First Silat Lesson

Discussion on the three big Chinese internals, Yiquan, Bajiquan, Piguazhang and other similar styles.

First Silat Lesson

Postby northern_mantis on Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:41 pm

Hi all

Felt compelled to post as I had my first silat lesson today. Just learning informally from a guy who does silat gayong and also likes a dust up with the dog brothers.

Was really good fun which is something I haven't said about a class in a while. So many facets and influences, I can pretty much relate some aspect of it to just about every other martial art I'm aware of. If anybody else has ever been tempted give it a go!
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby cerebus on Thu Jul 24, 2014 12:58 pm

Very nice! Always found Silat to be very interesting. Enjoy!
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby Dmitri on Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:00 pm

One of the very few truly "complete" traditional MAs out there... Enjoy! Very cool stuff.
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby I-mon on Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:54 pm

NOOICE!
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby kenneth fish on Sat Jul 26, 2014 10:08 am

There are, as you have probably been told, many different arts loosely coexisting under the heading "silat". I saw some silat in Djakarta and in Bandung - I was very impressed. Of all of the publicly taught martial arts of have seen, I feel that the versions of Silat that I saw were the only one s that retained realistic training and utility with bladed weapons.
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby KEND on Sat Jul 26, 2014 3:23 pm

Agreed, it combines striking, kicking, groundwork, grappling with excellent weapon work. There are many styles. I can recommend from personal experience Uncle Bill de Thouars or his senior students [Don Miller who was a TCC champion went over to the 'dark' side some years ago and is producing a series of DVD's of Uncle Bill's system]. Also Eric Kruk who teaches Harimau tiger style. Incidentally Cecep Arif Rahman, a well known practitioner is appearing in 'Raid 2'
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby Pipefighter,PhD on Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:23 pm

What are your thoughts;

I was doing some knife sparring with some guys who cross train in Silat more than i ever have. I noticed they didn't go for the "defang the snake" approach. If i sliced they blocked left and their knife was straight to my face repeatedly. They got me a few times like that. My check hand was close, but they used a one movement block and stab or flick stab and it was fast enough i didn't respond in time.
Brashly aggressive? Or the right approach?
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby kenneth fish on Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:32 pm

The right approach. In knife fighting the one who gets the knife in first is the one who survives.
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby Doc Stier on Sat Jul 26, 2014 5:09 pm

kenneth fish wrote:The right approach. In knife fighting the one who gets the knife in first is the one who survives.

That's a fac, jack! :o
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby KEND on Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:51 am

The knife work certainly seems to relate better to the real world than most traditional systems, probably forged in the back streets where there are no rules and the loser dies. Each move is a stab/cut/slash rapidly changing according to the opponents' reactions., the preset 'what to do against an overhead strike traditional approach doesn't hold water here
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby Tiga Pukul on Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:54 am

Silat indeed is very broad term for so many different styles. the Silat Gayong from Malaysia has a very different flavour from most west-javanese styles. The silat i've seen in the west is (like most arts) of varying quality. From spiritual mumbo jumbo, to just suitable for demonstrations, to very effective.

I was always interested in chinese (internal) arts, but never found one that was practical enough (tried a bit of XingYi, Bagua and TaiJi and various variations of Wing Chun). The right balance between theory and practice. Where you have to use your whole body in every movement on very short range, have to be as relaxed as possible, but still move in for the kill and not for control or (sorry guys) wrestling type of fights. I'm more of a kick and punch guy. With the silat style i practice i found a style that fullfills all of these wishes and it lets me kick and punch on the ground as well :)

Although i'm not doing IMA i do recognize a lot of what's being mentioned here (whole body connection, six harmonies, using principles instead of techniques, proper footwork, timing, relaxation etc.etc.), apart from the more scientific theory discussions. Probably I'm not scientific or smart enough for that ;)

I recognize what has been said about 'each move is a stab/cut/slash', when it's about fighting off someone with a knife there are not much more options than go for the 'kill' or 'run like hell'.

Good luck with your silat 'northern-mantis' !
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby I-mon on Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:38 pm

What I like most about the good Silat that I've seen, is that it uses the same whole-body power/six harmonies movement through all ranges and all positions, still using beautiful coordination and rotation around the central axis while standing, squatting, having one or both hands on the ground wherever it's useful to do so, half-kneeling, sitting, and lying down. I'd love to learn some one day.
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby Doc Stier on Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:55 pm

I-mon wrote:What I like most about the good Silat that I've seen, is that it uses the same whole-body power/six harmonies movement through all ranges and all positions, still using beautiful coordination and rotation around the central axis while standing, squatting, having one or both hands on the ground wherever it's useful to do so, half-kneeling, sitting, and lying down. I'd love to learn some one day.

With all due respect for the various styles of Silat, the comments above equally describe a high skill level in any traditional Chinese IMA style as well.
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby I-mon on Tue Jul 29, 2014 7:17 pm

Doc Stier wrote:
I-mon wrote:What I like most about the good Silat that I've seen, is that it uses the same whole-body power/six harmonies movement through all ranges and all positions, still using beautiful coordination and rotation around the central axis while standing, squatting, having one or both hands on the ground wherever it's useful to do so, half-kneeling, sitting, and lying down. I'd love to learn some one day.

With all due respect for the various styles of Silat, the comments above equally describe a high skill level in any traditional Chinese IMA style as well.


Yes so I've heard. Maybe in your generation people were less afraid of getting their clothes dirty?
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Re: First Silat Lesson

Postby Doc Stier on Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:33 pm

Quite so! Combat soldiers and martial artists with clean clothes are rarely real warriors. :/
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