Meliton Geronimo
Sikaran

The arnis stick is the extension
of sikaran's empty hand blocks.
-M. C. GERONIMO

Introduction

Sikaran is a classical Filipino foot-fighting art unique in its application of techniques and their target selection. This Filipino kicking system, a hobby of the native Baras farmers, became popular in the provinces surrounding Manila during the 1940s. By the 1950s, sikaran had become widely known and was accepted as a legitimate art in such places as Japan and Korea. The man responsible for the structuring and perpetuation of sikaran as a contemporary martial art and sport is retired Lieutenant Colonel Meliton C. Geronimo, the Mayor of Baras, Philippines. So effective and unique are some of its kicks that the art of sikaran has led many of its practitioners to win a number of open Asian sparring championships; It has also led several arts in Korea to adopt its trademark spinning kick, the biakid.

Technical Rational

Traditionally, sikaran was played during the farming dry seasons by two individuals, or teams, within the perimeters of a rice paddy. Since the time of its founding in the early 1920s by Cipriano Geronimo, sikaran has developed a body of highly disabling kicking techniques termed panghilo or knock-out blows. One of the fatal techniques, the biakid, is a kick delivered exactly the opposite of the karate roundhouse kick-the force is concentrated on the back of an opponent's head. "If I am facing my opponent," states Mayor Geronimo, "I can deliver my kick at his back. No other system can kick you in the back from the front position, that is the biakid of sikaran. You see, in karate they can just deliver the kicks from the front or side. With sikaran, I can break your ribs or then the back of your neck even though we are facing each other. The biakid is the trademark of sikaran. It is fatal."

In its application of technique sikaran has two divisions: sport and combat. Self-defense is combative where the sport-form is considered to be play. For example, in a self-defense situation, in wanting to disable an opponent, the sikaran exponent will use either the heel or ball of the foot. In its sport-form the instep of the foot is used when kicking an opponent to reduce the chances of serious injury. The many kicking techniques of sikaran are said to be essential for self-defense. Sikaran practitioners believe they hold an advantage if attacked because their trained feet afford them a longer reach and stronger defensive weapon than do the hands. Geronimo believes that if one is not trained in sikaran they will have trouble defending themselves against it. The sikaran stylist is often compared to a ballet dancer-he moves with grace, agility, and speed. However, it must be noted that without flexibility one can not become highly skilled at sikaran. Like a ballet dancer, the students of sikaran spend countless hours patiently stretching the necessary muscles to facilitate the proper kicking actions.

In the sport of sikaran there is a ruling of a winner. In combat, there is no ruling-anything goes. In combat, kicks are delivered to the legs, in addition to an array of sweeping techniques utilized by the sikaran exponent. "One of my uncles here in Baras," remembers Geronimo, "has a very strong knee. He will just kick you using his knee and you cannot get up-you are paralyzed-that is the difference with sikaran." Similar to the stories of the late Kyokushin-kai karate master, Masutatsu Oyama, sikaran is also noted for having utilized its techniques in knocking out a bull. As Geronimo recalls, "Sometimes our students who specialized on kicks using the ball of the foot have knocked out the bull. If you hit it in the temple, the top of the skull, the bridge of the nose, or the throat it will die. It is very easy to use your foot in sikaran this way."

Since sikaran is scarcely an empty-handed art it follows that its kicking techniques are well rooted in a scientific knowledge of body dynamics, target selection, and defensive concepts. In fact, the very stances that are used are dependent on an opponent's attacking maneuvers. "If your opponent is aggressive you have to use the forward stance," explains Geronimo. "It depends upon the attacker. If its a freestyle match we use the cat stance (tayong pusa) in combination with the back stance-a more flexible defensive position." Geronimo further went on to explain that if you are facing an aggressive opponent, you must break his force by being in a forward stance. If an opponent is attacking you from your side, you must be flexible and agile in your movements and transitions from stance to stance. Geronimo likens the evasive movements of sikaran to those of Mohammed Ali: "Sometimes he could not be hit from the front because of his tremendous mobility." The sikaran practitioner is never anxious or overtly aggressive as he may fall into the trap of an opponent's defensive system. Rather, he prefers to counter-attack by waiting for his opponent's first move, filling in his open areas, and finishing him off with a combination of devastating kicks.

Sikaran in Perspective

Sikaran is a style of Philippine foot-fighting. It was initially developed by farmers as a past time activity. The farmers would designate an area of the rice paddy, a circle with a twenty-five foot circumference, called the pitak. They would rely on the proper use of their naturally strong legs to drive their opponents outside of the circle with a barrage of kicking techniques.

The test of one's skill level in sikaran is proven in the pitak. A student wishing to prove himself would do so by standing in the center of the circle and challenging all opponents. Like a "round-robin" competition, the one remaining in the circle is the winner and must then fight the next opponent until he, too, is defeated by being kicked out of the boundary. The circle is the ruling of sikaran; there is no referee. The champion is called the hari of sikaran. You are the champion or king until someone at some point bests you in the circle fight.

The term sikaran comes from the root word sikad, which is the motion made in order to initiate a leg motion. Sikad is the motion found between standing still and the initiation of a kick. The term sikaran is native to the province of Baras, Philippines.

The uniform of sikaran consists of a mere pair of red pants, a belt, and a shirt, as this was the daily clothing the farmers. The only exception to this uniform is the donning of the traditional karate gi (uniform) during international competitions—the expected dress code.

The founder of sikaran is Cipriano Geronimo, Meliton's father. He is now over 100 years old and is known as "the last of the sikaran haris (kings, or old masters) of the past century." It was Cipriano who handed down the game to Meliton, who in turn conducted practical research and perfected the art in many ways, including altering its basic structure to facilitate a more combative application. "My father just gave me the sikaran technique. I practiced them a hundred times, that's all. No kata like now. I created katas (forms) so its more modern in our time. In fact, I perfected the circle combat by using my katas." To ensure that sikaran would not fade into oblivion, the younger Geronimo founded the Kapatiran Sikaran-Arnis ng Pilipinas (Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood of the Philippines) in 1958. Thirty-five years after the World Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood of the Philippines was founded, sikaran has taken roots in Canada, the United States, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Qatar.

"Before there was no association," remembers Geronimo, "we just played and played. Actually, It was the secret of the old folks. They would not teach the martial art because they were afraid of teaching the wrong person. That was the attitude of my father." In time, however, Cipriano agreed to teach his son who also observed him practicing arnis one day. "You see," explains Meliton, "the arnis of sikaran is the translation of the stick movements adopted to the forearm and hand in blocking. That is why we are good at blocking. The arnis stick is the extension of sikaran. My arnis was born through my mastery of sikaran."

The Pioneer of Sikaran

Meliton C. Geronimo was born on March 10, 1927, in Baras, Philippines. He inherited the art of sikaran from his father, Cipriano Geronimo. It is the efforts of Meliton and his students that are responsible for the emergence and worldwide acceptance of this Filipino martial art. In 1957, Meliton joined the Philippine Air Force. It was his military career that enabled him to promote sikaran around the world through being stationed in different countries and entering various Asian martial arts tournaments.

"I was in Philippine Air Force studying at the U.S. Air Force base in Austin, Texas. I also spent time in Amarillo, Texas," recalls Geronimo. "I went to Japan for one year to enter competition. The Japanese government spent lots of money for the reformation of the Philippines. The air force represented the Philippine government to give us aircraft and money. I was one of the representatives of the air force to get the aircraft in Japan, where I stayed for one year and eight months." Meliton recalls that after hours often found the enlisted men playing karate and judo. They used to edge him on to join them. "I played with them," recounts Geronimo. "But when they saw that I knew how fight they asked me what my style was. I told them sikaran. But, I did not use the hand technique, only the foot. I told them that I wanted to learn their technique first before they learned my technique. In 1958 I returned home and formed the Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood."

Although the Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood was founded in 1958, Geronimo was the president of the Karate Brotherhood of the Philippines (KBP)-the largest federation in the country-since the early 1950s. In 1952, while still a lieutenant in the Philippine Air Force, Geronimo started to train in ju-jutsu under Pedro Garcia Sensei and Dionisio Aquino Sensei. When the Philippine Amateur Judo Association was established in 1953 he continued his training in judo under Francisco Solomon and Lieutenant Burgher of the U.S. Army.

In 1958, Geronimo shifted to karate and trained under a Japanese engineer named Koichi Kondo, and a Philippine Air Force Captain named Domingo Polotan. Both men were members of the All-Japanese Karate Association. That same year Geronimo established the Blue Diamond Karate Club at Nichols Air Base, with over 200 members. Within a year this club became the nucleus for the Karate Brotherhood of the Philippines.

In 1964, Geronimo headed the Philippine Karate team to compete in the First Asian Karate Tournament held in Tokyo and Utsonomiya City, Japan. It was here, during a field tournament, that Meliton was promoted to 3rd Dan by Kobayashi Fusakichi Sensei, president of the All-Japan Karate Association (AJKA). The Philippine team competitors in the middleweight category received a letter of citation for the "best technique and best fighting ability" from the AJKA.

In 1965, Geronimo again headed the Philippine delegation to the Second Asian Karate Tournament sponsored by the Korean Soo Bahk Do Association. The Philippine team took second place in the general standing. In individual standings, Bernardo Bellesa took the heavyweight championship, Emilio Galisinao the middleweight championship, and Eduardo Miraflor the lightweight runner-up. Sikaran was quickly gaining ground as one of the most respected arts competing in these Asian tournaments.

Though he started out with the AJKA, Geronimo later adopted the Korean styles of martial arts. In 1964, after an examination conducted by Dr. Byong Yu and Master Hwang Kee, president and vice-president, respectively, of the Korean Soo Bahk Do Association, Geronimo was promoted to 4th Dan in the organization.

Geronimo's Karate Brotherhood of the Philippines had begun with only a half dozen member clubs, but had grown by 1965 into a federation of over forty affiliated clubs representing eight provinces of the Philippines. The Karate Brotherhood of the Philippines then had the distinct honor of hosting the Third Asian Karate Tournament in 1966.

A Tournament Tested Art

By virtue of its structure and techniques, sikaran has beaten many of the major styles of Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, and Chinese martial arts that have entered tournament competition. In explaining why sikaran is so successful, Geronimo merely states that it is their mastery over the kicking techniques which enables them to beat other styles. "If you practice the hand technique," explains Geronimo, "you will forget about the foot; if you practice the foot techniques you forget about the hand. Therefore, we use our hands and arms only for blocking." Although they do not favor hand techniques, the sikaran exponent does not totally dismiss the necessity of using the hand for an offensive weapon when one is not in a position to strike an opening with their foot.

Sikaran is set apart from the mainstream of kicking arts by its application of technique. "Taekwondo is now getting my style," asserts Geronimo, "especially the biakid (spinning hook kick). They did not have the biakid originally until we competed in Korea in 1957. The karate group that invited me was a contact group not a control group. Sikaran, as well, is a contact style, that's the difference there." The sikaran group was the first to represent the Philippines in international competition through the armed forces. To be accepted into the competitions they called themselves the Karate Brotherhood but were, in fact, never a karate style. That is why the Kapatiran Sikaran used to be called the Karate Brotherhood of the Philippines. Because of their success in competition they were invited to join the Asian Karate Organization which were responsible for promoting them Geronimo and his members to higher ranks. The tradition of sikaran never used a ranking structure other than the ruling of the hari of the circle fight.Geronimo decided to align himself with various Japanese and Korean organizations in an effort to establish sikaran and have it accepted by the world martial arts community. In 1961, while In Korea, Hwang Kee, Byong Yu, Koichi Kondo, and Meliton Geronimo organized the first Asian Karate Association. It was through these organization that Geronimo was eventually promoted, in 1966, to the rank of 10th Dan and grandmaster of sikaran. Although in the 1950s and 1960s sikaran was not recognized and had to fall under the guise of a karate organization, it is now fully recognized and carries the proud banner of the Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood of the Philippines. Under Geronimo's supervision, the Philippine Team introduced sikaran at all six of the Asian Karate Tournaments. The Philippine contingents to these titles received awards for being the "Best Fighting Teams." Geronimo was further cited as introducing into the world a new style of an ancient art in the light of the modern sport of sikaran.

Sikaran has been "tested" in the most important Asian martial arts tournaments. In fact, where many masters do not compete, Geronimo won as the individual champion during the First Asian Karate Tournament in 1964. Thereafter, he headed, coached, and became the Chief Instructor of the Philippine Teams that participated in the succeeding Asian Karate Tournaments. The efforts of this man cannot be contested, nor can the efforts of father Cipriano and his son, Milton, who now holds the rank of 4th Dan. Although sikaran, the Filipino art of foot-fighting, has not had much media coverage, it has proven itself inside and outside of the competition ring around the world. Not many esoteric, native arts of farmers can make a similar claim.