The Check Hand
Professor Presas said, “Do not get hypnotized by the stick.”
He meant that people would get too caught up using their canes and forget about their empty hand. Sometimes, it is called the “alive” hand as it keeps you alive.
If you are not able to view this video, please click here.
It is imperative in corto range fighting systems like Modern Arnis.
The sensitivity of the check hand is crucial to effective responses and counters to any attack launched by an opponent.
Examples include checking an opponent’s attack, holding his arm, deflecting, punching, and baiting. It also includes feeling your opponent’s movement, disarms, lifting and clearing, grabbing, pulling, off-balancing, joint locking, and stealing the lead.
While learning the various striking, thrusting, and butting techniques with your stick, you must also learn to develop your checking hand. In other words, you must develop BOTH the weapon hand and the empty hand. They work in concert; otherwise, one will not become adept at self-defence/fighting.
An example is how Professor Presas taught the Six Count Drill. He always emphasized the use of the check hand in this drill. At the most basic level, you’re learning to insert your empty/check hand as you execute your stick technique during this drill. As one will learn very quickly, if you don’t use your check hand with proper footwork, you will suffer the consequences!
If you are not able to view this video, click here.
Additional Reading
- Two Killer Check Hand Drills
- Video of the Week 7: Modern Arnis Block, Check, Counter
- Forget About Winning or Losing
- The Modern Arnis Six Count Drill
- 4 Ways To Set Up Your Opponent
Share this post:
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
Brian Johns
Related Posts
4 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Categories
- Arnis/Kali/Eskrima (122)
- Book Review (8)
- DVD Reviews (3)
- Guest Post (4)
- Inspiration (24)
- Martial Arts (104)
- My story (93)
- Safety (15)
- Tips & tricks (6)
- Uncategorized (3)
- YouTube Videos (8)
[…] the student can independently move his stick and check hand, they will then learn to move from passive defence to more active use of the check […]
[…] frequently see students not using their check hand, and it drives me crazy! So often, I tell them, “Come on, man! Use your check hand […]
[…] frequently see students not using their check hand, which drives me crazy! So often, I tell them, “Come on, man! Use your check hand here!” […]
[…] The Check Hand […]