The Filipino Martial Arts as Taught by Dan Inosanto

This book is excellent, in terms of diagrams, it has a good brief history of the Filipino Martial Arts, and the lives of some of the masters of the art who actually taught Dan Inosanto. The sections are broken down for the novice clearly. It is an old book, one out of print- if anybody is really interested in Filipino Martial arts, this book is a must. But the problem is how many are still available.

A piece of history in your hands. Is a must have, specially if you train or have trained under Guro Dan Inosanto. The book was published before I was born, so Amazon has given me the chance to get it at a reasonable price. Highly recommend.

Great

This is a great book, wish I bought this years ago!!

If you have read Bruce Lee's "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" and respect his philosophy, you will love this book from his foremost student, GM Dan Inosanto.Though there are many with higher credentials than myself, my sons and I have trained in Bandalan Doce Pares Eskrima under Master Antonio Lucero for over five years,so my experience of reading this book was perhaps very different from that of someone untrained in Eskrima/Kali/Arnis. Our grandmaster goes back with GM Inosanto, so perhaps it is not so suprising that I loved this book. It has much in the way of philosophy, history, and the structure of armed and unarmed techniques in this book that is invaluable. The stories of true Grandmasters, warrior legends, and veterans of dozens of fights to the death like Angel Cabales, Regino Ellustrisimo,Leo Giron, John Lacoste, and Floro Villabrille are amazing, as it is the tried and proven combat reality of FMA that makes it a unique and beautiful art.There are many parts of the book that I enjoyed, but I found these passages under the heading of "Weapon Characteristics" to be a very important summation of why Kali/Eskrima/Arnis is such an important and deadly martial art."Escrimadors claim the ability to pick up any hand-wielded weapon, regarless of its shape, and use it effectively. To someone unfamiliar with Escrima principles, that sounds presumptuous, but consider the pattern of angles [covered earlier in the book and similar in all Escrima styles] again. There's only so many ways to hit an opponent.If you're already familiar with one or more weapons, all the better. Swing the weapon, jab the weapon, hit anything with the weapon and see if you don't use some form of that pattern. The angles....of Escrima and Kali are 'principles. They have nothing to do with styles or faction.'Instead of thinking of a weapon as belonging to the Chinese or the Japanese or the Filipinos or any particular martial art, instead of thinking of a weapon by its exotic name, look at the weapon, look at the weapon. The performance of a weapon is affected by its characteristics, not by its origin or its name." (128)There are also many photographs and captions illustrating the efficacy of empty hand Eskrima/Kali and the way in which there is a unity between weapons-based and empty hand combat styles. The ideas on solo training and environmental training are very good as well (fighting in a doorway to defend your home, from behind a wall, etc.)."Once you have learned the basics from any instructor, you must seek elsewhere. This elsewhere is 'within yourself.' Truth is in being yourself, 'totally' and 'alively'." Dan Inosanto The Filipino Martial Arts

This book shows the old grandmasters of escrima at the time, 1970s-80s. It is a prime introductory guide to show the non-informed martial arts enthusiasts/students/fans the history of the eskrimadors. Many of the Stockton GMs are shown and they explain their art and share some stories of their past. I loved this book and really hope that amazon can acquire the Kindle digital version asap. There were times growing up and reading the pages of this great book over and over again.

This excellent book on the Filipino martial arts has become an out of print collectors item.It covers angles of attack, empty hand infighting parrying, double dagger, rattan stick single and double as well as an excellent solo training skills section.The only area that it falls short in is in the historical description of Magellans death at the hands of King Lapu lapu.According to many Filipinos magellan landed with his men ready to assault the local village, Lapu lapu and his corageous tribe of warriors attcked the spanish with only rattan sticks.The firceness and bravery of the filipino warriors were too much for the spanish bandits and after a good fight, Lapu lapu overcame magellan and killed him Thus he became a Legend.The above story sounds amazing, however we do know from historical spanish records and by recreating the conditions weaponry and situation of the 1600s that the above version found in Inosantos book is a fallacy.In fact there were fewer than 40 spaniards accompanying Magellan( a portuguese explorer) to shore on that fateful day, Magellan had thought he had rights of passage due to a pact he had with another chief.Not long after disembarking Magellan and his men realised they were in an ambush. Surrounded by more than 2000 filpino warriors the lightly armoured spaniards who thought they would be on a scouting mission were soon in the midst of a hail of arrows and spears and gunshots ( yes the filipinos had small cannons albeit handheld as historians noted).Here we then have the truth of the matter, over 2000 filipno warriors armed with high powered bows, spears swords and to some extent hand held cannons against 40 spaniards that were manly armed with sword and dagger and a few muskets. They fought back the Filipinos fiercely, killing hundreds of them in close range combat before being completely overun by the ferocity of the arrows and spears being hurled at them from a greater vantage point, magellan was pierced by several spears and arrows thus he was leaning forward half dead when Lapu Lapu and his thousands of warriors finally surrounded the spaniards. It was at this point that LApu Lapu took advantage of the situation and felled magellan with a blow to the back of the head severing it from his body, not with a rattan but with a kampilan sword.The Filipinos were intrigued by the efficiency of the dagger and sword method, it is said that it was a combination of portuguese , Italian scrimia methods and Spanish techniques that the Filipinos incorporated as the bulk of what later would become the Escrima that we know of today.Incidentally just in the last 10 years or more ancient Italian books on their art scrimia dating back to the early 15th century were translated into English, it is strikingly similar to the later art we now know as Filipino Escrima. Evidence that the European Martial arts were in full force and influential in helping to forge modernised FMA.

Dan Inosanto has been one of the best teachers and proponents of the martial arts.His resume need not be repeated.In this book he explains and teaches the fighting system of his homeland.Unless a system realistically addresses weapons, sadly few do, it cannot call itself a complete martial art.For non ballistic( firearms) weapons, Kali has stood the test of time.Amongst my most prized books is a signed copy I received from Dan Inosanto attained at a seminar.His teaching ability is legendary and at your fingertips with this book or anything he does.