Just a quick update, haven’t posted in a while…
As much as we respect and enjoy other variants of FMA, we just really want to stay within the Presas family arts, and that’s what we decided a few months ago – that we’d stay within our style, practice using books and videos, and go back to our old teacher and seminars once in a while to get correction.
In the mean time, we were seeking out potential instructors in very similar styles to work with occasionally – the problem is that everyone we found was at least 45-60 minutes away. A big haul, especially when you have children (one needing a babysitter).
However, after months of searching, we’ve finally found someone to work with us in Modern Arnis who’s grounded in the Presas family styles (Kombatan from GM Ernesto and Modern Arnis from Professor Remy) AND is within 30 minutes (20 in no traffic), who teaches in a place with a child care facility for our small one!
Funnily enough, I’d reached out to this person a few months ago via a martial arts web site (I admired his posts and then saw he was nearby) but the email never got to him.
I figured he’d moved or something and was no longer in our area. We ran into him by chance when he visited our school a few weeks ago, and after finding out he’s a stick guy as well as a teacher in the same art as our school, I introduced myself to him. The rest is history – we’re now banging sticks with him a couple of times a week (and more when he lets us)!
Note: to people who train with no teacher (from books or videos) – after over a year of doing that, I can tell you that I think that you must, at least at some point, work with someone who knows what they are doing. Even with a mirror, you can’t really see what you are doing wrong and you have no idea how to correct it (or why).
Find a more experienced person somehow – go to a seminar, something. If you really enjoy your art, don’t short change yourself by doing it wrong!
So, we’re having fun banging sticks on a regular, informed basis once again.
–Her
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