Escrima-Arnis-Kali – History

The following is taken out of the book written by my martial arts friend Peter Miñoza called „From Kali to Escrima“, published by Afra.

I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the history and background of Philippine Martial Arts. The author did a lot of research and wrote a very good book. But it is not about techniques! And there are no pictures either!

When we talk about Philippine martial arts we mean the armed and unarmed fighting techniques that have been influenced and modified by the Spaniards after 1565 but also newer arts called Kali, Arnis and Escrima that are becoming more and more popular.

Nobody disagrees with the fact that pre-colonial methods were the basis for Arnis and Escrima but it is unlikely that these techniques were known as Kali in the whole country.

The Philippine martial arts have been connected to the people’s culture from the very beginning. But it is very difficult to set a date for the beginning. Only a few written documents survived to our time and it is difficult to find out which of the many oral traditions are true.

The art was never a privilege of the warriors’ caste. The peasants used sticks, knives and swords as much as the fighters. This is why the arts a based on the “philosophy of simplicity” which makes the system so effective and efficient and why there were so many dances, myths and legends about fighting.

Swords like the Kris and the Kampilan were not often used in the 15th century. When Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines in 1521 the inhabitants were still using weapons made of wood and bamboo. Metal weapons were reserved for aristocrats.

Kali & Kuntao

Since the 70ies the word Kali has been a synonym for the pre-colonial Philippine martial arts. Kali was made popular by Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee´s student) in his book »The Filipino Martial Arts«.

Butt he word Kali was never used on the whole archipelago and it is even very probable that the word was invented in the 20th century.

A different art developed in pre-colonial times, especially on the islands of Sulu and Mindanawe which favoured unarmed combat. It was called Kuntao.

Kuntao is derived from the Chinese kun and tao for fist and path. The soul of Kuntao is Kung-Fu. The Shaolin monk Lama Darmon travelled from China to Indonesia and spread his knowledge.

In the years after 1571 the Philippines changed drastically with the colonisation and catholic missionaries. The people started using Spanish words in their own language and so it was not long until they started using the word escrima (from the Spanish word esgrima and German skirmen) being the art of fencing.

The word Arnis comes from the Spanish word for harness: arnes.

There were lots of revolts going on with Philippine tribes fighting against Spanish soldiers which expanded to become the Seven Year War. During this war, on the 22^nd of September 1762 the British navy attacked and conquered Manila and the Philippinos thought they were going to be set free. But after a few months they gave up that idea. On February 10th 1763, the Spaniards were given back the Philippine colony.

In 1764 The Spanish Governor Simon de Anda prohibited all martial arts and carrying of weapons. So the natives started camouflaging their training as dances.

The basis of the Philippine martial arts is the ability to counter attack and strike precisely in every attacking angle. There are three traditional ways to train Arnis: swinging movements and strikes with alternating offensive and defensive roles in a repeating drill called muestracion, pandalag, pahanas, bansay-bansay or hubad; strikes, stabs and dodging techniques also in fixed drills and last but not least the free fight which is called bugnoay, sangkaay or labang totohanan depending on the kind.

Nowadays there are up to 600 different Escrima, Arnis and Kali styles and nobody really knows what is going on. Some of them differ a lot from the others. Some styles see the disarmament of the opponent as the highest art, others say this is not always possible and developed special counter techniques. Some systems use blocking techniques, others derive the attack and use the energy the attacker invested against him.

A Philippine martial art speciality is to divide the body into angles that can be used in defence and offence. Each angle has its own number.

THE ART OF THE »EMPTY HAND«

Sikaran - Sipaan - Panandiakan - Pananjakman

Sikaran means art of kicking. Sipaan, Panadiakan and Pananjakman mean the same.There is a difference between the self-defence art of Sikaran and the tournament aspect of Sikaran. The Sikaran system of course prefers the long distance but it also proves to be very efficient in the close range.

Suntokan – Panantukan - Panuntukan

This is the so called Philippine boxing. Elbow techniques in the infight are allowed in this discipline. Attacks are parried but nearly never blocked.

Yaw-Yan

It is a bit like Muay-Thai, kickboxing or Taekwon-Do. Fists, elbows, knees, shins and feet are the weapons used. Throwing is also allowed and practiced separately.

Dumog - Buno