Filipino Martial Arts and Kyusho

T.A.C.T.I.C.S. Martial Arts

Why is FMA a great Martial Art System?
When a situation occurs where you may feel threatened your body will automatically go into “survival mode”. When this happens a series of changes occur within us. Without getting too deeply into the aspects of survival mode, what we are most concerned with is the loss of Fine Motor Skills, i.e. inserting a key in a lock, picking something small up with two fingers or writing neatly with a pencil. What takes over are Gross Motor Skills which are big movements; arms extending forward, upward or downward in big motions. Just watch internet videos of real attacks. You will notice the majority of people move the same when survival stress kicks in. Even in professional boxing and mixed martial arts GMS dominate. The only difference with people in competitive sports is that they are using what I like to call “Trained Gross Motor Skills”.
Now if you look at the Stick Work of FMA you will notice that most of the movements fall into the description of Gross Motor Skills. The drills experienced in the FMA Class hone your GMS to strike in a certain way specific targets of an attacker’s body. It teaches your muscle memory how to have your body react and move. Now take away the sticks and do the same movements empty-handed. Now add a knife in your hand or a machete. Then take these skills and use them to defend against an attacker wielding a weapon. All of these use the same Gross Motor Skills with minor adjustments.

Why is Kyusho a great companion to FMA?
Kyusho Targets are specific areas on the body that we manipulate to take advantage of anatomical weaknesses. The external body was designed by nature to take abuse and can cope with hits from the FMA Stick. By understanding how to manipulate the Kyusho Targets we can affect the internal systems of the body and bypass our body’s natural defenses. With Kyusho we focus on several anatomical systems to cause physical dysfunction and possibly affect the opponent's level of consciousness. These systems include the nervous, respiratory, muscular and skeletal systems. When we strike Kyusho Targets we are actually attacking the internal body as opposed to the external structure. Kyusho has been tested not just on the training floor but in many real life situations, all under adrenalin pumping stress using Gross Motor Skills. As mentioned earlier, the stick movements of FMA are based on GMS. Now we take this set of movements that focus on your body’s natural defensive reactions and apply them to a multitude of defensive as well as offensive maneuvers aiming at Kyusho Targets. When working with the Stick we have a certain intent and flow. The intent used when striking with a stick fits perfectly as the first step to activating Kyusho Targets. The flow action of FMA enables us to hit a series of targets. Kyusho makes our strikes more effective to achieve optimal results.