What is Traditional Eskrima?

Traditional eskrima has no formal system of instruction.  Although everyone begins with the basics, you learn whatever your teacher decides to teach or remembers on that day or instant and from observing you: what you can do, what you need to improve, and what you need to learn.

There are no fixed movements or groupings.  There are patterns of movement, one may even call them "drills," that graduate into spontaneous free-style sparring so that you learn to observe, take the initiative, and move as you fight.  When you become proficient, it’s anything goes.

There are no dojos.  You train in open grounds and on whatever terrain but always you train in hiding.

There are no uniforms.  You train in the clothes you usually wear.

There are no katas.  There are free-flowing shadow-fighting exercises that one must always execute with commitment and focus.  The right attitude is fundamental to good eskrima.

There are no ranks or certificates.  Only those who do not know, those who are learning, and those who do know.  Sadly, there are also those who forget.

There is no master or grandmaster.  There is only the teacher and the pupil.  There is none of the elaborate rituals observed in dojos and other training halls.  There is only the respect that the pupil must always have for his teacher. 

There is no doctrine or dogma written down in traditional eskrima.  What works is what’s right.  This is the principal reason why eskrima adopts a variety of weapons, even those that originate from other nations, and appropriates them whenever possible.

To become good in eskrima, one trains.  Constantly.  So that he never forgets, so that his movements are fluid, so that he always has the proper attitude.  And creatively.  So that he is always aware and acts and reacts with an alive and ready mind.

Then there are the traditional training methods.  Each of these is intended to teach good habits or to develop strength, stamina, or skill.  They also help check or improve one's level of skill and oftentimes are a means of providing a training partner when none is available.

Finally, there is the Zen aspect of eskrima.  When your teacher lets you go because, after having learned what must be mastered, everything else that you have to learn you must learn on your own.  Otherwise, you can only be a copy of your teacher.