Dumog (Filipino Wrestling)
The wrestling layer of the Filipino arts. It is fought standing: the system assumes weapons and several opponents, where going to the ground is a mistake.
Quick Facts
PhilippinesCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Dumog (Filipino Wrestling)
About Dumog (Filipino Wrestling)
Dumog is the wrestling component of the Filipino martial arts. It is not a separate school with grades and forms of its own but a layer inside the systems of arnis, eskrima and kali that deals with what to do when the distance shortens so far that neither stick nor knife has room. It is wrestled standing, and ground fighting is in practice not pursued. The reason is practical and the same across the whole Filipino field: the systems assume weapons and several opponents, and in such a situation going to the ground is a mistake, not a transition. The basic idea of dumog is the so-called control points on the body — head, neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist and hip. The practitioner seizes these in order to break the opponent's balance and to push or pull his centre of gravity beyond his base; the point is not to overpower him but to disturb his stance before he can set himself. The movement of the body meanwhile stays the same as in work with the stick, and that is deliberate: the Filipino systems teach one body mechanic and change only what is in the hand. It should be said that the scope of the term varies. Some use it for a particular Visayan wrestling tradition, others for the grappling part of the Filipino arts in general, and the dating to 1400 is not documented.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.