Kali? Is it just knife/ stick fighting?

Question

I watched the bourne identity bonus features the other day and they said the fight scenes were Kali based moves but I thought Kali was just knife/ stick fighting. Can anyone clear this up? Is there some other bare hand type of this style?

Answer 1

Yes, there is an open hand branch of Eskrima/Kali. But, remember that the Philippines is made up of thousands of islands, 78 recognized dialects, and influences from the US, Spain, India, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Eskrima of Northern Luzon might differ quite a lot from that of the Visayas region or Mindinao.

An experienced martial artists can see the influences from the other countries. The Filipino culture seems to have always been open to observing and improving on other arts and sciences of those countries they traded with.. So, it is very possible that the traders from China or Malaysia from 1000 years ago influenced the Eskrima/Kali systems.

The open hand branch of Eskima/Kali is growing in popularity every year in the west. It should also be noted that "Kali" is the western term for this martial art. Kali is a Sankrit word that doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the Philippines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_(martial_art)

Answer 2

Actually, Kali and Eskrima/arnis are two different arts. Kali is the ancient filipino blade fighting art believed to have been practiced by the descendants of the migrant warriors from nearby Borneo, it puts more emphasis on killing with bladed weapons. While eskrima/arnis is a hybrid of Kali and Spanish rapier and dagger techniques developed during the Spanish colonial rule of the Phillipines and is considered a gentleman's art pretty much like european fencing, practiced by the intellectual Insulares(Philippine born spanish mestizos or halfbreeds). In both styles, one starts training with weapons, usually a stick for beginners, then as they develop proficiency and become more skilled, they graduate to using bladed weapons, then once they achieve mastery, they begin learning the empty hand techniques as part of their advanced training in the event they find themselves fighting unarmed against an armed opponent.

Answer 3

No.

In short, Kali, Arnis, and Escrima all include light amounts of ground grappling, in addition to large amounts of empty-hand striking and trapping, i.e. small-joint manipulations.