Joel Huncar--FMA, Muay Thai, Silat--talks critical theories for suviving and dominating combat, including powerful insights into agression, bridging, entanglement, and more! MTP - Huncar Joel Huncar: [00:00:00] He tore through the, one of his opponent's biceps, like literally tore pieces, pieces of him off his body with a rattan stick. Steve: Wow. Joel Huncar: Like, this guy could generate amazing power. Welcome to the Martial Theory Podcast. Steve: Joel, thanks so much for joining me on the Martial Theory Podcast. It's an honor. Joel Huncar: Well, it's an honor to be here. I, I really, uh, I'm happy to be here, sir. Steve: So, uh, for people who don't know, give us the two-minute version of your background and what you teach. Joel Huncar: Um, well, I started in, uh- various martial arts. Like, like as a kid, I did a bit of training, found it hard, didn't really wanna do it, and then as an adult, um, I got knocked out at a bush party because of stupidity that I caused, and I thought I'd better learn how to fight. So I started in, uh, Mantis Kung Fu under, uh, [00:01:00] Sifu Barry Northey. Did a couple years of that, but then moved. Uh, that... I went to Abbotsford, where I found Muay Thai under Arjan Songwit Singthon, and I stuck with that for a few years. Was never a fighter, um, but always helped coach and stuff like that. So, uh, I start- meh, I started coaching here many years later as well, but I really went deep into Filipino arts. Um, so I, I've, I've got, um... Let's see. I've got a few under my belt right now. My main focus for FMA has been De Campo 123 Original for the last couple years because it's filled a void I had for long range fighting. Um, and it's really given me a lot of new and better body mechanics. The system is amazing. So such a small syllabus, [00:02:00] but so much to learn in it. S- and, uh, I'm very lucky because, uh, through that I've met Paolo Pegaling, who is an absolute genius. Um, my, my- one of my big influences, Guru Louie Lindo, was the one who suggested I, I do this. So, um, I really... I'm so happy that he did because I would have never known, and it's lit a fire under, Steve: under me. What's it... So maybe you can help me understand, what is it that is, uh, has lit that fire? What's the genius aspect of it that draws you to it? Help us understand that. Well, Joel Huncar: it's the details of movement, right? Like, um, the way Paolo chains his, uh, stepping, um, body weight transfer, the um, using every joint as, um, an enhancement to your, your power, like the ch- the [00:03:00] kinetic chain. He, he re- he explains and helps his students understand. He really, um, gets into why the art was So repute, it w- it had a reputation to be a deadly art, and, and, um- Steve: Why, so why is that? Tell me why that is. What, what about this art is so distinctive that makes it so fearful? Joel Huncar: The power generation. Steve: Yeah. Joel Huncar: Jose Caballero was known to be able to... And the act, he was, he was a phenom. He was known to be able to, like, pick a piece of a guy's ear off with a stick. Um, in one fight he tore through the, one of his opponent's biceps, like literally tore pieces, pieces of him off his body with a rattan stick. Steve: Wow. Joel Huncar: Like, this guy could generate amazing power. Um, David Gould writes about it in his book on Lamaico Escrima because it's one of the [00:04:00] building blocks of Lamaico. It's one of the main building blocks of Lamaico, and, um, it's one of the things that made, um, Edgar Sulite such a, a feared, uh, fighter, a respected fighter. You know, he became the, a huge influence to Dan Inosanto, to the Dog Brothers, and a lot of that was due to his Decampo, as well as his Ilustrisimo, another system that is highly respected. Steve: Yeah. Very different systems, right? Joel Huncar: What's that? Steve: They're very different, Decampo Joel Huncar: They're very different. They are very different. Um, Ilustrisimo is, is so heavy in the blade. It's, um, it's, it's amazing. It's an amazing art. In, in fact, um, Paulo, my, my Decampo maestro, is training a lot with, uh, Yuli Romo, one of, uh, the original, um, Ilustrisimo people. So he, he, his expression of [00:05:00] Escrima is deep into those two worlds. And through, uh, Yuli Romo, uh, he's been encouraged to- Look into, um, Balintawak as well, and he's also repping Baraw Sugbo, which is an amazing n- counter knife system that, uh, is only empty hand against knives. It's a, it's a, a Escrima style that has no stick. Steve: Oh, I'd love to s- that's interesting. I'd love to see what that's like. Joel Huncar: Oh, it's, it's really cool. It's really cool. Something that I'm working with, uh, one of my students here on, um, with Palo, we're gonna see him this, this, uh, Sunday on Zoom and work on that. It's har- it's a really hard system to learn, um, visually, whereas Dekampo is really... That's one thing I love about Dekampo is I was able to learn it and apply it through Zoom lessons and things like that be- but because Baraw Sugbo is such a [00:06:00] tactile system, it's much harder to learn through those video lessons, right? Um, so eventually I'll have to figure out how to meet up with, uh, um, some of these people. But I've done, um, workshops with, uh, Guru Lui, who also is going to the Philippines, working with Maestro Ceniza at the, or Grandmaster Ceniza, the head of the, uh, Baraw Sugbo system. So hopefully over the next couple years that's gonna be the, the focus. Steve: So what do you- Uh, mor- What do you, what do you teach now- Morally and ethically what do you teach now at your school? Do you teach every style individually? No. Do, do you combine everything- No, no, no ... and you have your own? How, what's your approach to teaching all this stuff that you know? Joel Huncar: Um, I focus, uh, mainly on, like, I do a lot of bridging techniques that, that I, uh, really pull from Mata Arnis, which was my original style, and Balintawak. Um, and I, when I teach B- um, [00:07:00] Dekampo, I teach it separate. I separate, like, because I think it's such a good long range base, and then the bridging techniques allow you to close distance if you want, or if you're forced to, you can, if distance is closed on you, you have the skills to clinch and, and apply trapping. But, uh, as far as like if I was, if I was teaching purely competitive stick fighting, it would just be decampo. It would, it would, it would just be like that would be it. Hmm. 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And when you join us at martialtheoryu.com, please make sure you save 20% with the code MTPODCAST. Finally, if you don't want to join us at Martial Theory University, but want to support the time and effort it takes to produce this podcast, then please support us on Patreon, which you can do for as little as five bucks a month. But [00:09:00] once again, if you join us at Martial Theory University, make sure you use the discount code MTPODCAST Joel Huncar: for 20% off while it lasts. And now, this week's episode. Steve: When, when, uh, Mark Cardona was being interviewed on the podcast, one of the things he talked about from a gong fu perspective was how he feels as though fighting really happens in the transitions, and I thought that was a fascinating statement. But your- I love Joel Huncar: that. Steve: Yeah. I, I wonder, your-- you focus a lot on bridging, and I wonder if you can sort of describe for me... And I think I could come up with 12 reasons, but I wanna hear yours, uh, and I'm sure our listeners could come up with their own thinking on this. But why do you take that bridge moment as a critical moment, uh, to be distinctive in terms of your focus on it for a fight? That seems like something that's really important tactically.[00:10:00] Joel Huncar: What's gonna happen? So when you, when you look at statistics on, on violence, um, unlike the, uh, the, um, manipulated statistic we've lived with for so many years that 90% of fights go to the ground, um, there's validity to that, but when they did measure that, they, they, they were talking about arrest statistics and anything where you put somebody up against a wall, a car, um, whatever, was considered ground fighting. So they, they lumped all grappling into that. When you, when... According to, uh, one of my self-defense instructors, the common, um, study, or the latest studies have shown that 60% is standup clinching. Steve: Okay. Joel Huncar: So judo, um, aspects of Muay Thai, um, bridging becomes very important. And then if you add the idea that there might be [00:11:00] weapons involved, the ability to control limbs is paramount for survivability in a weapons assault. I'm not saying you're gonna be able to not get stabbed or slashed. I'm saying that minimizing damage comes from the ability to control limbs Right? So, uh, I mean, it's not a good scenario for anybody. If anybody thinks they have the answer to the knife assault, well, you better show it to me because I've never seen a magic answer to that, and it, and I
