Empty Hand Kali / Panantukan / Jeet Kune Do (JKD)
Empty-hand training is a key component of all the arts studied and taught by maelstrøm instructors. With a perspective on weapons and bladed arts in particular, empty-hand training is one of the more advanced topics within the Filipino martial arts.
After all, who wants to approach survival empty-handed? So empty-hand is often taught last in the FMA.
That said, one of the biggest attractions of empty-hand training is that it is much more accessible, particularly to people just starting out. We all know where our feet and hands are and so punching and kicking happens more easily than learning to use a stick. And a good cardio workout ensues much more quickly.
And frankly, it is just plain fun – and satisfying – to punch the focus mitts really hard.
Panantukan
CURRICULUM
Our empty hand program centers primarily on the Filipino blended art of Panantukan and and the many y mano techniques from Pekiti-Tirsia Kali. Panantukan utilizes many of the techniques and training methods of Western boxing while employing “dirty” street-savvy techniques like elbows, head butts, body manipulations and destructions.
If you are familiar with the fighting style in the Jason Bourne movies, you will have a good idea what these classes are like. The fight choreographer for those movies was Jeff Imada, a highly experienced student under Guro Dan Inosanto. The material used for the film is surprisingly pure Filipino kali in its execution and use of improvised weapons.
The class also employs Jeet Kune Do training methods and content, as well as pencak silat, dumog, western boxing, grappling, and many other related arts. The focus tends to be on simpler and more practically oriented training and techniques.
While there is no sparring in this class, the empty-hand techniques are regularly exercised in various forms at the Dog Brothers equipment-based sparring classes.
Fight scene from the Bourne Supremacy: