When looking at YouTube videos of Filipino Martial Arts or a cursory look at Filipino Martial Arts events, it is evident, like many martial arts, that males far outnumber females.

This is unfortunate, as I have seen a number of incredible female FMA players, both known and unknown. In this series, I will be writing about several of them.

This first post is dedicated to Karen Callahan, a phenomenal Modern Arnis player, warrior, and friend. She was beloved by many in the Modern Arnis community and has been missed since her untimely death from brain cancer in February of 2013.

If you are not able to view this video, click here.

Thank you to Maire Dempsey and John Doreck for their contributions to both part 1 and 2 of this post.

Karen’s Biography

Karen was born on October 15, 1954. She was the 4th of 5 kids and grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. Her interest in martial arts started as a senior in college when she was a student at Florida State University, where she joined a karate program. When she graduated from college, she moved back to the Chicago area. After exploring a few different martial arts, she found her first martial arts home as a student at Miyuki Miura Kyokushin Karate dojo. She earned her 2nd-degree black belt under Miyuka Miura. After having two children, Karen moved back to the south suburbs of Chicago. She started to study TKD and earned a first-degree black belt.

Karen started Modern Arnis when she was at Ken Smith’s school.

She started in his Isshinryu Karate classes and earned a black belt. Sometime in the mid-1990s, she began training in Modern Arnis. She fell in love with the art and would follow, along with Master Ken, Professor Presas around and train with him as much as possible. If you have Professor’s Victoria DVDs, produced in 1998, you can see Karen in the first couple of DVDs training with Master Ken and Professor.

In April 2006, she took on teaching her own Modern Arnis class. While Karen eventually earned her 4th-degree black belt (Lakan Apat) in Modern Arnis, she most loved teaching and spreading the Professor’s art. She truly believed that the highest honor and achievement any martial artist can achieve is passing along the knowledge and skills to her students so that they can succeed in the art.

Karen passed away on February 11, 2013, after a brave battle against brain cancer. She fought to the end in true Warrior fashion.

Maire Dempsey’s Recollection of Karen

Karen and Maire


Karen took the most pride in martial arts as an instructor, and I was lucky enough to have been one of the first students in her Modern Arnis class. When she first started teaching, we would have “marathon” classes that would regularly last over three hours. We would be training hard and having so much fun that we lost track of time. She absolutely loved to pass on the art, and she worked so hard to find effective ways to challenge her students individually and collectively to improve skills not only in martial arts but also in life.

Karen wanted each of her students to be successful both on and off the mat and to be confident in their skills. She would remind her students that a belt test, even if it was at a camp in front of Masters and instructors, we were not as familiar with, was just an opportunity to show what we had learned. She loved watching her students show their skills.

As an instructor, Karen created a family atmosphere. Many martial artists talk about friendship and family, but with Karen, it was not just talk.

She emphasized the importance of everyone in the class supporting and helping each other both in class and life. All of her students were friends and truly cared about each other.

Karen also loved teaching because she learned so much from doing it. As skilled and knowledgeable as she was in martial arts, she was always learning and refining her skills. Always wanting to expand her knowledge, Karen started training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu just months before she got sick at the age of 57. She decided that she wanted to hone her ground-fighting skills. I started the class about a month before she did and was telling her how much fun it was. Karen was sold, as she was never wanting to miss out on great training or fun times.

By the time Karen got sick, we were training in different martial arts together 4 nights a week.

Although Karen was always the “student” longing to learn, she was also confident in her skills as an instructor. She never felt the need to show off in front of a class. She hated the formalities of titles like “Sensei” or “Guru” and forbid her students from calling her by a title. Her refusal to respond to such titles eventually led to her nickname, “Coach.” The nickname was quickly used by everyone at the dojo, including other instructors.

Despite her lack of formalities, Karen commanded respect on the mat. She did not use words or rules to do so. She loved teaching, and it showed. Her students saw her skills as an instructor in how she easily passed along her knowledge. She was so dedicated to each of her students. As a result, her students were honored to be learning from her, and would have done anything for “Coach”. Her classes were full of hard training mixed in with laughter and fun.

Occasionally, someone in the class, often a new student, would act “bucky,” as she called it. It would start with a subtle challenge to Karen’s authority or skills. Sometimes, this was done intentionally, but often, it was subconsciously. Those of us who had been in the class for a while would watch what was happening and start to panic, as we would know where it was heading….center locks!! Karen would take command of the class by cranking the hell out of our wrists, especially whoever foolishly challenged Karen.

As a woman in martial arts, Karen had to deal with a lot to be taken seriously. She trained hard and hated it whenever she felt a male training partner was “taking it easy on her.”

She knew that women in martial arts must work hard and be tough to be taken seriously. Karen demanded the same amount of physical and mental toughness from other females. At the same time, she was the biggest supporter of females in martial arts. She would not tolerate anyone underestimating or disrespecting any female martial artist’s skills.

Helping women realize their potential was very important to Karen. Therefore, besides teaching Modern Arnis, Karen also taught women’s self-defense classes. She held classes at various schools in the Chicagoland area. She was also a founding member of a charity called “One Light,” and with that charity, she traveled to Kenya to teach young girls self-defense.

With Coach’s passing, we lost our instructor, leader, and dear friend. She is in our hearts always and inspires us all to continue training hard and to remember to find the humor in life.

To be continued tomorrow.

Do you have any recollections or stories about Karen that you would like to share? Let’s hear them! Share them in the comment box below.

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