World Head Of Family Sokeship Council demonstrations review
This last weekend was the 8th get together of the World Head Of Family Sokeship Council and we FMA practitioners were well represented. In the two-day line up of exhibitions, Robert Castro began the FMA representation by giving a demonstration of Serrada Eskrima/Kali JKD. He was especially fast with the espada y daga portion of his demo. He was followed by Ray Dinaldo who gave a demo of Sayoc Kali knife fighting drills. Datu Tim Hartman followed suit with a presentation of Modern Arnis and how the actions translate to both knife and empty hand. He grabbed a member of the audience for his presentation and was both informative and humorous. The next person to demonstrate was Raffy (I just met him and I don't know his last name). His demo included his prowess with a whip and he showed his accuracy with it by snapping cigarettes off of his students heads (while leaving their heads intact). The first day's round of demos was concluded by Gat Puno Abon Baet. His demo was a combination of multi-weapon skills laced with generous amounts of humor. He had everybody laughing early.
I started off the next day with demonstrating some of my style, Modern Arnis 80 to the group. I showed cane disarming, empty hand actions, throwing and lock reversals. My thanks to Thomas, a student of Bram Frank, who lent himself to be my partner and didn't flinch when I fired full speed cane strikes to his head. Master-at-arms Bram Frank was the next FMA presenter and gave a skilled demo of how to use the "gunting" knife, as a control device. He showed how to go from one position to another with great ease. Irwin Carmichael headed the Balintawak Eakrima Cuentada demonstration team of Grandmaster Bobby Taboada. Irwin gave a rapid fire exhibition of hig speed defenses against various strikes while a couple of the other team members demonstrated a gentlemanly exhibition of unpadded cane free sparring, first with shirts on and then with shirts off - the welts were evident. The last demo was given by Grand Master Ernesto Presas and his demo team. This was a rapid fire of single stick, knife and double stick combinations and defenses which left the crowd applauding loudly.
This was my first trip to the WHOFSC annual gathering as I was receiving the 2002 founder's Award for formulating Modern Arnis 80, my personal curriculum based on my late teacher's instruction. I got to meet a number of very good FMA practitioners, re-met some old friends and renewed friendships with others. The FMA representatives were of high quality and were well received.
See you there next year!
Yours,
Prof. Dan Anderson
Founder, Modern Arnis 80
