Arnis Anyo

 

An Essay on Arnis Anyo

by Joel Anajao y Daddon

 

         Watching an anyo performance during an arnis competition draws various reactions and comments from the crowd, for the younger generation of sports arnis practitioners this is really a superb performance, some of the audience may say it’s too acrobatic and over-acting; I asked an arnis practitioner who is not into sports arnis but a traditional arnis practitioner on what he can say about it, he said ‘it's not arnis.’ Why did he say it is ‘not’ arnis? Probably anyo is not in his training routine. This polemic motivated me to write an essay exploring the issues regarding the existence of ‘anyo’ in the community of arnis practitioners.

Arnis was declared the national martial art and sport of the Philippines by virtue of the Republic Act 9850. Arnis is the Philippine martial art using sticks, bladed weapons, and bare hands, and one of the popular forms of practice of arnis is the modernized one, the one commonly taught in physical education and practices by student-athletes.

Arnis is typically taught as physical education in most public primary and secondary schools, and the curriculum is based on the teaching of GM Remy Presas, who introduced it into public education. From this, a new form of practice was developed, the sport arnis which focuses on point-based sparring, and form competition or what we called the Anyo.

 

What is Anyo

              It is a practice of arnis which demonstrates various offensive and defensive movements using rattan sticks or sometimes synthetic Filipino blades. It can be said that anyo is similar to ‘kata’ of karate or ‘poomsae’ of taekwondo when it is performed in a regulated and patterned manner or can be similar to American free-form performance of martial art using weapons when it is performed in a free and creative manner.

                                     Source: https://twitter.com/PhilippineStar/status/1201724173350866945/photo/1 

Anyo competition is an integral part of every sports arnis competition not from the very start of the conception of competitive arnis, but around the 90’s it was part of the Modern Arnis competition and even the Doce Pares competition included this.

Development of Anyo

              From among the traditional form of arnis practices, anyo can’t be founded, the older generations of practitioners have their own way of solo practices of the offensive and defensive moves using the sticks, it is called ‘carenza’ or sometimes ‘uhido.’

Carenza or uhido is done like mimicking a boxer doing his shadow boxing, but this is typically done in an aesthetic manner. Twirling and a combination of attack and defensive moves can be demonstrated when doing carenza.

Anyo was formally introduced as part of arnis practice during the 70s when GM Remy Presas introduced his modernized form of arnis. In his first book, the “Arnis, Philippine Martial Art of Stick Fighting (1979), there are four simple anyo, the Anyo 1, Anyo 2, Anyo 3, and the Anyo 4. Probably inspired by the Karate Kihon Ido (basic movement) and Taikyuko kata, as the pattern of movement is in the forward and backward sequences and the ‘H’ pattern of Taikyuko kata.

This is no wonder because GM Presas has a karate and Judo background. And these four anyo are the foundation of more forms developed by his brother, GM Ernesto Presas, which later developed five solo baston anyo, three espada y daga anyo, and two sinawali anyo. The later forms (anyo) were developed with the help of GM Rene Tongson, GM Cristino Vasquez, and GM Samuel ‘Bambit’ Dulay in promoting modern arnis in various schools in the city and abroad.

Around the decade of the 80s, the Doce Pares also developed their version of anyo, called Forma. They created the Forma Uno, Forma Dos, and so on. Which was later renamed ‘Sayaw.’

These anyo are part of the requirement for students to level up their rank or belt. And soon, the Doce Pares conceive their free-form ‘Sayaw,’ probably inspired by American freestyle form competition system.

The Modern Arnis group has their regulated Anyo and Sayaw competition in the late 90s. Regulated Anyo is the demonstration of anyo from the selection from the various Anyo of the organization. Sayaw can be demonstrated using various offensive and defensive maneuvers accompanied by music. Both the form competition categories can be performed in individuals or groups.

The present national sports association on arnis, the Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation has its anyo competition with various categories. Performance was assessed by officials based on their set criteria to decide on the winner.

 

Reasons and polemics

     Among arnis practitioners, there are various reactions and thoughts on the integration of anyo into arnis training system and its competition. The following are some narratives we got from participants we briefly interviewed, face-to-face and online chat, with regard to the importance of anyo.

 “Anyo helps us to develop focus and discipline, kailangan naming ng focus para mas maayos naming maiperform ito sa harap ng maraming tao during tournament.”

(Anyo helps us to develop focus and discipline, we need to be focused to perform well in front of a big audience.)

“For developing proper form and footwork.”

“To promote the art of arnis!”

“Parang OA (over-acting), minsan nakakatuwang panoorin.”

“Naging parang kung fu na, may tumbling-tumbling at sigaw sigaw pa, pero cool.”

(Looks like kung fu, lots of summersaults and shouting; but its cool to see.)

“Mukhang babangon ang mga nahimlay ng mga masters ng arnis pagnakita yan, sa galit…he he.”

(The late masters will come up from their graves due to this disrespect to arnis.)

 

These are some of the supporting comments and polemics from the participants we interviewed. All of them are arnis practitioners, some are sports arnis players, and some are traditional practitioners. We will not discuss further this part to encourage others to study this issue.

 

Recommendation

     As mentioned earlier, this article is just an exploratory essay on the practices of anyo and its inclusion in sports arnis competition. The following can be areas of scholastic study to further enrich the few academic pieces of research in the Filipino martial art of arnis:

A detailed study on the development of anyo practices.

Study on the psycho-social dimension of practicing anyo among practitioners.

Perception of sports arnis and traditional arnis practitioners on the practices of anyo.

Best practices of anyo training among physical education class.

Assessing the impact of anyo competition in the promotion of arnis as national martial art and sport.

 

 References:

Anajao, J. (2020). Arnis de Mano, A Manual for PE Teachers and Students [Module], Cavite State University, Indang Cavite, Philippines

Mascardo, R. (1977). Arnis in Physical Education, A Guide to P.E. Instructors and Students [Book]. Manila, Philippines: National Arnis Association of the Philippines.

 Presas, E. (1988).  Arnis, Presas Style and Balisong (Book), Manila, Philippines

Presas, R. (1979). Modern Arnis, The Philippine Martial Art of Stick Fighting [Book], Quiapo, Manila, Philippines

 

08/16/2023

14:15

Indang, Cavite