Anyone knows this art? what styles? which is best? I need to know about this art coz Im intersted and I don't know any schools or anyone who's a practitioner.
Okay in a nutshell they are the same thing! Let me see if I can lay this out for you in terms that are sensible. In fact one minute let me grab some of my notes i'll just quote word for word here. SOrry but this is going to be a rather large post so take some time to read this:
Filipino Martial Arts Today are made up of various names. The most commonly referred to names are Arnis, Eskrima, Kali.
Arnis and Escrima are used to refer to the weapon arts of the Philippines today. Kali is actually used outside the Philippines to refer to the same art. The term Arnis de mano is especially misleading. The term Arnis is a basterdised form of the word Arnes which refers to the decrotive harnesses used by the actors in Moro-Moro stage displays. De Mano simply means hands, and so a literal translation of Arnis de mano turns into 'harness of hand'. The manipulation of these harnesses during the stage plays impressed the Spanish who dubbed it Arnes de mano. The style Arnis, a SPanish term itself, uses many Spanish terms to describe its techniques such as Espada Y daga (sword/dagger).
The term Eskrima is another basterdized term derived from the word Escrima which is again derived from the Spanish term Esgrima (fencing). It is also believed to mean "TO SKIRMISH" but there is no evidence to support this claim.
The last term Kali is always the most controversial. Many martial arts schools and instructors believe the word Kali to be a combination of the words Kamut(hand) and Lihok(movement). It is also beleived to be the mother art of Arnis or Escrima but there is lack of evidence to support this claim as well. Kali or Kahli as it is sometimes written in Visaya is a type of stick but not used to refer to the fighting art. Kali is also the Hindu Goddess of Destruction, and the Moros of the Sulu archipelego would often go into battle dressed like the goddess of destruction. The more believable explanation is from the tagalog word for a large bladed weapon, KALIS. This was shortened simply to Kali to refer to all bladed weapon. Its use in the west stems from the use of the word by Floro Villabrille who used this term to describe his art, and this was eventually popularized by Dan Inosanto. An interview with Antonio Illustrisomo in 1993 revealed that he only used the word out of convenience because foreign students recognized it, although he preferred the term Escrima because this is what it was called when he was learning from his uncles.
Which ever term is used to describe the Filipino Fighting arts today it is clear that they offer deep and rewarding training for those involved.
I hope this clears up most of your questions however certain stick fighting systems do differ in the way they are taught.
ie. Sayoc Kali, Pekiti Tirsia, Dekiti Tirsia Kali, Inosanto Kali, Serrada Escrima, Inayan Eskrima, MOdern Arnis, Arnis de Mano etc...the list goes on and on....but they are virtually the same yet many are different. Any of them are good. Some are better some are not. Got to do your research just like picking any art.
I've been told that the three terms are essentially the same thing. Think boxing. At different times people called it fisticuffs, the sweet science boxing and who knows what else. There may be something in terms of ethnic conotations in who uses which term, but barring any colloquial factors, they all seem like very generic terms. Lameco Eskrima has elements from styles that use the term kali as well as arnis. It seems to me that the individual styles can be very different, but whether they are called escrima, kali or arnis means little more than the term karate without qualifiers such as shotokan, kenpo or kyukushinkai.
