tactics involved in kite fighting

basically, there are only two tactics involved in kite fighting - pull and release. the pull method is normally employed when you manage to catch your opponent unawares. you sort of let your kite drift aimlessly and nonchalantly, and without warning, you suddenly change tack and strike. you make a swoop and then you pull (tarek) back furiously until your glass string makes contact and (hopefully) cuts your opponent's.

of course, not all attacks executed in this manner will end in success for you. your opponent, if his reaction is quick enough, may counter by using the same pull method. however, sometimes, in one fell swoop, two or three kites may be cut loose. this kind of fight is usually over in a moment.

the release (hulur) method is used when you want to engage your opponent in a long drawn battle. when your line and your opponent's line make contact, you keep on releasing until one of the lines break - either yours or your opponent's.

sometimes, a combination of the two methods are used in one fight. this means you alternate between pull (tarek) and release (hulur). the method you use depends on the wind condition, the tension of the string and your assessment of your opponent.

those who are bent on using the more aggressive approach to kite fighting use the pull method nearly all the time. nevertheless, as i mentioned early, this method does not guarantee success. otherwise, there will be only one method for kite fighting. those who prefer the pull method also tend to go for the thickest string (the no. 8) to fly the kite.

by the way, all these were from my observations as an assistant to many kite fighters. as i was not good at getting the kite off the ground, i usually helped out by holding the milo or ovaltine tin. when the situation called for the string to be released, i would release. when the 'fighter' pulled furiously, i would be coiling as fast as i could to keep up with his speed.

may be some champion kite fighters out there can enlighten us on the finer points of the tactics and strategies used in kite fighting.

preparing the string for kite fighting

just like kite surfing, there must have been a season for kite fighting in the past. i remember it as a seasonal activity, not something you would do all the year round. however, these days, if you go to west coast park, you can see children playing with kites at any time of the year. kite fighting in those days involved small, nondescript kites; some were home-made kites. they were not the kites that were seen at the kite festivals which used to be held at marina south.

i was never keen on kite flying as in my few attempts at it, none of the kites got higher than the tree top. i also did not enjoy rushing with the other children and adults for loose kites because of the rough tactics that were sometimes used.

but i would help my neighbour and friend to prepare the kite string to do battle. the cotton string came from an ordinary spool but it had to be coated with powdered glass mixed with animal glue. we would get the goo pey ka (cow skin glue) from the chinese medical shop. this came in two forms - either as bead or pearl or as a flat slab. the beads or pearls were easier to dissolve. as for the hardened flat slabs, we had to break them into smaller bits using a hammer.

the powdered glass came from discarded fluorescent tubes. first, we had to look for a tube. then we would break the glass tube into smaller pieces. we would use a pestle and mortar to pound the glass bits into a powder form.

the next step was to heat the animal glue in a container until the glue dissolved and became very sticky. then we would add the powdered glass into the sticky stuff and mixed them together.

when it came to coating the string, there were two ways of doing it. the first way was to wind the uncoated string to two trees which were quite far apart. you would have go around the two trees a few times. using our bare hands, we would grab some of the mixture - when it had cooled down sufficiently - and glide it over the string. every length of the string had to be covered.

the other way was to drop the spool of string into the mixture. then you secured the end of the string to the trunk of a tree and slowly let the spool unravel as you wound it around another tree and continued going around the two trees till the whole length of string was coated.

we had to wait until the glue had dried before we coiled the coated string onto an medium-size milo or ovaltine tin. some would have added colouring to the mixture, so you might get coated strings which were pink or blue, depending on the colouring used.

the finished product was something like a weapon, it was as sharp as a razor.