September 02, 2006

By DIANE CASTILLEJO-GARCIA
with JACKIE CASTILLEJO

Sports Unlimited will again introduce you the art of arnis with demonstrations from some of the greatest Filipino grandmasters in the world!

Arnis is the only known traditional martial art that has its roots deep in the culture and history of the Filipino people.

We have never seen arnis this close and it made us see how artistic and classical this fighting stick can be.

We also got an exhibition of modern arnis, which made us realize why arnis moves are used by the police in protecting us against predators.

By the time the grandmasters got all warmed up, they sure did put up a show.

It's amazing how the martial art of arnis can be as quick as a lightning.

We realized how you can literally break every bone in a person’s body by applying arnis techniques.

We were told that martial artists from all over the world travel to the Philippines and come to Quiapo, Manila to learn from grandmaster Ernesto Presas.

Grandmaster Presas founded “kombatan” and has turned it into one of the most popular martial arts disciplines in the world.

We knew we were going to learn arnis from one of the bests in the world just by seeing the plaques, certificates, awards and flags from different countries hanging on the walls of grandmaster Presas’ humble gym at the very heart of Quiapo.

When grandmaster Presas showed us his moves, which he has perfected over so many years, our jaws literally dropped to the floor! It was very clear that this grandmaster lives and breathes arnis!

When the he decided to reveal his almost magical skills by doing his moves blindfolded and executing them flawlessly, our admiration for him hit the roof!

You can tell by the enthusiasm, focus and skills of grandmaster Presas’ students that they look up to him greatly, not just as a grandmaster but also as a father. They are his arnis children who want nothing more than to make their arnis father proud.

Finally, when it was our turn to pick up the sticks and learn, we started out with the basics, holding two sticks.

After we started getting more comfortable with the sticks, grandmaster Presas taught us self-defense moves without the sticks.

My partner, Marc Nelson, went directly for the offensive skills and learned the moves holding a weapon.

Jackie Castillejo stayed with two sticks and learned basic moves from a Portuguese martial artist who came all the way from Portugal just to learn “kombatan” from grandmaster Presas.