Escrima
Escrima is a form of Filipino Martial Arts that emphasizes stick and sword fighting. The term Escrima simply means "fencing" or "skirmish", and is a Filipino spelling of the Spanish word "esgrima."
Escrima is sometimes also known as ''Arnis de Mano'' or ''Art of the Hand".
Students of Escrima can fight with weapons or empty hands interchangeably, though the style emphasizes weapons. Escrima includes fighting with a variety of weapons but the most common weapon in training is a Rattan stick.
Simplicity of teaching is key to Escrima: originally taught to villagers – only skills that were proven effective in battle and could easily be taught en-masse were used. This philosophy of simplicity is still used today.
While the system may be simple - beyond the basic skills lies a very complex structure and a technically refined skillset that can take years to master.
History
A martial art for the common folk, during the oftentimes violent history of the Philippines, a variety of regionally and traditionally different, more or less closely related styles, that use sticks and bladed weapons were being developed.
Escrima can be traced back to the 16th century. It was taught to educate body and mind; used as recreational activity, and for combat. During parts of the century-long lasting rule by the Spanish empire Escrima was banned and carrying of traditional Filipino weapons was strictly forbidden.
The art of stick fighting was preserved in secret, passed along from generation to generation in families. The movements could be seen in seemingly ''harmless'' folk dances though, performed without weapons. Occasionally they were ''tested'' for their continuing effectiveness in local revolts and uprisings against the Spanish rulers. The ban was lifted in 1898, the Spanish rule was ended and replaced with U .S. influence.
Principles & Concepts
As developed by Grandmaster Rene Latosa, Escrima is the study and development of the best concepts and stratagies of many systems. Grandmaster Latosa condensed the most effective knowledge from his past instructors and combined it with his own unique research and development to create an effective, dynamic, logical combat system which provides an education in body motion and weapon efficiency.
Balance
is the most important concept. It is the foundation of escrima as well as most tasks in our daily life. It is the key that opens the other concepts necessary in the martial arts.Focus
means to be conscious, rooted in a balanced state with a clear intention and goal to stay on one's line to defeat the opponent, to win by focusing on the attacker not just the attack.Speed, Timing & Distance
understanding and judgement enable first strike capability and/or defense and counterstrike capability.Power
is driven by the foundation of balance combined with speed to generate and execute a tangible offensive force.Transition
is the ability to tactfully and strategically adapt or deliberately change the factors such as speed, timing, distance, power, level, environment - by staying in the ''box'' but ''thinking outside the box''Attitude
is the drive behind the drive or the ''spirit'' which provides fuel to generate focus, power, and speed.
Weapons
Grading System
Much like our Wing Tsun system, our Escrima program has 12 student grades. We concider the 9th grade to be the equivilent to a "black belt", but do not use the belt system to measure students progress.
The system also has 5 technical levels, 4 master levels, and the title of GrandMaster.
| Student Grades | Instructor Grades | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technician | Practitioner | GrandMaster | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Like our Wing Tsun model of teaching this structured approach ensures all students receive a complete Escrima education at each grade level.
This means that someone who can only train twice a week will not miss out on important concepts or ideas that another classmate, seemingly always training, an unfair advantage. (Though there would be an advantage in technical skill from his classmates extra hours of training!)