Sword fighting – Escrima

Fighting other people and the handling of or fighting with weapons is probably what man kind has done most intensively during evolution. Nothing was as important to man as how to kill an animal or a human being in the fastest and most efficient way.

Nothing is more moving for man than the confrontation with death (especially in a fight for life or death)! By fighting you can “find“ your ego!

In the time before Christ the “native Germans“ called fighting with sword and shield “Skirma“. This word was spread around in the whole of Europe, especially in the south, by clans moving around the continent. That is why masters and teachers of sword fighting were still called “Schirmmeister“ late into the Middle Ages. In Italy it was called “Scherma“, in France "Escrime“ and in Spanish “Esgrima“.

There are lots of different books about sword fighting which all deal with the different aspects of fighting with different weapons. The main parts were about handling different swords, daggers, other stabbing weapons, shields and long weapons. Most of the time all kinds of unarmed close combat like wrestling, punching and kicking were talked about too.

I will only mention two of them here:

o Johannes Herbart von Wirzburg (around 1300 A.D.: About Swords + Fist Shields. Counts as the oldest German fencing book)

o Hans Talhoffer (1443 A.D., 1459 A.D. and 1467 A.D.)

These books also often contained instructions for mental training with mysterious advice typical of those times. Gymnastics and even nutrition were talked about, too.

Around the 16th century sword fighting arts were at their climax in German speaking countries. The king gave the people the right to carry weapons so as to be able to defend their towns. In some places this even lead to people being punished for not carrying a dagger with them. That is how the sword fighting art came to its status with rights and privileges.

At the beginning of the 17th century all this started breaking apart because of the formation of the military. Sword fighting groups were prohibited and lost their rights. They were not financed by towns any more and the fighters had to earn their money at fares. Only a few privileged ones were allowed to teach their „noble“ art (in a slightly less dangerous way than before) in the princes’ castles. This developed slowly and became the Olympic fencing we know today. Only little is left of the great art and knowledge of the old sword masters.

The history of sword fighting is similar for the whole world. That is why different cultures have different fighting methods but basically they all have the same or similar principles which they are built upon.

But because of new technologies, scientific successes, social changes and more complex knowledge, the century old traditions and experiences were forgotten.

People simply could not see the pedagogical and character forming values of sword fighting arts any more. They were not „in“ !

Some people realised the problems, but still a big part of the old heritage was lost. Even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said students should show their sturdiness by fencing. He was convinced of the pedagogical and character forming values of sword fighting arts.

The same procedure is now going on in the Philippines. This of course is a normal development but it could have extreme impact on the Philippine society by losing some of its very important traditions and experiences.

Disputes are being solved more and more often with guns and the old Escrima, Arnis and Kali masters are being laughed at.

Another big problem is the fact that East Asian martial arts are being commercialised more and more all the time. Some Philippines (with and some also without martial art knowledge) now think they can do the same and use their ancestors’ martial arts as a way to become rich. This leads to the destruction and deformation of the genuine old art. Without thinking about it old concepts are being modified and artificially changed to become easier to understand just so the merchandise is facilitated.

War and weapons never were romantic! Weapons are cruel instruments of destruction and this counts for swords, too. Nowadays medieval weapons have become training tools and their only purpose is to let the trainee experience long lost knowledge and forgotten physical and psychological arts.

There is a great difference between playing around with a sword and using it knowing could set end to your own or your opponent’s life. You can not understand the mental aspects of training with weapons before you have reached a nearly real situation in your training.

Everybody should know this. This is why I think that all these martial art short courses are no good. Such a course is only a way to get to know martial arts and to decide whether one wants to practice this any longer or not.

You can only learn how to swim if you really swim in water. So you cam only learn how to fight if you fight. By doing this you learn automatically what to do to survive a fight. You learn how to control and to accept your fears, the stress, the emotions and the pain.

By training with and without weapons and unarmed against armed in realistic fight situations you get a completely new view of what can happen on the street of how well your techniques work.

Of course such fights can not be done in competitions and you need  good safety equipment for the training.

Stick and sword fighting (Phil.: Escrima, Kali, Arnis) has a long history on the Philippines, which was influenced by Indian, Malayan, Chinese, Japanese and over a long period also by European traditions.

Because the Philippines were under Spanish reign for nearly four hundred years the Philippine sword fighting techniques were strongly influenced by European fencing techniques. The Spanish sword fighting methods then gradually got mixed up with the old native techniques. The Spaniards brought their fencing school with sword and dagger (Espada y Daga), techniques using sword and shield and also the words Escrima and Arnis de Mano to the Philippines. That is how the German Skrima came to the Philippines.

The Philippinos used different types of swords, including two handed swords shields and spears. There were lots of different regions with different styles, which were taught in the families.

The efficiency of Philippine martial arts is due to the long and bloody experiences the old Philipinos had. They used their techniques for survival and freedom; first against the Spaniards (till 1898), then against the Americans who killed nearly three million Philippinos and then against the Japanese who besieged the Phillipines in World War II. But private problems were also often solved with knives at the so called death matches.

Bruce Lee also knew about the efficiency of the Philippine martial arts and wanted to demonstrate it his last book, but he never got to do it. Still he played a big role in making the Philippine martial arts popular all over the world. Even nowadays Bruce’s student Dan Inosanto does not only teach Jeet Kune Do but also Philippine Kali techniques.

Every martial artist should go to Philippine martial arts courses as often as he can. This is a great opportunity. By the way this counts for all martial arts, because you should never decide something is no good without having experienced it.

Everyone can learn from everybody else; if they want to!