Over the past 15-20+ years has your focus on teaching Modern Arnis changed?

[Mark Lynn]

As I mentioned in the Tapi thread; my view points, maybe my understanding of drills, etc. etc. has changed over the years. As I read over some of the previous threads on the subject in 2002-2006 time frame here on MT, people were discussing that the Professor stressed 3 things; The Flow, Counter for Counter (Tapi Tapi), and It's all the same. I think the posters were saying that the Professor said that anyone of those three things were the heart of Modern Arnis at one time or another. And there was a lot of debate as to where the Tapi drills fit.

Not meaning to really rehash the Tapi debate; but I was wondering how your understanding, your emphasis maybe on teaching Modern Arnis, etc. etc. has changed if at all over the past 15-20+ years. I say 20 years because I started in 1995 in Modern Arnis under the Professor (actually it was 1994 under Hock in Presas Arnis but.... I started at the camps in 95 with Remy so I'll start there for purposes of discussion). Of course I use the + for those that started before me and the 15 years to represent when Remy was still teaching at the camps.

 

[Mark Lynn]

I'll start

My focus hasn't really changed but maybe gotten sharper. I've always been interested in the "It's all the same" aspect. I understand that "It's not all the same", that there are differences between impact and edged weapons; between kama, tonfa, bo, sai, nunchaku and the rattan stick or bolo. Just like using a wrench, a flashlight, a racquetball racquet, or a bath towel. I know there are differences between empty hand, traditional weapons and improvised weapons. I get that.

Yet Modern Arnis as an art, as a training methodology, as the "Art within your Art" concept allows me to see the commonality of those different weapons and how I can apply them using the FMAs and Modern Arnis in particular to practice defense with them. My study of Modern Arnis has improved my understanding and practice of my empty hand art, as well as Kobudo. However I don't claim to study nor teach a pure art as in pure TKD or Kobudo, or even "pure" unadulterated Modern Arnis either.

I first started out in Modern Arnis looking at things from a historical perspective; I took notes, and I video'd. My training partners and I would be training and filming well into the night to capture what we did that day (they are painful to watch now), I'd type my notes for days and weeks on my breaks at work. Then I realized through some wise counsel, that really the main influences in my training (karate and the FMAs) were all innovators, and that I was trying to put an evolving art created by an innovator into a historical box.

I think then I really started to learn what the Art within your Art was about.