Thursday, May 18, 2006

IMAFP - Hong Kong

by Guro Abner Anievas

The International Modern Arnis Federation of the Philippines (IMAFP) - Hong Kong was formally established August 5th, 2004, in Fanling Hong Kong. IMAFP Hong Kong’s goal is to promote Filipino culture, its heritage, sports and history. One of IMAFP Hong Kong’s contributions is the preservation and development of the art and to continuously and selflessly teach the art of Modern Arnis.

Modern Arnis is a very adaptive, pragmatic, and complete martial art system equally based in weapon and empty hands. An ancient art primarily practiced for self-defense, it is designed to be simple and easy to learn.

Modern Arnis is an eclectic (made up of elements from various sources) style. There are empty hand forms, stick forms, Filipino Jujutsu, grappling, kicking, sinawali boxing, stick and dagger, knife, double stick, single stick, anti-stick grabbing, as well as combinations of all the parts mentioned.

Modern Arnis was devised to be a complete system, integrating the cultural connection of the Filipino arts and the ability to adapt and make your foundation art more functional for self-defense. It has as its functional value, traditional Filipino concepts such as Abaniko (fanning of the stick), Palis-Palis (passing of energy), Banda y Banda (horizontal slashing or striking), Rompida (diagonal slashing or striking), Sungkite (thrusting), and other principles extracted from the working of the baston, offering a great deal of adaptable translation and flow based qualities. All these concepts are interactive, depending if the intent is to strike, lock, throw, control, disarm, slash, stab, attack, or disengage.

IMAFP Hong Kong in its teaching and training provides leadership, growth, and comprehensive mental and physical training in the art created by Remy Presas, “Modern Arnis” system in its entirety. The IMAFP Hong Kong student arnisadors learn to embrace and apply the Way of the Flow in life.

Ultimately the Modern Arnis practitioner will
1. Learn self-discovery and self-control
2. Achieve personal excellence
3. Gain self-mastery, in the face of life's daily uncertainties, challenges, and opportunities.