Why I'm Involved in AFMA - Part 1

So this past weekend, the The American Family of Modern Arnis (AFMA) launched.

Mr. Chick and I are very involved in getting it off the ground, and I want to use this space to tell y'all why. There's a lot to say, so I'm going to break it up into two parts.

My teacher Mark Lynn is the quintessential martial arts student. His attitude about Modern Arnis organizations is basically one of neutrality. He is not interested in the politics of things; he just wants to train with every person who will let him. He is associated with many martial arts organizations, including several in various styles of Filipino Martial Arts.

Mr. Chick and I continue this approach today. We’re willing to join every Modern Arnis organization in the US that exists, if they’ll have us. As of this writing, we’re either current or past members of Arnis International, Hock Hochheim’s Survival Centric, SMP Arnis, IMAF Inc., and the World Modern Arnis Alliance. We’ve also made a point to train with other organizations and styles related to Modern Arnis, including Progressive Arnis, Luzviminda Arnis, two lineages of Balintawak, and Kapatiran Mandirigma (Kombatan).

Of course, we also train in other FMA's not directly related to Modern Arnis as well, every chance we get, even if those are not our main focus, but we prioritize Modern Arnis and the related styles.

You wanna bang sticks and are in some way related to Remy Presas?

Usually, but not always, with less cussing.

That is a big list up there. There’s no lack of Modern Arnis organizations in the US.

So why do we need another one?

Simple.

I wrote this post back in the day: The Model Martial Arts Organization

In that post, I proposed my vision for what an ideal martial arts organization might look like and do. At the time, it was kind of a pie-in-the-sky proposal, something I thought unlikely to happen.

Two years later, Mr. Chick and I attended the 2023 Modern Arnis World Legacy camp. The diversity of lineages leading to Remy Presas, the goodwill and acceptance of some of the diversity of practice we have, and the pure “Good Vibes” of that camp made myself and a few of my friends say, “Damn, why can’t we do that all the time?”

The Modern Arnis World Legacy Camp group photo from 2023. Play "Where's Waldo" to spot me!

That is the genesis of AFMA and our involvement in it.

As I wrote in the Model Modern Arnis Organization post, I feel like networking - building community - is something organizations should be deeply involved in, making it as easy as possible for the individual members to connect with one another.

The thing is, community is not something that happens spontaneously, especially when you're talking about martial arts. Having community - one that lasts - needs infrastructure of some sort, so we started thinking about how to make that happen in a way that was NOT dependent on social media.

Social media is fickle in its terms of service. What if they decide that they don't like people hitting each other with sticks occasionally and they kick us off? We'd lose the connections we're working hard to build.

Plus, lots of people of all ages are starting to drop the use of social media altogether.

So we needed a place and method to connect, and that's been built, and is in its basic state right now. The idea is that Modern Arnis players can tap into the membership for mentorship, peer support, seminar/camp news and schedules, and ideas for teaching and training Modern Arnis by joining AFMA.

That's not the only reason we launched AFMA. I have more, and some big concerns that I want to see addressed in this new project. I'll talk about all that - and my perspective on the aftermath of the launch - in part 2.

Got any questions for me about the American Family of Modern Arnis and my part in it? Let me know in the comments!