27/05/2026
Back in the 1970s or early 80s, Prof. Eric Olavides recognized this exact challenge. To preserve, document, and further develop the system, he painstakingly created his own notation and symbols specifically for Eskrima De Campo.
RESEARCH | The indigenous martial art of arnis, known regionally as eskrima, kali, garrote, pananandata, or kaliradman, is recognized as the national sport of the Philippines.
Because live demonstrations can hardly accurately portray arnis strikes and movements, physical education (PE) teachers often have to supplement them with printed instructions accompanied by pictures of the various strike postures. But these hardly capture the fullness of the arnis strikes, and the insufficiency hinders learners from replicating the strikes consistently and accurately. A widely accessible and easy-to-use instructional manual does not yet exist because no notation system is available that can concisely and intuitively describe each movement while remaining simple enough for PE students to understand.
I carried out this research project in pursuit of such a notation system. In this paper, I outline the methods and processes that led to a suitable, although preliminary and rudimentary, notation system for arnis. Data for the notation were collected through ethnographic methods, particularly participant observation and immersion, as well as personal interviews, video recording, photography, journaling, and note-taking. Four grandmasters of a well-respected arnis club provided observational data, which were converted into notation using the proposed symbol set. A total of seven grandmasters validated the final output.
Author: Joan Grace E. Pacres (College of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Cebu)
Published in Martial Arts Studies
Read more: https://ovpaa.up.edu.ph/research/a-notation-system-for-teaching-arnis-strikes-and-movements-has-been-developed/
