The origin of eskrima is complicated, as the strategic position of the Philippines means a lot of martial cultures converged over here, including Indian, Chinese, Arab and Malayan, as well as the systems of weapons brought by the Spanish Empire after their conquest of the Philippines. The first Spaniards to arrive in the islands already observed the natives were unusually good weaponmasters, to the point they supposedly claimed that only firearms were consistently able to overpower them. Sources record the presence of Filipino mercenaries in many conflicts in the Pacific, from Malaysia to Japan, and the Spaniards themselves would recruit native militiamen to great effect. The local fighting arts were often based on bladed weapons, and after Spaniards banned civilians from carrying full-sized swords in peacetime to prevent conflicts, this expanded to the usage of fighting sticks and smaller blades to help keep their customs alive. The presence of Spanish fencing culture, with elements such as their famed Verdadera Destreza and their specialty on simultaneous espada y daga, would only help the art evolve and achieve systematization over time.
The Spanish Empire was put out of its last century's misery a long time ago, but even considering eskrima's obvious indigenous input, some have argued that it still contains the biggest alive remnants of historical Spanish martial arts we can find today. It's hard to delimit how much exactly were Filipino martial arts influenced by Spain, especially given that their various regional styles would have featured different levels of exposure, but traits like the dual usage of unequal weapons and the emphasis on knife-fighting make it resemble strongly the moveset of the Hispanic swordsmen, soldiers and navajeros of yore. It comes to the point that, with polearms and blades long vanished from European warfare, both Spanish and Filipino experts joke that, "if you are looking for how Spaniards used to fight, look in the Philippines." UNESCO is currently pondering about declaring eskrima intangible cultural heritage.
The highly traditional, unwritten character of eskrima means it doesn't have a clear history of lineages, although in modern times, grandmasters like Antonio "Tatang" Ilustrísimo, Teodor "Doring" Saavedra, brothers Eulogio and Cacoy Cañete and Balbino Tortal spearheaded the expansion of the art after World War II. It was taught first in countries like Hawaii, Australia and United States, with Bruce Lee and his contemporaries learning it, before gaining more international recognition. In fact, Lee himself learned his signature way of wielding nunchaku from his Filipino-American friend Dan Inosanto, an eskrima virtuoso whose moves you can watch in the surviving scene of Game of Death. The general crowd is unknowingly very familiar already with eskrima moves, as the art managed to quickly sneak its way into the choreographies of western martial arts films due to its weapon brilliance and flashy style; every time some action star wields two sticks or twin weapons onscreen, you can bet safely that there is some kali work behind, likely performed by someone from the Inosanto Academy, even if the art is not explicitly referenced in the film.
The art features a long list of weapons, including bastón (staff or rod, of variable length but generally shorter than a quarterstaff), sibat (spear), daga or baraw (several types of daggers and knives), bolo (machete), kalis (wavy-bladed sword, known as "kris" in English),note karambit (the small, curved used in pencak silat), tabak-toyok (a weapon similar to the nunchaku) and látigo (whip) and much more, as well as improvised weapons.
Eskrima originally lacked a grading system, but some schools adopted colored belts taken from Japanese martial arts like Judo and Karate. Practitioners are sometimes called eskrimadores and arnisadores, although this is not unanimous. Speaking of which, the names of the art have all interesting etymologies: eskrima comes from esgrima (Spanish for "fencing"), while arnis comes from arnés (literally Spanish for "harness", in reference to a long-abandoned meaning of the word that translates as "arms and armor"), and kali is a variation - probably hyper-corrected, the spelling with an S being assumed to be a Spanish rendering when it isn't - of kalis (a pre-Hispanic, Filipino word translatable as "blade" or "sword", cognate to Indonesian and Malay keris, hence the dagger or sword known as kris in English which is found in all three countries).
There are eskrima competitions, with two main governing bodies with their own rulesets.
- WEKAF (World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation): this ruleset sees fighters wearing body armor and working to score ten points with stick strikes. This is the most popular and widely practised, yet a controversial one among the most martial-minded people, as it emphasizes offensive moves yet also penalizes repeating attacks, which carries the perception that its fighters become more skilled at spamming blows than fighting for real.
- ARPI (Arnis Philippines): this version uses padded sticks aside from more extensive body armors, and resembles traditional fencing in that fighters are separated every time a blow is scored according to visual judges. Its target areas are wider than those of WEAKF and also allows disarming the opponent if done quicly, which is an instant win. Some hope this style will be an Olympic sports some day, while others pray so it will never be.
