MY FIRST ARNIS INSTRUCTOR

The first lessons I received in arnis were given to me by the late REMY AMADOR PRESAS and consisted of his famous "20-minute' SINAWALI drills basically and I might well have been his first Causcasian/American student had things worked out. As President and one of the Founders and Organizers of the MARCOPPER MARTIAL ARTS CLUB in MARINDUQUE, I was going to have him come to the island and give seminars for the members and before we could finalize everything, he left for the US. I kept contact with him and sent him people to contact when he got there and some of them assisted him in propagating Modern Arnis in the US and the rest is history, so-to-speak. I never formally became his pupil but we kept in contact and I attended two of his seminars in Salem,Massachusetts and also one or two in Greenfield,Massachusetts. Some of you may also know that I introduced many of my students to him and to Modern Arnis,etc. At every seminar I attended with him, he asked me to be his 'representative' an offer I always declined, however,for several reasons. He also gave me his first Modern Arnis Book in English, the 'red one' shortly afterwards when I first met him in Manila. I still have the book and also the Blue Book, the Tagalog version. I also have a couple of other books by him and a few tapes that he gave me as well as some from his students,etc.