Hakarac Martial Boxing Seminar

Perth Instructor Mannie De Matos was invited to share his style of Hakarac Martial Boxing in a Melbourne Seminar on Friday 16 June, hosted by Kacey Chong of the Monash University Kickboxing Club and Robert Halaijian of the A.I.M. Academy.

The Seminar covered the technical fine points of the footwork, strikes and defenses employed in Hakarac, pad and shield drills for conditioning people for both ring-fighting and self-defence, as well as variations on training methods for preparing fighters and pushing them to their limits.

Mannie also shared his real world experience acquired from over 15 years working in the security industry, demonstrating various restraining procedures used by law enforcement and security personnel, and explaining how people can use the ‘predator mindset’ to gain an advantage over their attackers in self-defence situations.

My intention is to provide an environment for continuous learning, and inviting Mannie over to teach a Seminar on Hakarac was a great opportunity to see what concepts and drills could be incorporated into our current training syllabus. My impression of Hakarac (which means ‘many ways’ in Mannie’s native East Timorese dialect) is that it blends the best hand skills the traditional martial arts has to offer with the efficiency of modern day western boxing.

Check out page 12 of the latest edition of Blitz Martial Arts Magazine (August 2006 – Vol. 20 No. 8) to see our Blitz n Pieces article on Mannie’s Hakarac Seminar and our group photo!


Kacey Chong