Remy A. Presas' Modern Arnis
Modern Arnis and I met decades ago, when Guro Eric Alexander
gave me my first taste of the art in 1992. Since 1993/1994, I have studied under
Professor Remy A.
Presas himself, as well as a great many of his advanced students.
I have enjoyed my time with each and every one of them, but of course I
treasure my time with Profesor Presas most of all. Between side-sessions
and even private training, I will forever be thankful for his contributions,
both as an instructor and in personal exchanges, that
he provided to my martial arts journey, and not just in Modern Arnis.
I worked my way up through colored ranks primarily under Guro Eric, and
then with his blessing shifted to training with the Professor around green belt, achieving
Lakan (black belt, non-probationary, 1995) and Lakan Isa (1st degree black belt, 1996),
In 1997, Professor Presas awarded me Lakan Dalawa (2nd degree black belt) rank in Modern Arnis,
my final promotion under him before he passed. Due to multiple surgeries,
I had to miss testing for Lakan Tatlo (3rd degree black belt) despite the Professor's
enthusiastic requests in 1999 and again in 2000,
and I did not seek additional rank after his passing. Eventually, I received
a surprise recognition in early 2015 as Lakan Tatlo in Modern Arnis by the
World Modern Arnis Alliance (WMAA). During
my 2016 trip to the Philippines, I was honored to test in Hinigaran
(Prof. Presas' home town!) and was awarded Lakan Apat (4th degree) in Presas Arnis,
Kombatan, and Modern Arnis. I have earned more rank since then as well, but it is
worth noting that I have never asked to test or for rank, and I never will.
At the Professor's encouragement and insistance, I founded the
TAMU Modern Arnis Club at
Texas A&M University in 1995 and later expanded
to also include a non-university commercial club. After receiving my PhD
in Nuclear Chemistry,
I continued to teach and do seminars, but more importantly I continue to learn and
hone my Modern Arnis.
When I teach, I emphasize flow, real-life applications
(i.e. convince me this'd work), disarms and joint-work. I've found
that my Modern Arnis training has helped in my understanding and application
of kung fu as well - kind of a cross-pollination. One of the single best
training tools in GM Presas' system is Tapi-Tapi, with all the
variations, free-flowingness, change-ups, and applications put in - WONDERFUL!
Of course, the full gamut of other drills are explored as well as
their variations involving applications, follow-ups, empty-hand translations,
guntings, disarms, counters, striking styles, locks, reversals, takedowns,
pins, etc. Some of these are:
in addition to these, Guro Martinez and I have developed other useful training tools, including:
We also spend a great deal of time investigating how these things tie together
by working them in different variations and combinations. For example, we may
work single cane versus double cane in sinawalis, weave sinawalis together
seamlessly and randomly, or sneak disarms, locks, and/or counters into any
of the drills. We will often work armed techniques and drills unarmed or work
unarmed versus armed attacks or any of an almost infinite number of other
variations. It's a real treat to find how well these variations work together.
We firmly respect all of GM Presas' teachings, and by extension we support as
many of the various Modern
Arnis organizations as we can, especially those we
have interacted with. This list is constantly expanding because so many out
there are doing a great job of sharing their piece of GM Presas' vision.
In no particular order, we support and are members of:
This page is devoted to one of the arts we teach as a stand-alone program at
Tye's Kung Fu; i.e. Modern Arnis.
Currently, we offer weekly classes in Remy Presas' Modern Arnis:
Sundays 09:30am - 10:30am is Modern Arnis curriculum review
Sundays 10:30am - noon is the regular workshop-style classes
The location is
the basketball court area of the central park at Kings' Park in Springfield, VA.
the 12 Basic Strikes
the Basic Blocks
sweep (stick-up and stick-down), umbrella (inside and outside), cutting
Striking Styles
labtik, witik, tusok, punyo, banda-y-banda, rompida, taas-baba (up-down), abaniko
(largo & corto, single- and double-action), piguro de otso, double
zero X, pabilog (arko), harada, pelantik, duplete, etc
Sinawalis
Single Sinawali, 4-ct Single, Double Sinawali, Pera-peral Sinawali ("Cowboy"),
Reverse Sinawali, Heaven 6, Earth 6, 4-ct Double, X Sinawali, and on and on.
Anyos (forms)
empty-hand, opposite hand, single cane, knife, double cane, cane+knife, double knife, and staff
the Flow Drill
"Dance of Pain"
Flowing effortlessly from joint lock to joint lock while inserting throws,
takedowns, pins, come-alongs, etc.
Palis-Palis
Abanico (Corto, Largo, Double Action (4 ways), etc)
Single Dagger
Espada-y-daga
the 6-Count Drill (Anim na Bilang), the Box
Drill (10-Count), and Abaniko Sumbrada (10-count)
same-side, opposite, mis-matched, and inserts
Tapi-Tapi
Abecedario, obstruction removal, L vs. R, R vs. R, crossovers, knife, empty-hand, and inserts
the 14- and 18-Count Drills
the Range Drill
various Lock-flow Drills
Guro Eric Alexander working with Guro
Raymond Montoya
Guro Anding DeLeon and Professor playing Tapi-Tapi
