I’m Confused!

I hope you read this Stephen from Detroit. I lost your email buddy and can’t find you online. Give me a holler again plz!

To business – I have been swinging sticks since 1983 after meeting a Filipino teacher in CA. His name was Eddie Rodrigues (or Rodriquez). He taught us simple, single stick – Doce Pares (referring to the twelve basic strikes and twelve basic defenses of eskrima) and I believe we worked on what he called Larga Mano or a long handed striking method. I’m really “going through the time machine” to recall all of these terms! After spending some time learning a bit of his style, I relocated and went back to learning various techniques from A.J. Advincula and Danny Inosanto tapes. No one knew anything about it in our neck of the woods.

My pal from CA who introduced me to Master Eddie (Eddy) began training at some seminars that were actually taught by the “Old Man” Angel Cabales, in Serrada Eskrima. He has also studied with Angel’s son and an Anglo instructor who taught classes (I can’t recall his name darn it!). He has passed down the material to me on his annual visits to our home. We swing sticks and do drills until you can actually smell the rattan in the air – (kinda like it’s burning!) In Serrada the sticks we use are much shorter and we always use two sticks (not sure why – maybe my pal thought I was ready to add the other?) as compared to one stick (all the farther I’d made it on my own) and it’s very “in tight”, and seems very sophisticated, by always checking the opponent’s weapon with one stick (rattan) while striking with the other. Or, on occasion, when using one stick – the other hand is used to “check” the opponent’s arm or wrist.

“Eskrima or Escrima refers to a class of Filipino Martial Arts that emphasize stick and sword fighting. Other terms which have entered into common usage include Kali and Arnis de Mano (harness of the hand); occasionally the abbreviation FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) is used. Eskrima and Arnis are among the many names primarily used in the Philippines today to refer to these arts. The name Kali, although primarily used in the United States and Europe, is seldom used in the Philippines and in most cases is an unknown word.”

I highly recommend this type of training as it is very natural to learn, unlike some styles of Karate and Kung Fu that I’ve learned. It also allows a person with a light piece of rattan, to face down multiple attackers at one time and will defeat any other weapon short of a gun (or another stick fighter who’s more skilled). It is the preferred weapon for defense against a knife as well – since the reach advantage is in the hands of the stickfighter. The learning time is minimal to attain enough skill to defend yourself from “most attackers” too!

I still can’t figure out – for the life of me – which is the proper spelling for Escrima / Eskrima and if Arnis is the same as Arnis de Mano? Also, I did read somewhere that the term “Kali”, referred to the use of a sword – of the Kung Fu broadsword variety. (??) Not entirely positive on this though. I suppose that I’ll stop sweating semantics and get busy swinging sticks – catch ya later!