ISMA-Escryma is based on the simplicity principle, which is mainly illustrated by the concepts here below:
The idea of blocking is based on ancient traditional styles. ISMA-Escryma is not based on these ancient ideas but uses modern and realistic concepts. Therefore, in the ISMA-Escryma system, blocking means attacking in order to minimize reaction delays and to avoid the phenomenon of overcompensation due the visual recognition of an attack. If you want to block an attack, you actually need to recognize the attack angle, which puts you into a defensive and passive stance. Such a stance is typical for a victim because you are at the mercy of what the attacker does.
According to one maxim, the risk of injuring yourself during a combat proportionally increases with the number of techniques used to finish the combat, i.e. with the combat's duration.
By using the idea of attacking instead of blocking, we confront our opponent with a powerful and highly qualitative attack, i.e. we rid ourselves of the victim role and completely avoid the impacts of overcompensation due to long reaction delays. Attack is the best defense and therefore we use straight lines. We focus on our opponent in the same way as when shooting. When counter- attacking, you may touch the opponent's weapon if the latter crosses the straight attack line, giving the wrong impression of a block. ISMA-Escryma is based on the idea of attacking (one movement) and not on the idea of block&counter ( two movements). Moreover, we attack our opponent and not his weapon, i.e. we protect the limits of our body and attack whatever comes into our central line, e.g. the opponent's body. If his weapon is outside of these corporal limits, we charge with a direct attack to his body.
The following questions are typically asked by people:
Our single answer is : so what!
This answer replies to all of the above questions with a simple concept: whatever the force, the speed, the size, etc. of the opponent, if you have not been hit, hit him first. This removes any doubts and fears, in addition, the attacker becomes the victim of his own attack. Consequently, he will be unable to play his game, i.e. using his force, his speed, his feints, etc., because he will then try to protect himself with blocks. That's why: so what!
ISMA-Escryma is based on the idea of attacking in order to finish the combat as fast as possible.
When applying the box concept, we take into account three major types of ranges:
If we take into account protrusion and anti-ground fight ranges, then there are actually five ranges. However, we use only three ranges with weapons for the following reasons:
Therefore, we use an adaptive footwork as a means to overcome the three major distances. We constantly advance and exert pressure on our opponent like in combat shooting. We may move in a straight line to join an in-line objective. We can also use an off-line footwork to join an off-line objective or to rejoin the in-line objective. Whether we are in the same angle than our opponent or out of that angle doesn't make any difference because the applicable concepts are always the same ! Furthermore, we use point step footwork to develop power within the shortest range.
In order to be continually able to generate maximum power at any range, we place ourselves and our shoulders in a frontal line with our opponent. This is called the "face-to-face principle". The range between our body and the opponent's body forms a triangle pointing at the latter and being based on our body. Such a focused attack stance is comparable with a sprinter in his starting position while waiting for the starting shot. Our front knee is slightly bent, the body's weight mainly lies on the front leg, and the back leg is also slightly bent. Such a stance allows ourselves to push forward with the heel of our foot. All our body, our legs and our feet point to opponent, like a pit bull waiting to be released.
There are fives types of attacks (or "blocks") as a reaction to an interfering strike :
These "blocks" are used to hit the opponent's hands, rips, body or head. If the weapons have contact, the "defender" has hesitated, reacted too slowly or been physically slower.
While the box is a tool based on a simple concept, its application is quite sophisticated. In order to reduce the distance and the (re)action delays to hit and thus to ensure speed based on technique, we visually follow with our weapon the opponent's weapon position. Consequently, our weapon finds itself in a cross position to the opponent's weapon and forms a shield against the opponent, forcing the latter to change his angle of attack by opening up.
ISMA-Escryma is characterized by 5 key concepts:
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