Video Prof. Presas and Grandmaster Pallen

Damn, if he had been in Oakland instead of Anaheim I might have got to meet him then.

Thanks for the clip
 
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I might as well ramble on here. In 1987, just after getting over some severe back surgery I was looking for a martial art to replace the Choy Le Fut that I was studing for some time in San Francisco prior to my injury. I was a claims adjuster in San Leandro, CA. and there was this Karate Studio a couple of blocks from my office. I walked into the gym and thier were a couple of students whacking away with sticks. the gym was MAX Pallen's and the art was called ARNIS!. As Arnis was almost unknown at the time and that I had never heard of it I thought. "Gee, whacking each other with sticks", " how stupid could this be!" I quickly walked out and went my own way.

Ir was'nt until later, up in Tacoma, WA where I moved to in 1992, that I met Kelly Worden and finally discovered the beauty of this art.

The point here is this. Most people, like I did, after seeing the art for the first time tend to not see beyond the stick whacking, and come to thier own (mostly wrong) conclusions! Maybe if I met Mr. Pallen at the time, I would have been in this art years before I moved to Washington State.

To make matters worse, I lived in Antioch, CA. in the late 70's and early 80's and on Sunday Mornings I would leave my wife and kids and go on my typical Banzia run on my NORTON (remember cafe racers you had to build if you wanted to ride one)! Unknown to me I probably blew past Angel Cabales, flicked off Master Tacosa and disturbed the peace of Max Saramonto without even knowing i while storming on my way into Stockton for a Rancho Heauvas breakfast before blasting back home..... Ah.... Ignorance is bliss.

Chris A
 
I might as well ramble on here. In 1987, just after getting over some severe back surgery I was looking for a martial art to replace the Choy Le Fut that I was studing for some time in San Francisco prior to my injury. I was a claims adjuster in San Leandro, CA. and there was this Karate Studio a couple of blocks from my office. I walked into the gym and thier were a couple of students whacking away with sticks. the gym was MAX Pallen's and the art was called ARNIS!. As Arnis was almost unknown at the time and that I had never heard of it I thought. "Gee, whacking each other with sticks", " how stupid could this be!" I quickly walked out and went my own way.

Ir was'nt until later, up in Tacoma, WA where I moved to in 1992, that I met Kelly Worden and finally discovered the beauty of this art.

The point here is this. Most people, like I did, after seeing the art for the first time tend to not see beyond the stick whacking, and come to thier own (mostly wrong) conclusions! Maybe if I met Mr. Pallen at the time, I would have been in this art years before I moved to Washington State.

To make matters worse, I lived in Antioch, CA. in the late 70's and early 80's and on Sunday Mornings I would leave my wife and kids and go on my typical Banzia run on my NORTON (remember cafe racers you had to build if you wanted to ride one)! Unknown to me I probably blew past Angel Cabales, flicked off Master Tacosa and disturbed the peace of Max Saramonto without even knowing i while storming on my way into Stockton for a Rancho Heauvas breakfast before blasting back home..... Ah.... Ignorance is bliss.

Chris A


Chris,

Here in the Flint Mi area, where I grew up, while in JR high there was a couple major schools in the area teaching Modern Arnis and TKD. After a while those involved split up and got their own clubs. Some just did Modern Arnis, while others jsut did TKD and others did both. This was in the early 80's. When I joined in 1986, Arnis had already run a major course through Flint down to Detroit and South East Michigan. It was almost like the rush to it was over, as new schools were not popping up all the time and the older ones worked harder to maintain students. I just thought it interesting that in 1986 in my area everyone who was into martial arts knew about Modern Arnis or some other FMA and in other areas the knowledge was not as common. Perception and where people come from will determine their points of view, and I find it interesting to see this here as well.

Thanks for sharing.
 
I might as well ramble on here. In 1987, just after getting over some severe back surgery I was looking for a martial art to replace the Choy Le Fut that I was studing for some time in San Francisco prior to my injury. I was a claims adjuster in San Leandro, CA. and there was this Karate Studio a couple of blocks from my office. I walked into the gym and thier were a couple of students whacking away with sticks. the gym was MAX Pallen's and the art was called ARNIS!. As Arnis was almost unknown at the time and that I had never heard of it I thought. "Gee, whacking each other with sticks", " how stupid could this be!" I quickly walked out and went my own way.

Ir was'nt until later, up in Tacoma, WA where I moved to in 1992, that I met Kelly Worden and finally discovered the beauty of this art.

The point here is this. Most people, like I did, after seeing the art for the first time tend to not see beyond the stick whacking, and come to thier own (mostly wrong) conclusions! Maybe if I met Mr. Pallen at the time, I would have been in this art years before I moved to Washington State.

To make matters worse, I lived in Antioch, CA. in the late 70's and early 80's and on Sunday Mornings I would leave my wife and kids and go on my typical Banzia run on my NORTON (remember cafe racers you had to build if you wanted to ride one)! Unknown to me I probably blew past Angel Cabales, flicked off Master Tacosa and disturbed the peace of Max Saramonto without even knowing i while storming on my way into Stockton for a Rancho Heauvas breakfast before blasting back home..... Ah.... Ignorance is bliss.

Chris A

Not to rub it in or anything, but man did you miss out! Grandmaster Pallen is a phenominal instructor.
 

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