Techniques for the Month of October

Doble Baston or Sinawali


This months drill/technique will be on the use of the doble baston or sometimes referred to as sinawali. Sinawali means to weave and is taken from the word sawali.

The use of the doble baston or 2 baton/stick is generally considered an advance subsystem of arnis/eskrima/kali. To manipulate one weapon in each hand, in this case two rattan canes/stick, independantly of one another requires good hand - eye coordination, and control.

By training in the doble baston one will develope or improve their use of ones "bad hand". By that I mean if a person is left or right handed their use of the opposite hand will improve. From my own personal developement I found that my hand usages in terms of "flow" has improved tremendously. Another one that will improve hand techniques is the spada y daga sub system of Arnis but that is another topic for the next installments.

REDONDA SINAWALI
This particular exercise will be what is called redonda sinawali. Redonda basically means circle in Spanish. One key note to remember is that 3 strikes are done on the left and 3 strikes on right. And each 3 strikes are all going the same direction - ie: right to left and left to right.

Start off in the close position with the left arm under your right armpit or right hand under your left armpit.

This exercise can be done solo or with a partner. When doing it with a partner all one is doing is mirroring the other. The student should just concentrate on his or her part and not worry about the other. When feeling comfortable with the drill start moving around and then try to make a pre arrange sparring out of it. One can get a good workout just doing this particular drill.

SIMPLE APPLICATION
Then you can apply redonda as a technique. Have one partner feed and the other apply. As an example I will use the #1 strike to demonstrate some simple application. A #1 strike is a strike to your opponents left head - may vary. For those not familiar with the Filipino Martial Arts the numbering used is nothing more than a training aid. It is easier to say a number than saying for example- hit me on the left side of the head with.....

  • 1. As the strike comes: you can hit the hand 3 times- right, left, right.
  • 2. As the strike comes: you can hit, check and hit with alternating hand.
  • 3. As the strike comes: you can block, hit, hit.
  • 4. As the strike comes: you can block, check, strike.

These are just some examples. There are many more but I am sure you can get the idea. You can apply redonda to all the different angles of attack whether it be hand, elbow strikes or against kicks, knees etc...

There are more sinawali drills and its application but this should give the beginning student a taste. And that contrary to what many un-initiate student think, the Filipino Martial Arts is more than just fancy twirling of the sticks. Or if one analyze the movements one can easily apply the movements with the empty hand therefore making it not merely a "stick fighting" art.

The pictures used for the creation of the animation shown here and the link are taken from Grandmaster Ernesto Presas's book Arnis: Presas Style and Balisong. The student doing the demonstration is Dielbert.

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