SWORDDUELING.COM

An old master playing. So effortless and varied.

This article by J. Christopher Amberger is good and scholarly.

The Filipino arts of arnis and eskrima have their own specimen of diffusionist theory to show for. One of the most pervasive is the recently publicized assumption that espada y daga and doble baston are not only analogous to the conquistadors’ rapier and dagger, but directly influenced by the Spanish systems.

From a pre-politically correct Western point of view, the uninventiveness of non-Western societies has always been a mainstay of diffusionists and cultural colonialists alike. And in the case of eskrima, there are indeed superficial similarities that would point at Spanish influence:

Both systems involve a longer and a shorter bladed weapon. And the footwork of both the modern eskrima and that of the Spanish rapier schools involve geometric patterns.

But nobody who has been at the receiving end of the rapid double-barreled barrage of cuts, the fleeting yet granite-hard blocks, and explosive disarms of a modern arnis master such as Mark Wiley and then witnessed the nimble-footed, deliberate application of fencing space and time as exhibited by Spanish rapier master Ramon Martinez can shake the impression that when it comes to the Filipino and Spanish systems, we’re looking at two different animals indeed.

A closer look at the combative backgrounds of the two systems points out considerable incongruencies.