Hand Tools & CRMIPT Seminar, July 26, 2014Hello Folks,

Hello Folks,
I'm just sending out this announcement to remind everyone that Guro Keith Roosa and myself will be conducting a Hand Tools-CRMIPT Self defense Seminar on Saturday, July 26, at Alessi Holsters, 247 Cayuga Road, Buffalo, NY, from 11am to 3pm.  The admission fee is $40.

The seminar is the first of 2 training sessions that we will hold prior to GM Bram Frank's weekend certification seminar that will be held on September27 and 28 at the same site.  In September, GM Frank will be conducting his Modular Training Program aimed toward granting instructor certification in the use of the "Close Range Medium Impact Tool" (CRMIPT).
This hand tool is a non-lethal striking and locking instrument for gaining control of and compliance from an individual who is acting out in a public situation.  The tool was designed for security and police personnel as an option to the use of a baton or firearm in a less than lethal confrontation.

At the July seminar we will focus on the use of the following self defense hand tools, the Filipino-Hawaiian Palm Stick, the Kubaton and the CRMIPT.  We will comparing and contrasting the usage of each tool in a self defense, comply and control situation.  We expect that we will be joined by Sensei Mike Carvelli and you will have the benefit of being instructed by the three instructors in the Western New York Region who are certified under GM Bram Frank in the use of the Gunting Tactical Folding Knife and CRMIPT.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the July training seminar.

Sincerely,

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.

Principal Teacher,

Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates 

My resignation letter to the Mataw Guro Association

Earlier today I sent the following letter to the Mataw Guro Association, tendering my resignation from that organization.  As the long time followers of this blog know I was a charter member of the 10 Mataw Guro inductees in 2010.  I was quite proud and pleased to be recognized as a teacher of the FMA.  I believed that the subsequent organization would be a viable umbrella group that stressed the basics of FMA and prepared new students to the FMA with a strong foundation that they could take into any specific system/style as they continued their studies.  That was the promise made at the first MGA Gathering and organizational meeting.  That promise has not been kept and I have decided to sever my relationship with the organization. My letter follows:

An Open Letter to ALL MGA Members

Please be advised that I WILL NOT be attending the 2013 MGA Gathering.
Several things have led me to this decision:

1. My understanding of what the MGA was supposed to be and what it has morphed
into between 2010 and 2013 are very far apart philosophically.

2.  My critique of MGA policies have gone unanswered.  My expectation was that as
equals within the organization that ideas would be exchanged and debated.  When that
does not happen, there is little to no opportunity for growth and development either as
individuals or as a collective group.

3.  There is a persistent and pervasive undercurrent of ethnocentric xenophobic behavior
within the leadership ranks of the MGA which I simply can not understand and will not be
a party to for any reason.

4.  The MGA Board of Directors is totally non-functional.  The BoD members have refused
to meet and discuss policies and other matters related to the business of the MGA.  I hereby
formally resign my position as a member of that board, effective today, July 12, 2013 at 5pm,
EDST.

5.  I am also tendering my resignation from the MG Association, effective today, July 12, 2013,
effective at 5pm EDST, so that PMG Lou Lledo will have time to name a person to serve out the
remainder of my 2 year appointment as a member of the BoD.

I shall not be using the MG designation after 5 pm EDST today and any communications that any
member of the MGA might wish to have with me should use the title "Dr."  or "Professor" since
both are earned titles and not associated with the MGA in any manner.  I will retain the "MG"
as part of my professional resume since it was awarded prior to the formal organizational structure
of the MGA.

Good bye to all.

Respectfully,

Dr. Jerome Barber,
Grand Master, Datu, Principal Teacher,
INDEPENDENT Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates

Mobility and Basic Footwork in the IEAA

                                                                                                                                                   

I was always taught that the long bladed knife or Bolo was the primary fighting tool of a number of FMA systems.  Modern Arnis, as taught by Professor Remy Presas, is an example of this general bladed orientation.  Sifu Don Zanghi, my first Kenpo-Arnis instructor made sure that his students were aware of this orientation and stressed that the rattan stick was a training tool and represented the bolo.  As I read through the introductions of Professor Presas' first 2 books, Modern Arnis: Filipino Martial Art: “Stick Fighting” (1974) and The Practical Art of Eskrima: The Filipino Martial Art of Attack and Defense with cane or bare hands otherwise known as Arnis (1975), it was very clear to me that the blade was the weapon of choice in the Philippines prior to the modern era of firearms.  All anyone needed to do was examine the number of blade types that Professor referred to in his 1974 book on page 10, “...kris, bolo, kalis, laring, barong, gunong, kampilan, gayang, pira, punal, itak banjal, bangkcon, lahot and the panabas” and any doubts about the bladed orientation would be easily removed.   

Given that array of bladed instruments, it seems to me that effective defensive skills, beginning with footwork and mobility are absolutely necessary if one is going to stay alive, healthy and retaining all of their body parts intact.  My first Asian Martial Arts instructor, Sifu Don Zanghi, taught a self-defense style that blended Tracy System Kenpo and Modern Arnis.  He placed a great deal of emphasis on good evasive footwork.  Therefore I am going to follow his lead in this booklet, as I have done over the past 30+ years.  I will introduce the basic fighting stance of the IEKA, the neutral stance and the footwork that drives our IEKA single stick blocking methodology.

One of the benefits of stepping as you stick block or strike is that you will naturally and very easily rotate your hips thereby adding power to both motions.  Since blocks are in reality your first counter-strikes, you want to have both speed and power as you execute your blocks.  The smaller you are in physical stature and muscle size, the more important it is for you to generate as much power as you can from the smallest movements that you make.  This is a form of “economy of motion” or the idea of making 2 or 3 positive things happen at the same time with a single movement.  The full economy of motion concept is beyond the scope of this booklet, but the idea can be found in many areas of movement within the FMA.

In the IEKA instructional format we use the “clock” system to determine where a person is stepping as they are attacking or defending.  This system can also be described in terms of compass directions.  The following schematic depicts the clock system:

                     12

     10:30                  1:30

9                   +                  3:30             

     7:30                 4:30

                    6

As the defender, you will begin your defensive actions from the center (+) spot in the clock and it is assumed that you are always facing 12:00 at the beginning of any sequence of movements.  Your opponent or opponents can be at any spot on the perimeter of the clock, including being directly behind you.  That latter situation will of course necessitate that you take some sort of evasive action in order to turn and face that person(s) as well as counter the opponent’s attack.

All of the directions for you, the defender, will be given in terms of the starting position in the center of the clock and moving in the direction toward one or more of the other positions listed above in the schematic.  Moving in a clockwise progression the compass points would be North (12), Northeast (1:30), East (3), Southeast (4:30), South (6), Southwest (7:30), West (9) and Northwest (10:30).

Neutral Stance:

The neutral stance is the key to our mobility training within the IEAA Escrima Amis program. While the horse stance provides the sturdiest foundation for the legs, the neutral stance allows us to move faster and easier than the horse stance. The reasons are very simple and direct. The horse stance is lower and wider. There is excellent side to side stability, but virtually no front to back stability and it exposes our entire center line or vital organs to attack.   The neutral stance corrects both of those defects although there is of course, a trade-off.  The neutral stance since it is higher is not as stable or strong.   On the other hand the greater mobility that it affords us is a very acceptable alternative benefit.

To establish a neutral stance, start with your feet together, shoulders on the 3 – 9 axis line of the clock and facing 12:00.  Take one (1) full step toward 12:00 with your right foot (RF), pivot on the balls of both feet, turning toward the left or counter-clockwise (CCW) so that you are now facing toward the 10:30 position.  Your feet are pointed toward 10:30, your shoulders are now on the 7:30 – 1:30 axis line.  Take a half-step or stride toward 10:30 with your left foot (LF).  Turn your head to the right and look in the 12:00 direction.  You are now in the basic neutral stance position with your hands at your sides.  Bend your arms at your elbows to raise your hands up on either side of the face in a guard position and bend your knees slightly so that neither joint is in a locked position.  Raise your left heel slightly off the ground.  This is your basic empty hand neutral stance fighting position.

In this position, your hands can protect your face, your elbows and upper arms protect your ribs, you right thigh is protecting your groin from a frontal or 12:00 attack and can rotate your waist to your left in order to further protect your groin from an opponent’s hooking attack originating from the 10:30 quadrant.    You can use inward or outward forearm blocks to protect your chest and mid-section against hooking attacks.  Add a stick to your right hand (RH) and you are in the right side (Rs) forward neutral ready stance for stick fighting using strikes and/or blocks.

Reverse the directions of the feet and establish a left side (Ls) neutral stance.  If you keep the stick in your right hand, place your stick against your raised left forearm, in a horizontal plane and you will be in the left side (Ls) forward neutral ready stance for stick striking or blocking from a backhand orientation.    In  both the right and left side neutral stances, the elbows are kept down and against your ribs thereby providing protection for the ribs.

Neutral Stance Basic Transition Drills - Stepping Through:

1.   Begin with a right side (Rs) forward neutral stance.  Step forward with your left foot (LF) and assume a left side forward neutral stance.

2.   Step forward with your right foot (RF) and assume a right side (Rs) forward neutral stance.

3.   From the current right side (Rs) forward stance, step back toward 6:00 with your right foot (RF) and assume a left side (Ls) forward stance.

4.   Step back with your left foot (LF) and assume a right side (Rs) forward neutral stance.

 These "step-through" drills allow us to make the basic stance transitions while maintaining the same type of stance, merely shifting from a right foot lead to a left foot lead and then back to the original right foot lead.  We can advance or retreat in a protected body positioning sequence.   One consideration that must  be kept in mind when using the 'step-through' transitions is the need for protecting your groin while moving forward or backward and changing the lead sides. The legs must never be opened too widely.  A quick natural turning of the hips must accompany the steps, so that your groin and bladder areas are not facing forward and unprotected. Your shoulders and hips must always be re-aligned along one of the lines of the "X" axis from 1:30 to 7:30 or 10:30 to 4:30, as quickly as possible in order to prevent a kick or punch to those areas.

Push-step:

The push-step is a quick forward or reverse movement to either close or open the distance or "gap" between yourself and your opponent.  Start from the Rs neutral stance and push off with your rear foot, and step toward 12:00 with your Right Foot.   Your rear foot should land in front of the spot vacated by your lead foot.   If the lead foot moved 6 inches, then the rear foot should move the same distance forward.  You should still be in a balanced, Rs neutral stance.  To move back or retreat, push back with your lead or RF, as your rear or LF steps back toward 6:00. You should still be in your RS neutral stance at the end of the procedure.  The push-step may also be used on a forward angle toward 10:30 or 1:30 or on a retreating angle toward 7:30 or 4:30.  This angled movement is sometimes referred to as "Triangulation".   It is a very important, yet basic, evasion maneuver.

 
Shuffle:

A series of push-step maneuvers used to cover a greater distance than can be accomplished with two or more push-steps in any direction.  The shuffle allows the user to remained balanced and in a protective neutral stance while moving.

In-place Stepping:

This stepping method is used to establish a strong base for blocking and striking by shifting your weight from one side of your body to the other while maintaining a solid well balanced neutral stance.  The transition from your Rs neutral stance to the Ls neutral stance is accomplished by stepping forward with your LF to the 12:00 position next to your RF and stepping backward toward 6:00 with your RF.  Returning to the RS neutral stance is completed by stepping forward to 12:00 with your RF, placing it next to your LF, then stepping back to 6:00 with your LF, to establish the RS neutral stance.   In-place stepping is used    to hold your position, without gaining or losing ground.   It is very effective and useful on wet slippery surfaces, where there is a strong possibility of slipping    and falling as you try to defend yourself against an attacker.

Lateral Shift Step:

This is a side to side variation of the in-place stepping technique. Starting from a RS neutral stance, step toward 10:30 with your LF, then step to 6:00 with your RF. You are now in the Ls neutral stance.   Return to your Rs neutral stance is achieved by stepping to 1:30 with your RF and to 6:00 with your LF.  The lateral shift step allows you to change your position to either side of your original starting point as you defend yourself against an attack and set-up your counter-attack.  It is a form of “triangulation”

V-Stepping:

The V-Step pattern is another angled stepping pattern.  It utilizes the rear step of the in-place pattern, however instead of stepping straight forward to change the lead foot, the second step is angled.  This pattern also has the added element of shifting from one point to an entirely different place or position that is not easily done with the lateral shift step movement.  The major advantages of V-stepping are in the positional changes that can be added to the initial rear step.  With the V-steps you can easily add a step to your left or right sides as well as a second rearward step of open a wider gap with your opponent.

Side Stepping:

The side step is fairly easy to do since it involves both feet moving in the same direction and maintaining  your shoulder width placement and neutral stance orientation without changing from the Rs to the Ls or vice-versa.  The stepping rule is quite simple, if going to your right, step first with your right foot, then move your left foot and place it in position on the floor re-establishing your Rs neutral stance.  If you side step to your left, move your left foot first, then your right foot and re-establish your Rs neutral stance.

Cover and Turn:

In a street confrontation, where there are no judges, referees or rules of sportsmanship being followed by your opponent(s).  It is very important that you have mastered some evasive movements and avoid being struck or cut so that you can effectively counter-attack with speed, strength and power.

Cover and turn allows you to survey the area around you and turn to either side or toward your rear quadrant, with relative safety and maintaining good balance and using only a minimal amount of movement on your part.  Place yourself in the Rs neutral stance and then assume that you want to turn so that you can face 6:00. To accomplish this goal, you will step toward 10:30 with your RF, pivot on the balls of both feet, with the toes of both feet pointing toward 7:30, your shoulders on the 10;30 to 4:30 axis, you should be looking toward 6:00 in the Ls neutral stance with your stick in front of your right shoulder.  You have just completed a cover and turn movement. 

To return to the 12:00 position, step toward 7:30 with your LF, pivot on the balls of both feet, with your toes pointing toward 10:30, your shoulders will be on the 1:30 to 7:30 axis of your clock and your head is turned toward 12:00 and you have reassumed your original Rs neutral stance.  (Please note that you will have moved 2 steps to your left after you complete the return to your original Rs Neutral stance.  You have NOT done anything incorrectly.  The Cover and turn maneuver takes you off the original 12 – 6 axis line and establishes a new 12 – 6 (or N – S) axis line with each turning movement.)

If your goal is to turn to face either 3:00 or 9:00 from your Rs neutral stance, cover and turn will help you accomplish going to either direction. To change and face 3:00, step toward 10:30 with your LF, pivot on the balls of both feet, pointing your toes toward 1:30 and your shoulders will be on the 4:30 to 10:30 axis and you can face 3:00, and you will still be in a Rs neutral stance with your stick in front of your right shoulder. 

To transition to face 9:00, from your Rs Neutral stance, that is oriented toward 12:00, step toward 1:30 with your RF, pivot on the balls of both feet and point your toes toward 10:30, placing your shoulders along the 1:30 to 7:30 axis, you will be facing 9:00, and in a Ls neutral stance with your stick in front of your right shoulder.

It is extremely important that you learn how to use the "cover and turn" technique, because you should never assume that you will always be faced by only one nasty person at a time whose intention is to hurt you. The ability to quickly turn and change your body positioning, correctly while covering yourself, is a vital skill that could be the difference between escaping serious injury or death on the streets.

Neutral Stance Four Directions Cover and Turn Drills:

The Right Side Orientation:                                The Left Side Orientation:

12:00 Rs neutral stance                                       12:00 Ls neutral stance

9:00 Ls neutral stance                                             3:00 Rs neutral stance

3:00 Rs neutral stance                                             9:00 Ls neutral stance

12:00 Ls neutral stance                                         12:00 Rs neutral stance

6:00 Rs neutral stance                                             6:00 Ls neutral stance

12:00 Ls neutral stance                                          12:00 Rs neutral stance

3:00 Rs neutral stance                                              9:00 Ls neutral stance

9:00 Ls neutral stance                                               3:00 Rs neutral stance

12:00 Rs neutral stance                                          12:00 Ls neutral stance

Close                                                                          Close

In the IEKA curriculum we train our students to utilize both their right and left side movements.  The reality of combat confrontations is that you do not know what angle or direction an opponent may choose to strike from, therefore, you must be prepared to defend every angle or degree of the clock.  You have to be comfortable moving to or from both your strong (dominate hand) and weak sides.  Therefore, above I have included the left side orientation of the cover and turn drill.  Practice these  drills on both sides and never allow yourself to develop a “sugar side” or a one sided orientation in the combat/self-defense arts.  Go back to earlier sections of the booklet and practice everything shown on both the right and left sides of the body.  An attacker will never willingly or graciously attack you only on your strong side and always after giving you ample warning that he/they are coming.  Please keep in mind something that I post in ALL of my curriculum handouts:

“Prior proper preparation prevents piss poor performance!”  

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

New Stuff

I'm new to this blogging thing, so please forgive any errors that I might make.
This is a great blog. Dr. Barber was kind enough to accept my request to be
an author and I truely value his trust in me.

DocB didn't pull any punches with is latest post on mobility and blades in
Modern Arnis, I love his passion and use of quotes to support his contentions.

His post on teaching within Modern Arnis has appeared on myfma.net and has
beeen very well received.

Guro Tom Gerace's video comparison was magnificent and highly informative.
It doesn't get much better than that because the videos are the proof in the
final analysis.

Personally, I am looking forward to more posts from different authors on this blog.
I will have to complete my own draft this week and submit my posting. Hopefully
I can meet the high standards that DocB, Tim Kashino and Tom Gerace have set.

Binjara, Jr.

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

There is Only ONE FIRST

There is only one FIRST in any venture or activity created by mankind.  In correspondence with 3 people over the past couple of months, it has become quite clear to me that there is some revisionist history in the making regarding my role and accomplishments in Modern Arnis.  In addition to being the FIRST and ONLY person in the USA and Canada to teach Modern Arnis for college credit, I am also FIRST person who organized and hosted a major Modern Arnis training event, open to everyone, after the death of the late founder of the Modern Arnis System, Professor Remy A. Presas.

In July 2003, I hosted the Modern Arnis Symposium at Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY.  It is a matter of record and verifiable if anyone wishes to check it out.  I am posting this statement so that those who want or might actually try to alter/revise history are put on notice that I was the FIRST person to organize a non-organizational specific Modern Arnis Training Camp.  My purpose back in 2002 when I first proposed the idea of hosting the Symposium was to:

1. Provide a venue where those claiming to be the “only legitimate successor” to Professor Remy Presas, could demonstrate their knowledge and skills in an open and public situation, thereby allowing those of us who did not know them, to judge for ourselves, the claimants credibility for ourselves.

2.  Provide a venue where any Modern Arnis instructor could present his/her version and
understanding of Modern Arnis in an open environment without having to defer to any
organizational leadership such as the IMAF, Inc., The MoTTs, WMAA, WMAC, Marppio
IMAF, IMAFP or MA-80.  All of the leaders of the groups mentioned above were invited
to participate at the Modern Arnis Symposium; several leaders accepted the invitation,
then withdrew or simply did not show up.

3.  Provide a venue where people le could meet and discuss ideas, concepts and training
methods with one another, share experiences they had with Professor Presas, examine
similarities and differences in training and make new friendships, in part because they
shared a common interest - Modern Arnis.

4.  Present some 2nd generation Modern Arnis practitioners to the general public.  If the art is going to survive and prosper, we need to develop a 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation of
students who will grow into instructors.  If these new people are not developed and
groomed the art withers and dies.

The first 2 objectives were only partially achieved because a good number of the 'succession claimants' did not participate in the event.  Objectives 3 and 4 were fully achieved and with  just a couple of glitches nearly everyone who attended deemed to the Symposium to be a positive experience.  Several of the presenters actually taught some Balintawak variations rather than Modern Arnis, but since Balintawak is one of the foundation arts of Modern Arnis, those sessions were well within the spirit of the Symposium objectives, in particular, objective #3.

In 2005, Master Dan Anderson, organized the 2nd 'post-Professor' major Modern Arnis Training Camp and he held the event in Brevard, NC.  The major differences between the Brevard Camp and the Symposium were:

1.  In addition to me issuing invitations to specific people, instructors could and did volunteer to lead sessions.  All who requested an opportunity to instruct at the Symposium were accepted.
Master Anderson, specificly invited people to instruct at the Brevard Camp.  To the best of
my knowledge he did not accept volunteers or requests to be included as instructors at his camp.

2. The second major difference between the Symposium and the Brevard Camp was that there was no ”stand and deliver” aspect to Master Anderson's camp.  His objectives were different from mine and that is neither a plus or minus in my opinion.  He was working from a point in time that was 2 years after the Symposium and the leadership squabbling had subsided to a significant degree.  There was no reason for him to follow in my footsteps with regard to an open Modern Arnis Camp mission.

Master Anderson, has stated that his camp was not as successful as he envisioned that it would be.  As I told him privately, these things never go exactly as planned and there is nothing that the host can do except roll with the ”punches” and build in a backup plan to handle as many of the unexpected things as possible.  A number of instructors who promised that they would attend, did not keep there promise as happened at the Symposium.  That is within the nature of hosting events and to be expected.

In July of this year, there will be a 3rd “post-Professor” Modern Arnis Camp open to all.  It will be held in West Seneca, NY, just outside of Buffalo.  The camp host has deemed this camp as a Modern Arnis Family Reunion and Healing event.  All of the instructors have been specifily invited and again it appears that requests to teach are not likely to be accepted.  The invited instructors are: 
 
Dan Anderson MA 80
Bram Frank CSSD
Chuck Gauss IMAF
Tim Hartman WMAA
Dieter Knüttel DAV
Rick Manglinong IPMAF and WMAA
Rich Parsons Independent
Edessa Ramos IMAFP / CSSD
Kelly Worden NSI
Brian Zawilinski IMAF

As you can see, the instructors represent a cross section of the various Modern Arnis groups in the USA , Germany and Switzerland (Edessa Ramos, representing the IMAFP and CSSD) from her adopted country).  A 3rd camp and a 3rd theme, as one might expect since each camp was organized by a different person.
One of my private correspondents that I mentioned at the top of this article, has portrayed the upcoming 2011 camp as being the first major Modern Arnis gathering since the death of Professor Presas in 2001.  I absolutely disagree!  The FIRST major Modern Arnis Gathering after the death of Professor Presas as the Symposium in 2003.  As evidence of this one should note that 4 of the first 5 people listed on the 2011 event were participants at the Symposium.  Those 4 people are:

Dan Anderson MA 80
Bram Frank CSSD
Tim Hartman WMAA
Dieter Knüttel DAV

When 40% of the people who are scheduled to make presentations at the Reunion-Healing
Camp in 2011 are the very same people who presented at the 2003 Symposium, it is exceedingly difficult to deny a direct linkage between the 2 events.  When the 2003, 2005 and upcoming 2011 events share the very same concept of being open to several factions of the Modern Arnis community it is difficult to deny a linkage between the three events.  The linkage does not require that the 3 events share the same format, philosophies or organizers.  There is a linkage because all three events were and are open to all Modern Arnis stylist rather than being limited to members of a specific organization such as the WMAA, WMAC, IMAF or IMAF, Inc or IMAFP.  Each of these individual groups have held numerous summer training camps since the death of Professor Presas in 2001. 

They have held training sessions and promoted students without the involvement of other organizations as one might expect since the death of Professor Presas. There has been only 3 training camps organized around the idea of being open to most if not all members of the various Modern Arnis organizations and these three were the Symposium, Brevard and the Reunion, since the death of Professor Presas. 

The different structures of each individual open camp in no way invalidates the connection/linkage between the three events.  The Symposium, Brevard and Reunion Camps are further linked by the fact that a number of the same people declined the invitations to participate at the Symposium, Brevard and the Reunion-Healing camps, most notably, Remy Presas, Jr., Demetrio Presas, Mary Ann Presas and Jeff Delaney.  It should be noted that the first three people are the adult children of the late Professor and the 4th is the person who claims to be the appointed successor to Professor.  He broke ranks with the “Masters of TapiTapi” (aka MoTTs), who as a group claimed to be the collective leaders of the art after Professor's death.

Like it or not, and as noted above, there are direct  linkages and/or connections between the Modern Arnis Symposium, Brevard Modern Arnis Camp and the soon to be Modern Arnis Family Reunion-Healing Camp; however, there is no denying that the Modern Arnis Symposium was the first open to all training camp of the post-Professor era.  We can argue the relative merits regarding success or failure of each event, but it is not possible to proclaim one event as being better than another because each camp had a very different agenda as well as organizer-host.  The camps are linked/connected but there is not a linear progression between them with each camp leading directly to another.

Personally, I want to extend, in advance,  my best wishes to Tim Hartman, the host of the upcoming 2011 event and ALL of those folks who be participating as presenters or payees.  Modern Arnis practitioners need to come together and should come together  in order to advance the art as well as the memory of the late founder.  Given the fact that Professor Presas passed away 10 years there are people now learning as well as instructring the art, who never met or trained under the founder of the very art that they are practicing.

There is a very interesting prologue to the upcoming 2011 Reunion-Healing Camp.  Unlike the Symposium and Brevard Camps there has not been highly vocalized opposition to this camp as was faced by the two preceding camps in 2003 and 2005.  This vocal oppositions was insidious, incendiary, incredulous and incredibly self -serving with regard to one person in particular.  Yet there has been none of that kind of behavior invoked since the first public  announcement of the 2011 event.  So far as I can tell, Mr. Hartman has not had to deal with the likes of “Bloodwood”, “Arnis Princess” and “Red Blade” yakking and yammering about the supposed shortcomings the events and camp hosts.  Those folks and several others were quite persistant in their opposition to the Symposium and Brevard.  Given the difference in time and tone between then and now Mr. Hartman has been provided with a smoother run-up to his program than Dan and myself  experienced before our camps were held.  

Perhaps “enough time” has now passed since Professor Presas' death for most people to accept that reality, move on with their lives and they can now envision working on the preservation and new growth within art without Professor's direct presence.  Perhaps enough people are of the opinion that 10 years has passed since Professor's demise and the “right person” is organizing the 2011 event.  Such was not the case in 2003 or 2005 when myself and later Master Dan Anderson organized our respective programs.  It was stated by a number of people associated with a particular organizational leader that Dan and I had organized our events “too soon” after Professor's passing, nor were we the “right person(s)” to  hosting those events.  Yet, in reality, no one else had attempted to organize a Modern Arnis event of the kind that Dan and myself had done. 

There has been a 6 year gap between Dan's Brevard Camp and the upcoming Reunion-Healing event of 2011.  It seems to me that the negative nay-sayers were reluctant to stand up and deliver a product as we had done, but they quite willing to denounce and demean others who were willing take chances on and for Modern Arnis.

No matter the outcome of the 2011 event, in the final analysis, it is merely the 3rd attempt to produce and host an allegedly open-to-all Modern Arnis event since the passing of the founder and Grand Master Remy A. Presas.  Dan Anderson, organized and hosted the 2nd camp and I held the 1st Modern Arnis Camp aimed at bringing people together to talk, train and share ideas with one another.  Our events reached across the internal Modern Arnis divisions/organizations.

There can only be one first.  The Symposium was the first 'post-Professor' Modern Arnis Camp that sought to bridge some of the internal-internecine differences within the larger community of Modern Arnis practitioners.  There can only be one first and the Symposium was that first event of it's type within Modern Arnis.  Some are going to try to deny that reality in one way or another, but then some people need to belittle, demean and deny the contributions of others in order to appear more important than they really are within the Modern Arnis community.

Respectfully yours,

Jerome Barber,
Mataw Guro and Grand Master,
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates
Hamburg, NY
April 11, 2011

Trapping Hands - Trapping Feet Seminar

I will be conducting a "Trapping Hands & Trapping Feet" seminar on Saturday, May 7, at the

Red Dragon School of Martial Arts
McKinley Mall
3701 McKinley Parkway
Blasdell, NY

The admisson fees:  $39 Advance payment before Thursday May 5 and $49 at the door. 
Due to space limitations on the training floor only 20 participants will be admitted.

The trapping techniques, drills and applications for this seminar will be taken from the art
systems that I am certified to teach:

Tracy System Kenpo
American Modern Arnis
International Modern Arnis
Oliverez Pangasinan Eskrima
Hawaiian Kenpo-Kuntaw (Kuntao)
Atillo-Saavedra Eskrima (Balintawak)

This seminar is open to All martial artists regardless of system or style as well as belt ranks.
The trapping techniques that I will be teaching are adaptable to most empty hand systems
and depends more on leverage and body positioning than a person's physical size to be
effective.

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