Balintawak is a Filipino martial arts developed by Great Grandmaster Venancio ‘Anciong’ Bacon in late 1940s. Named after a small street in Cebu City, Philippines, in which the first Balintawak Club was organized at the watch shop of one of his student named Eduardo Baculi. It is a combat system that enhances the physical and psychological attributes of an individual, by immersing them in real time combat situations.

Balintawak was created to preserve the combative nature of arnis, which Anciong felt at that time was dissipating. With numerous styles of arnis emerging, the other styles were leaning towards the traditional method wherein various forms, dances and offensive aspect of arnis, was more emphasized. Whereas, Balintawak emphasizes a strong defense and admonishes any known foul blows conceivable, with the sole purpose of finishing the fight in a matter of split second.

Balintawak uses a single stick training approach to install the motor skills required to efficiently defend against live resisting opponent. The stick is just a training tool. Its primary purpose is to bring out the necessary attributes required to successfully defend against incoming threats without thought or what we call zero mind. Once these attributes are developed and enhanced, the individual can maneuver his body with ease regardless of his stature and body structure with fluidity and economy of motion. The individual can easily transition from bare hands or anything in between with any force multiplier that he can acquire in any given situation.

Balintawak acknowledges the strength in other arts, therefore automatically assumes that the adversary is a skilled fighter. With this in mind, the ‘agak’ framework was developed by Anciong to enhance the defense of an individual.