Doce Pares Styles

Solo Olisi (Single Stick)

The strong hand wields a stick (approximately 30" in length and 3/4" in diameter, usually made of rattan) and serves as the primary offense. The empty hand is used mainly for defense, focusing on controlling the opponent's weapon hand. Most (but not all) of the techniques can be generalized to espada (sword) techniques. One obvious difference is that the angle of the hand must be correct to utilize the sharp edge of the weapon. The role of the check hand is also clearly different. Amarra (twirling) techniques are taught to develop wrist strength and coordination, which facilities the ability to generate power and re-angle the wrist evasively at short range. Solo Olisi techniques can be practiced in larga (long), medio (medium), and corto (short) ranges.

The larga range is characterized by evasive footworking/angling, and fast continuous strikes to the weapon hand.

The medio range utilizes sophisticated checking of the opponents weapon hand with simultaneous counterattacking. The Tapi-Tapi, the highly sophisticated system of trapping and checking, is taught to develop these skills.

The corto range emphasizes curving attacks and continuous re-angling of the strikes around the opponent's defenses.

One of the most fundamental solo olisi drills is the abesedario, a comprehensive defense/counter-strike drill, the seven levels of which are designed to develop movement/angling, checking (if applicable), and countering in each of the three ranges. A variety of disarming techniques are also studied.

Doble Olisi (Double Stick)

Each hand has an olisi. They can be used for combination attacks, or one can serve as defense while the other is used for attacks. In general longer ranges are utilized since checking techniques are more limited. A variety of striking and twirling patterns are practiced to develop strength and coordination over many angles of attack and combinations thereof. These are practiced alone and with partners (pingki-pingkis). The skills developed here carry over into the other sub-disciplines, such as empty hand striking combinations, solo olisi striking and checking, and espada y daga.

Espada y Daga (Sword and Dagger)

The strong hand wields a stick or long blade, and serves as the primary offense. The weak hand holds a knife and is used for both offense (thrusting, slashing) and defense (blocking, checking, and locking). Training starts with drills which teach coordination of the two weapons in striking and checking patterns, then footwork (i.e. triangle) and body angling are added. Drills then progress to those involving multiple attacks (typically long weapon followed by short weapon); basic defenses are followed by transitions to the outside, avoiding remaining between the weapons. Finally, the complex espada y daga locks and takedowns are addressed.

Baraw (Knife)

Similar in format to the solo olisi, but the weapon is a short blade. Initial training usually begins with empty hands defenses against a knife, with an emphasis on stepping off the line of attack and checking the weapon hand. Various blocks and parries are learned to address the four types of attacks (single, double/multiple, sliding, and slicing). Simultaneous counter-attacks are then added. More advanced defensive tactics include locks, disarms, and redirections. Training then progresses to knife vs. knife, where a variety of two-man drills teach principle attack/defense/counter-attack combinations, as well as continuous flow. All of the same tactics applied to empty hand defense can be applied to armed defense as well.

Mano Y Mano (Hand to Hand)

The Doce Pares empty hand drills usually involve boxing style attacking movements, open hand techniques such as eye jabs are often employed. The defensive movements use the same zoning and body angling practiced with the weapons techniques

Dumog (Grappling)

A variety of take downs and throwing techniques are used, which can be practiced with or without weapons. Unlike Ju-Jitsu, very little ground work is done due to the prevalence of knives in the Philippines. Combat Judo otherwise known as Dumog is a Filipino Martial Art that features grappling, joint locks, pressure point control, sweeps, and throws. Dumog manipulates an attacker by utilizing and redirecting an opponent's own strength against