So my first karate instructor was also schooled in a little escrima and showed me some very basic moves. (Really just how to swing the sticks properly and reload them for another strike.) I've since then fallen out but the style has always been one that fascinated me and I might cross train later in life once I have more of a base in my Kung Fu. One thing that I must ask to those more schooled in it is, is it true that in escrima you actually learn how to use weapons first and work backwards to the empty handed techniques?
That is the widely held view, and there is a grain of truth in it. However, I have always been taught them in conjunction with each other and I teach them that way myself
That is a fair description of how most of the escrima/arnsi/kali systems approach the arts. I will have a knife or sword in a student's hand in their first lesson.
I'd say a large amount of schools do. Or teach weapons and empty hands at the same time, none of that "wait until you're a black belt" type stuff. either which way, you'll rarely find a school that starts with empty handed techniques. I think a lot of people are teaching weapons and empty hands at the same time these days as laws prevent you carrying and using a weapon in a lot of places and people want to learn a practical skill and how to defend themselves/fight. The amount of times I have heard people say, "Why learn kali? You can't carry a machete around". But obviously learning how to use a bladed weapon will help you learn how to defend against one - Dut I bigress. It possibly gets "bums on seats" and helps clubs cover costs etc. We usually start with single stick, then stick and palm stick, double stick and then onto bladed weapons, usually knife first. Empty handed stuff comes...whenever! But it's not so rigid.
Ya, in the 3 schools I was at, it was single stick first, then double sticks, and then then after the students were feeling good about stick patterns we put the sticks down and did the same exact things -- and everyone's mind goes " " And then as one's skill increased there would less and less division between stick, blade, and hand lessons, because the motions are so similar.
Even with a weapon lesson there was usually a bit of hubud thrown in (warm up or whatever) when I did FMA's.
I was teaching Kung Fu the other week and I was trying to get my students to alternate their hands better in a combo and I found myself thinking "this would be so much easier if I just taught you double stick".
