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Originally Posted by kai
Grab a backup weapon when already close in. For barung it seems to have been common to hold the scabbard along the forearm as an impromptu security measure.
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Do you know any sources describing this? Or, more generally, technical details of fighting by Moros. It's easy to find descriptions of the preparation and appearance of juramentados, Moro fearlessness, etc., but hard to find anything technically useful about the way they fought.
In most photos of Moros with 2 weapons that I've seen, one of the weapons is a spear. (Could be small knives I don't see.) I can only remember one photo of a Moro with two swords (modern photo, an old man with 2 barong).
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Originally Posted by kai
I believe it's fair to assume that quite a bit of what we see in traditional Visayan styles has specifically been developed to counter Moro raiders.
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Yes. Many people push myth about escrima/kali/arnis descending from Moro martial arts, but that doesn't seem to have more substance than other empty martial arts origin myths. Instead, anti-Moro, with indigenous and Spanish elements.
N. R. Nepangue & C. C. Machador, "Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth", Xlibris, 2007, discusses this and the myths. I don't think they like the myths or the myth-makers very much.
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Originally Posted by kai
With so many Chinese styles obviously based on the spear, having to face a naive spearman would be akin to a lottery win though. In the old days that is...  |
Serious Chinese martial artists would not be naive about spears, from either end of the spear. But most people who carried spears at some time in their life in China were probably not serious martial artists. It takes so little training to make somebody dangerous with a spear, so it isn't necessary to train them intensively for most purposes.