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 part of the art. Mid-high frontal kicks have been used lately by students trained in other kicking arts. It is used only if there is safety in delivery and not subject to dangerous counter-attacks. Eskrima however does teach counters to all forms of blows and attacks of all popular Asian fighting arts. Eskrima does not emphasize contortions or acrobatics, although stretching, warming up and cardiovascular conditioning, power punches and delivery of blows plus muscle and strength development certainly make good sense. Recent students trained in other kicking arts have incorporated their art into eskrima. The Balintawak style is not an ostentatious style. The deeper secrets are hardly displayed nor will it be likely seen in print. Even if displayed, the moves are subtle, inconspicuous and innocuous that it will go unnoticed by even sophisticated and trained martial artists. Even hands-on teaching to trained martial artists requires repeated and detailed instruction and demonstration of the finer points of the moves. Demonstrations of the Balintawak style is sometimes dull, as Bach and Mozart are dull to unsophisticated musicians. That is the reason that some Balintawak seminars are laced and embroidered with flashy stick twirling by the young masters. The showy "hollywoodized" and cinematic styles are ridiculed by knowledgeable purists of the Balintawak style as signature moves of rival clubs. It however, never fails to draw the attention of the half-baked and uninformed.
All martial arts have their strengths and weaknesses. Very often, its strength becomes its weakness. The hard arts with power delivery of punches and kicks often lead to rigidity and inflexibility in changes of direction. In contrast, the fluid and softer arts may not have the same power of the hard arts. It is embarrassing to purists that some eskrima styles unabashedly copy other fighting arts and even use terms such as eskrido to denote the combination of eskrima and judo. The term is unnecessary, since unrecorded history, fights progressed into 