Kuntaw is an ancient Filipino martial art which is almost the same with its counterpart Kung Fu. This native martial art uses mostly hand and foot either in soft and hard techniques. It was one of the oldest self-defense by Filipino Muslims during the Spanish regime, making it their protection.
But before the Spanish era, there were two types of martial arts being taught and developed, the unarmed martial arts called kuntawan and with armed martial arts called kali. Kuntaw was a term being used by early Filipino as martial arts.
This fighting style was proven to be effective wherein it was practiced by other countries such as Brunei, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Kuntaw derived by many names Kuntao, Kuntau and many others. The Chinese community in Southeast Asia used Hokkien as their term for this kind of martial arts.
This martial arts has been passed down to lower classes in the Philippines where it was later recognized and accepted as national sports rather than a martial arts. In the 4th century it was mainly a secret type of fighter where at first it was sikaran which mainly focus only on foot techniques but later it was a hand and foot combination where it evolved into a kuntawan.
This kind of fighting style consists of open hand techniques and integrate them with locking while striking with the use of feet or hands. It has blinding flash kicks and punches that land incredible power with pinpoint accuracy while switching soft blocks and hard countering in just a blink of an eye, making it a really effective kind of martial arts.
Kuntaw always focuses on the vital points of our body and categorized them as points where it serves as an easy way to define nerves, breakable joints, vital organs and sensitive bones. It can easily damage an opponent by just lifting hands or feet so hitting vital point would be easier.
Filipino Grand Master Carlito A. Lanada define kuntaw as a perfect magic formula that transforms a weak person into a human fighting machine. As a master, he makes sure to try something different and even modernized the art with some hard techniques and teach them to his students.
It was a legacy of ancestors that have been passed down from generation to generation. This deadly type of martial arts has been passed from father to son and thankfully that Grand Master Lanada passed this knowledge to many of his students that they may know about this type of martial arts.
Kuntaw is very practical in terms of fundamental tactics and principles. There will be no hidden combination of movements but instead, it has the main purpose of blocking, kicking, countering and punching.
Here is a video on how Kuntaw martial arts works.
Would like to see some comments and opinion about this kind of martial arts. I am happy to read them.
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