Eskrima
Filipino martial arts with stick, knife and bare hands, since 2009 the national martial art and sport of the Philippines. They have no single founder or system of grades.
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.
Comparisons
Catalogs & Databases for Eskrima
About Eskrima
Eskrima, arnis and kali are names of Filipino martial arts in which people train with a stick, a knife and bare hands. The law Republic Act 9850 of 2009 declared arnis the national martial art and sport of the Philippines. The word eskrima comes from the Spanish esgrima (fencing), and the term kali is documented only from 1948.
Read more
Eskrima has neither a single founder nor a year of origin. Filipino practitioners often refer to the Battle of Mactan (1521), but Spanish reports from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century name no native fighting method. Only individual systems are documented: the Doce Pares club in Cebu from 1932, Balintawak from the fifties of the twentieth century, Remy Presas’s Modern Arnis from 1966, and Pekiti-Tirsia, whose family tradition reaches back to 1897. Sticks of rattan or kamagong usually measure 61 to 71 centimeters. Practice uses one stick, two sticks, stick and dagger (espada y daga), a knife and no weapon, in three distances corto, medio and largo. The number of attack angles differs by school. In many systems bare-hand techniques are derived from work with the dagger and stick. Traditional sparring went without contact of the weapon with the body. In today’s competitions (WEKAF, ARPI and other organizations) fighters use a padded stick with a helmet and protectors, and besides fighting anyo forms are also judged. Arnis was an official sport of the SEA Games in Manila 2005. There is no uniform system of grades, and belts and the titles Lakan and Dayang are known, for example, in Modern Arnis.
History
Eskrima, arnis and kali are names for a family of Filipino systems of fighting with and without weapons, not a single style. The word eskrima comes from the Spanish esgrima (fencing), the origin of the word arnis is uncertain, and the term kali is attested only from 1948, with Buenaventura Mirafuente. Practitioners often cite the Battle of Mactan (1521), but Spanish reports from the 16th to 19th centuries name no native fighting method. We found no documented Spanish ban on training. Eskrima has no single founder or year of origin. Individual systems are documented: the Doce Pares club was founded in 1932 in Cebu by twelve eskrimadors, Balintawak was founded in the fifties in Cebu by Venancio Bacon, Modern Arnis was created by Remy Presas, and Pekiti-Tirsia derives from the Tortal family art, whose transmission reaches back to 1897.
Technique
Sticks of rattan or kamagong usually measure 24 to 28 inches (61 to 71 cm), the long stick largo mano 28 to 36 inches, and the wooden dagger 12 to 14 inches. Practice uses one stick, two sticks, stick and dagger (espada y daga), a knife and no weapon, and in many systems bare-hand techniques are derived from work with the dagger and stick. Fighting is divided into the distances corto, medio and largo, footwork knows serrada, fraile and retirada, and stances, blocks and disarms rest on the geometry of the triangle. The number of attack angles differs by school: Balintawak has twelve basic strikes, Pekiti-Tirsia a system of 64 attacks. The terms defanging the snake (a hit to the weapon hand), sinawali (weaving of two sticks) and tapi-tapi (stick locks) are documented in Modern Arnis.
Training
Training rests on paired drills. In Doce Pares the hubud-lubud drill serves to practice quick reactions. Venancio Bacon taught Balintawak with the material in random order, and José Villasin later arranged a curriculum into groups, according to which most instructors of this system teach today. Remy Presas introduced stick-against-stick practice, which made teaching in schools possible, and the aim of Modern Arnis was to reduce the susceptibility of training to injury. Traditional sparring went without contact of the weapon with the body and rested on skill and restraint, and today practitioners often wear head and hand protectors or use padded sticks. We have not found the ratio of work with and without a weapon or the share of sparring in a lesson.
Ranks and progression
We have not found a single rank system for all eskrima systems. Depending on the organization, Modern Arnis has 10 or 11 black belt degrees named with Tagalog numbers from Isa to Sampu, men hold the title Lakan and women Dayang, black belts traditionally have a red edge, and some groups add a probationary zero degree. Pekiti-Tirsia describes training specializations A to E instead of ranks. We have not found the full Doce Pares rank system, and The Freeman stated only in 2016 that Ciriaco Cañete held a 12th degree black belt. We have not found the Balintawak and Serrada degrees or any recognition of ranks between systems. Philippine Star mentions the Pekiti-Tirsia titles Maginoo-Mandala for seniors and Mandatus First Hagdan for an authorized representative, which Leo Gaje granted to Uli Weidle about two years after the founding of PTK Europe and after eight years of training. Outside clubs, arnis is taught in state education: a Department of Education learning module for 7th grade physical education covers it, and the city of Sorsogon offers teachers a course on how to train and referee tournaments.
Who it suits
The i-ARNIS rules divide anyo into categories of children aged 7 to 12, youth aged 13 to 17 and adults from 18. Full contact begins in the category of 13 to 17 years with seven weight divisions and a shorter padded stick of 27 inches instead of 30, and adults compete in eight weight classes. In the Philippines, the school program of the Department of Education DepEd has run since 2006, and in the Palarong Pambansa competition primary school pupils joined arnis in 2011. We have not found the minimum starting age or an injury study of children. Lipardo et al. (Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy 2022) published the protocol of a study of an arnis program for healthy older adults, 40 to 60 minutes three times a week for 12 weeks, and the protocol does not state results.
Competition
Competition covers fighting (labanan) and forms (anyo). In labanan, fighters use a padded stick in full protection and score by hitting the opponent. WEKAF, which Cebu Daily News says Dionisio Cañete founded in 1980, holds a world championship every two years, the first in August 1989 in Cebu. ARPI was founded in 1986. At the SEA Games arnis was a demonstration sport in 1991, a regular sport in Manila in 2005, and appeared again in 2019. It is not an Olympic sport. Rule sets differ. Under the i-ARNIS rules, full contact is played as two winning rounds out of three, each lasting at most two minutes, and fouls include a stab to the head, a strike to the groin or holding the opponent's stick, among others. Anyo is judged by seven judges in the categories of one weapon, two weapons, and sword and dagger.
Gear
We have not found a prescribed uniform for regular training. Green (2001) states that rattan is used for safe training and the hard woods bahi and kamagong for fighting, alongside aluminum blades and steel training knives. There are no uniform competition rules, and according to Philippine Star from 2017 the equipment differs too: in the southern Philippines fighters use unpadded sticks (live stick) in full protection resembling kendo, while on Luzon they use padded sticks with vests, helmets and groin protection. The 2015 rules of the i-ARNIS federation prescribe a helmet with a mask, body and groin protector, forearm and shin guards, and a padded stick with foam filling 30 inches (76.2 cm) long for adults. Each competitor has one red and one blue stick, wears a white T-shirt, loose red trousers and white footwear, and may not wear jewelry or a watch. According to English Wikipedia, the Dog Brothers fight with one or two sticks usually 30 to 36 inches long, in a fencing mask and gloves, sometimes in a mask only.
Philosophy
We have not found a shared philosophy of all eskrima systems, as each system sets its own goals. The Philippine state, however, attributes an educational mission to arnis. Republic Act 9850 of December 2009 declared it the national martial art and sport in order to instill patriotism, nationalism and respect for national heroes and symbols. The 2022 Department of Education module for 7th grade presents arnis as a path to national identity. In an article for Rapid Journal from 1997, Bot Jocano gave the relative informality of most arnis practice as an example of the Filipino cultural experience and linked it to cordial relations among practitioners. According to a tribute in MartialTalk magazine from 2003, Remy Presas developed Modern Arnis as a system focused on self-defense. Pekiti-Tirsia is described as a system focused on fighting, not sport, and according to Philippine Star Leo Gaje wanted to teach it in its pure form and not mix it with other arts, especially non-Filipino ones.
Styles and schools
Eskrima has no single organization. According to the news site Rappler, several national organizations existed side by side in 2012, including ARPI, NARAPHIL, DEAAP, IKAEF and IMAF. According to Rappler, the origin of the art is uncertain. Besides the theory of its origin under Spanish colonization, there is a theory of a link to the Majapahit and Srivijaya empires, based on linguistic similarities. The modern sport form of arnis was helped into being by Remy Presas and Federico Lazo. Presas was born in 1936 in Hinigaran on the island of Negros, where his grandfather introduced him at six to the art then called kali. At fourteen he travelled around the Visayan towns and in Cebu studied under Rodolfo Moncal, Timoteo Maranga and Venancio Bacon. Later he opened a gym in Bacolod and taught physical education at a university, and according to his brother Robert, his research gave rise to the content that the ministry of education adopted into teaching. He died on 8 August 2001. Dionisio Cañete, who heads the organization Doce Pares, wrote the rules by which arnis was formalized as a sport, and according to the Cebu Daily News he founded the federation WEKAF in 1980. In competition, anyo, the demonstration of forms, is distinguished from laban, stick fighting.
Today
The law Republic Act 9850 of 11 December 2009 declared arnis the national martial art and sport of the Philippines and ordered that it be the first competition of the first day of the Palarong Pambansa. There are several organizations in parallel, and Modern Arnis split after 2001 among the IMAFP, DAV, IMAF and WMAA. Eskrima was brought to the USA by Angel Cabales (Serrada, Stockton 1966), Leo Gaje (1972) and Remy Presas (1974). Dan Inosanto is a vice president of Lameco International, which continues the Eskrima of Edgar Sulite, and the Dog Brothers arose in his academy in 1986. The MCMAP martial arts program of the US Marine Corps draws inspiration, among others, from Eskrima, and since the beginning of the twenty-first century some Krav Maga schools have been adding arnis, kali and escrima as well.
In culture
Arnis is a Philippine national symbol. Republic Act 9850 of 11 December 2009 declared it the national martial art and sport of the Philippines and made it the first competition on the first day of the annual school games Palarong Pambansa. It entrusted implementation of the act to the Philippine Sports Commission together with the ministry of education and the national commission for culture. The 2010 documentary Eskrimadors introduced the Cebuano grandmasters Ciriaco and Dionisio Cañete and Uno Caburnay. Dan Inosanto brought eskrima to film. According to the Inquirer, he introduced it to Bruce Lee, who at first viewed it with skepticism and then used two sticks in Enter the Dragon. In Game of Death, Lee and Inosanto fight with sticks and nunchaku. Inosanto's student Jeff Imada, according to the Philippine Star, choreographed the fights in the Jason Bourne series and taught Matt Damon Philippine martial arts. According to Denzel Washington, Imada trained him as well for the film The Book of Eli. After moving to the USA, Remy Presas took part as a consultant in Hollywood productions.
Did you know
Under Spanish rule, according to one of the theories reported by Rappler, Filipinos trained with sticks disguised as a folk dance. Arnis was a demonstration sport at the Southeast Asian Games in Manila in 1991, where the Philippines won 14 medals. At the 2019 games the Philippine team won 20 medals, 14 of them gold, and the Philippine Senate called it the most successful team of the games. The first WEKAF world championship was held on 11 to 13 August 1989 in the gymnasium of the University of the Visayas in Cebu. At the 16th championship in 2022 in Mandaue, the Philippine team won 418 medals. In November 2018 the Philippine Olympic Committee expelled the national association Arnis Philippines (ARPI), which had received no state funding since 2010.
Styles & Branches
Filipino system of fighting with blades and sticks, tied to the Tortal family and to Leo Gaje, who spread it in the USA from 1972. The Philippine Marine Corps teaches it.
A Filipino system of arnis developed by Remy Presas from the island of Negros. From the mid-1970s he spread it through seminars in the United States and other countries.
Filipino single-stick fighting system founded in Cebu in 1952 by Venancio Bacon after he left the Doce Pares club. It takes its name from Balintawak Street.
Filipino wrestling that Green counts among the unarmed components of Filipino fighting. In Antique it is still played as a folk wrestling game at Easter and the fiesta.
Filipino system of Ernesto Presas, younger brother of Remy Presas according to the organization and Wikipedia. Per Presas Style Kombatan, it arose by renaming his form of Modern Arnis.
Filipino eskrima of Angel Cabales for close-range fighting with a short stick. His 1966 school in Stockton was, according to Wiley, the first public one in the USA.
Filipino eskrima system from Cebu, whose beginning the Cebuano press places in 1932 and links to the Cañete family. Dionisio Cañete founded the WEKAF federation out of it.
American stick-fighting group founded in California in 1988. They fight only in a mask and gloves, with no referees or prizes, and the DBMA system grew out of it.
American eskrima system of Mike Inay, according to English Wikipedia a student of Max Sarmiento and Angel Cabales. According to English Wikipedia it combines seven separate eskrima styles.
Ilocano family eskrima of the Estalillas with longer and heavier weapons. Wiley divides it into sencilla, bambolia and compuesta.
Filipino art of Antonio Ilustrisimo, known as Tatang. Wiley describes it as a blend of eskrima from the Visayas and kali from the Sulu archipelago.
Kuntaw is a historical art of the Samal of the southern Philippines and the modern kuntaw lima-lima system, whose founder Carlito A. Lanada sets it apart from Chinese kun-tao.
Edgar Sulite's eskrima, assembled from the teaching of several Filipino masters. According to Wiley, the name combines larga mano, medio and corto.
A Filipino system of bladed-weapon fighting, founded in 1985 by Christopher Sayoc according to its own website. The website describes it with the motto All Blade, All the Time.
Filipino kali system of Floro Villabrille, which according to the school's website was organized by his successor Ben Largusa. The school lists weapons, empty-hand fighting and kicks.
Frequently asked questions
What is eskrima?
Eskrima is a Filipino martial art with and without weapons, also called arnis or kali. The Philippine law Republic Act 9850 defines arnis as the indigenous Filipino martial art and sport using sticks, bare hands and feet.
What is the difference between arnis, eskrima and kali?
They are names for one family of Filipino systems. The word eskrima comes from the Spanish esgrima, meaning fencing, the origin of the word arnis is uncertain, and the term kali is documented only from 1948. Philippine law uses the name arnis.
Is arnis the national sport of the Philippines?
Yes. Republic Act 9850, signed on 11 December 2009 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, declared arnis the national martial art and sport of the Philippines. According to it, arnis opens every edition of the school games Palarong Pambansa.
What weapons are used in eskrima?
The basic weapon is the stick, from which the work with bare hands and feet also derives. At the Palarong Pambansa school games, competitors took part in anyo forms with two sticks and in laban sparring with one stick. Sticks are made of rattan or the hardwood kamagong, and competition forms also include sword and dagger.
What competitions are there in arnis?
Competition consists of sparring with a padded stick in full protection and of forms. WEKAF has held a world championship every two years since 1989. Arnis was at the Southeast Asian Games in 1991, 2005 and 2019, but it is not an Olympic sport.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.