ARNIS

The Philippines is an archipelago state in Southeast Asia located south of Taiwan, with a population of 93 million people for 70 different spoken idioms.
Over the centuries, the Philippines has been a crossroads of colonization and different cultures.
Arnis is the mother of modern Filipino martial arts; dating back to the Sri-Vishaya Malaysian empire of the eighth century AD, it is considered the official martial art of the Philippines.
According to historians, the ten Datus of Borneo brought their fighting methods to the island of Panay where arnis began to be taught in schools on a par with other basic teachings such as writing or reading.
The Philippine Islands were first colonized by a Spanish expedition of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 who set out to convert the local tribes to Roman Catholicism.
On April 27, 1521 Magellan was killed on the island of Mactan by a group of tribal natives led by the clan leader Lapu Lapu. 400 years of Spanish occupation began, the teaching and practice of arnis were banned.
In spite of the Spanish suppression, arnis never disappeared from the Filipino tradition and for the duration of the Spanish occupation, techniques and training were disguised as elements of folk art, hidden in the indigenous dances and theatrical works and in spite of this unfortunately many concepts of arnis were lost.
For this reason, elements of arnis are still found today in native and folk dances.
During the colonial period Filipinos learned and practiced the refined fencing techniques used by the Spaniards adapting them to their own weapons, in particular with sticks as cutting weapons were banned by the Spanish occupier. In the course of time Spanish fighting techniques were inserted in the arnis fighting method.
Under the Spanish influence the arnis will acquire other names; Eskrima, estrada, arnis de mano or Kali.
The Spanish influence lasted until the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the Philippines fell under US influence.
Initially the Philippines saw its relationship with the United States as that of two nations united in a common struggle against Spain, and as allies the Filipinos provided important support for American forces with guerrilla actions and machete assaults. Following the killing of three Filipino soldiers at the hands of two American soldiers, the Filipino-American war broke out.
According to some sources it was as a result of this conflict that the American marines were given the nickname "leathernecks", due to the leather collar they were forced to wear in an attempt to defend their necks from the machete blows of the Filipinos. This period is remembered as the bloodiest and only thanks to Aguinaldo (commander and revolutionary) and his surrender, as well as the request to lay down their arms this carnage came to an end.
During all these years and all these wars the Filipino warriors fought the invaders to the bitter end with the arnis, depending on the situation with sticks, machetes or bare hands, either in open field or with guerrilla techniques.
Arnis is considered today the best art to learn how to use cutting weapons and to defend against them.
Arnis has not been popularized in a sporting and competitive sense like other Asian martial arts but has nevertheless maintained a warrior imprint.
The technical concept of arnis is to master the movements and techniques for armed combat as for unarmed combat.
Arnis unlike other martial arts has the peculiarity to start teaching first with weapons and then with bare hands.
The most commonly used weapon to begin learning arnis is the double rattan stick, in addition to the classic Filipino cutting weapons.

Arnis unique in this concept along with fencing, has as a basis for technique the "numbering of angles"; the target is divided into zones and both attacks and counterattacks are carried out following particular trajectories.
Arnis, known primarily for the use of cutting and percussion weapons also boasts a vast technical repertoire in bare arms fighting, making it one of the most complete combat systems among the martial arts.
More than two hundred different styles of Arnis-Eskrima-Kali are mentioned in the history of Arnis. Names describe the fighting distance such as Wide (long distance), Medium (medium distance) and Short or Serrada (short distance or hand-to-hand). Others describe the basic movements such as Abanico (fan), Palis-Palis (follow the force), Sungkiti (point), Ocho-Ocho (figure eight) and Lastico (whip). The systems can also be named for the type of weapons used such as Solo Baston (single stick), Doble Baston or Sinawali (double stick), Espada y Daga (sword and dagger), Mano-Mano or De Kadina (bare hands).
Some of the most famous styles of Arnis are: Illustrious Kali, Pekiti Tirsia, Doce Pares Escrima, Marinas Pananandata, Balintawak, Cabales Serrada, Villabrille Escrima, Presas Modern Arnis and Modern Arnis Kombatan.