Eskrima is utterly useless without a stick. They train with sticks because that's what it is - stick fighting.
If you do not have a weapon in hand, you lose. Period.
If you were to take an Eskrima grandmaster and put him in a real-world situation he would not bode well because he is unarmed.
Understand that Eskrima is also not a practical martial art. It hasn't been combat-tested in centuries.
What you want to learn is Brazillian Jiu Jitsu. It IS the BEST martial art out there. Whether you are fighting a muay thai, karate or even a krav maga person, so long as you have decent BJJ you WILL survive every street encounter.
Eskrima in particular is noted for it's students ability to fight with weapons or empty hands interchangeably. Most Eskrima systems include fighting with a variety of weapons, striking with hands and feet (suntukan, sikaran, tadyakan/tadiyakan), grappling and throwing (dumog), biting and whatever skills needed to complete a warrior’s training in the old days of tribal warfare. Perhaps the only major fields that have not been given as much emphasis as in the past in modern eskrima training today are skills needed for fighting effectively in groups.
In most systems, skills with weapons and with empty hands (unarmed) are developed concurrently using training methods designed to emphasize their common elements. The most common variations used are single stick (solo baston), double stick (double baston) and sword/stick and dagger (espada y daga). Some systems are known to specialise in other weapons such as the whip and staff.
no its not its both hand to hand and weapons, most styles of eskrima. arnis teach both. i know several police officers that have used the style without weapons.
its the other way around actually if you cant fight without a weapon then you cant fight with one either.
Part of Filipino martial arts training consists of empty-hand work, often referred to as "Panantukan" for the striking bits and "Dumog" for the grappling bits. While it generally doesn't receive as much emphasis as the weapons work, someone with a few years in FMA should have some basic empty-hand skills, although they obviously won't be as good as someone who practices empty-hand skills entirely.
Then you make your arms into sticks.
But generally the techniques are designed for when you have an extra joint, when you wield weapons (the extra joint is when your hand connects to the handle).
Making arms into weapons, is more of a Chinese internal art thing.
A master of any art can make adjustments. So a master of bojutsu would be able to use longer or shorter bos. If you fight using escrima, without knives, that just means you got a really really short stick.
Not if your practice Karate or with private lessons.
I was watching some eskrima videos and I noticed they are very good in stick and knife fighting. But what happens if you do not have a stick or knife?
