Dieter Knüttel
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Dieter Knüttel (b 1960) is a German practitioner of the Filipino martial art of Modern Arnis.
He was born in Berlin and began his study of the martial arts in 1967 with Judo. He would go on to study Karate, Kung Fu, and Tai Chi. In 1978 he began to learn Arnis from Jackson Cui Brocka, a student of Roberto and Ernesto Presas of Manila. He earned his black belt in the art in 1981. He studied with many senior Modern Arnis instructors in the Philippines, like Rodel Dagooc, Rene Tongson, Cristino Vaquez, Bambit Dulay, Roland Dantes, later also Jerry de la Cruz and Victor Sanchez and of course, the three Presas brothers themselves. In 1988 he graduated from the German Sports University with the degree of "Diplom-Sportlehrer" (equivalent to a U.S. Master of Arts degree) in sports science.
Throughout the 1980s he focused on Modern Arnis as taught by Ernesto Presas (now called Kombatan). In 1994 he met Remy Presas, the founder of Modern Arnis, whom he regularly brought to Germany to teach seminars. In 1996 Remy Presas awarded him the rank of 6th Dan in Modern Arnis and the title of Datu. In 2003 the “Council of Elders of Modern Arnis” in Manila, consisting of the highest Modern Arnis masters in the Philippines, promoted him to the rank of 7th Dan in Modern Arnis. He has also received the titles of “Senior Master of Modern Arnis” from the IMAFP as well as “Master of Classical Arnis” from Rene Tongson.
Since 1985, Dieter Knüttel has been the chief instructor of the German Modern Arnis Association (DAV). (The DAV is the largest independent Filipino Martial Arts association in Europe.) He travels extensively in Europe, to the USA, and to Australia to teach Modern Arnis seminars, mainly for the general public but occasionally also for military and police units. He has been featured on several covers of German martial arts magazines and has demonstrated Modern Arnis on TV several times.
His most senior students are Hans Karrer and Jorgen Gydesen, who both hold the rank of 6th Dan in Modern Arnis. Together with Alfred Plath he organized the 1st and 2nd Filipino Martial Arts Festival in Germany. The second attracted more than 600 participants-the largest Filipino martial arts seminar ever, worldwide.
In addition to teaching Modern Arnis, he has also gained recognition for his martial arts instructional videos and DVDs, produced by his company ABANICO (founded in 1989 and named for a certain Filipino martial arts style and strike). The company has produced videos and DVDs by practitioners of a variety of Filipino martial arts and other Asian martial arts.
He is married to Bea Knüttel (m. 1990) and has two sons, Sascha (b. 1993) and Marius (b. 1996). He currently resides in Dortmund.
