Balintawak Arnis
Filipino single-stick fighting system founded in Cebu in 1952 by Venancio Bacon after he left the Doce Pares club. It takes its name from Balintawak Street.
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What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Balintawak Arnis
Balintawak is a Filipino stick-fighting system from Cebu. According to an ethnographic study from the University of Washington (McClung 2014), it was founded by Venancio Bacon, nicknamed Anciong, born in 1912. Bacon was among the first 24 members of the Doce Pares club, which according to McClung arose in 1932 as a transformation of the Labangon Fencing Club and was founded by the Saavedra and Cañete families. His teacher was Lorenzo Saavedra, nicknamed Ensong. In 1952, according to McClung, Bacon split from Doce Pares over political and personal disputes about the club's direction and began teaching a handful of students in the back of a watch shop on a small street in Cebu called Balintawak. According to McClung the street is named after northern Balintawak, where the first national uprising against Spain broke out. Black Belt says Bacon opened the Balintawak Self Defense Club in 1952 and died in 1981. McClung describes Bacon's emphasis on a single stick and a free hand as a break from teaching based on two sticks. According to him the stick in Balintawak is only a stick, not a substitute for a blade. We have not found in the sources which grades the system uses.
History
The sources disagree about the predecessor of the Doce Pares club. The FMA Pulse website says the Labangon Fencing Club was founded in 1920 in the circle of the Saavedra family and dissolved in 1931. Wiley on fightingarts.com, by contrast, attributes it to Bacon and calls it the first commercial arnis club in Cebu. McClung mentions it only as a club of the 1920s from which Doce Pares arose in 1932. According to both FMA Pulse and Black Belt, Doce Pares was founded on 11 January 1932. FMA Pulse adds that Bacon was born in Carcar, Cebu. English Wikipedia says that after killing an attacker who ambushed him, Bacon was tried and imprisoned and in the mid-1970s released on parole. According to it, the club trained in the 1950s in the back of the watch shop of Eduardo Baculi. The mandirigma.org website considers these men the founders of the club: Vincente Atillo, Delfin Lopez and Timoteo Maranga. According to it, later students were Arnulfo Mongcal, Jose Villasin, Teodoro Buot and Teofilo Velez.
How it differs
McClung says Bacon's teacher Lorenzo Saavedra represented the Corto Linear style. Bacon's emphasis on one stick and the empty hand marked, according to him, a break from the two-stick curriculum. Unlike other styles, according to McClung the stick in Balintawak is only a stick, not a blade substitute, and the style broke eskrima codes, for example by grabbing the opponent's stick.
Technique
According to McClung, Bacon's method rested on one stick in the right hand. The free left hand does tapi-tapi, that is, it controls and tracks the opponent's stick, and can push, pull, strike, grab, lever and block. According to McClung the style broke established eskrima codes, for example by allowing the opponent's stick to be grabbed. According to McClung, Bacon wanted a system based on reaction, with training under unscripted pressure. According to him cuentada means to counter: to assume that the opponent is just as good, and to anticipate his counterstrikes. English Wikipedia lists twelve basic strikes and names among their targets the temples, ribs and kidneys, navel, groin, knees, eyes and crown of the head. According to it Bacon and Villasin developed patterns for one stick.
Training
McClung says that Teofilo Velez and Jose Villasin added drills and a grouping system to Balintawak. English Wikipedia distinguishes Villasin's grouping method, which according to it most instructors use, Bacon's traditional random teaching and the line of Teodoro Buot. According to McClung, cuentada is an element that was always in Balintawak, but the focus on it was brought by Bobby Taboada. According to him Taboada studied in the early 1970s under Velez, Villasin and Bacon.
Today
After Bacon the system is taught in several lines. In his ethnography of Filipino martial arts in Seattle, McClung describes Balintawak Cuentada Eskrima, taught by Bobby Taboada. English Wikipedia distinguishes Villasin's grouping method, traditional teaching and the Buot line.
Did you know
English Wikipedia says that Remy Presas's Modern Arnis drew on the principles of Balintawak and that the Tat Kun Tao style was created by Joe Go, one of Bacon's first students. McClung writes that Balintawak Street in Cebu is named after a place connected with the first national uprising against Spain.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the system called Balintawak?
According to McClung (2014), after leaving Doce Pares in 1952 Bacon taught in the back of a watch shop on a small Cebu street called Balintawak. The street is named after the place where, he says, the first national uprising against Spain began.
Who founded Balintawak?
Venancio Bacon, nicknamed Anciong, a student of Lorenzo Saavedra and one of the first 24 members of the Doce Pares club. Black Belt says he died in 1981.
What does cuentada mean in Balintawak?
According to McClung the word means to counter: the practitioner assumes the opponent is equally good and anticipates his counterstrikes. He says Bobby Taboada brought the focus on cuentada.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.