TAGAAN Arnis is the armed component of Kuntaw Canada's training curriculum, which includes knife and gun (long and short barrel) defense systems. It is taught alongside Kuntaw, Sikaran, Kawala, and Buno. The founder of Tagaan Arnis is GM Marc De Leon. He formalized the art, which he inherited from his father Great Master Marcial De Leon. TAGAAN comes from the Tagalog word "taga", which means to cut or chop by striking. GM Marcial used to say during the teaching regimen the words (as teaching commands) "itaga mo" (you strike), "tagain mo ako" (strike me), "tatagain kita" (I'm gonna strike you). From these instructional words, GM Marc picked up the word "TAGAAN" as the name of the style of "arnis" art that he learned and inherited from his father.
KAWALA is a close-in self-defence system established by GM Marc De Leon. This system evolves from the techniques he learned from his father when they normally played in their old "kaingin" (mountainside farm), from GM Marc's own applications in actual encounters during his exciting years of growing, and the refinement for the purpose of teaching and sharing it with his students. KAWALA is a Tagalog term, which means to escape, to get free from strangulation and entrapment. KAWALA is a component of Kuntaw Canada's training curriculum.
BUNO is a wrestling style known, practised, and popularized in Philippines. It is both a household game played normally by a father and son, or brother and brother, and a deadly self-defence system. BUNO is the common term, but there are many domesticated names and styles that the Filipinos have adopted to show their identity with the style that they play. Here comes the DUMOG, GUMOL, and many others. However, all these can be gathered into one category, which is BUNO. GM Marc did not create his own BUNO style, but rather continue the techniques that he basically learned from his father. BUNO is a component of Kuntaw Canada's training curriculum.
To learn more about these self-defense systems, please click the link below. This will take you to another website of GM Marc De Leon - the TAGAAN-KAWALA Martial Arts website.
TAGAAN Arnis - KAWALA Martial Arts
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