Kali Sticks
Know as Eskrima and Arnis in the Philippines, but called Kali in the United States and Europe this weapons based martial arts was made for war. This native Filipino martial art was developed from lessons learned over centuries of intertribal warfare and battles with outside invaders and uses knives, swords, spears, and of coarse the famous Kali Sticks. Though the stick strikes can be very painful they are only the first step in training and are often used in place of deadly blades when sparring. Though it is primarily a weapons based system its practitioners also learn grappling, striking, and other non-weapons techniques. The United States Army even uses Kali as part of the weapons portion of their hand to hand combat training.
Kali sticks are used in sparring matches where there is contact, but like in other martial arts the participants generally aren’t trying to injure each other. Used in pairs the sticks themselves can range from 6″ to 96″, but most sticks range 24″ to 36″. Rattan, which doesn’t splinter and is a cheap wood in the Philippines, is used to make safe Kali sticks for training purposes. Kamagong or Ironwood is used for sticks and staff weapons also, but because it is much hard it is only used for combat not sparring. There are a host of deadly weapons used in Kali including many different knives, but many people know weapons system for the stick fighting.
Every culture creates some form of martial art to defend themselves, but the only true test of martial art is actual combat. How a close combat system performs in the worst conditions free of any limitations is the only way to know how effective it really is. There are many fun sport combatives like boxing that are great for combat conditioning, but aren’t effective in actual combat. Overtime many martial arts that were once designed for actual combat have been watered down and no longer resemble the dearly arts they once were. Those who practice Kali believe their martial art can handle every situation, but with set positions and stances it is no longer the pure warrior art it once was. That is not to say there aren’t those in the Eskrima preaching sound tactics and principals, but like any other style do your research and make sure what your learning is practical.
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