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It is interesting to
meet practitioners from different styles of Filipino Martial Arts
and learn their nomenclature. Seems we all have some things
in common, yet, certain things may be stressed a little more or a
little less depending on the background of the instructor.
Whether you refer to your art in general terms like Arnis, Eskrima,
Kali, or something specific such as Serrada or Doce Pares, we are
learning that, many times, we have more similarities than
differences. We’re all different shades of the same color,
so to speak.
Back when I first started in the Defensor Method in the mid 80s at
the University of Chicago, martial arts groups were less open to
collaboration and as such, we sometimes got caught up mixing
western logic and eastern linguistics. I can remember
discussing such trivial things as arnis is this, whereas kali
eskrima is that. When I asked my instructor the difference
between arnis, eskrima etc. he said, “Just the words, they’re Latin
based words used to describe the Filipino Martial Arts by
the Spanish.” During my early training years however,
there were some that were very firm that what they studied was abc,
NOT xyz.
Today we live in an Internet age, and I’ve been very pleased
with how the communication and collaboration between martial
artists have opened up the minds of FMA practitioners all over the
globe. Online resources such as Ray Terry’s Eskrima Digest
and numerous web sites have been, in my opinion, a huge help in
getting us all to see that we are very much alike. YouTube
video clips show us that, yep, we do that too. Martial
artists are now cross training in multiple styles of martial arts,
which, frankly, would have been frowned upon in certain groups
twenty years ago.
This is definitely a good era for martial arts instruction and I
am proud to facilitate this collaboration with the creation of
EskrimaSpace.com. I hope you enter with an empty cup and
collaborate with like-minded martial artists to better enhance the
martial arts community.
Thanks, Sticky
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