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[Kentbob]

    Hey, I am interested in the Remy Presas DVDs that Black Belt Magazine sells.  Opinions, anyone?


Kent

[mleone]

I have all 3,
Remys accent gets in the way from time to time. But its all clearly explained. Clearly done.
There are principles on those dvds that you can take the ball and run with it.
I like them, I find my self popping them back in the dvd player every now and then and review some stuff.

[Rawhide]

The man is incredible.  I sometimes watch them for his movement & timing.  I highly recommend watching any of his stuff as well as Ernesto.  Great stuff from legends.

[Kentbob]

   Hey, thanks for the input fellas. 

Kent

[Hock]

A lot of what I do in the PAC DVDs has a very strong Remy vein. Not specific material, but inspired by him.

My approach to double stick and espada y daga methodology and making the connection of a move through many variations, comes from a Remy inspiration.

The later Remy DVDs on Tapi-tapi ....this...this giant, overcomplicated, multi-layered, hubad drill system he created, and at the expense of his older make the connection, multi-outlook approach, did not impress me at all. He was once a head-banger, then he took a wrong turn.

Remy-world is slowly evaporating away, because his legacy is now based on the last few years of tapi-tapi material. Shame really. In the bigger picture he was multi-talented, pioneer. The Remy I knew was not quite the one you see on DVD and video. There was a whole more going on.

He was PIVITAL to me, but not from a specific list of techniques, but rather more on the inspiration side...

Hock

[Rawhide]

Yeah, Hock's material is a fantastic innovation over the classical arnis still being taught.  Not that I've had much experience outside of the Congress, but from what I've seen around on video DVD, I would have to say Hock has a more logical and common sense training progression.

[mleone]

I have a huge library of DVD's more Instructional Martial art dvd's.
There is alot of hype and crap out there! Some good stuff as well!
Modern arnis is good to add to your arsenal.

Gosh, just the other day I was watching how a Silat guy uses a "Toe Knife" and puts a knife between his toes and stirkes his opponent. I couldnt help to laugh.

I also saw one system who didnt mention Hocks name but made a comment to the effect of the sports cancer grip. The fancy finger is ok to use! I laughed a second time!

[ghostrider]

Hock do you think the majority of the arnis, kali, eskirma systems are overdone in the area of training? From reading about how what used to be taught was pretty simple stuff. It had to be for villagers fighting other villagers in defense of their lives. In looking at things in this vein, I would see that training should be much more condensed and simple. Is it perhaps so extensive in our modern day world because it sells? I mean is it because it keeps students longer paying dues to keep the instructor in business?

[Rawhide]

Ghostrider:

In my experience, it would seem most systems are overridden with the drill disease.  They are more interested in making you more coordinated, have great timing and speed in the a vacuum.  If they limited the amount of drills and put more scenario driven training (as Hock does) their systems would indeed by extremely streamlined but much more effective.

[ghostrider]

Rawhide,

I was wondering about that too. I know that the purpose of drills are to help you understand certain areas like distance, adjustment, etc. as well as, how to use principle and concepts to the task at hand. Prescribed motion patterns to ingrain movement to you to then break out of the box and just be yourself. I was talking to Mark lynn about that today over lunch. We had earlier worked on some of the tapi-tapi drills (of course with some of his own ideas of inserts) and it taught me that you learn flow and counter to your opponent's counter. Now I like that. It has been in my mind for a lot of years that you have to be more realistic when you train (just like hock has said). Using realistic scenarios are just like simulators, these teach you how to make things work and work the "bugs" out of them.
That is why I have admired Hock in all that he does and you as well Jeff. Thanks for all you are doing, especially at your Carrollton school.

Forrest

[Kentbob]

    Hey, I got the first Remy Presas DVD in today.  It is a little, off-putting, I guess is the best way to describe it.  Instead of teaching and learning concepts, like I prefer to do, he teaches more of a specific response to a given situation, is mostly what I am seeing.  Still, I think there is some useful stuff to be distilled.  It is interesting, overall.  I have a question, though, Hock.  In the DVD, Remy makes all kinds of different noises, when striking, blocking and doing other things.  Did he always do that, or was it something he only did in his modern Arnis program?


Kent

[Hock]

He always made a lot of noise while working out, no where else.

I have never seen the newer Remy DVDs.
If it all that is the tapi-tapi material, well, all that was not my interest and I can understand what you are talking about. The tapi-tapi era was not my cup of tea.

Hock

[wvnicholson]

I may be getting the Black Belt magazine DVDs with Remy Presas as I'm interested in finding out about Modern Arnis for various reasons (one is that it is possibly a bit more ambidextrous than other styles of eskrima/ arnis).  Any idea what the other Modern Arnis videos/ DVDs are like out there e.g. the Abanico videos with Dieter Knuettel?
Also, more generally I'm wondering about sparring in the Modern Arnis style.  From looking at online copies of grading syllabuses on the two rival IMAF sites and the WMAA site, they don't seem to do much (or even any) sparring.  Don't know about MARPPIO though.  (The organisations also have an enormous selection of videos - some of them with Remy Presas - possibly not produced as well as the Black Belt magazine videos.)  From talking to two guys from the rival IMAF's, the reason is along the lines of they don't train for competitions and that real fights with Modern Arnis techniques finish in a few seconds.  I don't know about other Modern Arnis people not connected with those organisations.  Any comments about that?  Maybe some of the drills include some type of semi-free or formalised sparring?
William

[Hock]

Any idea what the other Modern Arnis videos/ DVDs are like out there e.g. the Abanico videos with Dieter Knuettel?

Deiter has a lot of videos, but he also likes many FMA styles. If someone is interested in pure Modern Anis, it might get confusing, unless he really explains things out.

Also, more generally I'm wondering about sparring in the Modern Arnis style.  From looking at online copies of grading syllabuses on the two rival IMAF sites and the WMAA site, they don't seem to do much (or even any) sparring.  Don't know about MARPPIO though.  (The organisations also have an enormous selection of videos - some of them with Remy Presas - possibly not produced as well as the Black Belt magazine videos.)  From talking to two guys from the rival IMAF's, the reason is along the lines of they don't train for competitions and that real fights with Modern Arnis techniques finish in a few seconds.   Maybe some of the drills include some type of semi-free or formalised sparring?

Not much free style sparring in Modern Arnis. A serious and deadly mistake. It seemed to evolve away as the outlines for multi-group seminars through the years recognizing that fact that attendees come in all shapes, ages and sizes and WITHOUT sparring gear. This goes on for several years and suddenly the whole sparring segment vanishes.

If you are an FMA stick fighter, do need to do some head banging. There is no excuse not too. People who claim otherwise...probably haven't done headbanging to learn the simple realities. But you must figure out what that your successful strike diminished the opponent. Now we are back on the "Killshot" method.

Remy said, "You train your whole life...for a 4 second stick fight." And..."sometimes all you need is one good fake."

But if you don't strap on the gear and and work that head shot, or work that fake at full speed, you won't understand the big picture. Just because it is meant to be over in seconds, doesn't mean it will be.

All the other tricks and stuff is best reserved for the wounded/diminshed/stunned opponent. Stick fighting, well in fact, virtually all fighting should be packaged this way. Almost anything can work against a sufficiently stunned person.

As a second degree black belt with Remy, an old school era prior to all the newer Tapi-Tapi emphasis, I have been disappointed in several aspects of Modern Arnis progam and just had to move on.

Hock

[Boar Man]

vwnicholson wrote

I may be getting the Black Belt magazine DVDs with Remy Presas as I'm interested in finding out about Modern Arnis for various reasons (one is that it is possibly a bit more ambidextrous than other styles of eskrima/ arnis).  Any idea what the other Modern Arnis videos/ DVDs are like out there e.g. the Abanico videos with Dieter Knuettel?

I bought Dieter's video set on Modern Arnis a couple years ago after seeing him at a seminar.  For a Modern Arnis program I think his tapes were excellent, very clearly laid out in an organized progression.  Excellent quality (three camera angles, lighting, etc. etc.) in production.  Dieter also puts out a Tapi Tapi Tape that is 90 minutes long that has the material that relates to the Tapi drills from all of his other rank videos spliced together and then aprox 45 minutes of additional footage.  IMHO the most organized presentation of the Tapi format out there.  I lent it to another MA practionar and he felt the same way.

The BB tapes are done real well (again video wise) but there is not an aweful lot of explanation persay in them just like his older tape series and there isn't an real order to them.  As I remember it when we watched the rough cut of the first tape, Remy gave BB enough material for 6 tapes and they cut it down to 3 and moved the order around.  He wasn't real pleased at the time.

The last tapes that Remy did the 15 tapes IMHO are a little disapointing.  In that while the material is broken down in segments better they are put all on one tape.  In the BB tapes you might cover three topics on one tape in the 15 you cover only one.  But then the tape length is cut to all of 20-40 min.  I feel it was strung out to make more tapes.  However after being in MA for 10 years now and going to see the Professor many times as well as other higher ranking MA instructors and such I believe I can get more out of the material than say someone who hasn't studied MA.  I believe there are better easily understood FMA video series out there.

Mark