jogo do pau

[Jay Vail]

Here is an interesting vid showing a demonstration of the techniques of jogo do pau, the Portuguese stick fighting art. Note the stances and the covers. Very interesting stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cr_12hdKJs

[Jeffrey Hull]

Snazzy videos -- did not realise that there were a whole bunch for jogo do pau to be found at the YouTube.

There is a book in English on the subject, perhaps it is worthwhile.

http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/jdp/JdP.html

[Stacy Clifford]

That does look pretty familiar doesn't it? I especially noticed the strike defense by planting the tip of the stick on the floor to either side and letting go with the front hand. Swetnam clearly describes that same defense in the staff section of his manual.

[Jay Vail]

That does look pretty familiar doesn't it? I especially noticed the strike defense by planting the tip of the stick on the floor to either side and letting go with the front hand. Swetnam clearly describes that same defense in the staff section of his manual.

Stacy, this is exactly what I thought when I saw this vid. It reminded me of your class at IG 07 on Swetam.

[Jay Vail]

Snazzy videos -- did not realise that there were a whole bunch for jogo do pau to be found at the YouTube.

There is a book in English on the subject, perhaps it is worthwhile.

http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/jdp/JdP.html

I have this book.

[Sripol Asanasavest]

Interesting stuff! It's kindda like Indian stick fighting...they also use long pole to fight. I never knew there was such thing in Europe. Is it by any chance influenced by the Asian martial art or did it completely evolved on its own.

[Kevin T. Crisalli]

It's portugese in origin, though it has been said that it may have been strongly influenced or straight imported from India.

here, the wikipedia article is pretty good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogo_do_Pau

[david welch]

Do you realize that if you dressed them up a little, and edited for length you could make this look like the fight with the Black Knight?

Just with less blood and missing limbs.

[Jeffrey Hull]

I am guessing that it developed solely natively in Portugal.

Staff-fighting is one of the most basic and oldest forms of fencing that is found in every culture throughout Europe.

I would say that the indiginous martial arts of Europe hardly need an Asian explanation of origin.

Indeed, pretty much every culture has had neolithic ancestry wielding spears or staves, so it is a safe guess that every culture basically figured it out on its own by virtue of having such staff-fighting since when nobody could remember.

[Mike Cartier]

as far as i had heard Jogo de pau was portugese but the initial technical stuff came from Japanese kenjutsu. I can't verify this but i checked this stuff out years ago and that was the end result of my checking.

Which is why they use that sort of padding they do.
they have a Yahoo group that I am a member of.

[Grant Hall]

Interesting stuff! It's kindda like Indian stick fighting...they also use long pole to fight. I never knew there was such thing in Europe. Is it by any chance influenced by the Asian martial art or did it completely evolved on its own.

Jogo do pau is a Portugese Art that was developed in isolated rural areas of Portugal and was practically unknown in other areas of Portugal. In other words, it was virtually unknown in the areas of Portugal that had contact with India and other Asian Countries and yet it florished in areas that had no contact with India and Asia.

To imply it is imported from asia is an insult to Europeans as a whole, Martial Arts is not the sole dominion of Asia, Europe has a long and proud history of Martial Arts, and more to the point the European Martial Arts are as effective if not more so than any Asian art.

For those who still insist on implying that it must be of asian origin they would do well to study the manuals of various European Fighting styles that were written before any real contact with India existed.

Anyways, the origins aside, Jogo do Pau is an excelent example of how longsword techniques adapted and survived into the present day, another great example is the stick fighting of Italy and France (called Greatstick since the 1800's).

EDIT: To show you what I mean, check out this Youtube Video: Greatstick 2

[Randall Pleasant]

Snazzy videos -- did not realise that there were a whole bunch for jogo do pau to be found at the YouTube.

There is a book in English on the subject, perhaps it is worthwhile.

http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/jdp/JdP.html

I met Luis Preto at the 2006 WMAW event. Luis he was one of the few instructors at that event that I held in respect. Saddly, I did not get to talke his class at the event.

[Matt Bryant]

Some of it looks quite familiar, yes. Like the offset and counter thrust. Also the fast, one-handed slinging that you see in the German manuals.

Cool stuff.

[steve hick]

Interesting stuff! It's kindda like Indian stick fighting...they also use long pole to fight. I never knew there was such thing in Europe. Is it by any chance influenced by the Asian martial art or did it completely evolved on its own.

Jogo do pau is a Portugese Art that was developed in isolated rural areas of Portugal and was practically unknown in other areas of Portugal. In other words, it was virtually unknown in the areas of Portugal that had contact with India and other Asian Countries and yet it florished in areas that had no contact with India and Asia.

To imply it is imported from asia is an insult to Europeans as a whole, Martial Arts is not the sole dominion of Asia, Europe has a long and proud history of Martial Arts, and more to the point the European Martial Arts are as effective if not more so than any Asian art.

For those who still insist on implying that it must be of asian origin they would do well to study the manuals of various European Fighting styles that were written before any real contact with India existed.

Anyways, the origins aside, Jogo do Pau is an excelent example of how longsword techniques adapted and survived into the present day, another great example is the stick fighting of Italy and France (called Greatstick since the 1800's).

EDIT: To show you what I mean, check out this Youtube Video: Greatstick 2

There is a dissertation, written in Portuguese, by Rui Simoes, that gives evidence of Jogo do Pau from at least as early as the 17th century. The area, from whence it comes, is in the north, far in from the coast. So, the argument that it had MUCH influence from either Japanese or Indian (one Portuguese source gives this) is unlikely as the majority of of even common seamen would be from the coast. The area was even among the first to return to local control from Islam, so even that argument is less likely. The areas of India under Portuguese control (Goa) are not areas from which we have similar arts (silambam, khaliparathi or lathi).

Jogo do Pau has a high degree of similarity with some (SOME) of the montante material of Portugal and Spain, excepting the lead hand (left, versus right). It does have some similarity with other arts of the Canaries, southern France and Italy.

Now there might be some later borrowings, the play of Lisbon, where the art came to the capitol from the north, was influenced by fencing, and I wonder about possible later influences (20th century) from shotokan karate ( some of Nino Russo's stances bear this, he did study this art, and has some level of blackbelt). If you can find some other videos of other players, you will see higher stances.

But, origins 100% from the upper Duro valley from the 19th century to Lisbon, with perhaps some later borrowings.

Steve