Grandmaster Titles in Modern Arnis: Authority, History, and Earning the Title

Let’s set the record straight. I absolutely recognize the concept of Grandmaster titles. What I do not recognize is the rewriting of Modern Arnis history to justify protocols that never existed while Professor Remy Presas was alive.

While Professor was alive, he never issued the title of Grandmaster to any of his students. Not one. He was the Grandmaster of the art. In Modern Arnis, Grandmaster was a position, not a rank-based title. It wasn’t something you were promoted into over time. There was one Grandmaster—Remy Presas.

That distinction matters.

Modern Arnis was created by Remy Presas in 1957, when his brothers Ernesto and Roberto were just kids. As they grew older, they helped shape the future of the art. Each brother eventually formed his own distinct system—Ernesto with Kombatan and Roberto with Arnis de Mano—but all came from the Modern Arnis chassis.

Here’s the issue we see now in the U.S.: it seems that any time there’s a promotion to 8th degree or higher, people are automatically assuming the Grandmaster title. I have a real issue with that because that wasn’t the protocol for Remy’s art. That’s a Kombatan protocol, not a Modern Arnis protocol.

This confusion is part of why we need to be clear about where these traditions come from. The assumption that an 8th degree black belt in Modern Arnis is automatically a Grandmaster is simply not how Remy’s system worked.

Even after Remy passed away, Ernesto made it very clear that he did not have the authority to promote anyone in his brother’s art. That boundary existed then. It’s being blurred now.

This confusion also shows up when people misunderstand authority versus acknowledgment.

Let me give you a real-world example. I was teaching in Germany at Dieter’s East Meets West camp. Dieter asked me to sign as a witness on diplomas for two of his students—8th-degree black belts who, under the DAV protocol, carried a Grandmaster title.

Dieter knew exactly how I felt about these titles and wanted to explain his organization’s approach. I told him plainly: it’s not a big deal.

Why?

Because my signature on someone else’s paper is not an endorsement of rank or title. It’s a witness signature—nothing more. It carries no authority unless it’s on my organization’s paper.

Professor Remy Presas did the same. He signed diplomas as a witness. When people tried to pass those papers off as official rank endorsements, he shut that down. If it didn’t come on his paper, it didn’t come from him. Same rule applies with me.

And let’s be clear: I ask these questions of everyone, regardless of style. The universal question: What have you done to earn the title? Titles should be about contribution, not just time. We see people with a handful of students calling themselves Grandmasters, and it waters down the meaning.

So let’s keep the history clear and the standards meaningful. Modern Arnis was Remy Presas’s creation, and Grandmaster was a position he held. That’s how we honor his legacy.

Respectfully,
Datu Tim Hartman
Modern Arnis Tribal Chief

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