Tuhon Pat O'Malley gives a radio interview, talking about his journey, the origins of Rapid Arnis, and the Filipino Martial Arts.

It is commonly said that FMA is born out of conflict with Spanish invaders - who the Filipinos repelled on a regular basis in their struggle to force their invaders out of their homeland. Wrong. Firstly it’s not an art that was born on the battlefield fighting the Spaniards. As a matter of fact the Spanish played a major role in what we today now know as Arnis, Kali, Eskrima (I will cover the Spanish influence in more detail in a future article). But the Spanish have played m

If you are not a practitioner of Filipino Martial Arts, when you first hear of it or see it you could not be blamed for thinking that FMA exclusively dedicates itself to weapons-only training, and for the most part - especially in the more commercial schools - you would be correct. The reason for this is simple: Most groups rarely venture past the weapons training stage, even though you will constantly hear them saying that the weapon is just an extension of the hand. Yet whe