D
DoctorB
Guest
A Review of "De-fanging The Snake"
I have just completed reading Guro Dan Andersons new e-book, "De-fanging The Snake: A Guide to Modern Arnis Disarms". It is a natural extension of the 1983 publication of Modern Arnis: The Filipino Art of Stick Fighting, as authored by the late Professor Remy Presas and published by Ohara Publications. Whereas the Ohara publication was devoted to serving as a limited introduction to the art of Modern Arnis, with 12 stick to stick and 7 empty hand against a sword disarms shown, Mr. Andersons current book greatly expands on the disarming theme found within that earlier book.
Mr. Anderson, has presented the most definitive written exploration and explanation of the art of stick disarming from within the Modern Arnis perspective that I have yet come across in my training within the art. For those of us who have had the privilege of training with the late Professor Presas, in the late 1970s through the mid 1990s, the bulk of the disarming material presented by Mr. Anderson is both familiar and comforting. We have already seen it and yet it allows us to see so much more, through a different set of eyes. This stuff is vintage Remy Presas, it is the art that this man made famous and it is the magic, the slight of hand trickery that first amazed us and attracted us to Modern Arnis. The disarms are not the bread and butter of Modern Arnis, they are really the deliciously scented, eye appealing, taste busting sensational desserts within the art, that made us all want to know how to do it for ourselves.
The disarms are presented in a clear, concise and detailed manner. Each disarm presented is one that I have seen Professor teaching and in that sense there were no surprises. The explanation of each disarm is depicted in both text and photographs. None of the explanations violate the principles of mechanical motion and is actually quite simple in application. In short, Mr. Anderson, has written a definitive how to book. He has also loaded his neat, orderly e-book with good number of logically sequenced photos, devoid of the annoying missing segments, that so often plague most magazine articles. The written text, photos and captions are geared toward providing the reader with a solid, factual explanation about how and why each disarm presented actually works. Within the text and photos, Mr. Anderson, demonstrates the principles of leverage, push-pull, snaking, striking and strength utilizations that are at the core of Modern Arnis disarming. He uses single stick, double stick, stick and dagger as well as empty hand techniques within his text arsenal of tricks. I particularly enjoyed his examples of left handed vs. right handed stick confrontation and how one would proceed to gain a disarm in that situation.
Jerome Barber, Ed.D.
Principal Instructor, Independent Escrima/ Arnis Associates
I have just completed reading Guro Dan Andersons new e-book, "De-fanging The Snake: A Guide to Modern Arnis Disarms". It is a natural extension of the 1983 publication of Modern Arnis: The Filipino Art of Stick Fighting, as authored by the late Professor Remy Presas and published by Ohara Publications. Whereas the Ohara publication was devoted to serving as a limited introduction to the art of Modern Arnis, with 12 stick to stick and 7 empty hand against a sword disarms shown, Mr. Andersons current book greatly expands on the disarming theme found within that earlier book.
Mr. Anderson, has presented the most definitive written exploration and explanation of the art of stick disarming from within the Modern Arnis perspective that I have yet come across in my training within the art. For those of us who have had the privilege of training with the late Professor Presas, in the late 1970s through the mid 1990s, the bulk of the disarming material presented by Mr. Anderson is both familiar and comforting. We have already seen it and yet it allows us to see so much more, through a different set of eyes. This stuff is vintage Remy Presas, it is the art that this man made famous and it is the magic, the slight of hand trickery that first amazed us and attracted us to Modern Arnis. The disarms are not the bread and butter of Modern Arnis, they are really the deliciously scented, eye appealing, taste busting sensational desserts within the art, that made us all want to know how to do it for ourselves.
The disarms are presented in a clear, concise and detailed manner. Each disarm presented is one that I have seen Professor teaching and in that sense there were no surprises. The explanation of each disarm is depicted in both text and photographs. None of the explanations violate the principles of mechanical motion and is actually quite simple in application. In short, Mr. Anderson, has written a definitive how to book. He has also loaded his neat, orderly e-book with good number of logically sequenced photos, devoid of the annoying missing segments, that so often plague most magazine articles. The written text, photos and captions are geared toward providing the reader with a solid, factual explanation about how and why each disarm presented actually works. Within the text and photos, Mr. Anderson, demonstrates the principles of leverage, push-pull, snaking, striking and strength utilizations that are at the core of Modern Arnis disarming. He uses single stick, double stick, stick and dagger as well as empty hand techniques within his text arsenal of tricks. I particularly enjoyed his examples of left handed vs. right handed stick confrontation and how one would proceed to gain a disarm in that situation.
Jerome Barber, Ed.D.
Principal Instructor, Independent Escrima/ Arnis Associates
