Weekend Video: Crash Course In Kalaripayattu
Two martial-arts practitioners travel halfway across the world from America to Kerala to train in Kalaripayattu.
Kalaripayattu as a martial-art form faced a steep decline in the 19th century. The Nairs were discouraged from practicing Kalaripayattu to preempt armed rebellion against the English East India Company. The company had similarly banned the poligars from wielding arms except in very small numbers for ‘state and pomp’ purposes. The Kerala martial-art form, as we know it today, enjoyed a renaissance in the early 20th century and has since become famous world over.
For this weekend’s video we have a documentary featuring two American martial-arts practitioners attempting to learn Kalari in five days. Doug Anderson and Jimmy Smith record their induction, training and sparring sessions. They begin with a traditional pooja and a massage.
We get to see and learn quite a few interesting things about Kalari: every student spends many days getting massaged before moving on to exercises or arms training, there is a lot of emphasis on ‘jumping’, typical Kalari ‘fights’ that we see in ads are actually carefully choreographed exercises and so on.
At the end of the training, both Dough and Jimmy each fight a native Kalari student. Interestingly enough, they win! (although it is quite possible the hosts were just being nice to them!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aevd3Vqylk
Earlier episodes