American Arnis Association

A little bit of our history...

Modern Arnis Round Table - Episode 7 Modern Arnis Round Table - Episode 7

The original American Arnis stitch-on "A" member patch, circa 1983.

Who still has one?

The first Black Belt Magazine cover featuring Professor Remy Presas- the September 1981 issue with "Modern Arnis- Simply Effective".

This action shot captures Mike Replogle standing on the left, peering over his shoulder and locked up by the Professor's arm and with both of Replogle's sticks securely locked under the Professor's right side, while Bruce Juchnik is kneeling and being disarmed by Professor's left hand stick while his own sticks go flying mid-air.

This cover photo was shot real-time... it was a 1-2 attack. First Replogle attacked backhand with both sticks, and while the Professor defended against that onslaught Juchnik executed a low double-stick attack, with the stick-flying results as captured here by Black Belt magazine photographer Marcia Mack.

In the Summer of 1983, Mike Replogle and Jeff Arnold hosted the first ever national International Arnis Federation Training Camp featuring "The Professor" Remy A. Presas, the Founder of Modern Arnis. This was a 2-week intensive training camp at a facility located in the mountains of West Virginia, with attendees including students and black belts of many styles. Participants were housed on-site and trained extensively in the techniques and applications of Modern Aris personally with The Professor, each earning a teaching certificate in basic Modern Arnis.

Karate Illustrated January 1984- A Course in Cramming- The Weapons They Brought to West Virginia

Published in Black Belt Magazine (January 1984 issue), the article "American Arnis- The Evolution of an Art" was the public launch of the integrated martial arts learning system derived from Filipino stick fighting as pioneered by the Founders Jeff Arnold and Mike Replogle.

With dojos located in Hollywood California and Owosso Michigan, Arnold and Replogle both were teaching Modern Arnis in addition to Tae Kwon Do classes. As personal students of Remy Presas (the founder of Modern Arnis), they approached "The Professor" about their need to have an integrated system that would give new students in regular weekly classes the general martial arts basics along with the Filipino stick techniques that the Professor taught in his travelling seminar trainings. His response was "you do that", and that was the beginnings of what became American Arnis.

Here's a blast from the past! The business card of co-founder Jeff Arnold...

It speaks for itself!

This was a multi-day training camp with a lot of the high-profile Masters circa 1984. Barry Moyer of Fish Lake Karate Academy contacted me about putting on a Camp, and I coordinated with him and my good friend Eric Lee to book some of the leading martial artists of the time. How many of these Greats can you recognize?

(Fish Lake, 1984... a few of the martial artists pictured- Tadashi Yamash*ta, Jeff Arnold, Barry Moyer, Billy Blanks, Ted Tabura, Eric Lee, Charley Finley, Mike Replogle, Don Wrobel, Ronald Duncan, Ed Parker, Ernie Reyes, Ernie Reyes Jr. and Aaron Banks.)

This is the Original American Arnis logo, circa 1983

Some of the original students and instructors that helped found American Arnis

Quite true!

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