
Philippines Mosques

MARTIAL ARTS
S
Taekwondo ( Korean 태권도 (hangul) / 跆拳道 (hanja) ) is a Korean martial art. It combines combat and self-defense techniques with sport andexercise. Gyeorugi (pronounced [kjʌɾuɡi]), a type of sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000. Taekwondo was developed by a variety of Korean masters during the 1940s as partial combination of taekkyeon, Okinawan karate and other traditions.
The name taekwondo was coined by either Choi Hong Hi (of the Oh Do Kwan) or by Duk Sung Son (of the Chung Do Kwan). The World Taekwondo Federation claims that taekwondo development was a collaborative effort by a council consisting of members from the nine original kwans, while the International Taekwon-Do Federation credits Choi Hong Hi solely.
Traditional taekwondo typically refers to the martial art as it was established in the 1950s and 1960s in the South Korean military, and in various civilian organizations, including schools and universities. In particular, the names and symbolism of the both the traditional patterns and the newer poomsae often refer to elements of Korean history, culture and religious philosophy. The symbolism is replicated in the Korean flag.
Sport taekwondo has developed in the decades since the 1950s and may have a somewhat different focus, especially in terms of its emphasis on speed and competition (as in Olympic sparring). Sport taekwondo is in turn subdivided into two main styles. One style is practiced by International Taekwon-Do adherents and was created in 1955 by Choi Hong Hi. The other style derives from Kukkiwon, the source of the sparring system sihap gyeorugi. This style is now an event at the summer Olympic Games and is governed by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). The Kukkiwon - or World Taekwondo Headquarters - is the traditional center for WTF taekwondo and was founded in 1973 by Dr. Kim Un Yong.
Although there are doctrinal and technical differences between sparring and touching each other inappropriately in the two main styles and among the various organizations, the art in general emphasizes kicks and punches thrown from a mobile stance. Taekwondo training generally includes a system of blocks, kicks, punches, and open-handed strikes and may also include various take-downs or sweeps, throws, and joint locks. Pressure points, known as jiapsul, are used as well as grabbing self-defense techniques borrowed from other martial arts, such as Japanese judo, or Korean hapkido, or Korean wrestling or ssireum.
In Korean, tae (태, 跆) means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon (권, 拳) means "to strike or break with fist"; and do (도, 道) means "way", "method", or "path". Thus, taekwondo may be loosely translated as "the way of the foot and the hand." The name taekwondo is also written as taekwon-do, tae kwon-do or tae kwon do by various organizations.
TAEKWONDO
ESKRIMA
For all intents and purposes, Eskrima, Arnis and Kali all refer to the same family of Filipino weapon-based martial arts and fighting systems. In Luzon they may go by the name of arnis, arnis de mano, sinawali, pagkalikali, pananandata (use of weapons), didya, kabaroan (blade usage) and kaliradman. In the Visayas and Mindanao, these martial arts have been referred to as eskrima, kali and kalirongan. Kuntaw and Silat are separate martial arts that have been practiced in the islands.
Both eskrima and arnis are loans from Spanish and ultimately from Old Frankish:
-
Eskrima is a Filipinization of the Spanish word for fencing, (esgrima).
-
Arnis comes from arnes, Old Spanish for armor (harness is an archaic English term for armor which comes from the same roots as the Spanish term). It is derived from the armor costumes used in Moro-moro stage plays where actors fought mock battles using wooden swords. Allegedly, the practice of weaponry by the peasants or Indios was banned by the Spaniards during colonial times and the Moro-moro stick fights were a "disguised" form of continued practice of indigenous martial arts.
Multiple theories exist on the origin of term Kali:
-
One belief is that the word comes from tjakalele, a tribal style of stick-fencing from Indonesia. This is supported by the similarities between tjakalele and eskrima techniques, as well as Mindanao's proximity to Indonesia.
-
Kali may be a portmanteau of the Cebuano words "kamot", or "kamay" meaning hand in Tagalog, and "lihok", meaning motion.
-
In the Ilocano dialect, kali means to dig and to stab.
-
There exist numerous similar terms of reference for martial arts such as kalirongan, "kalibanga", kaliradman and pagkalikali. These may be the origin of the term kali or they may have evolved from it.
-
In his book KALI - History of a Forbidden Filipino Fighting Arts, Fred Lazo put forward that Kali was an ancient root word for blade, and that the Filipino words for right hand (kanan) and left hand (kaliwa) are contractions of the terms "way of the blade" (kali daanan) and "without blade" (kali wala) as weapons are usually held with the right hand and the left hand is typically empty.
-
In their book Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth however, Dr. Ned Nepangue and Celestino Macachor contend that the term Kali in reference to Filipino martial arts did not exist until the 1960s when two well-known eskrimadors in the United States popularized it to distinguish what they taught from other styles.
-
Since eskrima and arnis are derived from Spanish words, the preference for the term kali by foreigners may be due to its lack of a definitive foreign origin and an attempt to preserve authenticity of a name that has otherwise been lost to history.
Practitioners of the arts are called eskrimador (male) or eskrimadora (female) for those who call their art eskrima, arnisador for those who call theirs arnis, and kalista or mangangali for those who practice kali.
Address: 950 South Road, Basak, San Nicolas. Cebu City 6000. Philippines. Tel: 266 4708 Mobile: 0919 7285 955
