Professor Park and the Gathering of Eagles

Author	Michael D. Park
E-mail	michael.d.park@verizon.net
URL	http://www.KempoKarateofPlano.com
Comment	I met and trained with Dr. Barber at the Gathering of Eagles / Kenpo Hall of Fame. I found him to be an honest representative of authentic technique and one of the few that impressed me with a solid tactical understanding and complimentary philosophy. He is a humble, effective and accomplished teacher of martial-arts. ----------------------------------------------------------- I just met Professor Park at the 2013 Gathering of Eagles in Chicago, last weekend, through a mutual friend Master John Bain.  We were able to attend one another's seminars, which ran 90 minutes each and it gave us an opportunity to compare notes and ideas about personal self-defense tactics and techniques.  All three of us share a Kenpo/Kempo background, but have introduced elements from several other styles within our presentations. Professor Park and Master Bain are "old school" trained and their ideas and philosophies are quite similar to my own.  For instance, in training our students, the student is shown the technique, run through several repetitions and then given an opportunity to practice against new partners, critiqued and only then allowed to ask questions.  Then we explain  the details and give a possible variation if necessary.  We expect our students to execute the techniques correctly in practice and "short-cutting" is not an option available to our students because we know that under the stress of an actual street confrontation our students will not be able to perform the technique at 100% efficiency, therefore getting it right in practice means the student has an 85 to 90%  chance of making the techniques work in the street, where it will count the most and there are no 'do-overs'. I want to thank Professor Park for his kind words and I am looking forward to working with him again in the near future. Sincerely, Jerome Barber, Ed. D.

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