Question for Pinoy Kendoka . . .

[Utotin]

I have a question for all the Pinoy Kendoka out there. I am just curious, how come you decided to take Kendo rather than one of your own homegrown Martial Arts? My wife says that in the Philippines nobody is really interested in Arnis ( or any other Filipino MA's). Its more fashionable to take up "foriegn" Martial Arts. Why?

What are you finding in Kendo that traditional Filipino martial arts don't deliver?

[Kaoru]

Why is this in the flames section? And, Kendo is only in Manila... The Phils have only one Kendo dojo so this question isn't very valid if you only mean Kendo. :) And, I'm sure they like it for the same reasons we do. :)

Anyway, there is a lot of Arnis there...

Me, I'd like to study Arnis because it looks interesting.

It's an interesting question though. Why don't WE study European arts as much as Asian arts? hehehe... The same can be asked of us. It's a fascinating question. The lure of something different attracts us, I suppose. :)

His second question is interesting too, and can apply to any country's native art and why a person chose to not study their country's native art.

I think this isn't a flames question. There could be some good discussion out of this maybe.

Kaoru

[jimswanson]

It's an interesting question though. Why don't WE study European arts as much as Asian arts? hehehe... The same can be asked of us. It's a fascinating question. The lure of something different attracts us, I suppose. :)
Kaoru
Unlike our Eastern Asian friends, sword work pretty much died after firearms were in wide use. Who needs a sword when I can whip out my old Colt? From what I've read in SwordForum, most of the new WMA schools have to figure out what their "forms" are through pictures in books. There is no "lineage" from what I've gathered.

[agimat]

I have a question for all the Pinoy Kendoka out there. I am just curious, how come you decided to take Kendo rather than one of your own homegrown Martial Arts? My wife says that in the Philippines nobody is really interested in Arnis ( or any other Filipino MA's). Its more fashionable to take up "foriegn" Martial Arts. Why?

What are you finding in Kendo that traditional Filipino martial arts don't deliver?

I actually studied FMA prior to kendo. I decided to study kendo because its still a blade-oriented art, just a different expression and to learn more of the culture. I still train Eskrima. IMHO, It is much more practical. Its still based on self-defense and practicality. I have pinoy friends who like/study "foreign arts" and they like the formality of some of the arts (belts, ranks, wearing gi, bogu, etc..). to them, the grass is greener on the other side. Maybe they like the sense of organization too. Some FMAs have adopted a lot of the ranking systems (belts) and titles. FMAs have also gotten a bad rap from before. FMAs were often associated with gangs, bandits and thugs. This was a long time ago, but still the association lingers.

for me the, differences between Kendo and FMA is that they have different applications. Kendo is not meant to be used as self-defense its closer to a sport with a martial art background. FMAs are for self defense they have street practicality - some FMA systems have over 12 taget areas.

[agimat]

Oh yeah, There are A LOT of foreingers travelling to the PI and paying a lot of money to learn FMAs.

[Utotin]

Why is this in the flames section?

Wasn't sure how my question would be "recieved" so I stuck it here.

[Sinta]

I think just because one is filipino/filipina, doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to have a choice of what martial art they want to practice.

Same thing could be said to the French Kendokas. I believe France has a martial art revolving around cane fighting. Why aren't you guys learning that? :)

I tried eskrima and I wasn't drawn to it. And to be honest, I doubt what your wife says is true. I know a lot of my pinoy friends are very interested in Eskrima. My brother included.

[Hisham]

IMO it's all about the individual's taste and the amount of choices available to him/her. It's not because somebody's chinese that he/she knows about or likes chinese MA, as with football (soccer) in England, i remember some english member here who didn't know about which premiere league team the o2 jersey belonged to (which BTW i know and obviously i'm not english), being english doesn't automaticaly mean that you're a football fan, anyway it's nice to see stereotypes getting broken, it pushes people to take others as individuals and leave behind assumptions based on prejudice.

[taganahan]

this kind of stereotype is also evident in other cultures. for example: one of my friends was asked if she owns a samurai sword(this was the term used) because she was japanese, another friend of mine was asked if he studies kung fu because he's chinese.

personally i wasn't drawn to FMA. the only one i know is arnis and that's it. the way i was introduced to it was through a demonstration. the way i saw it on that day, arnis was more like a dance. i might be wrong on this though. still, i didn't appeal to me that much.

~taganahan

[ChaShu]

For myself, one of the reasons is that my wife is Japanese and I also have a background in Japanese MA. The other reason is that here in Toronto, finding an FMA guru or school is very hard when you're not in constant contact with the Filipino community, not that that really helps since many Filipinos do not do FMA anymore. The allure, I think died with those Kamagong movies in the early '80's. I personally really enjoy kendo, but would also love to take up arnis/kali, not only for its armed forms but for its unarmed forms as well. I believe it would make for a great complement. Lastly, time. Mastering an art takes a lifetime, and with all that is going on in the modern world, I don't believe I would be able to do more than one art justice, but hey, things can change. Just my $0.02.

[Angelfire]

I have a question for all the Pinoy Kendoka out there. I am just curious, how come you decided to take Kendo rather than one of your own homegrown Martial Arts? My wife says that in the Philippines nobody is really interested in Arnis ( or any other Filipino MA's). Its more fashionable to take up "foriegn" Martial Arts. Why?

What are you finding in Kendo that traditional Filipino martial arts don't deliver?


Is your wife Filipino? I dont know why she infered that Flips arent "really" interested with Arnis and other martial arts. I know a lot of people that are doing Arnis, Kali and Eskrima. And yes Agimat, i saw a documentary once in primetime where foreigners and pinoys meet in an island in the visayas to have convention/exhibition with a Martial Art form that i dont even remember knowing.

Personally i do Kendo not for learning a primary self defence form. JeetKuneDo would be more practical (there's a club near Taft Ave Manila). I might as well get a paltik or a danao made gadget for self defense hahaha.
I do Kendo for things and thoughts i cannot explain.

[Moe-KendoFreak!]

yay! i wanna get a custom avatar yay!

STOP the VIOLENCE!

[Hyaku]

I have a question for all the Pinoy Kendoka out there. I am just curious, how come you decided to take Kendo rather than one of your own homegrown Martial Arts? My wife says that in the Philippines nobody is really interested in Arnis ( or any other Filipino MA's). Its more fashionable to take up "foriegn" Martial Arts. Why?

What are you finding in Kendo that traditional Filipino martial arts don't deliver?

Lack of politics? At least it is situation of practiced M.A. for arts sake in the Philppines. When its comes to self defence other means are used.

[koteslasher]

I have a question for all the Pinoy Kendoka out there. I am just curious, how come you decided to take Kendo rather than one of your own homegrown Martial Arts? My wife says that in the Philippines nobody is really interested in Arnis ( or any other Filipino MA's). Its more fashionable to take up "foriegn" Martial Arts. Why?

What are you finding in Kendo that traditional Filipino martial arts don't deliver?

" longer stick thus far to reach"
:silly:

[koteslasher]

no..seriously, the reason why there isnt enough promotion of fma even in the philippines is because of several factors.
1. no support from any of the sports body or from the govt. , where they should realise that this art esp. arnis is a national treasure. Why not make it as a part of physical education in elementary or perhaps high school so that the young will be made aware of such arts. Take china for example...as early as schoolage they incorporate wu shu into their education.
2. Another is personal greed and personal gain. Ive met a kali instructor who propagates the art in england and he teaches in warwickshire ( krishna) , and he travelled to cebu and bacolod just to master the art he even mentioned the name of the said guro in bacolod who took him as a student, well unfortunately a friend of mine who happens to know the said guro can attest that he often denies locals who wanted to learn the art. So where does that lead us then?? money issues?? so the poor locals would have no choice but to resort to other disciplines which comes around like " ready to eat" dishes being taught by bogus wannabe.

arnis, i believe is a wonderful art if learned well but sadly this is a dying memory in the philippines....

[titan2011]

Why is this in the flames section? And, Kendo is only in Manila... The Phils have only one Kendo dojo so this question isn't very valid if you only mean Kendo. :) And, I'm sure they like it for the same reasons we do. :)

Anyway, there is a lot of Arnis there...

Me, I'd like to study Arnis because it looks interesting.

It's an interesting question though. Why don't WE study European arts as much as Asian arts? hehehe... The same can be asked of us. It's a fascinating question. The lure of something different attracts us, I suppose. :)

His second question is interesting too, and can apply to any country's native art and why a person chose to not study their country's native art.

I think this isn't a flames question. There could be some good discussion out of this maybe.

Kaoru


Just an update There are 2 new Kendo clubs in the Philippines.

http://igakendoclub.webs.com/
http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=37931