Cool! I get to play with sticks!

As mentioned in a previous post, we had signed up for the 6 month basic program. This program does NOT include weapons training. Well, near the end of class one day, Master Lee didn't dismiss the basic program and said to go grab Eskrima sticks. There were only 4 of us from the basic program there that day and we just kinda looked at each other. My oldest daughter wasn't present but my youngest daughter looked at me with that wide-eyed "I get to play with sticks!" look that only a child can have. Master Lee picked up on it right away and made a quick decision to let us stay and try it. He said something along the lines of "Give us a taste". I'm sure it was a marketing decision in his mind as he would like us to sign up for the Black Belt Club.

Eskrima is not a part of Taekwondo. If you read the wiki entry, it is "a class of Filipino Martial Arts". There are a number of Eskrima patterns (for lack of a better word) that we are going to learn as we advance through the program. We pair up and then face each other. The "patterns" involves hitting each other's sticks with your sticks along with some feet movement. I've seen some of the upper belt classes incorporate kicks into the pattern as well. One of the ideas behind Eskrima is that the sticks (or other Eskrima weapons) are really just extensions of your body and if you didn't have the weapon, you could still defend yourself.

Human Weapon on the History Channel has had an entire episode devoted to this Martial Art. It's being broadcast this Friday. I have it setup to be TiVo'ed. If you happen to have an xbox 360, it's one of the TV shows you can download in HD. I'm sorely tempted to do that.