StraightRazor said:
So the empty hand techniques I already know will work "as is", or do I have to learn a new way to punch and kick? Im not a black belt in another art, will I be up to say a Kenpo black belt level when I reach Arnis black belt? I mean in terms of "fightability".
This has been touched upon in other threads but every time it's brought up I always feel as if there is something new to say although along the same lines. Bear with me while I meander toward the point. So as not to embroil myself in a terminology bout, I'm going to use eskrima and by eskrima I mean arnis, kali, eskrima, etc., basically, the weapon based arts originating from the Philippine Islands.
Learning the weapon first is part of eskrima and if you don't learn the weapon first, then you are not learning eskrima. You are probably learning something that someone calls eskrima but is not really. It may for instance be Karate, Taekwondo, or what have you. But eskrima begins with the weapon.
Teaching the weapon first instills a principle. The principle is applied through a technique with the weapon. If a principle can be applied with the weapon, then it can be applied with the hand and it takes effort on the part of the instructor and the student to make it work or to figure out if the principle is not being applied correctly. Nobody holds your hand or spoon feeds you the information in eskrima. You learn the principle and then internalize it. Then you express it through you. If you were spoon fed, you would only be expressing someone else.
Now is where I get to the point. If you learn to fight with the weapon and then you learn how to interpret and express the principles that you have internalized through your practice, then you will be able to fight, with a weapon or without. A black belt really has nothing to do with your fightability. It has a lot to do with how much information that you've amassed that you now have to develop and refine. A black belt is where the learning really begins. Many styles don't even begin to teach weapons until the black belt level anyway, so there's a good chance that if you're thinking of fightability, you'll have a leg up in FMA because you'll already have a better understanding of how weapons work compared to a black belt from another type of martial art. But that differs from group to group as some are simply not that good.
That being said, eskrima is not for everyone, but only by trying it, will you find whether it will be for you. I encourage you to give it a shot.