Sorry if this has been asked before but I tried the search function and it didn't give me anything. I'm trying to find out more about the Philipino Arts. Firstly I was wondering if my limited understanding on FMA is correct, and secondly I was wondering if anyone has any information on the history or characteristics of the following arts that they could share with me: Escrima - fighting with sticks (about a metre long?), apparently fast and painful on the knuckles. Don't know anything about Escrima other than this. Kali - Very efficient way of taking down your opponent, but again I only know this because I wondered what the fighting styyle was in the Bourne films. Doesn't it a lot of knives as well? Arnis - I haven't got a clue what this is. Is it even Philipino? Silat - Ditto. Any info you guys could give me would be great. Thanks a lot Alexander
Arnis / Eskrima / Kali it is all the same thing, that is why most of us refer to it as FMA. Arnis / Eskrima are the terms recognised in the Philippines. Kali well we wont go into that apart from it is said to have been taught by the ancient Dannino tribe of Santo regards
as far as i know, kali/arnis/escrima - is the same as sir pat have stated. it is the study of long bladed weapon (longer than the daga or dagger), these are the bolos or itak, many terms for these, it just depends on region of origin. It is practiced thru the use of stick, then if youre that advanced, you'll be practicing it on a live one :bang: . arnis is the term used in central luzon. escrima, in cebu, kali, i forgot . but pls, somebody correct me if am wrong , i'll get back after i asked again w/ my GM
Ka-Li Hi Alexander, Arnis and escrima are the favoured terms for FMA - indeed most Filipino's don't know what Kali is. As your man Pat said, Dan Inosanto (and he has stated this) created the word Kali from Kamay or Kamut Lihok (body or hand motion). Some of his students went to the PI and searched for Kali. The more financially astute instructors began to change the name of what they taught (if indeed it had a name previously) to include the word Kali. Kali Illustrissimo (sp?) and Pekiti-Tirsia Kali (formally PT arnis) have been used to separate tourist martial artists from their Dollars ;-) Both systems are very effective, but the name change came about because thats what tourists were looking for - Kali. The term FMA is the same as Japanese Martial Arts covers Karate, Aikido, Ju-Jutsu etc. Its an umbrella term which covers systems some of which are weapons based (stick, knives, swords, whips, nunchakus etc), some of which are strictly empty hand (i.e. Yaw-Yan). In the West Arnis Eskrima and Kali are looked on as pretty much the same art. The use of sticks and bladed weapons (knives and swords) are intergrated into the empty hand syllabus usually both the empty hand and the weapons training starts at the same time, the argument being "why hit someone with your empty hand when you can pick something up and use that first. You only use your empty hand when you have nothing to hit the opponent with". Bill
it's kalis ilustrisimo not kali ilustrisimo. kalis= sword. then again, it was also known as olisistrisimo. olisi= stick. hmmm... kali = escrima = arnis and sometimes = silat. depends who you talk to and why you're talking to them. btw, there have been bad reactions to this so let's just stay educated and not "put down" what has been put up.
pat: kali-fornia? in sticktown? click on this to get the history of what you ask. there's probably a half dozen threads that have talked about this.
Kali Kalis Hi Shootodog, Tatang Ilustrisimo named his art Kali Ilustrisimo; his students have named their take on his art Kalis Ilustrisimo - I believe to indicate that they are focussing on the sword elements of his system (but don't quote me on that bit!). Bill
Cacoy Canete said in an interview for black belt mag. (I think it was bb?). That arnis/ eskrima is an art that focuses mainly on stix, then later on, with knives and bolas and the likes. Kali uses/ practices with blades from the get go. This can be seen in many of the disarms and joint locks used by systems like Modern Arnis. I know that in Ilustrisimo Kali, we never grab the end of the stick , because its all about muscle memory, practice grabbing the stick, and when u come up against a blade, your mind may not have time to switch gears to defending against a blade.Just an example arnis/ eskrima- think more stick, less blade, Kali, think more in terms of a phillippino JKD meets zen meets bushido, Canete said that it is more than knives, or blades, or sticks, it can be used with bows, whips, even guns. Its more of a state of mind ,timing, footwork, scenarios, morals, all of that good stuff, more rounded than what alot of schools teach. I have to go to practice now, i'll add more later :bang:
actually, if you've met the guy, i've heard him refere to it as "laro" or "to play". the art now is called kalis ilustrisimo. it used to be known as olistrisimo. everybody outside the system refers to it as kali ilustrisimo. some old students of romy macapagal refer to it as "escrima". i've heard kali ilustrisimo used in conjunction with GM Topher Ricket's Bakbakan Kali Ilustrisimo and Master Yuli Romo's clan. there tatang's teachings is that of a blade art without compromising the stick. tatang wasn't big with names. he just like hitting people with a stick or cutting them with a blade. it's sad that i only had a few meetings with him. it would've been nice to have spent more time with him.
