# FMA an introduction



## upstanding_dragon (Apr 19, 2005)

Hello all,

I've touched on Filipino martial arts in the past, very little though.

I've done a session of Laban Baston Eskrima, a session of Kali with Rick Young, 2 seminars with Ron Balicki incorporating Kali, and some classes in basic stick fighting and stick grappling.

I really enjoyed my introductions to it, just confused as to the whole structure.
Seems in the West, Kali, Eskrima or Arnis is a collective name for the whole of it.

This may be asking a bit too much, but from the beginning, can you outline the Filipino systems, why are there the different names (kali/eskrima/arnis) are these geographical divisions?

Thanks

Stefan

http://www.networkofmartialarts.co.uk


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## pesilat (Apr 20, 2005)

upstanding_dragon said:
			
		

> Hello all,
> 
> I've touched on Filipino martial arts in the past, very little though.
> 
> ...



The term "kali" is, as I understand it, primarily used in the U.S. I've read a lot of differing viewpoints on its origins. The term "eskrima" (also "escrima") comes from the Spanish word for skirmish. The term "arnis" (also "arnis de mano") comes from the Spanish word for harness and describes the leather hand armor the Pilipinos sometimes used in training. However, "eskrima/escrima" and "arnis" are Filipino bastardizations of the original Spanish words. At least, that's what I've been told from several sources. I've heard a few other explanations but those are the ones I've heard most frequently.

There is some geographical attribution of the terms too but I can never remember which is northern and which is central.

At some point in the past there was probably a pretty definitive difference. At this point - especially in America - the three terms are mostly interchangable. Though some people make distinctions in their private lexicon - often they use "kali" to denote a blade-based system and "eskrima/escrima/arnis" to denote a stick-based system. But this is by no means a hard and fast or universal differentiation - there are plenty of systems named "eskrima/escrima/arnis" that are blade-based though I haven't seen a system named "kali" that wasn't blade-based.

By blade-based & stick-based, I mean what is their primary focus in training. In a blade-based system, the stick is just a training tool and the blade is always kept in mind and the stick is usually treated as a blade. This means, for instance, that blade-based system won't grab the stick for disarms because they are treating it like a blade. In a stick-based system, the stick is the weapon and it is treated as a stick so there's nothing wrong with grabbing the stick to get control of it or to perform a disarm.

There is _a lot_ more that could be said on this subject and others will probably chime in but this should be a decent starting point.

Mike


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