One thing i perceive to be a big difference between Kali (the stuff i have seen) and Silat is that Kali starts with weapons and the unarmed part comes later. With Silat it's the other way around. Can anyone confirm this (or object to it)? In our silat (bukti negara) the main focus is unarmed for quite some years before you switch over to the armed stuff, which is...essentially the same movement patterns.
In Malaysia, from my experience and research, most Silat styles do teach empty hand techniques first.
Most older Javanese styles (Cimande, Cikalong, Syahbandar, Kari, Madi, Serak, Maenpo Peupeuhan) also start with the unarmed part.
When I studied Serak from an instructor under V. de Thouars weapons were introduced after 2 or 3 months. This was probably around 10 years ago.
Well it's hard for me to see the reasons of the instructor, but normally in the curriculum of a style like Serak weapons are NOT introduced that fast. The fact that an instructor does do that is more about the instructors choice than the way the curriculum is built up. I won't go into the different types of Serak since we don't want to open up a can of worms..
Highly unlikely the instructor was designing his own syllabus,esp as these things were part of grading which VDT oversaw. Could be wrong,but somewhat rather unlikely under VDT.Feel free to contact him-if you wish...... As an aside,do you think that weaponry being introduced later rather than sooner is a more modern approach as it is now in some CMA systems? Just wondering as it certainly wouldn't be as practical an approach as regards survival in times past when firearms were not as commonly met on the road.
This discussion died a while back, but what i know about Kali/Arnis/Eskrima vs Silat is that the freedom you have in the FMA is way bigger than in Silat. With that i mean that FMA less structured than Silat, but most FMA teacher take whats effective on their journeys and dont stick to the "one style is the best" mind set. My FMA teacher encouraged me to try out other systems like Krav Maga, JKD, Wing Chun. On the other hand my Silat teacher i had for about 8 years was scared when someone was trying something new. What i do feel is that Silat nowadays goes more about money and not about the art, at least in the west, dont know about Indonesia (never been there). Nice article for those that want some info about Panatukan written by my instructor http://www.myfma.net/profiles/blogs/panantukan-1?xg_source=activity
Well that's just your experience, i don't agree with that. It falls a bit in the category of statements like: 'Kungfu is less effective then Karate' Some systems of silat have only a very limited amount of jurus (5 or 6), some have a lot. Some are very rigid,precise in way of thinking, some are very open. The "one style is the best" mind set is always a tricky one. It's not always meant to limit the student, sometimes a student has to stick to one system long enough to get a real clue what the system is about. Sometimes it's about conflicting ways of moving that in the end confuses the student and does not help his progress. Sometimes the teachers are scared yes, to loose a student to another style. For me I practice one style, which suits me best. I trained in plenty of other styles in the past to get a general idea of them. Luckily plenty practitioners of other styles visit my teacher so in that way you still get to meet other styles and their way of fighting as well.
Yes Tao it is my experience, im not saying it's everyones experience I know that your teacher is a very capable guy with a very high level of skill wich you and me will never reach and i mean this seriously, ive been at his teachers home and felt what he can do and he is one of the best teachers ive seen so far, but so is my current teacher they only have different approaches. And ofcourse it's hard to judge Silat as a general term because of the so many style differences, but like i said my previous Silat teachers werent as open minded as most maybe.
You have to train with a purpose in mind. With that should come a training method designed for that very purpose. If the goal is to train to be able to defend yourself against assailants, you need to train likewise. More sparring, more resistance, more intensity. From there, your ability to apply your art and techniques under pressure will skyrocket and the useful and the useless techniques will reveal themselves so that you can sort them out.
