The Throwbackiest-Throwback EVER: Video From My Early Days In Modern Arnis

Up at my school we have a big screen TV that usually runs a slide show of logos and pithy inspirational sayings during class, but we also use it for online meetings/training, and to watch instructional content.

It is the state of modern technology today that I had to seek out and buy a DVD player because none of our laptops have CD/DVD drives any more (and I do have VHS tapes of Modern Arnis stuff I really should get transferred to something...)

And get the hell off my lawn, whippersnappers.

In any case, I was thumbing through our pretty large library of martial arts DVD's and I found a few that were hand-made, and popped one in.

I couldn't believe what I'd found.

It is a video of the first time Mr. Chick and I met Grand Master Bruce Chiu of Arnis International at my first teacher's seminar with him. It includes the very first Modern Arnis test I ever took.

So I watched it, and I was taken back to January 23, 2009.

That's me with GM Bruce. That HAIR! (me, not Bruce, obviously)

First off, looking at myself training, I wanted to crawl under a rock. At the time of the recording I'd been training all of six months or so, and it shows.

The instinctive "Holy shit, I'm TERRIBLE" reaction came on STRONG.

Look, I've been training since 2008 and I have a lot of reps and training under my belt. Today - literally this week, like most weeks - I question whether or not I have any right or business teaching Presas Arnis.

aka "Just Another Tuesday"

I have been assured, however, that good high-level people have the same problem, and that makes me feel better for at least 48 hours.

In any case, I put my instructor hat on, and looked at 2009 me again and... meh, it's not so bad. I've seen worse from people with more experience than me in that video.

Here, take a peek:

Compared to MY students, yeah, I'm not great. But I have to take the context into consideration; I was learning from a person who wasn't that much further down the path in Modern Arnis than I was at the time, and I was only six months in, which in the scheme of things, isn't THAT long.

Once I got past the embarrassment, I looked at it again, and the instruction from GM Bruce is top notch as always, (there's footage of his seminar the next day on the DVD as well), and I can see how much Mr. Chick (seated guy in a gray shirt) and my teachers David Jones and Darrell Kellner have improved in Modern Arnis since way back then.

We all suck less than we used to, that's for sure.

For example, I no longer attempt snake disarms on the weapon standing five feet away.

As an aside, I remember being absolutely terrified of GM Bruce back then, which is kind of funny now, because he's stayed at my house, I've cooked for him, and he's hung out with my pets - I even texted him about discovering this video and we laughed about it. Today he is one of my teachers and someone I am happy to train with every chance I get, and he's a HUGE influence on us at Kindred Protective Arts.

In fact, I have gotten to know many of the top guys in my part of the martial arts world and I am not terrified of any of them any more (mostly, and it's not really fear, just respect and maybe a little intimidation, given I can now see exactly how far I have to go to try to reach their level).

But also a little bit of fear too.

I think we earned a rank that's the equivalent of a yellow belt back at our first test (appropriate, IMO). Funny, just days before this seminar, I found out I was preggo with Chicklet No. 2 (who is of an age to take the test for her driver's license soon), and I moved to Las Vegas a few days after. It was my last big training event in Mississippi until we went back for a visit after we moved to Texas.

I'm very lucky to have this slice of time at the beginning of my training on video, that's for sure.

Do you have any video of your early days in training around somewhere? Have you watched it lately? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!