“Mister LaFond, I understand you are an FMA instructor and was referred to you by my kenpo instructor. I have heard Filipino Martial Arts called, Kali, Arnis, Escrima, and other things. Could you clear this up for me?”
-Reggie
Reggie, I do not practice FMA and am not an instructor, but simply a contact weaponry coach. I have cross trained and competed with a number of FMA fighters—in fact sparred with two of them today. All I came do is pass on what they have told me.
In the U.S. Kali is a term used to describe Filipino blade fighting. According to Master V. and two other FMA gurus I have heard speak on this subject, Kali is a Filipino American term. Master V. said that it references the many-armed knife-wielding Hindu goddess by that name, and that there is no such FMA art.
I am told that Arnis, contact stick-fighting with a head piece and jacket, is the word, not for the stick—a rattan vine really—but for the jacket. In other words, Arnis seams to describe the art or sport of jacketed stick-fighting. For instance, I have known practitioners of Doce Pares [Twelve Guards] Arnis and Doce Pares Escrima.
The consensus is, among the FMA fighters and teachers that I know, that Escrima is the most widely accepted word to describe the Filipino weapon arts. The term is related to scrimmage and skirmish and is accepted by most, but not all, FMA people.
Escrima seems related to "escrime", the French word for fencing.