Dan
I'll email you later
I read Dieter's post on the thread that Dan posted and figured I might be able to add something to this discussion.
I started with the Professor in 95 and with GM Ernesto in 96. I was fortunate to have an instructor (Hock) who studied with both of them and he recommended me to do the same. So every year I attended camps with both of them, and GM Remy and GM Ernesto was alright with that (as far as I knew). I still plan to attend camps with the Modern Arnis groups and I still plan to have or attend GM Ernesto camp when he is here in the states.
I teach a combination of their systems and I agree with Dieter in that it is the best of both worlds. Their systems complement each other to a degree and fill in where the other system might be lacking somewhat.
For instance Modern Arnis has a heavy emphasis on locking and controling a person, and Kombatan has a heavy emphasis on striking. Where MA has the locking techniques laid out in a progression Kombatan has the hitting, striking, blocking, laid out in a progression. While both systems have locking and striking the ways and the depth of teaching in the locking and striking are vastly different.
For instance GM Ernesto's double stick material not only covers a multitude of Sinawalis (as people have mentioned) but also he has his blocking and striking (force to force and palis palis) systems contained in that part of his art as well. Along with Double stick disarming etc. etc. Where GM Remy didn't go that deep (at least not in the seminars/camps I attended).
However while both of the brother's have classical single stick material. GM Remy had the more modern method of tying in compound locking and such that I've never seen GM Ernesto do.
GM Remy has the Tapi Tapi drills and those are very deep, and I agree with Dieter that what little I have learned and seen of the freestyle drill it seems to be not near as complex or have the depth that the Tapi series does. However GM Ernesto has his palit palit (?) or give and take (I feed and you feed) freestyle feeding drill that I believe is the core of his system.
In this series it teaches you to have different blocking and striking techniques with different parts of the stick/knife/palm stick/ empty hand whatever. And as your partner feeds than you block and you return another strike back and forth. But this drill is used with a multitude of different weapon or empty hand combinations and to me this is a core drill that is more similar to GM Remy's Tapi Tapi. (Although it is easier to do, I think it has depth that maybe the freestyle drill doesn't).
Kombatan's knife work is also more extensive than what GM Remy taught at the camps I attended as well. Again I think this is because of the jujitsu influence GM Remy had and wanting it to be a self defense type of a art. GM Ernesto on the other hand had a much more combative feel to it with the same/similar locks and throws but more strikes inbetween.
GM Ernesto also taught alot of espada y daga in the form of mini katas (not really anyos but like mini katas of 4-5 moves). maybe combinations is a better term. As well as disarming and take downs in EYD. Again I only had two instances back in 95-97 that GM Remy covered any EYD. I asked him about it and he said it was impractical for today so he didn't really teach it (that was in 97 or 98).
GM Ernesto's emptyhand built on the techniques learned previously in the other sub systems so they were more of the hit them slam them to the ground and follow up. There wasn't the emphasis on learning the multitude of locks and such as in Modern Arnis.
One last item. Where Dieter found GM Remy to be very approachable and confident (is that the right word) I find GM Enresto to be the same. Infact one of my former students who went to 3+ camps of the Professor's meet GM Ernesto for the 1st time and thought he was more approachable than GM Remy. I really don't think of one more highly than the other they are (where) both great, and I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with each of them.
What a long post. I hope this gives you some idea of the differences between the systems. However if you have learned Modern Arnis, Kombatan blends right in.
Mark