Filipino martial arts move fast. You'll be holding sticks, learning angles, and drilling with a partner from minute one. Here's what the first month looks like — the patterns you'll learn, the mistakes you'll make, and when it starts to click.
Filipino martial arts — escrima, kali, arnis, whatever your school calls it — does something no other fighting system does: it puts a weapon in your hand on day one. Not after years of empty-hand basics. Not after you’ve “earned it.” You walk in, they hand you a pair of rattan sticks, and you start moving.
This is what your first month actually looks like.
Week 1: The twelve angles and your first sinawali
Every FMA system is built on angles of attack — numbered lines that a strike can follow. Most systems use 12 angles, though some use 5 and others use as many as 72. The first 5 are the ones that matter right now:
- Forehand diagonal (right temple to left hip)
- Backhand diagonal (left temple to right hip)
- Forehand horizontal (right side of the torso)
- Backhand horizontal (left side of the torso)
- Thrust (straight center, to the chest or face)
Your instructor will have you feed these angles to a partner, slowly, one at a time. The partner practices blocking or deflecting. Then you switch roles. This feed-and-defend cycle is the core of FMA training — you’ll do it for the rest of your martial arts life, at increasing speed and complexity.
By the end of week one, you’ll learn your first sinawali — a double-stick weaving pattern that both partners do simultaneously. The basic “heaven six” pattern (six-count sinawali) looks like choreography when you first see it. It is. But it’s teaching your hands to move independently, your eyes to track two incoming weapons, and your body to maintain proper distance — all at once.
Your first sinawali will be slow and clumsy. You’ll hit your own hands. You’ll lose the pattern. Your partner will have to restart you. All of this is expected and universal.
The sticks get the attention, but footwork wins fights. FMA footwork is triangular — you step at angles rather than straight forward and back. This week your instructor will probably drill:
- Male triangle — stepping forward at a 45-degree angle off the line of attack
- Female triangle — stepping backward at 45 degrees
- Replacement stepping — your rear foot replaces where your front foot was, creating distance while maintaining your guard
The concept is simple: never be where the stick is going. Move offline, counter, reset. The triangle footwork feels awkward for about two weeks, then it becomes instinctive. People who come from boxing or karate struggle here because linear in-and-out footwork is deeply wired into their muscle memory.
This week you’ll also start feeling the difference between largo (long range — tips of the sticks), medio (medium range — mid-stick), and corto (close range — hands and elbows). FMA is one of the few arts that systematically trains all three ranges with the same weapon.
Week 3: Hubud and the first flow
Hubud-lubud (meaning “to tie and untie”) is the sensitivity drill that makes FMA feel different from every other martial art. You and your partner stand at close range, forearms touching, and cycle through a three-count block-check-counter pattern. It’s slow at first — almost meditative.
The point of hubud isn’t to learn a fighting combination. It’s to develop sensitivity — the ability to feel what your partner is doing through physical contact and react before you can consciously think about it. Wing Chun has chi sao. Judo has randori. FMA has hubud. It’s the same principle: train your reflexes to respond to pressure and angle, not just to visual cues.
By the end of week three, something clicks. Your sinawali patterns start to flow without conscious thought. Your feet move to the right place before you plan them there. You’re not good yet — not by a long shot — but you’re moving like a martial artist instead of a person holding sticks.
Week 4: Your first disarms
This is usually the week that hooks people permanently. Disarms — techniques for stripping a weapon from an attacker’s hand — are the flashiest part of FMA and the most practically applicable. Your instructor will show you 3-5 basic disarms from the first few angles of attack.
The fundamental principle: control the weapon hand, apply leverage against the thumb, redirect. It sounds simple because it is. But executing it at speed against a resisting partner is a different story, and that’s what you’ll spend months refining.
A few things you’ll notice this week:
- Everything connects. The disarms use the same angles as your strikes, the same footwork as your defensive movement. FMA is modular — every technique is a variation on the same core principles.
- Empty hands feel familiar. If your instructor has you put the sticks down and try the same sequences empty-handed, you’ll realize your hands already know the angles. This is the FMA principle of weapon-first training paying off: learn it with sticks, and the empty-hand version comes almost free.
- Sparring gets real. Light sparring with padded sticks starts this week in most schools. The first time someone comes at you with intent and speed, you’ll freeze. Then you won’t. That transition happens faster than you expect.
Common beginner mistakes
Death grip on the sticks. Beginners choke the sticks like they’re afraid they’ll fly away. A tight grip slows your wrist rotation and kills your speed. Hold the stick firmly enough that it won’t leave your hand on impact, but loosely enough that you can feel it rotate in your palm.
Standing square. New students face their partner head-on, presenting maximum target area. Stand at a slight angle — lead shoulder forward, rear shoulder back. This halves your exposed target and loads your rear hand for a counter.
Staring at the sticks. Watch your partner’s shoulders and chest, not the sticks. By the time you see a stick moving, it’s too late to react. The shoulders telegraph every strike a fraction of a second before the arm moves.
Trying to “win” drills. Flow drills aren’t competitions. Going fast and sloppy to tag your partner teaches you nothing. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Let the pattern develop at the speed where both of you can execute cleanly, then gradually increase the tempo.
What to practice at home
FMA is one of the best martial arts for solo practice. You can drill:
- Angles 1-12 against the air or a heavy bag — 100 reps per side
- Sinawali patterns with both sticks against a tire or pad on a wall
- Redonda — a continuous circular striking pattern, single stick, that builds wrist endurance and flow
- Footwork triangles — mark a triangle on the floor and practice stepping patterns until they’re automatic
Twenty minutes of solo stick work three times a week will dramatically accelerate your progress in class. The conditioning alone — FMA uses your forearms and wrists more than almost any other activity — makes a noticeable difference by month two.
Best starter 
