Silambam

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Governing Body:

World Silambam Federation (WSF)

Silambam is a popular variant of martial arts which is performed with the aid of some specific weapons, primarily with bamboo sticks. It is widely performed in the regions of Tamil Nadu (India) which is also the birthplace of the game, where it emerged in around 1000 years BCE. The Tamil Sangam literature has the early records of Silambam.

It's an ancient weapon-based martial art. The word Silambam etymologically means "staff from the hills" with the word meaning of "Silam" being "hills" and "Kambu" being "staff or sticks". The game is usually played on an even hard surface where the players use a bamboo stick with its length equivalent to their heights. Overall, there are 16 forms of footwork present in this martial art.

Some of the most popular ways of Silambam Guru Vanakkam (an honourable act towards the Gurus and the audience), mentioned as follows -

Long Stick Guru Vanakkam - Here, the fighters use one-inch width bamboo stick as a weapon with a height up to their eyebrow level.
Double Short Stick - In this form, two different short sticks, each being 3 feet are used to hit or block the opponent.
Chopper Knife - The fighters in this form defend themselves with the aid of a chopper knife.

The primary focus of the fighters is to use the bamboo stick as a weapon to defeat the opponents. The length of the weapon stick depends on the height of the fighters. In the battle, the fighter holds the weapon by stretching the arms around 3-quarters full.

From this position, the fighters can initiate all the attacks by moving their wrist. The attacker may bluff by disguising any attacking move with another move.

Updated On : 24 Mar, 2021

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