Why I'm Involved in AFMA - Part 2

Continuing from Part 1.

In Part 1, I stated that I think community - and the infrastructure that supports it - is very important.

Not that kind of Community (although this scene definitely represents what happens when newer folk like me stumble across old Modern Arnis message board conversations)

Modern Arnis in the US has many different factions. There's lots of reasons for this: differences in which "era" of Modern Arnis people learned the art, personality conflicts between first generation students (aka "Politics"), circumstances of time and place and distance, and the effect of what seems like the inevitable fate of a martial arts style held together by a singular charismatic and unquestioned leader without a named successor (sound familiar, American Kempo friends?) failing to remain united once that leader is gone.

I think the splintering of Modern Arnis is now a permanent feature in the US. I do not think any leader can unite the rest of us under a single banner or authority, at least, nobody in the first generation (and I think it's extremely unlikely Next Gen people could do it either).

The good news is that I don't think we have to be united under a single head of the style to grow the art.

We can grow as a network of friends and colleagues that allows for individal variances, while providing a guide to the very most fundamental attributes of Modern Arnis as a style, as best documented by the people who learned it directly from Professor, as closely as they learned it.

That's what AFMA is.

Me & my friends, from all sorts of different Modern Arnis lineages, learning from First Gen instructors.

AFMA is also going to address a structural problem that I see with marketing and advertising the art. We lean very heavily on promoting promoting individuals, versus promoting the art. We also promote Remy Presas as if people on the outside of our communty know or care about who he was and what he created.

Outsiders do not start training in Modern Arnis because of Professor. They learn about Professor after they've already started, and they learn to appreciate him within our community, not outside it.

First Gens have a deep emotional connection to Remy Presas. Next Gens don't - our connection is to our individual instructors, our training partners and the pure awesomeness of Modern Arnis itself.

Without anemotional connection to the founder, why should anybody train in Modern Arnis? This is the question we do a poor job in answering consistently.

As for HOW to address the question of "Why Modern Arnis?" Let's just say we have ideas.

We need to do better job consistently onboarding new students into Modern Arnis. If you would ask around the current community, especially Next Gens, there's a theme of "pure dumb luck" when they tell you their Modern Arnis origin story. The story of how Mr. Chick and I started training (and then found our current teacher) is kind of crazy and is an example of dumb luck TWICE.

We need a consistent way to answer these kinds of questions for people who want to train:

• How do I start a training group?

• What should I consider when wanting to teach Modern Arnis in a community or rec center?

• How do I launch a Modern Arnis class in an existing martial arts school?

• How can I start a stand-alone Arnis-only traditional martial arts school?

• What are best practices for teaching Modern Arnis to kids?

• Who can give me advice?

• Is it worth it to go to a seminar or camp? Why or why not?

• Who can I talk to to help me troubleshoot a question I have, if I don't have a teacher nearby?

• How can I grow my training group?

• How do I teach Modern Arnis as a self defense art? As a sparring art?

• How do I connect to Modern Arnis' roots in the Philippines?

However someone wants to train in Modern Arnis, we want to help them do it. Having a community for newbies to plug into will ensure that those newbies become our next Next Generation.

I care a LOT about all of these things (on a local level, this is how we run Kindred Protective Arts), so how could I NOT be involved in something like this?

If you're interested in Modern Arnis, come check out AFMA. It's still super new, and we're very basic now, but we have some BIG (dare I say crazy!) plans in the years to come. It does't matter how much experience you have in Modern Arnis or who you've trained with in the past; you're welcome in AFMA and you don't have to give up activity in other groups (it's an "AND", not an "OR", when it comes to other groups).

AFMA's core leadership right now are called "the Launch Team". This is not the permanent leadership of the group; it is a group of Second (or Next) Generation Modern Arnis students who, like me, never met and/or trained under Professor. The team is under the leadership of First Gen Brian Zawilinski as our first Chair.

We're gonna be doing tapi-tapi in zero gravity and on MARS, y'all!

It's time enough for the Next Gens to step up and shoulder some responsibility for the art's growth in the United States. Four of us are volunteering to get it off the ground. Eventually, the goal is to become a 501c3, with all of the structure, oversight, and transparency required.

I think transparency, especially in the finances, is critical to this new community. I believe it's only fair for the members of the community to have a very clear picture of what their membership fees are being used for.

Since I am a member of the Launch Team, I definitely plan to push hard for that transparency, tolerance of diversity, and the attitude of serving the art and membership first (over personal promotion) as a part of AFMA's DNA going forward. I also plan to encourage and train up more folks to help them move into the leadership and replace me.

In this way, we hope that AFMA can become an umbrella community that cooperates with each other, promotes Modern Arnis, and serves its membership.

And that's why Mr. Chick and I are involved. I hope you'll join us.

Got questions about the American Family of Modern Arnis? Suggestions? Wild ideas? Criticisms? Let me know in the comments!