HumanWeaponEskrima Part 5 of 5

HumanWeaponEskrima

Jason Chambers and Bill Duff travel to the island nation of the Philippines, to learn about the violent and even deadly form of Martial Arts known as Eskrima. Jason & Bill will travel from the ancient forts of Cebu City to the rice patties of the Manalanga Mountains and to a military base in the capital of the Philippines, Manila, in order to learn the stick and knife techniques that were used to kill famous Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and to destroy the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf, also known as Al Qaeda, in the mid 1990's. At the end of their journey one of them will have to fight against a 5-time world Eskrima champion.


Eskrima (Fencing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskrima


Eskrima Stick fighting - Human Weapon

Eskrima (or Escrima), a fighting style indigenous to the Philippines, is believed to have evolved from Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian martial arts forms brought to the islands by South China Sea traders around the 2nd century. It is a mostly weapons-based fighting style that combines punches, kicks, takedowns and joint lock techniques with stick and sword or knife fighting techniques. Eskrima was first introduced to the non-Filipino world in 1521, when Spanish explorers led by Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the South China Sea to stake their claim on the Philippine islands. Soon after the invasion, Magellan himself was killed on the small island of Mactan by native resisters armed with hardened sticks and led by the islands chief, Lapu-Lapu.

Spain eventually gained control of the Philippines and outlawed all indigenous martial arts. Over the next several centuries, many fighters continued their practice in secret, by disguising Eskrima techniques in what they pretended were ceremonial dance-like rituals. The ban was lifted after 1898, when the United States won control of the Philippines from Spain, but an air of secrecy remained around Eskrima and its practitioners. During World War II, Filipino fighters used the stick-and-sword techniques to resist Japanese invaders, compensating for a lack of firearms with powerful, swift movements of their sticks and knives.

By the 1970s, however, organizations such as the Doce Pares association and the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (WEKAF) had managed to turn Eskrima from a martial art used primarily for killing into a sport, with organized competitions and generally sanctioned rules and regulations. Eskrima techniques are still employed by the Filipino army, especially in its struggle against guerrilla members of the militant Islamic organization Abu Sayyaf, related to Al Qaeda.

Adapted from the Spanish word esgrima (fencing), Eskrima is variously referred to as Arnis (from the Spanish word for harness) and Kali. Unlike other martial arts, each strike in Eskrima is designed to be used three different ways: empty-handed; with a knife; or with a baston, or stick, often made of a lightweight bamboo-like wood called rattan. Eskrima fighters can use single-stick, double-stick and stick-and-dagger techniques. Some key moves in Eskrima include tapi-tapi, a system of defensive checks and counter-attacks, and labai, a violent takedown where a fighter checks his opponent, locks his opponents elbow over his arm, and uses leg thrust and momentum to throw the other fighter to the ground.




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Category:

Sports

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• eskrima
• arnis