Please note that due to the use of weapons, Filipino Martial Arts  classes are only for students of 14yrs and older.

Please also note that this class is charged at a pay-per-session rate of £6.00.

"Eskrima" comes from the Spanish word for "skirmish" or "fencing".  It is one of the names in the Philippines for martial arts that use sticks and blades as the basis of their movement principles and training methods. Eskrima is also known as "Arnis" or "Kali", although there are many other names for martial arts among the languages and dialects of the Philippines.

The martial arts traditions of other cultures often teach unarmed skills first, and then teach the students to regard a weapon as an extension of the empty hand.  

Anthony with the SGM Cacoy Canete in Los Angeles

In Filipino Martial Arts, weapons are used from the earliest stages

This has the following advantages:

• It is found to be an efficient way of increasing concentration and co-ordination and of reducing reaction time
  
• It creates an awareness of using almost anything as a weapon wherever possible
  
• A knowledge of how weapons can be used is the key to being able to defend against them
  

The students learn weapons, striking and kicking, joint locks chokes and strangles, trapping and unbalancing etc - a full range of martial arts skills.  Instruction generally takes the course of learning single stick first, then knife defences and the basics of empty-hand skills, then combination weapons (double stick, stick and knife and sword and knife)