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A collection of training weapons used in an Eskrima class. Includes a padded stick, a rattan stick, a wooden training knife, and a collection of aluminum training knives.
Filipino martial arts (FMA) are martial arts that originated in the Philippines. They integrate a “system-of-systems” approach to combat readiness. Filipinos have made significant sacrifices to develop their arts. Throughout the ages multi-cultural, multi-national invaders of the Philippines imposed new dynamics for human conflict and combat. FMA, the “system-of-systems” transformed itself as a direct result of an appreciation of their ever changing environment and circumstance. The Filipinos\' intrinsic need for self-preservation was the evolutionary genesis of these analogous systems. They learned often out of necessity how to prioritize, allocate and utilize common resources in combative situations. Filipinos have been heavily influenced by the phenomenon of cultural and language mixture. The multitude of languages spoken in the 7,107 islands have not only diverged into dialects, but they have been constantly mixing with one another on all levels: vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and usage (see Languages of the Philippines). As a result, Filipino martial arts and its homogeneous systems comprise a vocabulary of heterogeneous terms. Change is the norm. Some of the specific mechanisms responsible for cultural and martial change extend from phenomena such as war, political systems, social systems, technology and trade. For over three hundred years the Spanish had control over much of the Philippines. The Spanish regime often enforced royal laws and decrees limiting and prohibiting weapons use by the indigenous people. These restrictions of use were partly responsible for secretive and underground nature of FMA. Spaniards often employed Filipino warriors for various battles and wars. The Filipinos\' battle-tested tactics proved strategically effective from angle of old world weaponry and hand to hand conflict. Highly skilled Filipino martial artists are often characterized by a state of "flow" that is decisively responsive, deployable, agile, versatile, lethal, survivable, and sustainable. In 1972, the Philippine government included Filipino martial arts into the "Palarong Pambansa" or National Sports arena. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports also included it as part of the physical education curriculum for high school and college students. Knowledge of the Filipino martial arts is mandatory in the Philippine military and police. Today, the traditional Filipino martial systems continue to grow, new ones emerge, and new transitional FMA stylists continue to arrive on the martial arts scene.
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The oldest martial arts in the Philippines were those practiced by the indigenous Filipinos. They were in contact with the aborigines of Taiwan and Borneo which is evident from oral legends and the similarities between their fighting styles. The native tribes focused on combat with sticks, cudgels, knives and broadswords while practicing unarmed combat forms like dumog. Some of these ancient Filipino martial arts still exist but others are either extinct or very rare. Armed training took precedence over empty-handed techniques with the reasoning that a warrior will naturally learn to fight without weapons after gaining enough experience with them. Even today most Filipino fighting arts remain weapon-based. Malays from Indonesia and Malaysia made three separate migrations to the Philippines and brought with them the influence of silat. Filipinos would later go on to create silat styles of their own. Early traders from China also had a large impact on the local fighting techniques and certain Filipino styles contain characteristically Chinese movements. Additionally, the Chinese practiced localized forms of kung fu which they called kuntaw. These Malay and Chinese settlers are considered progenitors of the classical Filipino martial arts. The first western account of Filipino fighting techniques comes from the 16th century when Spanish colonists attacked.[citation needed] The invaders failed to defeat the locals in hand-to-hand combat and only managed to arise victorious after resorting to guns. During the period of colonization, Filipinos could only train in secret, and it was this isolation between the practitioners that gave birth to the vast number of Filipino styles today and the reason they were often passed down through family members. Through the Spanish language came the words now used to refer to Filipino fighting arts namely eskrima, arnis and kali.[citation needed] After independence, martial arts could be practiced publicly and freely influenced each other. Modern styles use weapons and techniques taken from numeorus sources especially silat, kung fu, karate, and Jujitsu. Today there are said to be almost as many forms of kali as there are islands in the Philippines.
The Philippines
Filipino martial arts is a broad term more detail is covered in specific articles. The three major branches of Filipino martial arts are Arnis typically from the northern Luzon regions, Eskrima from the central Visayas regions, and Kali from the southern Mindanao regions. Within these branches dwell a long line of masters, families, systems and history. Most Filipino systems will associate with one of these terms and their respective Regions of the Philippines.
Ranking systems, proficiency levels and terminology can differ greatly from system to system, organization to organization. FMA instructors employ a wide range of training methods to demonstrate the knowledge, skill and best practices necessary to address a situation and to assess their students understanding and proficiency. Mastery is not identical. Thus, higher or lower levels of proficiency can be applied to each assessment/training method depending upon the maturity of a particular student. These individual exchanges/assessments can then be used to identify gaps in proficiency for individuals within specific areas.
Martial arts ranking systems are a modern adaptation that developed during the commercialization eras of karate. For example: Shotokan Karate master Gichin Funakoshi\'s original ranking system consisted of: white belt: five kyūs; brown belt: three kyus; black belt: five dans.
FMA has not become a highly commercialized art, therefore it has retained its traditional forms hierarchy: master/instructor/student; or grandfather/father/son. Some FMA systems have adopted or created their own ranking systems.
Practitioners of these arts are noted for their ability to fight with weapons or empty hands interchangeably. Filipino martial arts include tactics for a wide variety of weaponry and combative situations. The weapons vary in design, size, weight, materials and methodology.
Impact Weapons
Edged Weapons
Flexible Weapons
Projectile Weapons
The triangle also represents many underlying philosophical, theoretical and metaphysical principles in the FMA. Many schools incorporate the triangle into their school\'s logo. The triangle is one of the strongest geometrical structures and stands for strength. Application of these theories are found in defensive and offensive tactical stratagem, including footwork, stances, blocking and disarms
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