Modern Arnis UK

Author Archive for Sion Oxford

Filipino Martial Arts – Beginners Course

New people are always welcome to come along and join in our Modern Arnis classes, but Starting on May 2nd, we plan to run a special beginners course at Stowupland Sports Centre.

Arnis (also known as Eskrima and Kali), is the national sport and traditional martial art of the Philippines that emphasizes weapon-based fighting with sticks, blades and various improvised weapons. In recent years, Filipino Martial Arts have become more widely known through its use in major Hollywood films like The Bourne Identity, and the Bond films.

Although, as in most Filipino Martial Arts, much emphasis is put on weapons, Modern Arnis also includes hand-to-hand techniques, joint locks, grappling, and weapon disarming techniques.

As well as keeping the classes varied and interesting, this blend makes Modern Arnis particularly useful tool for modern-day self defence.

An introductory course like this is the ideal way to start. Not only does it mean that the lessons are tailored specifically towards new people, but also starting as part of a group of like-minded fresh faces is always a great help.

The course runs for four consecutive Tuesdays, from 7.00 – 8.30pm and costs just £15. This includes WAKO GB membership and insurance for a full year, so if you fall in love with the art like we did, you can simply continue by paying for classes with no additional joining fee.

The course is open to anyone aged 18+, whether a complete beginner, or students from other arts looking to supplement their existing skills. Places will need to be limited for space and safety, so anyone interested in the course can book by contacting Eric on: ericamada@hotmail.com, or calling 07915 834199

Modern Arnis Beginners Course

Modern Arnis – Returning to the source

Classes are back up and running following a few weeks break, while Master Eric Amada returned to the Philippines over the Christmas and New Year period.

Eric was able to train with his teacher, Senior Master Rogelio Aguillon (now Sandakan Arnis), in spite of his teacher’s busy schedule. He also visited Grand Master Rodel Dagooc who took Eric to his new Arnis Village near his house where he displayed all his training equipment, sticks & knives. During this visit, Eric obtained new sticks for the club featuring GM Dagooc’s personal carvings.

Modern Arnis Phillipines

A trip home is great opportunity to share some practice time again alongside the good friends he grew up training with for so many years. It was a very busy time for everyone, but most of the members of the Art Foundation Philippines made it to the reunion at NBI Gym in Manilla to practice Arnis and Aikido together again.

As part of his trip, Eric also took some time out to visit Quiapo in Manilla. When Eric was growing up, Quiapo was the go-to place for martial arts, and is still very popular for training equipment. Armed with a big list of sizes and some serious luggage space, Eric secured genuine Modern Arnis uniforms for everyone in the class.

The first class back saw everyone kitted out in their new, matching uniforms and the atmosphere in the room was palpably different, with everyone giving that little bit of extra focus and effort. Though many of the members have trained with Eric on and off for many years, it’s still a relatively new group, and this really helped everyone to feel part of something bigger than themselves.

With an increasing sense of unity, and rapidly increasing numbers, it feels like this is going to be our year.

Modern Arnis Suffolk

Grading Exams

Last month, students of Modern Arnis Stowupland took part in in their next set of belt exams.

The testing was a gruelling, four-hour session of non-stop hard work, including elements of empty-hands, weapons training, and sparring.

Modern Arnis Gradings

The exams warmed up with students demonstrating their stick drills, showing various striking patterns and angles, both with single and double sticks, before moving on to their empty hand striking combinations.

Like many South-East Asian arts, Filipino empty hand fighting includes a mix of punches, kicks, elbows, and knees.

Working with partners, the exam then moved to throwing and sweeping techniques, before progressing to a series of joint-locks, and traps. From there, weapons were reintroduced, applying those locks with and against stick attacks.

With everyone fully warmed up by that stage, weapons work really began in earnest, with techniques and drill from a huge number of variations of stick, sword/machete, knife, and kerambit/dulo. Read More →

Filipino Martial Arts Festival

Stowupland Modern Arnis made their first group outing as a club this month to train at the Filipino Martial Arts Festival in Peterborough.

Filipiono Martial Arts Festival

The festival takes place every year, and is is Europe’s number 1 South East Asian martial arts event.
It’s a chance to train with Europe’s leading teachers of a huge range of Filipino martial arts styles and systems such as: Doce Pares, Balitawak, Modern Arnis, Lightning Scientific, Kalis Illustrisimo, Rapid Arnis, Cabales Serrada Escrima and many more. Read More →