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.
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.
