ARAKAN in Brisbane, Australia - a MA from Burma.

[Cymro]

Came accross this website:

http://www.arakan.com.au/index.php

Interesting concept: A martial art from Northeastern Burma. There is in fact a state in Burma called Arakan. I can't find any other reference to a martial art from the region. I'm curious as to if y'all might know more.

The video clips and outfits look...let's say Kung Fu inspired. Any _ing _un folks care to comment?

[Dagon Akujin]

Some of the striking looks similar to _ing _un, but overall it looks very sloppy if it's _ing _un based. Lots of turning off center, more rotating of hips, less drive forward down the center. They seem to use some "push" based punches though, but that's about it. And overall, I'm not very impressed as the teacher seems to leave himself open quite often in the videos.

As far as the costumes? The school I'm at just has a t-shirt that they think it's good to wear if it's clean. We don't have pajamas at all. So maybe we need a pajama _ing _un type to help there.

Dagon Akujin

[Lu Tze]

Reading their FAQ I'd say Arakan (at least their version) is a complete fabrication, it has a completely contradictory philosphy to the other Burmese martial arts I know about (semi contact, fucking hell... a Burmese boxer would eat those fucking jokers).

[Cymro]

The pajamas look too damn Chinese for my taste. The traditional (and I know I'm using the term loosly) burmese clothing I've seen is a lot more like what they wear in Thailand.

Hell, I'm a translator, what do I know? Anyone with some firsthand knowledge care to comment?

Poking around a bit more, they site claims that Arakan is taught only on hte Gold Coast and in Brisbane. That sets off my Bullshidometer right there. Any down under members want to volunteer to go investigate?

[Arakan]

No, i would not like to investigate. I train in arakan. first up, i know arakan is an unknown MA so really you only have my word to go by. If i sound like a bragging jackass, sorry. im just really passionate about it and wish to shed light.

First off, it is a combat art. It is not a ring or competition based art. it is very fluid and adaptable. We generate our power through body mechanics and is not strenght orientated. It is also very effective at fighting groups of people. Now i must admit i have never used it on the street and im not some kind of egotistical jerk who thinks arakan is invincible.

Costumes. I just wear a t-shirt, shorts and some runners. the instructor wear the same things too. however, usually on big events such as our open day where trained for 9hrs up in the mountians, (covering knive fighting, advanced striking and bridging, grappling and group fighting) the instructors did wear those robes. probably to stand out and to pay respect to all the ancestors who passed this knowledge down to them.

Over in burma, you have to be born into the chosen few who get selected to train in Arakan. Then you have a background check then your family has a background check just to see if you are worth training.

Arakan was designed to kill people by hand. And in my 1 year of training, i have been taught moves that would do that easily. Like i said before, i don't think i am invincible and am not saying that Martail art X is better than martail art Y & Z. This is just what i know.

Yes it IS only taught on the Gold Coast and Brisbane. It is only 15 years old in the western world. But hopefully, one day, it will become known across the world.

It really is amazing.

Thanks guys.

[Lu Tze]

First off, it is a combat art. It is not a ring or competition based art.

A common fallacy. Do you spar?

We generate our power through body mechanics

Everyone generates power through body mechanics. Everyone. Can you name one art which is an advocate of poor technique?

Arakan was designed to kill people by hand. And in my 1 year of training, i have been taught moves that would do that easily.

Can you describe these moves? Give an example of a 'killing blow'.

[fanger123]

i didn't go over the whole website, there are lots of texts, and my eyes are hurting enough from work already.

i checked the bullying section, and i found it reasonable.

i watched the multiple attackers vid, and it looks awful. slaps look worse than some of WC vids.

[kwoww]

A common fallacy. Do you spar?
Everyone generates power through body mechanics. Everyone. Can you name one art which is an advocate of poor technique?

_ing _un.

But that's not the point of this thread.

You will be able to confidently deal with: multiple attackers, situations involving weapons, defend yourself on the ground , close quarters fighting, etc

:bsflag:

[Arakan]

Yey i guess so. We do more drills. for example last night in the group class we were working on entry hits. so first off we were all in pairs in a line. one person was feeding the hits and the other was doing the arakan. then we broke away from the lines and moved around. then we all got into a small space 4m x 4m and anyone could feed us. there were 24 people in that space.

we don't fight arakan to arakan if thats wat u mean??

No i cannot. i have never trained in anyother art so i have idea. like i said, these are just facts that i know. wat about boxing?? that is strength based isn't it??? the harder u hit someone the more likley u will knock them out? no sure. never boxed.

no probs, an edge to the neck will easily collapse the carotid artery in the neck, starving your brain of oxegyn. Some of the more experienced guys, i can feel that edge through a focus mit and it friggin hurt. ha ha. im still only just beginning my journey in arakan. there is much i don't know. I don't know off the top of my head that many "killing blows" but i never claimed i did. I guess there would be more?? I ment more through technique rather than a single blow.

that being said, other moves can leave your opponent very crippled. ;)

[muranternet]

http://ancientarakan.blogspot.com/

Rakhine people have a long tradition of holding wrestling competitionsnot to get hurt each other. Wrestler first dances jumping and making special styles in the playground

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

Traditional arakan naban

Only things I could find that didn't reference the school's website. This seems at odds with the history page on said website, which references a military tradition which the chief instructor claims thousands of years of lineage to (no specific teachers listed aside from his uncle, referenced on http://www.abc.net.au/goldcoast/stories/s1161790.htm, souce given as the Arakan school's website). I couldn't find any mentions of Robert Kyaw, the chief instructor, that were not self-referential. The ABC story does mention that the system is "now known as 'Arakan'", so it's plausible that it was called something else before Arakan.

The Arakan site gives a founding date of around 2666 BC. This is contradictory to the general theory that the Mon only started flourishing somewhere between 900 BC and 500 AD, depending on your source, and you can only really make a case for a "kingdom" in Myanmar in the 16th century AD. Also since Arakan is apparently an empty hand system, its closest analogue would be Bando, which AFAIK doesn't run back to 2666 BC. To be fair though it doesn't look a lot like Bando.

[fanger123]

i checked the "sword pics" (not the vid) and are they swinging a japanese style bokken/wooden katana?? which a close grip??

[Arhetton]

First off, it is a combat art. It is not a ring or competition based art. it is very fluid and adaptable. We generate our power through body mechanics and is not strenght orientated. It is also very effective at fighting groups of people. Now i must admit i have never used it on the street and im not some kind of egotistical jerk who thinks arakan is invincible.

AHAHAHAhahahahahaAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha...

Arakan was designed to kill people by hand. And in my 1 year of training, i have been taught moves that would do that easily. Like i said before, i don't think i am invincible and am not saying that Martail art X is better than martail art Y & Z. This is just what i know.

Is that why your chief instructor uses a samurai sword in one of his sites promotional videos - http://www.arakan.com.au/video.php - can you explain that one? Whats that? Oh, its a 'burmese' samurai sword... riiiiiight.

'attack and defence ' - Wow theres totally a 'gay hands' fu in there as well...
'multiple attackers' - HAHAha. Fucking crap.
'training with multiple people' - ... Seriously? Thats your martial art? No sparring but all this deadly other training?

They've even created a series of kiddy and business plans.

I call Bullshido.

[Arakan]

Ha ha ha I love this. Thought MA practitioners were supposed to be open minded. guess not. What i love the best though, is that here is someone who has been training in arakan and who can say for certain that they teach everything they have stated and you still find ways to screwtinize! ha ha ha!!


Ooh, wait, yes i can....

We fight hand to hand. thats what we do. However, for the more advanced (beyond my current level) they do weapons fighting. Hand vs knife, knive to knife, bo, sword not sure what else, like i said, it's beyond my current level. if you can't get the foundations down, how can you possibly learn how to fight with a weapon?

whats the matter? is the possiblilty of group fighting beyond you too?? ha ha lame.

As for the wrestling, interesting. I've never heard of it before.

[Arhetton]

I have an open mind but not for rubbish.

So how much martial arts training have you done (arakan + others)? I've been a member of three terrible systems, all which said the kind of stuff your style talks about. They wasted my time and money and arakan is a waste of your time and money.

Martial arts like that are more like Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) than actual martial arts training.

My criticism of your instructors group fighting video is this: Its terrible. He could not beat one person in a fight, let alone 2 or 3. The premise that he can fight multiple attackers is ridiculous. Well, maybe he could beat up a group of teenage girls, if he was a bit more skilled.

[BackFistMonkey]

Ha ha ha I love this. Thought MA practitioners were supposed to be open minded. guess not. What i love the best though, is that here is someone who has been training in arakan and who can say for certain that they teach everything they have stated and you still find ways to screwtinize! ha ha ha!!


Ooh, wait, yes i can....

We fight hand to hand. thats what we do. However, for the more advanced (beyond my current level) they do weapons fighting. Hand vs knife, knive to knife, bo, sword not sure what else, like i said, it's beyond my current level. if you can't get the foundations down, how can you possibly learn how to fight with a weapon?

whats the matter? is the possiblilty of group fighting beyond you too?? ha ha lame.

As for the wrestling, interesting. I've never heard of it before.

I seriously feel sorry for you . Good luck .