Saturday Morning Class With Uncle Dan Vol. 1

SATURDAY MORNING CLASS WITH UNCLE DAN VOL. 1

Imagine it’s Saturday morning in Gresham, Oregon and you are heading to arnis class with me. What would it be like? How do I teach? What is my interaction with the students?

I videoed a number of my classes over the summer of 2026 as a streaming video library reference for my students. I have edited the videos down to over 100+ separate video files and created a 6 page hyperlinked streaming video document for their ease of reference and now it is available to you as well.

This video series covers a wide number of topics such as empty hand training, sensitivity training, foot traps and off-balancing methods, various flowing drills with the cane, and so on. My students are working of developing their skills for black belt and this is what we worked on this summer.

Added note: Why “Uncle Dan” and not GM, Professor or Guro? Simple. I have become nicknamed “Uncle Dan” by some of the senior members of the American Modern Arnis community and it fits. One of my teachers was “Manong” Ted Buot, a quiet and more intimate man, much the opposite of the flamboyant, energetic Remy Presas. There was a personal feeling I got from him. When I started my commercial school over 40 years ago, I adopted the title “sifu” which translates to “teacher – father.” This title, although it is Chinese and not Japanese, embodied the feel I had for the students. Roughly 5 years ago, GM Brian Zawilinski began calling me “Unka Dan” in reference to my elder statesman of Modern Arnis status. It stuck and I like it.