Martial Arts Culture, Community, Humor and Much More!
Martial Arts (and the Stick Chick)
Hi, I'm Jackie, and I'm The Stick Chick.
With my husband, Kevin, I've been studying Presas Arnis (a blend of Modern Arnis and Kombatan) and related arts since 2008. I was a few months shy of 40 years old when I first started training.
I started training as a way to combat a very stressful job by getting active again (old age was going to suck if I didn't). I have knee issues from my teen years as an athlete so I can't run or cycle, and well, the gym is just... very... boring.
Like a lot of adult women starting training for the first time, I slapped on a gi and joined my family on the mat, and literally after my first lesson, I was hooked. Since that night, I've hardly gone a week in my life without some sort of martial arts activity.
Over time, I've trained in several versions of Taekwondo as well as gotten some good training and exposure in kempo (Ryukyu Kempo and related arts) and even a touch of tai chi training. But I gravitated quickly to the Filipino Martial Arts style of Modern Arnis with my first teacher, David Jones, early in my training and I just fell in love with weapons and the FMA training method in particular.
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As we relocated across the country several times, we finally settled in Texas where we found our teacher, Mark Lynn, at Hidden Sword Martial Arts. "Mr. Chick" and I are both 3rd Degree Black Belts under Mark (my title is officially Dayang Tatlo) as of July 2020. In May 2019, I became a World Modern Arnis Alliance 2nd Degree Black Belt (Dayang Dalawa) in Presas Arnis under Datu Tim Hartman. In September 2022, I was awarded 2nd Degree Black Belt in Modern Arnis under Bruce Chiu.
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Back in Texas, Mr. Chick and I ran a community center martial arts program (Mid-Cities Aris) for a few years in North Richland Hills, Texas. We moved back to our home town of Kansas City in summer 2018 and for several years ran the Kansas City Presas Arnis Meetup.
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In September, 2021, we opened the doors to Kindred Protective Arts. We are Kansas City's only full-time FMA school, teaching kids and adults FMA's or FMA-derived content in a traditional martial arts setting as our primary style offering (yep, we have karate too, taught by our good friend Sensei Judy Burnette).
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I earned my 1st Degree Black Belt in kobudo (Okinawan weapons) with Sensei Mike Proctor and Sensei Keith Yates at AKATO in November 2017.
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I also enjoy the Kansas City Chiefs (if you follow me on Twitter during NFL season, you should be prepared), sci fi and fantasy geekery of all kinds, Celtic and Norse history and punk music and art, video games (yes, I play video games when I get a spare moment), low carbing and ketogenic eating, liberty and freedom, and of course, being a mom and wife.
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I started the Stick Chick Blog in 2013 as a way to connect with other folks out there who love the martial arts as much as I do and wanted to nerd out about it with me. While we tend to be pretty heavily based in Arnis/Kali/Escrima topics, we also write about martial arts as a sub-culture, health, humor, entertainment, and how life just is when you acquire bruises as a fun little hobby. If you are interested in writing a guest post, drop me a note.
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You can find the blog on The Stick Chick Blog and Instagram. You can also find me on Pinterest, Tumblr, MeWe, and as I mentioned above, Twitter.
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You can also email me at TheStickChick23 at gmail dot com or use the form below.
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