto is obviously the heart of the matter.  Furthermore, once in corto range, as experience and observation teaches us, grappling can come into play which can effectively nullify a lot of the percussive stand up stick fighting techniques for either the corto or largo stylist. 

I recently discussed the idea of closing with a Balintawak person, and they noted that the Dog Brothers style of attacking blocks is one of the most effective ways to bridge the gap.  I thought this was pretty intriguing, and in a purist sense, would mean the attributes of the stick fighter would then be more important than the style they practiced once they were in the range that they preferred or were trained to fight at (if stand up escrima/kali technique was as far as the fight went and did not involve grappling).

Admittedly, a corto stylist appears to have an edge on the inside, but I'm wondering what the observations of others have been.  Have Balintawak or Serrada stylists participated in the Gatherings, where their techniques were tested against other participants who were engaging them "with prejudice?"  If so, how did the corto range stylists fare? 

Thanks for the input!

[Crafty_Dog]

Just a quick yip from a bad connection out of town:

Lets see if we can discuss this without negative reference to particular styles.

It is not that corto striking is a bad idea.  IMHO there are two elements here:

1) The Art and Science of closing technically is IMHO a missing link from some systems' curriculum. 

2) Even if one can close technically(and I regard our Attacking Blocks material as technique driven more than attribute driven) if one studies corto striking to the exclusion of clinch dynamics, it will be harder to apply corto techniques than if one has both modalities.

[selfcritical]

My experience is limited to Sentikiros(spelling?) players from close by, whom use a lot of Baintawak in their system. Most of what i've seen is less like "attacking" the incoming stick, and more like "cushioning" or "catching" the incoming attack by bracing it against ones body. The motions I see them use should be equally applicable with more aggressive footwork, in the style of a pekiti four-wall crashing motion(when I was working the balintawak drills in a seminar enviroment, i had to correct myself often, because my instinct in drills is always to try to close the gap).