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A YouTube viewer asked, “How do you counter a punyo feed?” In this video, I responded to this query and demonstrated three examples of countering a punyo feed.

Firstly, I instruct beginner students to simply get their check/alive hand up and defend against the punyo feed. Over time, they will start defending without thinking.

As the feeder, I defended passively against Alex’s punyo feed. I typically teach this defence to beginners, intending to get them to defend without thinking. Furthermore, I advise them, “It’s either the check hand or a face block!” This is crucial to the student’s progression in Modern Arnis. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen students become so entranced with the stick that they forget they have another hand! Thus, the passive defence is the first stage of coordinating their check hand with their weapon.

Once 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 hand.

An example of countering the punyo feed is the heavy check hand, as demonstrated in the clip below.

At this stage, the student is introduced to the more active version of the defence. Instead of passively accepting a training partner’s attack, the student will begin reacting aggressively against an attack. A heavy check is a great example.

A digression: if you pause too long after a heavy check, you will be in trouble! See the clip below.

Any proactive usage of the check hand should ideally be followed by a counter-attack or finishing shot.

Back to the main topic: countering the punyo feed. Once the students learn the heavy check, they will learn other options.

An additional option is the stop and lift, as depicted below.

These examples are the beginning of the student learning what they can do with their check hand. Other options include lifting, pushing, pulling, punching, baiting, locking, and more.

As I mentioned earlier, many people focus too much on the stick and forget that they have another hand! Why not use both the weapon and the check hand? For most of my students, the heavy check is the first step toward actively using the check hand.

It’s cool to see them realize how much more they can do with an active check hand, like countering the punyo feed! This is why I love teaching.

Over to you, what kinds of counters do you favour in this situation?

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