2 THE REPUBLIC
To develop better Filipino athletes
by Marcos D. Agayo The Department of Youth and Sports Development (DYSD) has designed a new mass-based physical fitness and sports development program. The program aims to make Filipinos more aware of the necessity of and techniques for proper physical development and help them appreciate better the value of sports, thereby producing a healthier citizenry -and a crop of athletes who have a fighting chance in international competition.
DYSD’s nationwide campaign, using print and broadcast media, seminars, workshops and demonstra- tions, will carry the message that physical fitness depends on proper nutrition and systematic exercise.
The average Filipino’s nutritional intake is crit- ically low, only 1,672 calories per day instead of the recommended 2,200. The DYSD campaign will try to make Filipinos aware of more nutritious foods-and erase the impression that what is better always costs more. Brown sugar, for example is cheaper and more nutritious than white, kangkong than rice, dilis than pork.
The DYSD campaign will also try to persuade everyone to engage in systematic exercise or calisthen- ics, since few Filipinos, even manual laborers, exer- cise all parts of their body.
As part of the campaign, community physical fitness centers will be established. These will be run by 1.500 specially trained members of the Kabataang Barangay and the Integrated National Police.
More and bigger sports competitions will also be held. While there are many sports leagues and clubsand regular provincial and municipal sports tour- naments, there is no broad base for selecting national athletes. At present, national athletes are chosen from college standouts and others who happen to have the qpoortuniiy and rjjources-and not necessarily the re- quisite talent to competeTnlnfefnaiiofiarmeetsr To resolve this problem, the DYSD, in cooperation with the Department of Education, the Kabataang Barangay, the Department of Local Government and Community Development, the Department of Na-
Fl • * ' . *
DYSD Secretary Gualberto Duavit (left) with Peso Chairman Nereo C. .Indolong.
tional Defense and various athletic clubs, is develop- ing a series of competitions, which will start with iniex-barangay, interclub and intercolor meets, and move on to district, regional and finally national meets. In this way an athletic elite, culled from talents all over the country, shall emerge.
To ensure a supply of good, reasonably priced equipment for the ten “priority” sports-volleyball, track and field, soccer, sipa, softball, weightlifting, swimming, boxing, arnis and hockey-the DYSD hope^
to get the help of the Association of Sporting Goods Manufacturer^ (ASGM). Eventually, it is hoped the KB 'wiU ha^dle pTTrchasing; distribution and allocation of
sporting goods for the government’s sports program in consultation with the ASGM.
The problem of sports complexes or arenas has also been considered. Some time back the DYSD sent
questionnaires about sports facilities to provincial governors all over the country. Unfortunately, only a few of the survey sheets were answered and sent back. The limited available feedback indicates that most sports facilities are either inadequate or obsolete.
The DYSD has therefore initiated the rehabilita- tion or construction of sports centers in strategic regional, provincial and municipal areas. This begins with the renovation and restoration of the Rizal Me- morial Sports Complex, which shall be a National Sports Complex.
The government also hopes to be able to use such facilities as cockpits (normally used only-onSun-^
days and holidays) and nonprofit sports clubs (which might be exempted from paying taxes on food and beverage sales if they allow their facilities to be used for government-sponsored sports events).
Traditional sports
Amis de mano is a martial sport in which two players wield hardwood sticks against one another. The term, according to Donn F. Draeger, an authority on Asian fighting arts, derives from the Spanish words ames, which referred to the decorative trapping or “harness”
worn by moro-moro actors and which eventually be- came corrupted as arnis, and de mano, which means
“of the hand.” The entire phrase thus means “harness of the hand.”
Amis may have developed from a combat system known as kali, in which long- and short-bladed wea- pons were used. (It may also have derived from a na- tive combat system using a short pointed hardwood
stick, the tabak, which Pigafetta saw among the na- tives of Mactan.) The kali system of combat was forced underground by the Spanish, surfacing only during moro-moro stage plays in which mock com- bat with biaded weapons constituted the climax.
Draeger points to three forms of amis being prac- ticed today. The original amis style-which the Span- iards observed-had some similarities to European fenc- ing. It used a long wooden sword and a short wooden dagger and was known as espada y daga. It is the most popular style today, though the “sword” and “dagger”
have been replaced by wooden sticks known as muton.
Another style of amis, popular among the Panga»
sinenses, the llocanos and the Viajeros of Macabebe and Batangas, used a single long muton and is known as solo baston, or “single stick.”
The third style is, says Draeger, the deadliest and most difficult to master because of the concentration
Arnis: martial sport with calisthenu value.
and dexterity needed to manipulate two equally long sticks. This style is called sinawali because the intri- cate movements of the two muton are like the bam- boo-rush sawali pattern used for weaving, walling and matting. The sticks used average about 30 inches in length and about one inch in diameter.
To become adept in amis, one must develop skill in striking and parrying with a dagger, in using the leg or leg-hip as a fulcrum over which to break an op- ponent’s balance, and in using the sticks or a free hand to disarm a foe.
Though modem amis is valued more for its calis- thenic than its combat value, it still can be useful in a tight situation.
Kun-tao is basically a defensive system. It stresses cir- cular movements and employs the open hand, the fist and the feet in parrying and striking. The term derives from the Hokkien Chinese words kun, meaning
“fist,” and tao, meaning “way.”
Kun-tao first flourished in Sulu, where it was prob- ably introduced by Islamic settlers and traders from Sumatra and the neighboring islands of Indonesia and Malaysia, who had themselves learned it from Chinese settlers and traders. As practiced today, kun-too is similar to Japanese and Korean combat systems.
Dumog is a native wrestling system which developed in the northern Philippines. By holding the belt or en- circling the waist of an opponent, one player tries to knock the other off balance and throw him to the ground. One player must land squarely on his back for the other to be declared the winner.
Sipa bears a certain resemblance to volleyball, except that the ball is made of woven rattan and it is kicked rather than handbatted over the net separating two opposing teams. A ball served or returned from one side of the net must be returned before or after the ball bounces once on the court. A game ends when fifteen points are scored by one team.
