Kali/Silat?

Post Reply New Topic

Any other practitioners or fans here?

Yes, both, at least if you count Eskrima to Kali (which I personally do, since it is just two words for the same thing). Also used to train Pencak Silat, but cannot pursue that atm due to schedule conflicts.

Yeah. I think when they break it down technically Kali is knife, Arnis/Eskrima is stick, we have both (the Arnis aspect from one of Remi Presas's students who my instructor trained with for several years), and Panantukan for empty hands as far as the Filipino - to which we've also added a lot of southern Chinese Kuntao in with.

The other interesting thing about Kali, like Silat, is just how many subsystems there are. We went to see Dan Inosanto outside of Detroit this spring and he started discussing the difference between his Kali system, Lamaco, Pekiti, Balintawak, etc. - he's apparently learned from over thirty teachers and it seems like this stuff really seems to break down by tribe or village as they were all fighting each other for thousands of years and then held the Spanish off for over a hundred to top that off.


Silat's something I'd love to pursue more, Penchak is very strong. Per my teacher Silat is really an evolution of Kuntao but it still seems like it has an interesting flavor - particularly in looking at the Sumatran stuff. Supposedly Kuntao is still extensively taught in Borneo? Both seem like they dovetail great into Kali.