Metroplex Arnis Players Alliance for the DFW area

[Mark Lynn]

I just wanted to let people know that I am interested in reaching out to other FMA players and schools in the DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth) to create loose group of people who might be interested in possibly cross training events between schools, or perhaps supporting upcoming seminars etc. etc. you know like a networking group for FMAers in our area.

As I have posted in other threads (generally in the Martial Arts Talk forum I believe), and most recently on the thread about "open mats", I am a strong believer in "cross training" with other schools, attending seminar and camps etc. etc. to get a wider view of the martial arts. In my TKD classes I have worked hard to net work with other instructors to provide sparring opportunities for our students, or to have instructors sit on my exam boards (I've done the same with their schools), so my students get some outside training or contact with other schools. Rather than just paying $40.00 plus for local tournament, I'd rather them get a couple of hours training and 10-15 matches with students of all ranks and ages, over 1-3 matches and a plastic trophy.

Anyway back in September I met another arnis instructor, Abel, who I remembered back from some of the Modern Arnis camps back in the late 1990's early 2000's time period, at an Iain Abernethy seminar and after catching up we decided to try and arrange a meet up between our schools so our Arnis students could get together. Fast forward several months and my senior students were trying to do the same with another school in our area and we decided to combine the workouts into a mini seminar format, information of which can be found in the Seminar/Events Forum here on MT.

Putting this together Jackie (my marketing guru) came up with the name Metorplex Arnis Players Alliance or MAPA for short.
Metroplex is of course referring to the DFW area
Arnis is just a generic name for all FMAs
Players is of course referring to anyone training in or interested in learning about the FMAs
Alliance is just referring to a group of people having similar interests supporting each other

This is by no means meant to be a put up or shut up, or my style is better than yours, or who is the baddest in the land type of seminar/event and that is not what we envision MAPA either. Ultimately my goal is to have more of these, whether in the min seminar format as this first get together is, or more informal like the TKD events have been, but to use them to give my students a wider view of the FMAs and the martial arts in general, as well as a support group or alliance so that if some school is bringing a big name instructor to town that they have some outside people to contact and invite as well.

If anyone has any thoughts on this as in the networking or how to get together with other schools in the FMAs etc. etc. any advice I'd like to hear it. If you know of any FMA players here in the DFW area you might direct them to this thread to see if they are interested in getting together or the mini seminar or what have you.

In case anyone is wondering MAPA is not an official organization, with charters/memberships, dues, etc. etc. it was a non threatening name to be used for our cross training purposes.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Last night I went to a small Pekiti group (class) here that works mainly on Pekiti and JKD Kali to invite them to the seminar. I found out that they are hosting Dan Inosanto in the DFW area in August. I talked to them about my our goals of trying to set up a loose group of interested people in the FMAs for cross training purposes and to support other schools that bring in other instructors.

Hopefully some will be interested.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Last Saturday on May 3rd we held the first MAPA seminar and it was a great success overall.

We had several schools and styles represented with approximately 30 people showing up. Guro David Beck had a last minute family conflict come up so he wasn't able to attend but Guro John Bain who is a Pambuan Arnis stylist graciously filled in and taught knife techniques. Seriously Guro Bain was on his way to the seminar when I contacted him about filling in for Guro Beck, so Guro Bain watched what Guro Martinez and I taught and then filled in.

Guro Abel Martinez taught on flow drills with empty hand and with single stick, instructing on various Hubud and Sumbrada (6 count) drills. On Wednesday after getting back from Houston, I used Guro Abel's material to teach my Junior Modern Arnis class (went back over some of the drills) so the kids would remember them. Then I used his material as well in the adult class.

I taught on the Kombatan Double Stick Combative Responses (DSCR) and then translated them to empty hand skills. Since we had a mixed group of students and instructors present; some from other FMA schools, some Arnis/Krav Maga students, some arnis/silat, some kenpo/arnis buddies of mine, and my students both adults and kids who are in my Modern Arnis program, I wanted to show how to take a core drill and translate it across different applications. I started with using my daughter who's 13 and been practicing with me for almost a year and she demoed the defenses while I fed her stick feeds of various angles, then she did it empty hand vs. sticks with me feeding her the sticks. I had the attendees then do the same defenses both stick vs. stick and empty hand vs. empty hand. I had planned to use one of my assistants to strike at me with a bo and to defend using the different kobudo weapons, because I wanted to show was how to translate the DSCR to the Kobudo weapons of the Sai, Tonfa, and Kama but I decided to drop it as we got ready for the seminar. However mid way through as I was asking if anyone had any questions (etc. etc.) it was brought up so I had Kevin (one of my assistant instructors) feed me various attacks with the sticks while I used the DSCRs to defend with and then to set up various disarms.

At the end we each had another 10 minutes or so to show one last thing and Guro Abel taught on a counter to the arm bar flow drill, I tied the first two DSCRs to releases from hand grabs, and Guro Bain taught on finger locking techniques.

Some attendees came from as far away as Oklahoma City which was pretty humbling for me and I really appreciated their support. Everyone seemed to enjoy the seminar so in a couple of months we will arrange for another one with different instructors, Guro Beck has stated that he would be glad to teach (since he had to cancel) so we might have the next one over on the Dallas side of the Metroplex.

From the feed back I got from parents (of my students) that had attended (watching their kids participate) and my adult students; over all they were thrilled with the event. I was a bit worried when Guro Bain said he was going to teach on the knife, and I figured I might hear about it from the parents, however Guro Bain covered the material in such a way that the parents didn't think anything about it, in fact they were appreciative of how diverse the subject matters were and it made them appreciate what I'm teaching (the FMAs) all of the more to their kids.

Several of these same parents took their kids to a recent "open karate" tournament that my school supported (went to) and overall they had a much better experience at the seminar then the tournament. At the tournament they saw the circus; the people doing throwing their katanas in the air and catching them afterwards striking that dramatic pose, they saw the plastic kama being twirled around the contestants fingers and them the loud KIAAAAAAAA!!!!! At the seminar they saw how the weapons can be used, and everyone working and learning together.

As I said I hope this will be the first MAPA seminar of many more to come.

 

[tshadowchaser]

No disrespect meant but if your going to try to get a bunch of martial arts people together to cross train it might be a good idea not to make it an organization and give it a name. Giveing a name to such things indicates that there is a leader and following, not a group of like minded people getting together to express ideas. Just say that a meeting, event, get together, etc. is happening at such and such a time at this place.
Other than that I think it is a great idea. try working out at one school one time then at another the next.

 

[Mark Lynn]

No disrespect meant

None Taken

but if your going to try to get a bunch of martial arts people together to cross train it might be a good idea not to make it an organization and give it a name. Giveing a name to such things indicates that there is a leader and following, not a group of like minded people getting together to express ideas. Just say that a meeting, event, get together, etc. is happening at such and such a time at this place.
Other than that I think it is a great idea. try working out at one school one time then at another the next.

I understand your point and we (my senior students and I) talked about it, from the view point of trying to get the word out and getting something going (a catalyst so to speak) having a name for the event or the "organization" so to speak was to make it more legitimate in a sense that let's just all get together and train. Having the cross training event with defined instructors, defined time, defined cost etc. etc. we felt the name Metroplex Arnis Players Alliance defined the goals pretty well.

Metroplex defines the DFW area loosely
Arnis defines the FMAers who were the target group but is still inclusive of all styles and systems
Players defines anyone who is interested
Alliance defines once again non style or method specific and denotes the idea of coming along side, common goals etc. etc.

Currently there is no real formal organization or leader behind the group, but we need to have some organization or someone to arrange the events in the future. Hopefully next time we will have a few more schools join in but we had a decent attendance this time and everyone seemed to really enjoy the event. They all signed a email contact sheet so we will follow up with at least one more event in the next few months and we will see how it goes from there.

This doesn't mean that we (I or my school) won't still reach out to other FMA schools in the area to get our students together for smaller cross training events outside of MAPA either.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Well the last seminar was a lot of fun, I thought I wrote about it on this thread, but it appears I didn't. Anyway we had close to almost 30 people show up (counting us three instructors) and we had a good time. We've decided to continue on with another seminar in Richardson (N Dallas area) this time on August 2nd.

Right now it looks like Gruo Abel, Guro Beck and myself will be teaching. We offered to let two other instructors teach so that we would have more variety, but they were going to be out of town, so plans are they will teach at the 3rd one.

Our goal is to reach out to other schools and FMAers in the DFW metroplex if you, or if you know of anyone who like to participate check out the seminar/tournaments/events page here on MT for upcoming information on the MAPA seminars.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Well the last seminar was a lot of fun, I thought I wrote about it on this thread, but it appears I didn't. Anyway we had close to almost 30 people show up (counting us three instructors) and we had a good time. We've decided to continue on with another seminar in Richardson (N Dallas area) this time on August 2nd.

Right now it looks like Gruo Abel, Guro Beck and myself will be teaching. We offered to let two other instructors teach so that we would have more variety, but they were going to be out of town, so plans are they will teach at the 3rd one.

Our goal is to reach out to other schools and FMAers in the DFW metroplex if you, or if you know of anyone who like to participate check out the seminar/tournaments/events page here on MT for upcoming information on the MAPA seminars.

I just realized that I haven't been on MT for a few months now during the summer, I thought I posted about our 2nd MAPA event on August the 2nd, but I see I didn't.

Actually it went great, again we had about 30 students and instructors show up at Beck Martial Arts in Richardson for the cross training event. This time we had a different mix of students and instructors show up; we had students and instructors from TKD, Kenpo, Kung Fu as well as those of us in the FMAs. Guro Matinez started off teaching on the use of the abaniko strike in hitting, locking and disarming; I taught on releasing techniques from the Kombatan system; Guro Bain taught on the knife, and Guro Beck taught on the use of the punyo.

Originally slated for only three instructors; Guro Matinez at the camp, when he saw Guro Bain was attending offered to give up half of his time to Guro Bain. In the end it was decided to cut everyone back 5-10 minutes and go with 4 instructors instead of 3. It was this type of respect for other martial artists and instructors that we as a group were looking to foster. No games, no politics, no back stabbing, just working together and having a good time.

Jackie stated that this event had a real special feel to it in how everyone got along and worked together, students freely mixed with others, the instructors all had a good time, and helped teach. It was a blast. Before the seminar was ended the 3rd MAPA cross training event was planned for early November at Guro Bain's school in Plano TX. Currently we have scheduled Guro Bain, Guro Beck, [FONT=Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif]Andrea Tabei (owner and chief instructor of Executive Self Defense and Fitness LLC) and Guro Darren Daily to teach.[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif]At the Guro Inosanto seminar this past weekend I spread the word about MAPA to some other students and instructors I met there. It would be great to keep this type of cross training momentum growing so we can add new and different instructors into the rotation. If you know of anyone in the DFW/Central Texas area who might be interested please spread the word. If you are on FB you can locate and visit the MAPA page by typing in Metroplex Arnis Players Alliance. You'll find pictures and flyers for upcoming FMA events in the DFW, Central TX area, not just MAPA events. [/FONT]

 

[Mark Lynn]

MAPA #3 is coming on NOV 8th

Guro John Bain's school in Plano TX is hosting the seminar.

We have two other instructors sharing the teaching this time.

Guro David Beck
Guro John Bain
Guro Darren Dailey
Andrea Tabi

To view the flyer go to facebook and search for mapadfw there you can find out more about MAPA as well as see pictures of our last two events. MAPA as a whole is still just across training opportunity for FMA students and instructors. Over the summer I reached out to some other FMA instructors, some at the Guro Inosnato's seminar, and I've heard that some of the other instructors have reached out to other FMAers as well. So hopefully we will get some more people on board. It will be interesting to what see Guro Darren and Andrea teach.

 

[Brian King]

Lov'n the way you come back to thread and update it. Great to see the growth of the training events and read what the different blocks of instruction covered. Thanks

Regards
Brian King

 

[Mark Lynn]

Lov'n the way you come back to thread and update it. Great to see the growth of the training events and read what the different blocks of instruction covered. Thanks

Regards
Brian King

Brian

Glad you like them, I thought nobody was really caring but I was posting in hopes that someone might stumble across them and maybe get interested if their in the DFW area. Actually I've been working on some short videos for the facebook page to try and get the word out, as to what has been covered at the seminars and what it (MAPA) is kind of about. As I've been going back over them (the videos), I forgot how fun the seminars were to teach at, and what all was covered. It's kind of been a trip down memory lane in a sense.

On thing I did notice though was that I need to relax some when instructing, I'm in my element when teaching (or demoing) things I enjoy and I really enjoy teaching the double stick material and later showing how it relates to empty hand strikes. At the first seminar I decided to scrap showing how the techniques could be applied to the kobudo weapons, but when asked to demonstrate it, all I can say is thank goodness I have a assistant that is use to me. I didn't hit him (hard) or anything but standing there while someone is striking at you with sai, kama, tonfa, being disarmed, as well as getting smacked in the face with empty hand isn't for the faint of heart. Same thing goes on when I was teaching the releasing techniques (GM Ernesto's stick retention and releasing techniques), I tend to kind of like demo like GM Remy or Ernesto did (not that I hold a candle to them), pretty good speed and impact; again thank goodness Kevin was assisting me again.

However looking back over the videos, everyone else (the other instructors) seems very relaxed, very easy going, and here I am. "We strike to the head, but I can hit him in the stick hand, I can disarm him here, I can use the punyo to hit him with, I can disarm him with the punyo," sticks are flying. "Hitting with the tonfa is the same as striking with the kama but it doesn't cut" "Using the sai I can thrust, I can disarm......" It's kind of funny there is no problem with hearing me on the video.

I'll hopefully post the short promo videos in the next day or so on the facebook page www.facebook.com/mapadfw after I show the others the videos to see if they is OK with them.

 

[TwentyThree]

To keep up to date with events with the Metroplex Arnis Players Alliance:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mapadfw
Google Plus: http://goo.gl/CviNyM

 

[Mark Lynn]

Yesterday we held the 3rd MAPA seminar at River of Glory Church in Plano. This was not a evangelical event, but rather martial artists helping other martial artists. From what I understand the pastor of the church is an 8th degree black belt in Hapkido and he offered his church as a venue for us to hold the seminar at. Which I think was very fitting since MAPA is all about martial artists helping out other martial artists, and while MAPA is specifically geared towards the FMAs and providing cross training for FMAers, I think it is great that this pastor opened up his church for us to use.

MAPA continues to grow and add to the diversity of the group, we had several new instructors check us out and from my end they had very positive things to say about the experience. My (our) hope is they will get involved and share their arts in the future with the group. One thing I should mention is that these instructors not only supported the event by showing up, but they also brought some of their students along to train as well. They stepped out and led by example by participating and working out right along side of their students, intermixing with others, sharing their skills and expertise. Speaking of church it is time for me to go, so I'll share what was covered and who taught a little later on today.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Back again

This time Guro David Beck taught on developing power while twirling the stick, many times twirling can just be thought of a way of warming up, Guro Beck talked about using the twirling motions as strikes and how to develop power with them.

The 2nd presenter was Andrea Tabei who runs Executive Self Defense and Fitness in McKinney TX. She taught on using double stick entries then translating that to empty hand entries and then a self defense against impact weapons defense. This was kind of a combination of arnis and Krav Maga blended material.

Guro Darren Dailey who is a IMAF black belt (Modern Arnis), taught on the basic Tapi drill using angles 1, 2, 5, and 12 as a mini flow drill then he showed different counters off of the back hand defense (block) in the drill.

Our last presenter was Guro John Bain normally teaches knife/blade work, but this time taught a very good session on base disruptions or off balancing the opponent. Guro John taught on balance, taking a person's balance, and then he had us work through drills to examine what he taught. After which he taught us several ways to off balance a person by foot traps and stance manipulation along with drills to reinforce the instruction.

I enjoyed this mix of material very much and got a lot from the instruction. Of course the material was taught on a pretty basic level, since each instructor only had an hour in which to instruct, but it was enough for I believe everyone to get something from it. I missed the majority of Guro Beck's instruction since I got there late but I took away a different way to present twirling to my students, and I'll try and catch up with David on this at a later event. Andrea's segment was again pretty basic material, I liked the way she commanded or instructed the group and laid out her material building on each drill, I also got inspiration on how to set up future drills for my students, which I'll probably use in class this week. Guro Darren's material was similar to material we had been covering in class lately, but it was still a different drill which allowed my students to work on new material while seeing a connection to what I had been teaching as well. For me personally what I got the most from was Guro Bain's balance disruption segment, but only because this is an area I'm weak in.

But that's the beauty of the event what I took away as being the most beneficial for me, was not what was the most beneficial for others. I worked with some students who were struggling (well learning) with the drill Guro Darren taught, I corrected a few things and they got it down, so that might have been their big take away. Others got a lot from working with different people etc. etc. Who knows the main thing was everybody was getting together and having a good time learning and sharing with each other and that is what is really cool.

Over dinner after the seminar, we already started planning MAPA 4. Some ideas for future events include having the admission fee being set aside for some sort of charity (food bank, Toys for Tots (this would be next year fall/winter seminar etc. etc.), possibly having one out doors at a park (then maybe we could eat there and have a cook out etc. etc.), these are just some of the ideas that we discussed.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Just FYI on my post on 10/26/14 I mentioned that I was going to post some videos on the MAPA FB page well I did but there seems to be a problem viewing them. These were meant to be promo videos for MAPA, but they are on the Photos of the Metroplex Arnis Players....... page.

Here is a link to it if anyone is interested.
https://www.facebook.com/mapadfw/photos_stream?tab=photos

I'll be posting some more photos of MAPA 3 up there soon (well in the next few days, not soon by cyber time, but soon by the Lynn family time).

The first 3 listed are the videos, then there are two pictures, over on the "Photo" page there are more photos of the events. I'm not sure why a second page or tab was created but this might be the reason why people haven't seen them.

 

[TwentyThree]

I also wrote up my post-MAPA thoughts on my blog, here (with a very few pictures we got on our cell phones):

The Stick Chick: Thoughts from MAPA 3: The Student is the Teacher is the Student

 

[Mark Lynn]

Wow it's been a little over a year now since we started MAPA and it has continued to grow.

In January (I think it was the 28th) we held MAPA 4 at Okinawan Karate Club in Dallas TX. hosted by guro Bruce Jenkins. The school is where guro Jenkins teaches at.

This time we had two new teachers teaching, guro Mike Pana and gruo Jenkins, then guro Abel Martinez and myself rounded out the instructors. Guro Jenkins started us off by teaching his three lock flow system from Moroland Martial Arts. Guro Jenkins demonstrated a lock and then we worked different applications resulting in obtaining the lock, and then he demonstrated another, and so on. Ultimately we flowed from one lock to the next.

Guro Mike Pana from Bayani Warrior Group taught on a espaday daga drill that was one part of a 10 part drill of his. He taught one segment of the drill and he taught in detail on that sequence. Guro Pana also gave a brief talk putting his drills into perspective. Guro Pana had us work on one part of the drill, then he added to it each time were he had us ultimately defeating the person by taking them down and finishing them. My description doesn't do his teaching justice as I thought it was very well laid out and in each segment he was teaching or showing back up drills as well. It wasn't just a simple take down that we did for an hour.

Guro Abel Martinez taught on Filipino boxing or dirty boxing as he called it, tying it into one of the Professor's drills series called Sinawali boxing. Guro Martinez taught on the different locks, elbows, and off balancing moves found within that drill.

I taught on the Professor's empty hand drill that is based on his solo baston drill called Tapi Tapi. I used two of my students Tomas and Dylan to show that you can do this drill with adults and kids as well (Dylan's 10). I tied in the aspect of teaching flow as well as using the drill to teach application of locking techniques as well.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Then on May 2nd we held MAPA 5 which was our 1 year anniversary event. Hidden Sword Martial Arts (my group) hosted this event and we held it out doors at my church Life Community Church in Haslett Tx. It was an out door event so I wanted shade as well as access to clean bathrooms and a place to eat so we held it on the church grounds. This way we also could cool off indoors in our youth building and have lunch.

Back in Feb. as I was planning this event our concern was the potential heat so I wanted a place to be sheltered and cool to eat in (we provided lunch for this event). I mean we had been in a drought for four years hadn't thought of rain. Well prior to this event it seemed like rain was going to be the big problem since we have been getting hammered here lately. However PTL the weather held for three days prior to the event and the sun was out, it was dry, it was cool great raining weather.

This event was our 1st year anniversary so we had a longer event with 6 instructors and 6 hours of instruction. This time we had 3 first time instructors teaching. We had guro Dr. Hume (Modern Arnis from College Station TX) Master Earl Tullis (Modern Arnis from Houston), guro Jason Gutierrez (Hock Hochheim's PAC program), along with guro John Bain (Pambaun Arnis), guro Martinez, and myself teaching.

Guro Abel started us off with teaching on a staff (bangkaw) and double stick drill.

Dr. Hume taught next on aspects of the right vs. right Tapi drill from Modern Arnis. Dr. Hume flowed through different applications of the stick vs. stick as well as empty hand vs. stick defense found within the flow drill.

Guro Bain finished our first session (prior to lunch) on a knife flow drill he taught at MAPA 2 and combined it with base disruptions that he taught at MAPA 3 (along with some added material).

Guro Jason started off with a combative drill from Hock's program putting the emphasis removing the blocking hand, and then different aspects of disarming.

Master Earl taught on the Left hand vs. Right hand Tapi drills series of the Professors showing the more combative approach to this material instead of the flow heavy approach. Kind of like stressing more of the fighting aspect of the art.

Then I finished with teaching some of GM Ernesto's Kombatan Arnis's espada y daga drills and then went into showing how the EYD matterial can relate to double and single stick disarms.

Our MAPA events are holding at between 20-30 participants for each event, we have now had about 10 different schools or instructors take part in our events, as well as having the two guest instructors Master Earl and Dr. Hume teach at his one. I do want to thank both Master Earl and Dr. Hume (both IMAF instructors) for driving several hours to attend and teach at this event. This has been the 3rd seminar that Dr. Hume and his students have participated in.

I'm thankful for all of the instructors who have chosen to share their knowledge, their skills and their arts with others in MAPA over the past year. Guro Darren Dailey will be hosting MAPA 6 in August as he works to secure that line up.