MARTIAL ARTS DEMOS, TRAINING,EXHIBITIONS,ETC.

Most of you have seen,if you have an interest of some kind in martial arts,numerous demonstrations, exhibitions,tournaments, and any number of instances including DVD's,movies, films, and have read books,etc. talked with people, and so forth and have quite a good idea or notion about martial arts,especially if you have spent years at such. BUT MY QUESTION IS: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMEONE DO SOMETHING IN MARTIAL ARTS THAT RAISES THE HAIR ON THE BACK OF YOU NECK OR HEAD? I don't mean anything that just interest you, is an outstanding TECHNICAL performance , an exciting performance, or 'crowd-pleaser' but one in which you realized you were standing in the very face of death? Of course, it was not done to kill you or scare you or the like but to instruct you, to show you what the art really is? I suspect very few persons on the contemporary martial arts scene have ever had such an experience and never will. I suspect that most will never have such an opportunity for many reasons. But if you should be fortunate enough to have seen such a thing and experienced the hairs rising on the back of your neck as you observe such, then you will know what I mean. No about of verbalisation on such will prove anything or give you any insights.

TAPI-TAPI & ARNIS DE MANO

"TAPI-TAPI" is perhaps the 'essence' of ARNIS DE MANO, sometimes spelled as: ARNIS DI MANO, ARNES DE MANO, and sometimes as ARMAS DE MANO. "Tapi-Tapi" can be considered the 'essence of arnis' just as the strikes can be considered the 'SOUL' of Arnis. This is because Arnis De Mano translates as 'HARNESS OF THE HANDS' and the term refers to the fact that Arnis is a hidden art, that is, openly done in the past under the very noses of the Spanish Conquerors and rulers in the Philippines, where Arnis is now being revived and resurrected by many groups. ARNIS was hidden or 'encoded' in themethods of harnessing horses,carabao(Kalabaw),etc. to carts or placing the elaborate trappings, halters, saddles, etc. on horses,especially for pageantry and fiestas,etc. While some consider that the term refers to the protective gauntlets worn upon the wrists,which are/were useful,no doubt, especially in European countries, in hot tropical countries such were not used too greatly by the general public probably. Many of the tactics and maneuvers of Arnis were perhaps concealed,of course, in pageantry, plays(dramas) and theater etc. especially in celebrations of a religious nature, which fiestas were. Arnis,despite the fact that 'the strikes are the soul of Arnis' is considered to be a 'defensive' art especially in it modern form(s) and the basic substitution of the stick for the blade,though many may take a good deal of exception to this notion, off the battlefield, Arnis tends to be this" defensive,even if vigorous in nature.