in the 1960s i think, it was during a time when ferdinand marcos and his friend climbed the ladder in the philippine army. these men favored things filipino, and the martial arts of the philippines was there choice for hand to hand combat. the main weapons of the pilipino soldier was the baynet and the knife from the baoyonet by itself. the men also learned to used the hands and feet, but for killing the opponent, not striking as in karate, so barehanded arnis is the fighting style of choice.
many arnisadors were making styles to teach to the military and the police, and they needed a fast curriculum where the arnisador can kill his opponent or destroy his ability to continue fighitng. so they got rid of there sinawali, and pre arranged techniques and blockings and they preferred to have counterattack than defense, and strikes to disable or kill instead of just to hurt and a stronger, more basic empty hands style (instead of a lot of techniques to remember, but just a few).
from this you lost the "classical arnis" and came up with "modern arnis". every body, pekiti tirsia, doce pares, comjuka, kuntaw, and others claims to be the first with "modern" arnis. but they all did it at the same time. after the rush with the military some people when to policia academies, and colleges and US bases with there style. and each one calls the style MODERN and they all said they are the first one.
when the schools adopted arnis into the PE classes. they had to have a "taga pagturo", a teacher, to teach it. and who is a better teacher than the one who created it? anyway, the arnis modern style became more user friendly becase now there is no sparring, no striking to the arms, and the fighters practice farther away to each other, to make it safer, and this became the new "modern arnis". they wanted to be so easy a girl can do it. then the classes got fancier and more interesting than a fighting class. they have all these different ways to tap the sticks together (like how it is taught today) and now you have the new modern arnis.
modern arnis is found in every part of the philippines and there is a different founder to each one. but to some people "modern" arnis is "combat" arnis, and some "modern" arnis is "user friendly arnis". and each group claims he is the first.
