(This article is written by Grand Master Anton St. James, founder and co-owner of Masters Academy Plymouth in the United Kingdom. St. James is a direct student of the late Supreme Grand Master Ceriaco Canete of Cebu who is considered to be a legend in the Art of Filipino Martial Arts. St. James has taught many of the UK’s top martial arts instructors, and is currently head of Cacoy Doce Pares Europe. He now focuses on teaching the Filipino Martial Arts and Muay Thai Kickboxing classes and teaches seminars around the world.)
FILIPINO Martial Arts is well known for being a weapon based martial arts system which often stops people wanting to get involved in training these arts.
Over the years, many people have asked me why they would need to learn about weapons when they cannot use them on the street?
Here are a few reasons you might like to consider:
The fact that you may not use them will not stop a criminal trying to use a weapon against you so, understanding the dynamics of a weapons attack and recognizing the strengths and weaknesses are in relation to an assault involving a weapon could give you some useful insights that might just save your life.
Although you cannot carry a weapon for use as a tool for self-defense, weapons of opportunity are allowed in law providing the level of threat justifies their use and, that use is deemed reasonable under the circumstance.
Therefore, having some basic skills in the use of a variety of weapons could be useful under certain conditions.
What is a weapon of opportunity?
Quite simply, a weapon of opportunity is anything in the environment that could be used to help defend yourself with in the event of a life threatening physical assault on yourself or another person, this could be, a stick, a pole, a chair, a table leg a bottle and yes, in extreme circumstances, even a knife or a firearm.
If there has been an attack so that defense is reasonably necessary, it will be recognized that a person defending himself cannot weigh to a nicety the exact measure of his defensive action. If the jury thought that in a moment of unexpected anguish a person attacked and had only done what he honestly and instinctively thought necessary that would be the most potent evidence that only reasonable defensive action had been taken...
It will also be accepted there may be situations where a pre-emptive strike is justifiable in order to prevent serious harm taking place to yourself or another person.
Filipino Martial Arts is a complete combat based system. Although it is well known for its weapons training, it also has a sophisticated and highly effective unarmed component which involves kicks, punches, knees, elbows, locks, throws, trips, sweeps and ground based skills. It is not a sport although there are a number of sporting applications at its essence FMA is an effective, practical self-defense system. So there you have it, learning Filipino Martial Arts might just be the thing you need more than the thing you want.