History of Arnis

❖ During fights between pre-hispanic Filipino tribes or

kingdoms, they used a range of armaments, usually bladed
weapons or sticks, with a focus on hand-to-hand fighting in
some places, for warfare and self-defense.
❖ Malays introduced long bladed weapons to Filipinos, known
as kali.
Tribal Era ❖ Filipinos first used it as a farming tool, and eventually was
utilized for combat.
❖ Arnis can be traced back from Pintados as a war technique
among Filipino tribes and kingdoms.
❖ Weapons of all sizes and shapes were imported into the
country, but the curved, bladed knife known as "Kris" from
Java was the first foreign weapon used into Filipino fighting
systems.

❖ On the dawn of April 27, 1521, the Portuguese navigator and

warrior named Ferdinand Magellan was defeated by native
warrior chief named Lapu-Lapu this was the recorded
incident which Kali was used.
❖ In the year 1764, the Spanish overlords banned the practice of
Kali to the natives. Using the alibi that the natives were
wasting time practicing it instead of tilling the fields.
❖ However, the natives knew too well that their colonizers were
just afraid that such skills would be used in a revolution
against them because due to oppression the revolutionaries
Spanish Era were gaining support from the natives. The natives, hidden
from the watchful eyes of their colonizers, practiced Kali
secretly.
❖ Due to some cultural influence of the Spaniards the term
Escrima, Estoque, Fraile, and Kaliradman were used to regard
the native fighting system.
❖ It was also during this period when the natives were able to
develop the stick fighting techniques of the art, which was
proven to be as versatile as the bladed weapons technique.
Even the Moro-Moro stage play to entertain the colonizers
was utilized as an excuse to practice the fighting system.
❖ In due time, the Filipinos accepted the Americans and lived
in peaceful terms. The Americans brought with them the
martial art of boxing, which no doubt has influenced some the
most recent styles of Eskrima.
❖ The Filipinos fought side by side with the Americans. Native
American Era with skills in the fighting artsigned up to be freedom fighters
knows as “guerillas”
❖ The Philippines was the bloodiest theater of the Pacific War
for the invading Japanese Empire, with at least 498,600
Japanese troops killed in fighting the combined Filipino
resistance and American soldiers, a greater number of soldiers
 killed than the second-placed theater, the entirety of China,
which caused the Japanese about 455,700 casualties.
❖ The Arnisadors' guerrilla warfare was so effective that
the Japanese Empire only controlled 12 of the Philippines'
48 provinces.
❖ The Japanese are claimed to have fled when they saw the Bolo
Battalion storming at them. Soon after, the Allied Forces
defeated the Japanese.

❖ In 1975, then Major Favian Ver also noted enthusiast and

practitioners of arnis formed the National Arnis Association
of the Philippines (NARAPHIL) with the objective to unite
all Arnis group in the Philippines, but unfortunately according
to records the Generals effort was futile, some claimed that
the association that the General led tends to favor only one
group and ignored the request for recognition of the majority
of the existing arnis clubs
❖ Arnis was first introduced in 1969 in some public and private
school teachers when Remy Presas taught his personal style
of arnis which he called "modern arnis"
❖ Modern Arnis Is the system of Filipino fighting arts founded
Modern Era by Remy Presas as a self-defense system. His goals was to
create an injury-free training method as well as an effective
self-defense system in order to preserve the older Arnis
systems.
❖ Arnis is the Philippines' national martial art and sport, after
president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the Republic Act,
No. 9850 in 2009.
❖ RA 9850 is expected to help propagate arnis as a modern
martial art/sport that can compete with popular non-filipino
arts (taekwondo, karate, judo). The act mandates the
Department of Education to include the sport as a Physical
Education course.

❖ Arnis became a part of the education system of students

whereas they are taught the basic concepts and skills in
the said sport.
❖ Arnis became a sport where students train whenever there
is a tournament or a league in their area.
❖ Some English movies used Arnis: The Bourne Identity
Present Era (2002): When Jason Bourne encounters Jarda, the sole
other live agent of the now-defunct 'Treadstone' program,
he engages in a kali/jeet kunedo hybrid fight technique.
❖ In the final fight scene of Furious 7, Vin Diesel and Jason
Statham also engage in eskrima-inspired combat, using
metal pipes and wrenches instead of sticks (2015).
❖ Arnis became a mirror of how brave and resourceful
Filipinos are.