Penjak Silat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp7OpfecaZM
Silat Sarawak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0rNWkYkXM&mode=related&search=
Silat Sarawak 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_t0XnBLaQ8
Pencak Silat Borneo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSfsR1Qmelg
Otai Silat Pulut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOnn6tLd53w&NR=1
silat pulut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs45-UXQRXw&mode=related&search=

Anyone care to comment???


-John

First one reminded me of Westside Story



Seriously though, they were good "demonstrations" of jurus, and very athletic performances.

As to their martial merit, well, as I have said, the displays were very athletic, so in terms of physical capability (suppleness, muscle twitch fibre size/strength) they have good training.

Some of the jurus are very formal, and of course the tribal representation of indigenous Silat has to be considered. With my small knowledge, experince and conversations with Pencal Silat, jurus are about SD applications in some instances, but are also about more spiritual things in other instances. For example, the development of Tenaga Dalam, which I believe means something like "Inner Power" in Indo-Malay languages. Please correct me if I am wrong!

May I ask John, do you use anything from Pencak Silat in your training? I am aware you have studied it, and was wondering if there is anything you have taken out of it and carried with you.

I still can hit puter kepala reasonably well.

I trained silat as a part of the "buffet" approach that we had as JKD Concepts training (I did all forms of JKD, from original to concepts to "extra crispy"). I thought it (silat) was pretty fun for a while until I saw Royce Gracie practically running in on guys with his head down and beating them. Then I'm like, "why are we still practicing all of these 'entries' again?" lol.

During the last dozen years, I've just found methods that work a lot better. Much of that stuff I've not even DONE in 12 years. But I might try and slip in a few things here and there and see if I can't pull a few more off.

I'm not going to hold my breath though.


-John

Sounds somewhat similar to my experience. I took a handful of classes, and regularly attend my local school's seminars (they have two or three per year).

Some of the stuff seemed very interesting. I thought their may be benefit to it in that it has a somewhat unique system of movements, that can, at the very least, be confusing to the uninitiated.

That said, I found some of their drills to be overly complicated. I found myself thinking that there were more straight forward ways to get past someones stand-up defence and take them down, for instance.

I enjoyed their weapon work though, it was good to do at least some knifework (for what it is worth).

Yeah their weapons work is ok but I don't place a great deal of emphasis on that sort of thing.

I wouldn't bring a knife to a gun fight. I wouldn't even bring a KNIFE to a knife fight. I'd be 300 yards in the other direction.

To each his own though. Playing around with knife vs knife isn't my idea of training. Even with stick vs. stick, it's fun....but I just don't see fights happening this way very often.

Again if a guy pulls a stick and confronts me with it, I'm not going to look around for a stick of my own and say "on guard". I'm going to be a GHOST.

-John

Agreed, hence my "For what it is worth". I would run as fast as I could and throw anything to hand at the guy, but getting a perspective on someone trying to slash me with a wooden knife at least gave me a dim impression of what it may be like. Prior to that, I had no idea. And I'd live happily to the end of my days never finding out what it is like!

Those videos show performances from either competitions or demos.

Within the Silat disciplines, competitions are dvided into two general categories: 1) Silat Olahraga (Competitive Silat) and 2) Silat Seni (Artistic Silat)

Those shown in the videos Victor posted were of Silat Seni. The first video shows one of their "bunga" (kata). The two-men fight scenes are pre-arranged sequences.

That said, Silat (of any "aliran") has some very deceptive moves that would prove very "serious" if trained alive. Those fight sequences take a lot of work. In the weapons sequences, they used real blades and they really hit hard, albeit missing purposely (which makes sense). Takes a lot of coordination and understanding between the exponents.

Silat has many "aliran" (ryu). Aliran means "flow" which has the same meaning of the Chinese character for ryu (liu2). Within those aliran's, there are many "perguruans" (specific styles taught/founded by a guru or guro - teacher).

Different aliran's have different emphases, resulting in different levels of sophistication. However, while the technical sophistication of Silat can produce really formidable fighters, IMHO, their "secret" lies in their "fierce spirit". Silat fighters, at least those who train to fight, are very, very fierce. I have met many Malay silat fighters and they're virtually fearless.

Whether it's got to do with their race or not, I can't say, but the Malay people (as some writers put it and as the locals know it) are friendly people. But when provoked, they're absolutely FIERCE.

As for blade-fighting, one of the most common weapons used in real fights (whether one-to-one or gang-to-gang or in robberies) is the parang (machete). The people who uses parang's in fights think nothing of "chopping" the enemy (King Leonidas and the Spartans would have loved these guys)

Many forms of silat emphasize ground fighting.

I'm betting a good blue (in BJJ) could SMOKE many a silat grand master when rolling.

Again, just my opinion. As always, I could be wrong (but I doubt it).


-John

A good boxer could smoke them too, if he knows WHEN and HOW to catch them

Quote:

---

Many forms of silat emphasize ground fighting.

I'm betting a good blue (in BJJ) could SMOKE many a silat grand master when rolling.

Again, just my opinion. As always, I could be wrong (but I doubt it).


-John

---