…literally, “alphabet.” Traditionally, Alphabito was a manner of moving the weapon to resemble the letters of the alphabet. Warriors would move their weapon using these letters to “spell” attacking patterns. Thus, a fighter would attack an opponent with the word “kill” or “avenge”, as examples. This was believed to have some magical properties, known in the Philippines as “anting-anting”. The patterns would depend if one was using English characters, Sanskrit, or the Baybayin script of the islands. The original idea was changed when it was brought to the United States to have a more practical approach. Currently, this has become a set of twenty-six attack combinations (one for each letter of the alphabet) designed with the theory of inhibiting the use of the alive hand of the opponent. In concept, it picks up where the third set of Recontras leaves off: the third set of the Recontras teaches the use of the alive hand, while Alphabito theory attempts to destroy the alive hand.