Looks almost too pretty to be practical doesn't it. I like the dramatic poses after he's finished...very vogue.

yeah, the poses are just kinda the traditional thing. Actually this guy's instructor doesnt have too much experience but trust me, this stuff can be done. The style (Harimau) is exclusively designed around maneuvering on the ground. And sure it is pretty slow in the demo. In real life it is very very fast. There are phillipino guys in my group that could maneuver around your legs and take you down before you do a jab cross.

Maybe. I will see if I can get some of the other guys in my group to do a technique or two. If not I will get one of my roomates to get a video clip of me doing one. You might check out the video "secrets of harimau" for more realistic stuff or look into Herman Suwanda's videotapes. He is dead but some people still sell some of his videos around, I just bought one on ebay. There are not really any good video clips I would say of silat on the internet at all because first of all it is pretty rare and second the old generation of practitioners either dont like showing their stuff or are dying out. The newer silat is getting into more of the sporting aspects unfortunately. My instructor is really against videotaping though at all because he used to let people do it early on and they take techniques and put out videos and say they are part of their system. Some Bjj guys picked up the "cobra lock" from one of his seminars in the 60's and claimed it as theirs, after that I think he just decided he didnt want people to capitalize off his art. sorry, I forgot even who I was writing back to. It is kinda late and IM pretty tired. Here is one link to the website of the system I do and another is a massive picture gallery that has some interesting things. Note the weapons on the second to last page. My instructor has seen a man get his side totally slit open and killed with that weapon in the bottom right corner. You can get away with all kinds of stuff still in indonesia as there is no suing anyone and its not illegal to walk around with knives and swords. There are still cannibals there too so that is pretty intense.

What exactly is a "cobra lock" and how was it "stolen"?

man, i am kinda angry cause i just accidently erase this. Oh well. I looked on the internet and wanted to find a picture of a cobra lock so you can visually see what it is. ALL I got was talking about it. Basically it is when you go to the ground and are on a side mount on the guy. You slap the guys arm closest to your side towards his other arm and you loop your hand under his neck and grab the arm you just slapped. You wrap his own arm around his neck choking him and then you slip in your other fist and grind it into the cartoid artery. It is a pretty painful choke. They have it listed on this learn how to fight quick websites as one of his techniques but he calls it a cobra choke. http://www.safetytechnology.com/guardsubmissions.htm
It was "stolen" when "Oom" Jim had an early seminar at a grappling school in the 60's or so. That was one of the techniques that he learned in Indonesia and he was already knowledge about grappling techniques in America. Pretty soon like a month or two later he started seeing magazine articles and pictures with the same choke in there that he had never seen any grappling schools do up till this point. That is why he generally doesnt like people to videotape his stuff. Many people make money off of silat if you just look in paladin press the people who claim they do silat either barely learned any and claim they are a teacher or they have no real lineage and its not silat. But........there is some silat guys on a different newsgroup and they are sending me a seminar from the late 80's of my instructor. His school wasnt supposed to videotape but they apparently did anyways and he still has the footage so if I get it soon I will try to post a clip of him doing a cobra lock. ALso, you usually dont just grab his arm and try to put it behind his neck. You usually start from a standing position and soften him up with 3 or 4 strikes and then take him down and transition from there.

Hedge -

Petjut describes the same "cobra lock/choke" that I learned in my JKD grappling class. I can't do it very well, but my instructor can.

yeah, actually I think i remember reading about Hohan grappling too. I just heard a mention of it, but yes i think you are right. I would be interested to look that up for fun.