Escrima and the Internet
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It is interesting to meet practitioners from different styles of escrima and learn their naming and numbering structure.We all seem to have common elements in our FMA style, although different guros may teach concepts from different perspectives.If you use specific words to describe your style like Serrada or the Defensor Method, or perhaps something more general like Escrima, we realize everyday that we have many similarities.We are all Filipino Martial Arts practitioners.
Back when I first started 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.Rather than simply train hard, there were people that would get un-nerved by someone’s opinion about origins of martial arts terms.Years ago I asked Guro Nathan Defensor about the similarities and differences between escrima and arnis. Guro Nathan Defensor used to say that whether we call our arts Arnis, Eskrima, or Escrima it is much like saying car, auto, automobile, they are just words that refer to the same thing.It seems to me that more and more people describe their martial arts approach very differently today than they did just two decades ago.
Today we live in an Internet age, and Ive been very pleased with how the communication and collaboration between martial artists have opened up the minds of FMA practitioners all over the globe.MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are allowing martial arts practitioners to network and are helping to bring our perspectives closer that we have so much in common. 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.
We are also seeing greater access to international trade, which means that escrima practitioners have greater access to exotic escrima sticks such as ironwood sticks and bahi sticks. Twenty years ago, you may have known someone in your group that had fighting sticks made of Filipino hardwood, but finding a source was somewhat difficult. Today, one need only search Google for great deals on kali sticks.
Since the use of technology now assists martial artists to spread and share their martial styles globally, it may be the fastest current method of spreading martial knowledge in our global society!
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