{"id":2517,"date":"2013-06-11T14:16:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/?p=2517"},"modified":"2017-10-18T20:50:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T03:50:30","slug":"spotlight-on-jogo-de-pau-and-luis-preto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/?p=2517","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Jogo de Pau and Luis Preto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Always hovering at the edge of maelstr\u00f8m’s martial content is the cultural heritage that surrounds martial arts.\u00a0 We participate in many community cultural festivals (such as the Pinoy fest<\/a> this past Saturday), and even belong to a larger non-profit<\/a> promoting the Southeast Asian Cultural Arts.\u00a0 As such, we love to learn about the arts from different places and celebrate the diversity of the martial arts world.<\/p>\n

We’re happy to spotlight another art that many of you may never have heard of: Jogo de Pau.\u00a0 We were introduced to this Portuguese art through Luis Preto<\/a>, who has taught a couple seminars at maelstr\u00f8m – bringing fascinating content to our club.<\/p>\n

Jogo de Pau is a Portuguese combat and self-defence art that includes multiple and single opponents.\u00a0 It is most commonly known as a staff fencing system, featuring the 1.5m long staff traditionally made of Lotus or quince.\u00a0 The staffs are noted for having the striking and parrying tip thicker than the grip, with a sharp blade fitted for traditional combat use. The historical circumstances surrounding the origins of\u00a0 Jogo de Pau is not certain, though since Portugal became an independent territory by force during the 7th and 8th centuries, we can assume that the Portuguese have been well-versed in the combat arts for a long time.\u00a0 Luis’ blog<\/a> has several fascinating accounts<\/a> of medieval military encounters, all outlined in historical documents, where Jogo de Pau was most likely practiced.<\/p>\n

The French staff combat system has similarities in its weaponry and technical content with Jogo de Pau, so it’s likely that the art is actually more of a central European combat system, rather than being exclusively Portuguese. This likely resulted from international cultural and military exchanges between Portugal and its neighbours throughout the centuries.\u00a0\u00a0 Our friends at Academie Duello (which we recently profiled<\/a>) would undoubtedly recognize the features of medieval battlefield oriented combat system in Jogo de Pau.<\/p>\n

Though it is traditionally focused on multiple opponent combat, the development of the art by Portugal’s northern population has led to application of Jogo de Pau to single-handed walking canes and batons, as well as single-opponent combat with the staff.\u00a0 The northern schools of the art has since been consolidated by the current National Director of Portuguese stick fighting, and teacher of Luis Preto, Master Nuno Curvello Russo.\u00a0 He has also furthered the art by applying the art to shorter one-handed weapons.\u00a0 As such, it is a living art which, despite having strong medieval and renaissance roots, is still evolving through the efforts and promotion of dedicated practitioners like Luis Preto. The art is overseen by the national federation Federa\u00e7\u00e3o Nacional do Jogo do Pau Portugu\u00eas (FNJPP), which promotes the art using adapted weapons and protective gear.<\/p>\n

Luis Preto has written several books detailing the history and techniques of Jogo de Pau.\u00a0 This includes a general book<\/a> that is in a second expanded edition, its first edition already sold out!\u00a0 We hear that a third edition is in the works.\u00a0 The book is a general overview that focuses on outlining the historical origins, tracing the contemporary development\u00a0 and laying out the martial contents of the art.\u00a0 It also includes solid analysis of teaching methodology, something that is clearly dear to Luis Preto’s heart.\u00a0 Luis has written extensively about teaching in martial arts, and has offered many in depth commentary on how to train martial arts through books and articles.<\/p>\n

\"parrying<\/a><\/p>\n

Most recently, Luis Preto authored a book on parrying<\/a>, which systematizes parries’ contexts and applications.\u00a0 This work includes numerous photos that help elucidate the management of parrying timing, defensive distance management and parrying visual strategies.\u00a0 Luis specifically writes about how to develop motor control so that training is more effective and enjoyable while learning the foundations of parrying.\u00a0 Concepts that will enhance the training of any martial artists!<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in learning more, you can purchase his books here<\/a>, take a look at his blog<\/a> or his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article is published under fair use and with credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Always hovering at the edge of maelstr\u00f8m’s martial content is the cultural heritage that surrounds martial arts.\u00a0 We participate in many community cultural festivals (such as the Pinoy fest this past Saturday), and even belong to a larger non-profit promoting the Southeast Asian Cultural Arts.\u00a0 As such, we love to learn about the arts from different places and celebrate the diversity of the martial arts world. We’re happy to spotlight another art that many of you may never have heard of: Jogo de Pau.\u00a0 We were introduced to this Portuguese Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2517"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6713,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions\/6713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maelstromcore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}