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THE DACAYANA FAMILY SYSTEM OF ESKRIMA
An overview of the Dacayana Eskrima System and it's introduction to the UK by
Official Dacayana UK Representatives:
John 'Jo Biggs; Bedford Eskrima, Bedford Jujutsu and Sacred Spring
&
Marcie Harding; Malvern Eskrima Group
The Philosophy behind Jo's Sacred Spring School of Martial Arts is to provide the very best Teachers for his students to learn from. He has done this successfully and consistently over the last few years. The list of Sacred Spring teachers and guest teachers are some of the very best and include some of the highest ranking Jujutsuka in Europe and a Gracie BJJ teacher from Brazil!
However Jo's background included Eskrima - which he trained in to Instructor level the UK in the 1980's, As part of the natural development Jo was keen to reintroduce Eskrima as part of the school`s teaching, Jo asked me to help him in with this project. I had been successfully running my own Eskrima group for several years and between us we felt we could find the right person and the right system to bring to into Sacred Spring. Such a person would need an ethos and philosophy that would match ours and our students. We currently have over 20 clubs in the Sacred Spring family with at least as many again as 'friends' to the group and Jo has around 150 black belt level students. This information was not divulged to prospective 'partners' as we wanted to get to know the right person and not offer preconceptions.
The internet was the tool to begin our search. Over the period of several months we emailed and enquired far and wide requesting information and beginning a dialogue with many different Eskrima teachers and organisations
Further to this we had the chance opportunity in the summer of 2007 to meet Sifu Yves Dantec who was on a visit from France. Yves kindly arranged to meet Jo and I for talks (and meals and drinks as it turned out!!) to discuss martial arts and he then introduced us to Jhun Dacayana system of FMA which at the time was refered to as Migsunedo. Yves felt that this was a system that would be recieved very well over here and our students and teachers would enjoy Jun`s Style of teaching.
We continued our talks at length with both Yves and Jun who began to understand that we wanted a long term relationship that was in tune with the ethos of Sacred Spring and someone who would accept Experienced martial artist`s who still wished to teach and practise other arts, hence there development within F.M.A would be much slower and patience would be needed.
Jun had already taken the decision to propagate his system (MigSuneDo) which is his own development, with the blessing of his father Alberto Dacayana snr. Since this decision Jo and I have persuaded Jun to rename his Eskrima style 'Dacayana' in recognition of himself and his father's family name for the UK and Europe.
As a result of our correspondence Jun was pursuaded to visit the UK for the first time in November 2007. The visit was amazingly successful (please see full report) and has resulted in Jun agreeing to return to us in March 2008. Jo and I are both honoured and proud to be Jun's UK representatives and cannot wait for his next visit!
The System
We have worked together to provide a modular structured syllabus for our students to study. The system which is studied to practitioner (Black belt) level here in the UK mainly consists of the following four categories:
Single stick (Solo Olisi)
Sword & Dagger/Stick and Knife (Olisi Kutselyo)
Knife fighting (Kutselyo)
Empty hand system (Sumbagay)
The Dacayana system allows the practioner to develop skills in F.M.A,within the system emphasis is placed, in the length of the stick, the footwork, the flow, the focus on precision and accuracy of the blade and the practioner`s overall development to learn new skills.
The system at first concentrates on the simplicity of the strikes and the footwork. The flow is achieved by a series of connected or consecutive strikes that is hard wired into the practitioner and can be used to both attack and counters. The favoured length of the sticks is between 32"-34" several inches longer than normally used to practise here in the UK. Jun believes that this length of stick teaches the student better mechanics, improves fluidity and also focuses the mind more on visualising use of the blade (particularly the Pinute) when practising. Of course the student can also use the conventional 26"-28" inch stick if she or he wishes (and indeed will find the transition seamless) but training with the longer weapon gives additional benefits.
Another part of the system is the approach to training and the emphasis on the student understanding the key principles we work from. This is particularly beneficial to the more senior Martial Artist that may be have trained to a high level in another system and wishes to learn the Dacayana system. The understanding of the key principles facilitates this.
Jun is also keen to preserve the history and culture of originating city of Cebu within the system and where possible Cebuano/visayan terminology is used to describe the key strikes, techniques and fundamentals of the system.
The system also (of course) uses flow drills, the core of which are the Single stick & empty hand Drills (Balla Balla or Tolod-Tapi-Bunlot) meaning pushing (Tolod) and pulling (Bunlot). In single stick form the drill can be used both in long and close range and the free movement form in long range is one of the hardest parts of the system to master.
The Stance in the Dacayana System is kept as simple as possible. For the Practitioner syllabus of the Dacayana system we will simply use the Andam 'Fighting Stance' or 'Ready Position' which is an upright ready stance with weight distribution of 80/20 favouring the rear leg. Don't forget this distribution can be easily transferred as it is only a snapshot in time and the lightness of footwork of the Dacayana system (move like a cat on the balls of your feet) encourages this.
The basic strikes of the Stick consist of downward strikes, horizontal strikes, and upward strikes, all these strikes are performed from both offensive stances and defensive stances. In the Dacayana system we also use a thrusting strike and all of these strikes can be found in the 12 basic angles. The effectiveness of all these strikes as with the unarmed arts depends on the correct choice of strike and grip in relation to target, the use of the stick in a circular motion to gain power and speed and the use of body position to add extra weight on impact.. As we are encouraged to think of the stick as a blade in our execution of these strikes we always focus on the precision and orientation of the blade when practising
Blocking to Countering in the Dacayana system depends on the understanding of five main types of Dacayana disarming/countering techniques, from direct hitting to Block and hold techniques in order to attack by drawing. In the system we also use seven main disarming techniques for use against different angles of attack.
Marcie.
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