Is Arnis training safe for kids?
All physical activity is risky in some way.
Martial arts training has a much better safety track record than other sports such as football, cheerleading, basketball, and soccer.
In our experience, Arnis training does not have any additional risk compared to other martial arts training, and is as safe as common styles like karate, taekwondo, and judo.
Our use of tools and weapons early in training gives our students a good awareness of the dangers involved, and the habits we teach are well-grounded in being safe for all participants.
Sparring is an optional activity, and when we spar, we wear a lot of safety equipment and use special padded weapons. Our rule set for kids sparring does not reward points for hits on the head.
Children in the Philippines learn Arnis as the official martial art and martial sport of the nation in physical education classes.
What are Arnis sticks made of?
Our school trains exclusively with rattan sticks. Rattan is a lightweight, safe, natural material that does not throw off splinters if broken. The safety and low expense of rattan make it the ideal material for our sticks.
We do not allow training with polypropylene, poly-fiber, white waxwood, or tropical hardwood sticks. While these materials are safe, they tend to be much more expensive and will shred rattan sticks.
Dowels, such as you can get at a home improvement store, are typically made of pine and are too dangerous to train with. Bamboo, which is hollow (rattan is not), is also not safe to use in training.
Sparring sticks are padded (ActionFlex, STIX, or other similar brands). We do not use the common foam-covered, hollow-center "safety" arnis sticks you find online - we find that those tend to bend and break.
MIWMA students only use sticks in class that have been approved by the instructors.
What do I wear if it’s my first class?
We recommend you wear something comfortable, athletic wear, such as a t-shirt and shorts, is perfect.
Depending on the program, for our TAWA Arnis and Arnis de Mano classes our students below black belt wear either a plain black uniform, while black belt and above are authorized a black uniform with red stripes. While in our MAKTAN FMA class we typically wear athletic wear/comfortable clothes.
Are Arnis, Eskrima/Escrima and Kali different things?
No. They are all different terms for the indigenous martial arts of the Philippines.
While English and Tagalog are the official language of the nation, the Philippines consists of thousands of islands with well over 120 different languages and dialects. There are also hundreds of different Filipino Martial Arts styles and lineages, most contained within their respective families, handed down generation to generation.
In our case, the term "Arnis" was chosen deliberately. One of the early books about our style by Remy Presas, the founder of Modern Arnis, is titled "The Practical Art of Eskrima". We could have easily been "Modern Eskrima"!
Note that both "Arnis" and "Eskrima" are words borrowed from Spanish, where "Kali" is not.
Contact us to schedule your free, no-obligation trial class today.
modernislandwarrior@gmail.com
(317) 426-8890
4141 S East Street
Indianapolis, IN 46227