By James Sullivan
The parallels and commonality of Filipino martial arts and modern American martial arts are quite uncanny. The Philippines were a melting pot of cultures; local indigenous peoples, as well as Chinese, Arabian, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Spanish. For example, Islamic influences were quite strong from 1380-1500. This brought not only Islamic religion but a more worldly perspective of art, history, science, and martial science.
The Spanish, between the early 1500's and late 1800's, brought oppression and influenced the Filipino martial arts as they had to deal with these foreign invaders. The techniques of the espada y daga (sword & dagger) are examples of this fusion. On February 4, 1899, fighting broke out between U.S forces and Philippine rebels seeking independence. This went on for several years. The Colt-45 automatic was designed to deal with the brave and highly motivated and martially trained Filipino rebel. Many Filipinos depended on the martial arts for protection during the Japanese occupation (1941-1945).
HISTORY OF CONFLICT
Politics aside, historically the average Filipino dealt with a much wider range of attacks, techniques, and strategies because of this melting-pot concept. For example, take the Japanese Samurai, who are regarded as some of the best martial artists in history. They, however, had a style of fighting that was somewhat predictable because of the homogeneous nature of Japan during the feudal time period. In 1274, the eclectic fighter Kublai Kahn sent the Mongal army against Japan. The Samurai were confused and surprised at the tactics and methods used by the Mongal army. They would have been taken over had it not been for a call by Kublai Kahn to withdraw the Mongals. The withdrawal has remained a mystery to this day.
Today's America is a melting pot of cultures, which brings a richness to our collective cultural lives. Our politics might vary but the risk of military coup or outside oppression is minute. However, with great freedom also comes great responsibility. Collectively, we have not taken responsibility for various situations in the U.S. This void of responsibility has left us reaping the karma we have sown. Individually, we suffer an increasingly violent society such as the recent riots in Seattle, Washington, during the Mardi Gras celebration. The answer is not in legislation or depending on someone else, but rather taking charge of your own actions.
Whether on the streets of Manila or Chicago, a conflict can be just as dramatic and final for the unprepared. On the streets of America, the odds are an attacker will be armed and at least semi-skilled. They could be armed with impact weapons, bladed weapons, stun guns, or even battery-charged power tools. They could have training in savate, karate, sambo, capoeria, or be just a street thug with experience and attitude.
SELF-DEFENSE NOW
Modern Arnis was developed to give a person self-defense right now—not after years of study or certification and then only in situations where everyone plays by the same rules. The training of weapons comes first to give a person a tool for self-defense right away. Secondly, working with weapons right away demystifies them and makes you more familiar and less afraid of them. It also increases hand speed and timing, which leads into empty-hand proficiency.
Modern Arnis is a concept-driven system that teaches zones of defense and simple angles of attack. Most jeet kune do practitioners today borrow heavily from a Filipino concept base. The secret is to treat all attacks in a given zone very similarly; then learn a few techniques to deal with these angles. What you get is an efficient, easy-to-learn system that deals with a wide variety of attacks with a minimum amount of techniques.
The creator and driving force behind modern arnis is professor Remy Presas. Presas was born in 1937 in the Philippines. By the age of five, he and is family moved to the province of Negros Occidental to hide in the mountains from the Japanese during World War II. His father, Jose Presas, was a Lieutenant in the Filipino army and would train soldiers in arnis. His grandfather noticed the boy's great interest and began training him in espada y dagger (sword & dagger ).
By the time Presas was 12, he began to see the dark aspects of the art. Arnis was a powerful art and could be misused very easily. Blood spilled was very common during that time. But Presas also saw the beauty, positive power, and potential of the art and began the steps that would make modern arnis possible. By 1957, Arnis was a dying art thought to be practiced by thugs. Karate and judo were the popular (read politically correct) martial styles. Professor Presas studied other systems—jiujitsu, karate, and even sambo—to gain insight but continued perfecting his arnis. He incorporated concepts of physical education, neuromuscular education, and modern teaching methodology. He made it safer and easier to learn.
LOSING CONTROL
In the 1960's, modern arnis was gaining ground in the Philippines and by the 1970's it was being introduced into the school system via the Philippines Arnis Association which professor Presas founded. While Presas was out of the country in 1975, Army General Ver took control of all Filipino arts through a political coup. All Presas' work and organization had been stolen from him in a moment and even worse his life was at risk. Professor Presas escaped the Philippines and now teaches and shares his art in workshops throughout the Americas. His goal is to touch all people with commonality and a high degree of respect. He is often heard saying to practitioners of other systems that arnis is the art within your art.
On the cutting edge of the American martial arts progression is Kelly S. Worden. He is considered to be one of the most controversial, innovative, and combat-effective players in the U.S. today. I have personally found him to be a deeply compassionate person who understands the Karmatic implications of violence and its repercussions. He does, though, take it very seriously when someone comes to him for self-defense training. He appreciates that they are putting their lives in his hands and that they may need skills for real someday on the street and not just as an exercise in a dojo. Every student, be it housewife or special ops soldier, gets the same level of attention and sincerity.
More than just a martial artist, Worden is a master instructor and founder of his own system—Natural Spirit Int'l. One of his greatest innovations has been the creation of the sibat or Filipino long pole and the concepts of connecting the system, where the long pole teaches the practitioner a universal system of movement that can be applied to knife, stick, and open-hand techniques. Much like professor Presas, Worden has studied several systems at their highest level. These systems include, arnis, boxing, jeet kune do, non-classical gung-fu, kuntao, and silat concepts.
They act as subsystems within his art. He has also studied and incorporated concepts from American Sambo via long-term student and associate Dr. Brett Jacques.
Worden has over 20 martial arts training videos published mainly through Paladin Press. He has taught seminars throughout America for the last 20 years. His annual Water and Steel Training Camp brings real-world operators from all over the globe to train in reality-based martial arts. It also acts as a venue for other leaders in the American martial arts community to share and teach. Some of those leaders have included, James Keating, Jesse Glover, Ted Lucaylucay, Leonard Trigg, and Maurice Smith.
Currently, Worden is contracted to teach the Ist Special Forces at Ft. Lewis, Washington. His goal is to teach reality-based martial arts with right-now application. That means a martial mindset that can see things in one's environment to be used to one's advantage: a tree, concrete wall, or even other combatants. He will then integrate Filipino stick and knife science as well as concepts from sambo, while using the Special Forces' natural directness and aggressiveness to connect the system to application.
The title datu, which means warrior chief and predates the Islamic time of influence, is very controversial in its modern usage. Basically, the datu would train the men of the tribe and develop the strategies and tactics for war. Professor Presas promoted Worden to the rank of datu of Modern Arnis in 1988. Since then he has promoted six to this rank, with ten being the maximum number of individuals in this category.
Kelly Worden feels his role as a datu is one of ambassador to other martial arts and other people. The rank of datu is another example of professor Presas' genius beyond martial arts and into the field of strategy that would rival any CEO. As with any large organization, entropy is always a threat. The datu rank acts as an R & D (research and development ) division which must be free of the restraints and confines of rank to work properly
Today, the American progression of modern arnis can be made akin to a tree. The complex and varied subsystems of Filipino arts range from stick, staff, knife, sword, boxing, and grappling to the exotic aspect of biting and blowguns. These represent the roots of the progression. The trunk of the tree is formed by modern arnis and professor Presas, who by pulling together the subsystems and adding a concept base and modern teaching techniques, created Modern Arnis.
The American progression is like the branches of the tree. These branches go off in various directions. They cross-train, they evolve, they ask new questions about the new possibilities one may confront within a combat or self-defense situation. What are the realities and what really works is the cornerstone of this modern progression. Be it the root, the trunk, or the branch, they all give practical self-defense to those in need right now.
