At the expense of embarrassing myself yet making some sense of this Arnis thing, here's my personal video practicing for the Arnis presentation. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCbtGf2lHew

Before October last year, I never thought that I would be participating in a demo presentation of any type of Martial Arts. And I never thought that it would be a refreshing and thrilling experience to do so.

I took up Arnis, a form of Filipino Martial Arts, as a Physical Ed elective in the University of the Philippines back in 1998. For a semester, I learned the basics, but I didn't get to practice it through real-life experience or through sparring. About nine years later, I found out that Brian, my colleague and friend, learned the art and skills of Arnis in the US. It's equally strange and sad to realize that our very own martial art is not as well-known here in the Philippines.

We had been practicing Arnis since May last year. And a few months after, we were able to practice with his sparring equipment which he took with him when he visited his hometown last August. Initially, I was quite intimidated and awkward with the equipment, but soon I was able to appreciate it.

Then in an October afternoon, the teachers had a small get-together which aimed to help raise funds for a teacher who had some medical complication.

I am not an expert on Arnis, but I had fun learning it. I thought that since it's Tuesday today, I thought it would be fun to post a two-fer thing which is just fun. The pictures were taken using my Nikon D80 camera by another colleague.