s" made frequent mention of arnis in his immortal romance Florante at Laura. (Source of some historical data, 1st International Arnis Congress Magazine).
World attention to Asian martial arts evolved when little Japanese men would throw or disarm larger Caucasian foes. This interest in other Asian arts led to the discovery of eskrima. Often thought, and often with good reason as purely stick fencing and often caricatured in martial arts movies. It usually depicted the villain frenziedly swinging and twirling the stick, only to be quickly disarmed and subdued by the high-kicking hero. There is nothing farther from the truth in Balintawak eskrima. Other styles have helped fan this ornate and fancy stick twirling.
Eskrima while still arcane and esoteric, is a very sophisticated, highly refined and ancient art dating to prehistoric Philippines. Only recently has it caught the attention of martial artists. The Philippines is relatively obscure in world politics, culture and business. Besides, there was a dearth of information about experts in the art. The practice of the art was hardly organized. Lately however, eskrima has nosed its way to gain world attention. Sophomoric practitioners have crawled out of the woodwork and have anointed themselves as “grandmasters”. During the lifetime of the Grandmaster, no one had the audacity and temerity to claim such title. Some have even made grandiose claims of beating up the masters in alleged matches.
Eskrima has not been developed as a sport since it is deadly and meant to inflict serious injury and harm. It therefore has hardly been promoted as a sport until it will be eventually made safer for students of the art. By then it will have lost its true essence. Foul blows in other sports is taught, developed and mastered into a science. Strikes, thrusts with the stick, hands and feet to nerve centers and vital points are meant to cause serious injury - more obviously like strikes to the head, knee breaks, elbow breaks and thrust to the eyes, throat and groin. Eskrima involves the use of weapons, e.g., knife fighting, more particularly, the baraw or punyal, sundang or itak, balisong and pinute’ and of course the stick for which it is better known. It includes bare hand combat strikes on hitting points with the use of hands, feet, knees, elbows, head butts and further includes grappling, holds and controls on pressure points for submission holds (pamislit). Stick fighting is the vehicle used to develop flexibility, speed, reflex action, coordination, form, balance and power. The stick is used as an extension of the arm and may be substituted for a knife, bladed weapon or club. It is believed that familiarity with confronting weapons reduces fear and panic in actual combat. Bare hand combat becomes even less threatening. There are no limits on where and what to hit except in friendly workouts where injury to a workout partner is avoided.
Eskrima, as a Filipino fighting system does not claim to have all the answers. However, it does have moves and techniques that is unique to the art as well as moves similar to other fighting arts. A keen observer will notice moves similar to the art of western boxing, kungfu,and wing chun in hand coordination, holds, trapping and more. It involves the use of the opponent's strength as in judo, jujitsu and aikido. It includes bare hand combat as in shoot fighting, knife fighting, and disarming techniques as in combat judo. Eskrima involves grappling (dumog) and wrestling (layug) finger, wrist, elbow and knee locks as in jiu jitsu. It involves choking and strangling (tu-ok or lo-ok). The art also involves kicking (pamatid or sikaran) as in karate Thai boxing and tae kwon do. However, little emphasis is placed on high and flashy kicks but rather stress is placed on short, snap kicks to the shin, thigh, knee and groin area for direct, quick pain and effective injury. When the situation permits, round house kicks or swing kicks to the thighs and knees to the groin and body are applied. Sweeping, tripping and dynamics of balancing (panumba) are also a great pa