A Developmental Sequence for Martial Arts Instruction

           Over the past 30 years of instructing Tracy Kenpo, Modern Arnis and Paradigm Escrima, I have come to realize that there is a fairly consistent pattern or sequence that exists with regard to student learning.  This sequence involves four (4) stages or steps which my associates and I refer to as the “subject / material acquisition sequence”.  The four stages are as follows:

Mechanical: consists of rote memorization of the system basics and foundational movements that the student must learn in order to proceed through the early introductory portions of the system.  The student is learning the stances, stepping methods, evasive movements, hand strikes, forearm blocks, balance points for kicking, simple kicks along with some simple self-defense techniques.  The students must learn how to coordinate their hands, eyes, feet and body as a single unified whole in a reflexive manner without thinking before they move.   

Technical: involves taking the mechanics that one has already learned and using that previous information to develop an understanding about how and why these mechanics actually work when executed properly.  Within this stage the student is concerned with blending both the art and craft aspects of a particular system, plus improving their performance of each technique.  The improvement involves developing an appreciation for the minute details within the movements of each technique.  The student then learns and refines their own understanding of the techniques through one on one coaching of the newer students at the school.

Conceptual: taking all of the previous ideas and behaviors already learned, and finding the relationships between them, by comparing and contrasting the effectiveness of these ideas/behaviors for one’s self. This process is always on-going and is “tailored” to fit one’s own physical abilities, body type, flexibility, strength and mental /moral orientation.  Each individual will very likely find within other martial arts systems items, ideas and movements that are similar to what one has already learned or mastered.  The on-going comparison allows each individual student to gain and benefit from a better understanding of their own original martial art system.  The conceptual stage validates the strengths found within one’s own system.  Because the individual student is able to move beyond thinking strictly in terms of definitive set of concrete terms within a single system approach, they can begin thinking abstractly.  This newer style of thinking and understanding makes it possible for the student to develop their own ideas within a particular martial art system.  The conceptual stage allows a student to find a concomitant approach to various martial arts systems such as Kenpo, Arnis, Tai Chi, Pa Qua and Escrima, for example.  There are numerous ways in which various martial arts systems can serve as companions to one another, but only individual martial artists can make these connections for themselves.  The art has to be altered and “tailored” to fit the body and mind-set of each individual person without resorting to cloning and mimicry.  

 Innovation: the student has moved beyond merely repeating the movements as they have been initially taught, drilled and rehearsed.  In this critical stage of development the student is beginning to understand how to mix and match parts of techniques with one another to meet a specific situation at that precise moment in time and space.  The student reflexively understands that he (or she) must act in a spontaneous manner but draws on all of their previously learned movements to fashion a “new” set of behaviors to cope with this specific situation, right here and right now!

For analytical purposes the four stages are presented as separate and distinct from one another, however, in reality these stages overlap.  A student can be in different phases of 2 stages at the same time.  The transition is not always smooth and seamless. There is not a really clear, definitive demarcation point between each of these stages, nor is every student going to experience the same rate of transition and growth.     

As a teacher, I know that the above sequence exists, however I present all of my instructional information in small units to my students.  Depending on the topic and the skills of various individual students who I am teaching at a particular moment, I will present 1, 2 or at most 3 units of instruction at a time.  I never exceed 3 instructional units because that seems to be the upper limit that most people can absorb and utilize in a single instructional period.  Once the initial lessons are learned and the students can demonstrate physical control of the material, I will add 1, 2 or 3 applications of the techniques or drills.

It is very important in my opinion to have a larger, comprehensive curriculum written out.  The three unit lesson plan is worthless if there isn’t a larger plan which supports the smaller unit lessons.  There are a good number of martial arts instructors who literally teach “the lesson of the day” right off of the top of their heads!  They only have a very vague idea about what the end plan or goals are for their instructional ventures and that leaves their students in a bind.  They do not know what they are actually learning and how the various lessons connect to one another.  The lack of perceived connections in turn makes it very difficult for all but the very best students to move successfully through the developmental sequences to mastery of the particular art style or system.

The lack of long term curriculum planning on the part of many instructors is a reflection on how they themselves were taught the martial arts system that they are now attempting to pass on to a new generation of students.  We all are products of our own past experiences, both good and bad.  Most martial arts instructors in the USA have not been tutored and schooled in the art and science of instruction.  Simply because someone has persevered long enough to earn a black belt/sash, diploma or certificate does not mean that they can in turn properly instruct others in that same art form.  Even if someone were a highly accomplished performer in martial arts tournaments, with an impressive array of trophies and medals, that alone does not qualify the individual as a knowledable or skilled instructor.  All too often the people, who and operate open martial arts schools, while well intentioned, are in fact very poorly prepared for the art and science of instruction.

In my opinion, instructing others is a noble and honorable task.  However, it is not as easy as it might appear to those who have never tried their hand at it.  This is why I have written this essay on the developmental sequence of learning.  It is not that this sequence of some sort of closely guarded secret that can only be passed on to a select few, lest the martial arts would suddenly become overrun with would-be experts and instructors.  Quite the contrary, the developmental sequence is well known and has been utilized by numerous people in nearly every area of instruction regarding physical skills training.  I am simply putting this information forward in a martial arts context with the hope that my essay will spur some in-depth discussions about how the next generation of martial arts instructors should be trained and instructed in the art of instructing others. 

Time will be the true test with regard to whether or not some people in the martial arts are able to step beyond their own systems and learning experiences to engage in some serious discussion about how to instruct students.  The individual martial arts systems are not the important thing in such a discussion.  Each martial arts system has a set of drills, forms, techniques and a discussion involving instructional concepts does not have to touch any of those things.

The real issue involves developing a curriculum plan and establishing a measurable set of goals for each individual martial arts system in general and a particular school setting that strives to teach that art competently.  I have some ideas about curriculum development within the martial arts and I am looking forward to an in-depth, ego-free discussion with other serious minded martial art instructors.

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
Director and Mataw Guro,
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates
Suite 230, 5999 South Park Avenue
Hamburg, New York 14075

A different dimension of training?

Greetings. My name is Tom Gerace and I have been invited to post here. I author a blog called The Things Worth Believing In. My blog focuses on what I define under the umbrella term of "warriorship"; which in essence is the sum total of topics such as; martial arts, weaponcraft, self-defense, martial philosophy, codes of conduct, fitness and so on, but with the important inclusion of "service" and "dedication to craft". The former without the latter being a "ticket puncher" and the latter without the former an "artist".

For my first post here I would like to address the issue of how you train your martial arts skills. We have all seen the difference between instruction/skill training:

and sparring or dog brother style gatherings.

These seem to stand as the two ends of the FMA training spectrum with varying degrees of skill/intensity in between, depending on how hard, fast or freestyle you intend to practice.

My friend, Guro Paul Martin and myself have been training with something of a different sort:

By incorporating the burpee, which approximates the fighting skill of the "sprawl" and induces an approximation of combat fatigue and physical stress, one can add a dimension of training that is neither strictly skill centered nor outright sparring.

Grandmaster Remy Presas Modern Arnis Training Camp

Grandmaster Remy Presas Modern Arnis Training Camp

Will be held on June 21 – 24, 2012, at Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA and hosted by Guro Michael Bates.  As of this date the following people have been announced as presenters at the camp:

GM Crispulo “Ising” Atillo, Master Dan Anderson, Datu Kelly Worden, PG Tom Bolden,      Dr. Jerome Barber with special appearances by Dr. Mark V. Wiley and Datu Tim Hartman.  More names will be added as instructors give affirmative replies to their invitations to serve as presenters.

You can visit the camp website at www.remypresasimaf.com  and contact Guro Bates via e-mail:

Yours truly,

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.                                                                                          Director,  Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates

(Note:  The order of the presenters names was taken from the website and may indicate the order in which invitations to present were accepted.)

Modern Arnis: The Art Within Your Art

          When I first began my training under sifu Don Zanghi, in 1982, at the “Fighting Back Institute”, in Buffalo, NY., he was teaching the Tracy Kenpo System.   Sifu Zanghi had just returned from a two week summer training camp with Professor Remy A. Presas, the founder and Grand Master of the Modern Arnis System and to put it mildly sifu Zanghi was ‘pumped’.  He informed us that were about to embark on a new course of martial arts training.  Sifu Zanghj had re-written his curriculum and he was blending Tracy Kenpo with Modern Arnis.  The more our training progressed and the more that I learned about Modern Arnis the more I began sharing Sifu Zanghi’s enthusiasm for his newly blended system.  I could see and ‘feel’ the connections between Kenpo and Arnis.  I was really hooked on the ‘art within your art’ concept long before I ever met Professor Presas. 

          About 9 years later when I read an interview that Professor gave to Guro Rick Mitchell, it was already ‘old news’, to me, but seeing it spelled out in print was exciting.  Professor stated:

 “I like to call modern arnis ‘the art within your art.’  It can work side by side with other styles or systems such as kenpo, kajukenbo, judo, aikido, tae kwon do or shotokan karate.  Once I teach modern arnis to other martial artists, they are surprised to see how it compliments what they already know.”  (Mitchell, 1991, p.16) 

With that single statement Professor established two of the guiding principles of his art, innovation and flexibility.  These 2 guidelines have influenced the course of action that I have taken over the full tenure of my teaching career in the martial arts.  I was then, as I am now, fully committed to ‘the art within your art’ approach to teaching martial arts.  

When I first found out that Professor had taught Modern Arnis at several colleges in the Philippines before he immigrated to the USA, I vowed that I would teach a Modern Arnis program at Erie Community College, where I was already a tenured sociology professor.   All I needed to do before I could get started on my ECC plan was to complete my own under-belt Kenpo-Arnis training with Sifu Zanghi.  When I mentioned my plan to Sifu Zanghi and Professor Presas, they both encouraged me to proceed with my project; however, neither man offered me any curriculum guidance.  I later found out why there wasn’t any offer of help.  Professor did not have a written curriculum, nor did he have a permanent headquarters school in the USA.  I would be on my own.  The quick and simple solution became readily apparent.  I would take my notes from Sifu Zanghi’s instruction, add my notes from Professor’s seminars and camps which I attended as well as use Professor’s first video tape series as my curriculum resource materials.  I completed my under-belt studies with Sifu Zanghi in December 1985 and immediately began compiling my collected data.   I presented my curriculum proposal to the ECC Physical Education Department Chairman, Paul Barone, in April 1986.  After the necessary departmental reviews and approvals, I was granted permission to offer the first 2 courses of my ECC Kenpo- Modern Arnis Self-defense Curriculum in February 1987.

I opened the first of the courses in September 1987 at Erie Community College – South Campus, Orchard Park, NY.  The courses were set up to run in a sequential manner over four (4) consecutive semesters. The students could join the sequence at any point.  New students or beginners would be separated from the more advanced people enrolled in the same course.  I also planned for my more experienced people to mentor and coach the beginners.  The ECC Kenpo-Modern Arnis Self-defense Program had a 2 pronged approach.  I was teaching all of my students Kenpo and Modern Arnis techniques for self-defense, but I was also running a martial arts teacher training program.  Once again I was following directly in Professor Presas’ footsteps.  He had taught Modern Arnis at the National College for Physical Education in the Philippines.   Professor had been a ‘teacher of teachers’.

In 1989, Professor, gave my curriculum a detailed, in-depth review.  It took 4 hour for him to review the entire curriculum with me.  I had to demonstrate every exercise, drill, anyo and technique in the exact order that each item appeared in my curriculum.  I was assisted by Mr. Duane Brown and Mr. Tim Kashino, my student teaching assistants at the time.  The review was exhaustive and no detail escaped his scrutiny.  He questioned numerous items and I had to explain each one in detail.  His biggest concern was reserved for why I taught the entire first course in the sequence without giving my students any stick training.  I explained that I wanted to ensure good body and hand control plus emphasize safety training among my students before allowing them to do the stick work.  It was also easier to get PE Departmental approval to run the courses by delaying the stick training until the second course.  On the other hand I did introduce, triangular stepping, trapping hands, the de cadena drill, empty hand translations of the 12 stick angles of attack and defenses against 6 stick attacks in the first course.  I simply made sure that only the instructor(s) used the stick.

Professor ultimately approved my curriculum in writing.  I presented the signed document to the PE Department Curriculum Committee as part of the final review process for all 4 courses.  The complete Kenpo-Modern Arnis Self-defense Program was given permanent status in the college course offerings beginning in September 1990.  Over-all the ECC self-defense program has now run for 40 consecutive semesters or 20 uninterrupted years.  To the best of my knowledge, this is the ONLY Modern Arnis college credit bearing program being taught in the USA or Canada.

I believe that the reason I was able to secure Professor Presas’ endorsement for the ECC Kenpo-Modern Arnis Program because I included all of the salient points of Modern Arnis within my curriculum.  My Modern Arnis core curriculum begins with the assumption that Modern Arnis is a fighting art that is based on the blade.  I use replicas of the Presas jungle bolo and the Negrito bolo in my ECC program.  I also teach Modern Arnis as a self-defense system.  Further, I have adapted my Kenpo-Modern Arnis Program to fit into the American cultural context in general and NYS Penal Law in particular.  Secondly, I have read and fully utilized all three (3) of Professor’s books:

Modern Arnis: Philippine Martial Art – Stick Fighting,

The Practical Art of Eskrima,

Modern Arnis: The Filipino Art of Stick Fighting

My ECC curriculum is based on Professor Presas’ statements and ideas as he published them in these books.  The Rick Mitchell interviews published in Inside Kung Fu, merely added credence to my existing curriculum ideas.

I also used Professor’s original 6 volume video tapes series to gain visual confirmation of some of his ideas.  These tapes allowed me to clearly see what he was doing and review it as many times as necessary to get it right.  My goal was never to mimic, copy or clone his movements.  I wanted to make sure that I understood what he was doing and why he did it in a particular manner.  With those understandings in place I could build my Modern Arnis curriculum with confidence.  By adding my own

on-site training experiences with Professor as well as sifu Zanghi, I could build on the newer innovations that I was seeing and learning as Professor continued his own development within the art.

In the final analysis I have concluded that the essential principles that drove Modern Arnis under Professor’s leadership can be summed up as follows;

1.    Modern Arnis is a blade oriented art, even though Professor presented it as a stick art in order to gain greater general public acceptance.  He wanted the art to grow in size and popularity. (Presas, 1974, p. 9)

2.    The weapon, be it stick, bolo, sword or knife is clearly an extension of the hand.  Anything that one can do with their weapon can be approximated by the empty hand.

         (Presas, 1974, p. 9)

     3.    The single and double stick plus the espada y daga drills
     are taught to familiarize Modern Arnis students with some
     fighting styles commonly found in the Philippines.  All of
     the stick striking patterns and drills convert to empty hand
     drills.  All of these drills are actually precursors to some 
     practical empty hand self-defense applications.
     (Presas, 1974, p. 9)

     4.    All weapons drills are translatable to empty hand drills and by 
    extension to self defense applications. 
    (Presas, 1974, p. 9)

     5.    Arnis can and should be taught a part of a general physical
    education program at schools, colleges and universities.  Arnis trains
    students to defend themselves against armed and unarmed attacks.
   (Presas, 1974, p. 12)

    6.    ‘Make the art for yourself” because any martial art style or system
         that is fixed, rigid and tradition bound is not flexible enough to
        change to the times and new situations.
        (Presas, 1983, p. 3)

     7.    Body shifting and evasion are essential skills that students need to
         master because weapons defense require greater awareness and
         skill to defeat your opponent(s). 
           (Presas, 1974, p. 28 & 1983, p. 26)

     8.    The core or ‘life and soul” of Modern Arnis are the 12 stick angles
         of attack.  These 12 angles are paralleled by the 12 blocks, the 12
         disarms and the empty hand strikes that mirror the 12 stick strikes. 
         (Presas, 1974, p. 32)

I simply took Professor at his word and then I tested everything to see if I could reasonable replicate his results. 

As a sociologist by training and temperament, applying the scientific methodology gave me the opportunity to discover the validity of Professor’s approach. As my research results come in and were analyzed, I concluded that Professor was essentially correct.  I followed his advice, tailoring everything to fit my own body and mentality.  Modern Arnis is a very effective self-defense art. 

Professor has written that everyone should adapt “…arnis principles to his own feel for each technique.  The method should fit the person not the other way around.”  (Presas, 1983, p. 5)

From 1983 when I first attended a seminar with Professor, until we had our last conversation in 1999, Professor always told his students and Modern Arnis instructors that we should ‘make it for ourselves’.   When he referred to the “flow” in a conceptual sense, rather than as a technique, he wanted us to find, “…the comfortable place where the movements of arnis and the individual human body meet for maximum effectiveness; body and mind blend to achieve the most natural fighting style based on an individual’s needs and attitudes.”  (Presas, 1983, p. 5)

It is important to recognize that while Professor wanted his Modern Arnis students to be open, flexible, innovative and adaptable; there are, however, some very definite skills within the system that must be mastered.  Modern Arnis is not based on an ‘open ended, anything goes’ approach.  It is imperative that the dedicated Modern Arnis student learns and masters:

the basic 12 single stick strikes and blocks, the use of

        the umbrella and slanting stick blocks.  Then, following
           in rapid succession, the students must learn and master
        the following traditional stick striking patterns, figure 8,
        rompida, up & down, banda y banda, abaniko corto,
          abaniko largo, abaniko hirada, abaniko double action,
          double zero, single stick redonda, redonda x, sinawali
           movements (single, double and reverse), crossada,
           palis-palis, espada y daga and cinco tiros (five strokes).
 
           Then the student progresses to the empty hand translations and applications of all of the above stick striking patterns along with the trapping hands techniques and de cadena drill with applications.  Subsequently still other skills are developed, including, learning joint-locks, spinning throws, take-downs, stick locks, empty hand and stick disarming techniques, sword/bolo disarming techniques, 6 count drill with variations off the basic drill, single stick sparring and counter for counter single stick drills and tapi-tapi drills.

Given the above mentioned skills and techniques that a student must learn and master in order to become proficient in Modern Arnis, it would seem obvious that one can not learn this art solely through attending seminars and camps several times a year.  The student must be taught thoroughly and have the opportunity to work toward refining each of these skills over a considerable amount of time. 

        The ECC Kenpo-Modern Arnis Program is dedicated to teaching all aspects of Modern Anis.  This is supplemented by the  companion student club program which gives my students further opportunity to continue their Kenpo-Arnis training 1 or 2 evenings a week after they leave the college degree credit program.  At the 1992 Arnis Conference held in the Philippines, the assembled grand masters and masters agreed that a reasonable time table for learning the art required at least 2 training sessions per week for a minimum of 1 hour per session for at least one full calendar year to qualify for ranking at the top of the under-belt grades.

        In my effort to continue the work begun by Professor Presas and passed on to me through Sifu Don Zanghi, I have built and maintained the ECC Kenpo-Modern Arnis Self-defense Program for the past 20 years.  I have been fortune enough to have some very dedicated students who have assisted me over the years: guro Tim Kashino, guro Richard Curren. Guro Kenny Q., guro Paul Martin and guro Debra Moore, as well as an off-campus training partner, guro Keith Roosa.  Each of the above mentioned former college students have earned the minimum Arnis rank of Lakan Isa (1^st degree Black Belt) in Modern Arnis. 

Guro Battaglia, my Kenpo-Arnis senior and an instructor at the “Fighting Back Institute” under sifu Don Zanghi, has been a consistent resource and sounding board for me throughout my entire martial arts career.  He runs his own school, “Amer-Asian Defensive Arts Academy”, in Kenmore NY.  Together, guro Battaglia and I have retained and built on the legacy given to us by sifu Don Zanghi, through a private commercial venture and at a public educational institution.  I am mentioning this fact because I believe it is important for the readers of this essay to fully understand that Professor Presas’ dream of making Modern Arnis a world recognized martial arts is happening.  I am just one person working toward making the dream a reality.  I am also cognizant of the factual reality that I did not get to this position through some magical process or without help from a number of other people, some of whom I have named above in this essay.

In September, 2006, 2 new sections of the Kenpo-Modern Arnis Self-defense Program were opened at the City Campus of Erie Community College.  Guro David Battaglia, began teaching PE 200, Basic Kenpo-Arnis for Self Defense during the day and Guro Paul Martin offered the same course during the evening session.  The 3 of us have worked together to establish the City Campus program and we expect that it will grow and prosper over time as has the South Campus program.  The Tracy Kenpo –Modern Arnis Legacies of Professor Remy Presas and sifu Donald Zanghi, are continuing to grow at Erie Community College.

C. Jerome Barber, Ed. D.

Professor, Erie Community College
Orchard Park, NY

November 24, 2007

Modern Arnis Family Reunion - Some Good News

There is some good news coming out of the Modern Arnis Family Reunion Camp that was held last weekend in West Seneca, New York.  By all posted accounts that I could find on martial-talk.com, the camp was an artistic success.  That really pleases me because all of the posts that I read as of yesterday, Sunday, July 24, 2011, actually validated and enhanced the significance of the 2003 Modern Arnis Symposium. 

The Symposium was the very first open and all inclusive Modern Arnis training event that followed the death of the late Professor Remy A. Presas, who was the founder/GM of the art.  By "open and all inclusive" I am referring to the fact that anyone associated with Modeern Arnis, regardless of any group membership was invited to participate in the Symposium.  There were no prefered status situations.

This would be a good place to introduce a bit of perspective that can only come from looking back on the past events in order to better understand the most recent things that have happened in 2011.

There had been a good deal of pre-Symposium carping, bitching and moaning about what a bad idea holding the Symposium was, the wrong person was organizing/hosting the camp and it was coming too soon after the death of Professor Remy Presas, the founder and GM of Modern Arnis.  The negative comments that were posted on martial-talk.com after the Synmpoium had been held included the notion that the Symposium was not "really a Modern Arnis" camp because several of the instructors taught Balintawak Eskrima.  Others had taught Sayoc Kali Knife Drills, Eskrima Serrada
and Ryukyu Kempo Tuite.  There was also the complaint that a couple of the instructors were 2nd generation Modern Arnis players.  It was also noted that there was one fellow who had never studied directly under the late GM Presas. 

These critics were insistant that in their views in spite of the evidence to the contrary.  Please consider the fact that Balintawak is one of three arts that form the foundation of Modern Arnis.  Teaching Balintawak at a Modern Arnis Camp is very appropriate.  The Eskrima Serrada presentation made a lot of sense because it is compatable to and compliments the close quarters art of Balintwak.  Part of the Symposium mission statement was to compare and contrast approaches to Modern Arnis.  If  we do not have 2nd and 3rd generation students how is the art of Modern Arnis going to survive into the future?  In time, there will be an entire generation of Modern Arnis instructors who never met or trained with the founder/GM!  I seriously question the notion that unless you had hands on training with GM Presas, you can not be an excellent instructor or fully understand the foundations of Modern Arnis.  BTW, most of my black belt students, attended camps and seminars with GM Presas and earned their black belt certificates under his testing format.

Of particular interest to me were the negative post-Symposium comments of Bob Hubbard and Sal Todaro.   Both men railed against the Symposium, yet neither of them attended the event!  Nor did either man take their mutual friend, mentor and system leader, Tim Hartman, to task for being one of the people who 'defiled' the Symposium because he taught Balintawak Eskrima, along with Paul Janulis, a fellow World Modern Arnis Alliance member.

In fairness and under the full disclosure principle, I have to state that I knew in advance that both men were going to teach Balintawak, from the perspective of Ted Buot, a student of the Balintawak chief instructor Venancio "Ancong" Bacon.  I approved of their plans and encouraged them to teach the system.

My purpose in connecting the Symposium and Reunion together is to demonstrate how a few years between events can be instrumental in viewing outcomes.  For instance, in the run-up to the 2011 Modern Arnis Family Reunion there were no negatives publicly expressed in opposition to the camp. Any persons who were so inclined kept their comments to themselves or among close friends.  Therefore the people who were inclined toward attending the Reunion did not have to wade through a sea of negative yelping and sniping.  That was a good thing and I was very pleased to see that the nay-sayers never found their way to their keyboards, as had people such as "bloodwood", "arnis princess" and "red blade"  in 2003.

It was very intersting and revealing to read that GM Max Pallen (Senkos Teros) and GM Ron Van Browning (Grappling) were welcomed and warmly received as special guest instructors at the 2011 reunion gig, in spite of the fact that neither man had ever beeen a long term student the late Professor Presas.  This is a most welcomed change to what occured back in 2003.  What a difference 8 years can make in the thinking and perceptions of some Modern Arnis people.

As I read through the various reviews posted on mtc, I noticed that an often stated concept of the late Professor Presas, "Make it for yourself" was whole heartedly endorsed by a number of the posters.  This has long been a staple of my teaching philosophy and a position that I have advocated for years before and since the Symposium.  It was one of the cardinal features of the Symposium.  For those readers who are not familiar with Professor Presas, he quite frequently told his students at seminars and camps that "You must make it for yourself".  In the 25 years that he taught Modern Arnis in the United States, Canada and Europe, that phrase was always being used to encourage people to think and move in a way that was consistant with their own comfort levels.  It was his invitation to his students to observe, learn and grow within the art.  In numerous conversations that I had with Professor Presas from 1981 through 1994 that theme of 'making it for myself' was always present.

In his 1983 Ohara Publication, "Modern Arnis: The Filipino Art of Stick Fighting", it should be noted that in the 'History' section on page 5, Professor Presas was depicted as holding the following sentiment about the art of arnis and the individual students:

 "Professor does not merely combine techniques - he encourages the individual studentto adapt arnis principles to his own feel for each technique.  The method should suit the person and not the other way around.  This is known simply as using the "flow."  The flow is Presas' universal term for defining the comfortable place where the movementsof arnis and the individual human body meet for maximum effectiveness; body and weapon blend to achieve the most natural fighting style based on an individual's needs and attitudes."


That statement says it all!  What we did at the Symposium and what the instructors demonstrated at the Reunion was a basic and highly important tenent of Professor Presas' Modern Arnis philosophy
which he constantly encouraged his students to engage in for themselves.  I was very pleased to read the 2011 reviews that expoused the idea of making it for ones self.  Some things have changed for the better since 2003.

Reading through the 2011 reviews I was quite pleased to see a general acceptence of  the 'make it for yourself' concept; this aceptence fully validated and vindicated the events and practices that occured in 2003 at the Symposium, even if the posters had not intended their comments to do so.  The 2011 Reunion reviews show us that the Symposium opened the door to more objective thinking and a wider acceptence of diversity among some Modern Arnis players.  Of course there are still differences of opinion within Modern Arnis and that is to be expected, even cherished, because it allows for greater creativity among the various individuals who practice and teach the art.

The 2003 Symposium and the 2011 Reunion are closedly connected because in both cases, people were able to come together at the same camp, reach across group lines/identies to find some common grounds for agreement as they trained, cross-trained and discussed their individual approaches to Modern Arnis.  The Reunion actually fed off of the artistic successes of the Symposium and that of  a lesser known or seldom discussed camp that was held in Brevard, NC under Dan Anderson.  I fully understand that there will be some people who disagree with my assessment, however, they are going to have to explain away the striking similarities between the two camps that I have noted above in this essay.

I am quite pleased to see that the people reviewing the Reunion, stayed on task and discussed the actual camp happenings, which they viewed as a success.  That in turn opens a lot more opportunities for Modern Arnis people to step up and work outside of their own particular group associations, to embrace a broader cross-section of Modern Arnis players at a single event.  It really is time for people
to enbrace the various groups, independents, and renegades of Modern Arnis.  The more time people spend talking to one another, working together within and across group lines, training and cross-training within the art, the better for all concerned.

Now that the Reunion is past and the reviews have been published there are still a couple of important questions to be asked and answered.  First, who will step up and organize the next open and all inclusive Modern Arnis Camp?   Since Dan Anderson, Tim Hartman and myself have already done it, all we can do is repeat ourselves, so who is up to the task?  Since the nay-sayers have exited the field and it would be in extremely poor taste for such activities to return, the next organizer has an even better chance for success that any of us who have  already stepped up and delievered.

The second question is even more critical.  When will a number of established Modern Arnis players
get together in person or via internet conferencing and discuss the codification of a standard set of Modern Arnis techniques and principles?  It is one thing for people to "make the art for themselves,
but the critical question is, what componenets actually make up the Modern Arnis System?  Simply
throwing something together and calling it Modern Arnis does not actually make what the person is doing... Modern Arnis!  We can't go around claiming to know Modern Arnis when we see it!  What are the objectively codified and generally accepted components of Modern Arnis?  One thing that is generally agreed upon in Modern Arnis circles is that Professor Presas DID NOT produce a written curriculum for the system!  Once again the participants have be objective, open to the ideas of one another and not slavishly attached to any single group orientation.  Getting the Modern Arnis independents and renegades involved would help matters.

I have a written curriculum that was approved by Professor Presas back in 1989.  I produced that curriculum for the self defense program that I taught at Erie Community College, in Orchard Park,
NY.  My SD program has run for the past 25 years and it is the ONLY Modern Arnis program outside of the Philippines that has been taught for college credit toward graduation!  HOWEVER, let me be the first person to say that the ECC curriculum IS NOT a one size fits all document.

There are any number of possibilities for a genuine and honest Modern Arnis curriculum that would be different from mine.  In fact I would love to work with people on the development of their own curriculia.  Why?  Because it is part of the 'make it for yourself' edit of Professor Presas.  It is in the spirit and philosophy of Professor Presas that the art be constructed in a manner that it fits the individual.  But we should have some common and agreed upon componenets that everyone includes in their curriculia, or we run the risk of seeing anyone and everyone claiming that they are merely doing their own thing under the name of Modern Arnis.  If anyone wants to accept my offer of currulum help, just email me at escrima_kenpo@hotmail.com.

So in summery let me say again, that I am pleased that the 2011 Reunion went well because it validated both of the earlier attempts by Dan Anderson and myself to bring some Modern Arnis people together in an open and inclusive manner to train as well as cross-train in the art that we learned from Professor Remy A. Presas.  Back in 2003 and 2005, we made it for ourselves as well.

Sincerely,

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
Mataw Guro and Grand Master
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates

Who's coming

Does this mean Bram Frank and Kelly Warden are not attending the MA camp?

Some Personal Thoughts About Modern Arnis Instruction

As a young child growing up and particularly as a teenager, I was taught to be thoughtful, analytical and critical. My parents did not subscribe to the notion of being compliant, docile or blindly obedient to any religious, political or educational authority, although, I had to be courteous and respectful toward my elders. 

As a sociology and philosophy student in college I was encouraged to be intellectually curious, resourceful, analytically critical and to conduct scientifically based research. My parents and college professors clearly worked from the premise that I should not follow the lead of others simply because they held titles, ranks or social positions of authority.

Over the years I have heard that I was too critical of others or that I expect too much from others. Yet, I have always maintained that if one expects less than one gets even less than was expected. Yes, my standards are high and I hold myself to those very same standards. A good number of my peers inside and outside of martial arts are old line systematic followers. They do not and will not accept any significant responsibility for their own behaviors, while seeking comfort and adulation from others who are lower on the status ladder of life.

For my own part, I am seeking new information, ideas, knowledge and understandings about how and why things work the way they do. I want to know how and why some things work better than others. As I look back over a number of years at comments and ideas that I posted on the internet, I came a somewhat logical but disturbing realizations... most of my martial arts peers are not very objective with regard to what they are doing, studying, teaching or actually believe in. They are high dogmatic in their beliefs and tend to be quite dictatorial toward their own students. At every turn and on every issue, these people tend to believe they have ALL of the correct answers, even to questions that have not even been asked. These folks are always right and there is not a single aspect of their art that they need to question, nor are they willing to entertain anyone else asking questions. If someone is unwilling to take their word on everything within the system, that person identified as being malcontent and an enemy to be abused and dismissed as the enemy.

It is sometimes amusing to me that as an independent minded, thinking for myself person, that a good number of my Modern Arnis peers - some of whom do not actually know me, but they have heard about me - are so quick to rally around the flag of Modern Arnis orthodoxy. They become quite angry with me and other so-called independents because we do some things differently and these orthodox people can not answer our questions about how and why they do things within the art. It is a classic case of kill the messenger, simply because myself and a few others have gone down a slightly different road within the system as designed by the late Professor Remy Presas. I am not saying that what the majority of these people are doing/teaching is flawed or wrong. I do not know that to be absolutely true. However, these orthodox-traditionalist are very quick to say that the independents such as myself are wrong. We are not doing Modern Arnis correctly. We do not do the art exactly as Professor Presas taught it.

Personally, I do not reject the methods used by the orthodox-traditionalists, I simply have a different way of applying and teaching what I learned from Professor, after researching the roots and alternatives within the system. I have gone off in a different direction by choosing to investigate all of the smaller subsets such as redonda, sinawali, rompida and abanico that are part of the totality that Professor included in his system that he designated as Modern Arnis. I am a researcher, not a follower. I ask questions and seek out answers. I am not a blind conformist. I want to explore, discover and innovate, not follow traditional authority. Objectivity and sound reasoning are very important to me, rank, title and years in system are not as valuable. That makes me a very difficult person for the orthodox-traditionalists to deal with when their goal is to use ranks, titles and seniority as the basis for the their leadership justification. A good number of orthodox-traditionalists also want people to blindly accept their claims of leadership simply because they claim that Professor told them this or that, without witnesses and they can not provide any written documentation to support their claims. Yet these very same people will often reject any similar unverifiable claims made by others who might be viewed as being in a position to challenge them for a leadership role in the Post-Professor era of Modern Arnis.

I have seen claims by a number of people who stated that their belt ranks earned under Professor Presas in earlier years were considered invalid by the new would-be leaders of the Post-Professor era. These people were told that they would have to re-test in the new organizations to have their current rank recognized. How in the world can anyone reject the belt ranks awarded by the system founder, Professor Presas, when in some cases that rank was earned before the current leaders ever became associated with Modern Arnis? Talk about hubris; those so-called leaders are at the top of the examples list.

I was part of an academic tradition long before I began training in the martial arts, met Professor Presas or joined the International Modern Arnis Federation. For me, discussion, debate and factual proof were integral parts of my way of life and the martial arts were merely another area of intellectual interest. I simply applied my sociological and educational training to the study of self-defense in the real world of street confrontations. I agreed with the late Sigung Bruce Lee's notion of taking what was useful and adapting it to fit yourself. Professor Presas version of that idea, that he often stated at camps and seminars was "You must make it for yourself." State either way, it makes a lot of sense to me. From my perspective, martial arts training is not about who or what is right, it is about what works in the real world of confrontation and conflict for you and/or me!

It is my belief that too many of my Modern Arnis peers are totally wedded to dogmatic certainty slavish mimicry of the late Professor Presas. Whereas I can see and understand the virtues of a sport orientation, forms competitions and the like, these will not necessarily transfer over to become an effective street self-defense system, where rules and referees are totally absent. The hard-core cloning of Professor Presas leads inevitably to the skeletalization of the system that was brought from the Philippines to the western world as a true fighting art.

Personally, I am very content to watch and enjoy others as they go their own way within Modern Arnis and as they present the art as they see fit. If their particular approach is comfortable for them, then by all means they should pursue it in the manner that best fits them. My intention is to continue to teach Modern Arnis as it was first presented to me by my instructor, Sifu Don Zanghi, at the Fighting Back Institute, in Buffalo, NY, as fighting system for self-defense, blended with Kenpo, Jiu-jitsu and Buno.

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
Grand Master & Mataw Guro,
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates

Bram Frank Seminar in Buffalo: Presas Family Combat Bolo - July 17, 2011

Hello to All,

I would like to announce that GM Bram Frank is going to conduct a Presas Family Combat Bolo Seminar in the Buffalo, NY area on Sunday, July 17, from 9am to 4pm. The seminar site will be at the Kempo Martial Arts Academy, 455 Olean Road, East Aurora, NY, which is located SE of Buffalo and about a 30 minute drive from downtown.

The training sessions will run from 9am to Noon and 1pm to 4 pm. Participants can sign up for the full day session or a half-day session. The admission price is $110 for a full day and $75 for either of the half day sessions. A certificate of instructional completion will be issued at the end of the day.

For more information, you can contact me via e-mail at:
<escrima_kenpo@hotmail.com>

Over the years there have been numerous people who decried the idea that Modern Arnis was a bladed art.  Some went so far as to declare that Modern Arnis didn't even haave it's origins within the bladed arts of the Philippines.  Ask almost any
Filipino student of the late Professor Remy Presas, who trained in the Philippines in the 1960's and 70's and they will tell you that Professor most certinly did teach the use of the bolo - the fighting or combat bolo - as part of his Modern Arnis curriculum.

I'm not sure exactly were these Anerican "experts" got their information from regarding Modern Arnis having "always been" a stick oriented art.  In several conversations that I had in the late 1980's and early 1990's, with Professor, he talked about "...the blade machete..." and the bolo.  In his 1974 book on Modern Arnis, published in the Philippines he stated that the rattan stick was a training tool because it was less lethal than the bladed weapon.  That particualr book is available in a U.S. edition and his statements regarding the blade are in that edition as well.  Some people refer to the U.S. edition as the "pink book" due to its cover color and to differentiate it from the 1983 Ohara Publication also entitled "Modern Arnis".

GM Bram Frank and Datu Kelly Wordern are the acknowledged blade orientation students of Professor's in the USA.  I
think that more people within the Modern Arnis world ought to pay more attention to these guys.  They know a thing or two about the blade orientatiuon and utilization within Modern Arnis, because Professor taught it to them.  Both men also had training and discussion time with the late Roland Dantes and Datu Shishir Inocalla.  Those two fellows knew about Modern Arnis blade as did a number of other Filipinos who GM Braam and Datu Kelly met over the years.

In my own curriculum that I taught outside of the Erie Community College program that I taught, I followed up on my conversations with Professor and researched the use of the blade in FMA.  By 1988, I had added the Negrito Bolo replica to my program.  That particular bolo had a double meaning in my curriculum.  First it represented the island of Professor's birth and secondly, it represented the original people who inhabited the island, the Negritos or Aeta. 

From a more pragmatic educational perspective, the replica bolo, got my students feet moving and their bodies shifting more effectively thatn anything else I had come across prior to adding the blade.  It seems to motivate my students to move, become 'unrooted' from a particular spot on the training floor when they are facing that 'blade'!.  Even though the replica Negrito Bolo is very clearly a wooden training tool and everyone understands that it is totally incapable of cutting anything, the shape and design just seems to over-ride common sense knowledge - my students move both faster and with much more precision when they are "confronted" by the bladed-bolo. 

Over the years in numerous conversations with Bram Frank, I have found myself becoming more and more convienced that Modern Arnis, as taught by Professor in the USA, Canada and Europe was greatly modified by eliminating the bladed aspects of the art, so as to make Modern Arnis an acceptable recreational martial arts in the same vein as karate and kung fu.
Having a chance to host a bolo seminar is something that i've wanted to do for quite some time.  I am looking forward to this training sequece.  It will add to my own knowledge of  Modern Arnis in general and the blade utization in particular.
It will also give my students an opportunity to compare and contrast my instuction with the ideas of a very highly regarded master teacher of blades instruments.  It is a comparison that I welcome and encourage.

Sincerely,

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.Director, Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates