Sikaran is the Filipino art of foot fighting having originated amoungst peasant farmers in the northern Phillipines sometime in the 19th century. In the days when Sikaran was practiced in it's purest form two player's would compete within a circle drawn on the ground, the winner was declared by the player who successfully applied a technique to the head . Today Sikaran is regarded as a fully fledged martial art with an international reputation for it's aboundence of kicking techniques and practicality.

Sikaran became popular throughout the world in the late 1950's and early 1960's when it's practioners began winning world titles and putting on a display of kicking techniques the like of which had never been wittnessed .

This lead to some of the more traditional karate styles adopting some of it's kicking techiques, in particular the Biakid (spinning heel kick) .

It's unclear as to when Sikaran was first introduced to Australia,  however it has been practiced in Sydney since the mid 1960's and now found throughout Australia, from Perth in the west to the Mornington peninsula Victoria, Sydney New South Wales and to Mount Isa in Queensland.

As this site developes and with the help of our Sikaran friends throughout Australia we will build a more comprehensive and detailed history to our mutual benifits, so please if anyone can help, e-mail us and we'll all be that little bit wiser. If your club requires some exposure we'll be glad to make mention on this site and be happy to share our resources.

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Mount Isa Club History

Sikaran in Mount Isa has always been very popular from it's start in 1973 until now, with currently 120 members and offering a wide range of martial activities. The club is a non profit incorporated body with all instructors giving their time freely, money recieved goes to the upkeep and maintenance of the clubhouse, training equipment and the sponsoring of students who wish to enter tournaments or attend seminars.

The clubhouse is a testiment to the club spirit that exist's, being entirely built by past and present club members and through the generousity of the Mount Isa people. In the 1970's and early 1980's practioners would train on a cement floor with only 3 walls and no roof often temperatures exceeded 40 deg Celcius, in those days prior to the classes commencing the foor was hosed down to cool it, a far cry from todays modern fully equiped fitness centre.

Although it would be entirely inappropriate to list peoples names for their contribution one family stands out in our history, that of the De Valter family with the clubs foundations dedicated to the memory of the late Giuseppe De valter Snr whose children and grandchildren are still active members.

Our Chief instructor is John Harris a foundation member with in excess of thirty years of martial arts experience, as well as having also represented Australia in a number of major Asian tournaments. John  has a wealth of experience and knowledge gained by training many times in the Phillipines with great martial artists like Melton (the col) Geronimo and Jimmy Geronimo.

As an insight into the stature of our club I once had a conversation with  Ken Cross a long time  member where he told me that the training ethos in the early days of the club was that you left your 'guts' on the floor every time you trained and never let your mate standing beside you do better, I guess that is why their reputations were that they were the hard men of Sikaran.