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
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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
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
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