Escrima De Campo
Escrima De Campo JDC-IO is a Filipino martial art belonging to the style of escrim with a long battle distance. The acronym JDC-IO consists of the first letters of the name of the founder of martial arts, Jose D. Caballero and his first student, Irineo Olavides. The first name of the school was De Campo Uno-Dos-Tres Orihinal. Then the students called the school Eskrima de Campo JDC-IO for the services of Eric Olavides, who improved the GM Caballero system.
Long distance gear
This style mainly applies long distance. Masters of style consider it most right to build a duel over a long distance, if you use a stick. At close range and in a clinch, it is more useful to use a knife, fists, head hits, etc. In Escrima De Campo, direct attacks are carried out, as well as attacks at a distance of destruction, instead of carrying out attacks in the corners, which is used in most melee systems.
Blocks of the “stick to stick” type are not used in Escrima De Campo, and the combat techniques without weapons are not being developed.
Disarmament in this style is made by striking a hand with a weapon. In training this style, much attention is paid to the accumulation of strength, accuracy and speed. Conducting trainings for practicing an accurate strike is always carried out in pairs of instructor-student. Exercises that are held between a pair of equal fighters are not encouraged, because a fighter should always be able to fight the highest level enemy, and not just street hooligans. Grandmaster Jose Caballero had to beat not only ordinary thugs, but also the best fighters who fought at that time: Balbino Manchao, Simeon Saavedra, Vincent Labor, Juan Caroll, Generoso Carbajosa, Alfredo Macalolan, Tanchong Lopez, Jorge Ponahono Navanio, Jorge Paparano Navajo, Anoya from Tanguba and others. Although this system is quite brutal, it focuses the attention of students on striking a hand with a weapon to reduce the chances of a fatal outcome of the fight. Caballero never inflicted serious wounds and did not kill opponents.
Style technique
The main features of the De Campo technique are:
– lack of feints,
– the initial strike is always delivered with the greatest force,
– any part of the opponent’s body that is in the zone of possible defeat must be the original goal,
– the arm with the weapon is most often struck at first, if the arm with the gun is at the back – blows are applied to the rest of the body,
– no stick to stick blocks,
– there are no active actions with a hand without a weapon,
– all enemy disarmament is carried out by simple accurate strikes on the arm with a weapon,
– All combinations of strokes are trained in a pair of student instructors.
Three attack levels
Ireneo Olavides advised:
– If the opponent approaches, you need to hit the knees.
– If the opponent opens – you need to hit the elbows and hands
– If the opponent is in the center, you need to beat him in the eye.
Combat distance
Manong Jose focused on ma-ah – the basic principle of maintaining an effective distance. To preserve it, it is necessary to correctly assess the range of action, apply the attached boxing step. As a sniper makes one kill with one shot, so the master must accurately measure the length of the blow to the enemy.
Sticks
No sticks of standard length are used in this style. They are trimmed in proportion to weight and length. Increasing the length can be sacrificed for better speed and strength. The stick can be from 31 to 26 inches long. To deliver a powerful blow, sticks made of durable Bahi or Kamagong wood are used, which have an advantage over light rattan sticks. Most stick strokes are made with the wrist movement. In De Campo, non-varnished sticks are also used, without firing and varnishing, with bark. They are thicker and heavier than regular ones.
Impact reflection
Manong Jose gave valuable advice to beginners: “If it is difficult to hit the enemy’s armed hand in a duel, the goal must be to make your elbows at close range. If the opponent strikes horizontally, you must answer vertically from above, and if the opponent strikes you with a vertical blow, you must answer horizontally while keeping the maximum effective distance. ” He always reminded students: “I taught you to fight with the best fighters, and not with big hooligans at all. The stick fight should end in a few seconds. ”
Eagle eyesight
When Manong Jose lived in Cebu, there was a story with two men who came to him to see his technique, about which they had heard a lot. These people traveled all over the province to find an escrimador who passed their test. Ultimately, these people met with Manong Jose, and one of them convinced the second to engage in a friendly battle with him.
“Joe, how do you reflect that!” – warned one of them and quickly and prematurely hit the first corner. Manong Jose was forced to respond to the blow and in response to hit the insidious nukita (hand-knife) with his bare hand in the solar plexus of the enemy – the attack was stopped.
