Jogo do Pau


Warning: Zend OPcache API is restricted by "restrict_api" configuration directive in /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/anymartialarts/public/wp-content/plugins/tubepress/vendor/tedivm/stash/src/Stash/Driver/FileSystem.php on line 253

View detail of all martial arts in the world. Each country have their own unique martial arts fighting style. Read more to view detail and video clips about this special unique martial arts.

Jogo do Pau (“stick fencing”, or literally “stick (or staff) game”) is a Portuguese martial art which developed in the northern regions of Portugal (Minho and Trás-os-Montes), focusing on the use of a staff of fixed measures and characteristics. The origins of this martial art are uncertain, but whatever its origins, its purpose was primarily self-defence. It was also used to settle accounts, disputes and matters of honor between individuals, families, and even villages. While popular in the northern mountains, elsewhere it was practically unknown and those who did practise it were taught by masters from the north.

The popularity of this martial art was partly due to the demeanor of the northern folk, who valued personal and family honor enough to kill for it. It was also due in no small part to the relative ease of obtaining a staff as well as the versatility of such a tool: a staff or stick was almost universally present, used as a support for the long daily walks, to help cross the rivers, by the shepherds to protect the cattle from wild animals, and so on. There are references to this martial art being used by the guerrilla against the troops of Napoleon that were occupying Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars.

Some believe that it was influenced by an Indian dance or Indian martial art which would have been imported and adapted in the period of the Discoveries, while there are others who say that its origins are medieval techniques of combat much similar to what is taught in the medieval book A ensinança de bem cavalgar em toda a sela (The art of being a good horseman on any saddle) by Edward of Portugal (1391–1438). This seems more likely, since the martial art developed not in the urban areas more open to foreign influences, but in the most isolated mountain regions of continental Portugal. Whatever proves to be true, it is not related to the traditional dance of the pauliteiros of Miranda (which has ties to Asturian folklore).

During the 19th century, Jogo do Pau was brought to Lisboa by a northern master, resulting in an amalgamation with the technique of the Gameirosabre, growing into a sportive competition, removed from actual combat. It was practiced in clubs such as the Ginásio Clube Português and the Ateneu Comercial de Lisboa.

In the 20th century, the practice of the jogo do pau suffered a quick decline due to the migrations from rural areas to the cities, and the greater ease in access to firearms. The players born between 1910 and 1930 were the last generation to experience the flowering of the sport. The memories of this generation provided a continuity in the 1970s, when the sport was revived. The driving force of this revival was Mestre Pedro Ferreira, followed by his student Nuno Corvello Russo who dedicated his life’s ambition to Jogo do Pau, frequently visiting the North of Portugal, getting acquainted with surviving variants there, especially with the school of Cabeceiras de Basto. He studied at the Ateneu Comercial de Lisboa, whose master is now Mestre Manuel Monteiro. Today, the sport is still rather marginal in Portugal, but there is a stable number of practitioners organized in two federations: the Federação Portuguesa de Jogo do Pau and the Federação Nacional do Jogo do Pau Português. This art is also practised in the Açores.

YouTube responded with an error: The request cannot be completed because you have exceeded your <a href="/youtube/v3/getting-started#quota">quota</a>.