Balintawak Arnis
A Filipino single-stick style from 1952. It has no forms: from the first lesson work is in pairs, so that reflex forms rather than a memorised answer.
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About Balintawak Arnis
Balintawak arnis is a Filipino stick-fighting system founded in 1952 in Cebu by Venancio Bacon, nicknamed Anciong, who lived from 1912 to 1981. Bacon studied under Lorenzo Saavedra and belonged to the Doce Pares club, from which he later separated to open his own school on Balintawak street in Cebu City. Hence the name: the style is called neither after its founder nor after a technique but after an address. Balintawak runs against the usual construction of Filipino systems. It has no forms, no long drill sequences with two sticks and no division by weapon. A single stick is trained, held short, and from the first lesson the work is in pairs: the teacher feeds attacks and the student answers them, with the tempo and the order changing so that the student cannot learn an answer by heart. The aim is to build reflex and a sense of distance, not to memorise a shape. The emphasis on the free hand, called the live hand, follows from this: while the stick attacks, the other hand controls the opponent's arm, blocks and prepares the disarm. The basic attacks are grouped into a sequence called the palakaw. A typical solution is the strike to the hand holding the weapon, known as defanging the snake, after which the strike to the body follows. Bacon is described as a man who tested the art outside the training hall as well, and the style still carries a reputation for being raw and fast. Since his death several groups have continued side by side.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.