Among the many influences on Professor Presas’ development of Modern Arnis, none was arguably more significant than Professor Wally Jay. Professor Wally was the founder of Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu.

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As many readers know, Professor Wally Jay was famous for his painful joint locks, especially the finger locks. In any case, he profoundly influenced Professor Remy Presas in this area. In the early Modern Arnis instructional videos of the 1980s, one can see that Professor Presas’ joint locks were crude and used large movements.

Professor Jay was born in Hawaii to parents of Chinese descent. While living in Hawaii, he studied boxing, Danzan Ryu Jiu Jitsu, and Judo. In 1948, the founder of Danzan Ryu Jiu-Jitsu, Henry S. Okazaki, awarded him a certificate of mastery in that art.

He later studied Judo under the former Hawaiian judo champion, Ken Kawachi. During his two years of study under Kawachi, Professor Jay learned the principles that would lead to the formulation of Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu.

In particular, Kawachi emphasized wrist action to gain superior leverage over opponents. Many Modern Arnis practitioners have learned over the years that this wrist action is prevalent in many of the joint locks we employ. Through his friendship with Professor Jay, Professor Presas incorporated elements of Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu into Modern Arnis. Painful elements, to put it mildly!

After meeting and doing joint seminars with Professor Wally, his locks resembled those from Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu. As a result of his friendship with Professor Wally Jay, the execution of his joint locks became more compact and less vulnerable to counter-joint locks. See the video below

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I recall one Detroit area seminar that I attended in the late 1990s. Professor Presas called me up. Being an eager uke, I had no idea what I would experience. He demonstrated the two-finger standing center lock, a favourite of Professor Wally Jay.

Screenshot of Professor doing a standing center lock on Larry Rocha.
Professor demonstrating the standing center lock on Larry Rocha.

OMG! The pain! I saw stars. He knew enough to take me to the edge pain-wise without breaking my fingers. In doing so, he utilized the principles of Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu while putting me in that lock. That said, the upside of this experience was that I learned how much pain I can take.

In any case, Professor Wally Jay’s Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu heavily influenced the Modern Arnis joint locks. For this reason, many Modern Arnis players owe a debt of gratitude for this.

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