Eskrima
A Filipino weapon-based martial art — rattan stick, knife and improvised objects; you learn from the weapon, not from empty hands.
Quick Facts
PhilippinesCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Eskrima
About Eskrima
Eskrima (also arnis or kali) is the Filipino martial art in which weapons are trained from the first lesson. That is a fundamental reversal of the usual order: where most Asian systems add the weapon only for advanced students, in the Philippines one starts with stick and knife, and empty-hand technique is derived from them afterwards. The basic tool is a rattan stick about seventy centimetres long, usually in a pair (doble baston) or singly with the other hand serving to check and control (solo baston). The knife (daga), the stick-and-knife combination (espada y daga) and empty hand (mano mano, pangamot) are trained as well. Work with angles is characteristic. Most lineages teach a numbered set of attacking directions and the answers to them, usable with a stick just as with a knife — the logic is shared, only the tool changes. Also typical are the emphasis on striking the weapon hand (defanging the snake) and drilling in continuous patterns (sinawali) for rhythm and two-handed coordination. Historically the art formed amid tribal conflict and Spanish colonisation, and many lineages were passed down within closed family circles. Today eskrima is recognised as the national martial art of the Philippines and is widespread in military and police training worldwide. There are many schools and they differ: some are largely drill-based, others hold full-contact competition with protective gear.
Styles & Branches
A Filipino knife and stick system that, uniquely, does not step away from the line of attack but into it. The Philippine Marine Corps adopted it for close-combat training.
A Filipino stick-fighting system that Remy Presas arranged so it could be taught in a school class. The movement stays the same with or without the stick.
A Filipino single-stick style from 1952. It has no forms: from the first lesson work is in pairs, so that reflex forms rather than a memorised answer.
The wrestling layer of the Filipino arts. It is fought standing: the system assumes weapons and several opponents, where going to the ground is a mistake.
Ernesto Presas's Filipino system joining stick, sword and dagger, knife and empty hand in one scheme of angles.
Philippine Eskrima system introduced in USA specialized in close-quarters single stick.
A Filipino eskrima system founded in Cebu in 1932 by twelve masters. It works in three ranges and has its own competition rules.
American system born from full-contact stick fighting: minimal padding, Filipino Kali and Brazilian jiu-jitsu tested in real sparring.
Philippine Eskrima system developed by Mike Inay focused on 3 distinct ranges.
Traditional Philippine fencing school with long rattan staff and sword from Ilocos.
Filipino art of hard and soft techniques that gained status as the national art in 1974. Its weapon is the arnis stick.
A Filipino system of stick and knife fighting based on three ranges: largo, medio and corto. Edgar Sulite built it from training under several eskrima masters.
Philippine unarmed combat system derived from knife and stick movements.
A Filipino system built entirely around the blade. Created in 1985 by Christopher Sayoc Sr.; the knife is the starting point, not an addition to the empty hand.
Unarmed striking component of Filipino martial arts: punches, elbows, headbutts, and limb destruction techniques.
Hawaiian lineage of Filipino kali after Floro Villabrille, organized into a coherent system by his student Ben Largusa.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.