Singapore - Weapons Training

and I Thought I Was Hot...
Did I mention that we were playing our Futsal match at an Indian community center?  Well, in the pitch next to us a very interesting Sikh ritual called "Gatka" was taking place.  Gatka is a Sikh martial arts that developed in the late 1600's as a means of fighting back against Mughal oppression.  You can read up on it here.  I wasn't quite sure what was on the table as the men arranged themselves for photos.

In a flash they grabbed some bamboo rods and began mock fighting, banging them in a practiced rhythm punctuated by yells.

Two would square off with each other and take turns in a fight dance.

This fellow then did a solo performance, swinging his "dangs" like a skillfull baton twirler.

The top performance for me, was the "gurj" man.  A gurj is a large steel mace swung on a chain.  He slowly got it up to speed at ground level.

Then brought it up over his head.

I was happy that the futsal courts were penned with nets, though I'm not sure they'd hold if his grip happened to slip.