I studied: 1. Silat Aceh. 2. Silat Tapak Suci from Muhammadiyah. 3. Silat Cimande. 4. Silat Merpati Putih (present)
Silat Style? in Sulu/Mindanao, its generically called 'kuntaw silat'; to be specific though, its Silat Lanswang Sepring, coming from the fusion of various arts by mu guro...
Someone teaches Buka Jalan in Co. Durham? Hmm, interesting. My instructor has trained a lot with Cass & speaks very well of him
i don't have that much history: Persilatan Kembang Wali (1985 - current) Singapore Taekwondo Federation (1989 - 2001) i've been searching around and getting more and more info from other arts for around 10 years, but still feel i've not learned enough.. still feel there are still a lot out there i haven't know.. cheers!
Yup, our school is 'Impact North East', we are a satellite school of Dave Carnell's Impact Martial Arts (Sifu Dave is a full instructor under Cass Magda). We do Silat and Kali to compliment our JKD, and are based in Castle Eden (near Peterlee). You'd be more than welcome to come check us out sometime Peace
Ah, I see! Probably a bit too far for any regular training(I already do a 120 mile round trip for that), but closer than Stoke. Do you do any seminars up there?
I started training pukulan silat in 1980. Our schoolname is Barongsai, this is not a style or aliran reference, just a school name. It originates from the Sundanese area and is a symbiose of Chinese Kuntao, silat and pukulan Betawi since way before the IIWW era. My teachers are Dutch-Indonesian and so am I. I also studied Kempo for about four years but this training has no significant bearing on my present MA training. I hope to travel to Indonesia later this year and acquire some knowledge of the family pukulan from my relatives in Jakarta. So who knows an update by then.
I'm afraid not, we have to go down to Stoke or Manchester for seminars. Where do you train and who under if you dont mind me asking? Peace
I practice pukulan in a small group only for about 3 years now...I wish I started sooner.. But have some 17 years of kempo (more of a kuntao or kungfu-like branch than karate) knowledge and now trying to get that way of movement out of my system..harder to unlearn than to learn from scratch...
why unlearn? Theres information you could incorporate into your new style ... no point wasting 17yrs of learning, just because its not the same.... to learn french, you dont forget your english.
Well offcourse there is 'knowledge' in your body which is useful but some things quite simply don't match. Like for instance using plenty of force in your body in the previous styles. Or punching in a karate like way or moving backward in stead of moving forward. If you want to learn the style properly you have to 'empty the cup'. If I start combining kempo-punches with thai-kicks and aikido like holds, nothing really good will come from it Although most will probably disagree (following the MMA trend of today)
Mixed Messages Got to agree with this. Some material in some arts will still be useful -- some of the kicks and punches you pick up might blend right it. But some of the philosophical tenants do get in the way. In a silat style in which one closes most of the time, coming from an art that teaches you to back up and block every strike directed at you is a hindrance, not a help. You have to unwire that part of your brain, and it takes a while. T he longer you've been training, the longerit takes. From my experience -- including myself --- new students who know other arts usually have a harder time learning our version of silat than students who know nothing at hall. Bad habits are harder to get rid of than new habits are to develop ...
Partly true ... and it also depends on what we construe as "bad habits". Most people I observe day-to-day don't know how to exist within their body structure, nor how movement and being relates to gravity. Hence most people I observe have developed bad habits! I observe that there is only one way to move the body optimally regardless of "style". I don't expect anyone here to agree, but here's a clanger ... style is mostly irrelevent ... except where it can lead us to exist within our body structure and body knowledge of how it relates to gravity ... and a lot of "styles" are useless to realise this truth because the teachers themselves don't understand ... Salam, Krisno
Style You open a large can of worms when you say there is only one way to move optimally. That might be true, but: each person is different and what is optimal for one won't be for another. A hundred-pound ballerina on point is different from a four-hundred pound sumo wrestler in a a crouch, and while gravity and physics don't change, how one moves is going to be dictated by other things. Mass matters. Shape, too. What works for the shrimp may not work for the elephant. Some people move better than others and some teach better than others, and if you are fortunate -- and I am -- you get a teacher who can move and teach. And yes, while no style covers everything, some offer more efficient and effective ways of moving than others. Moreover, they can also offer a better system for learning and applying the art -- a set of principles that apply widely and thus can be relied upon to offer something useful when the need arises. We're big on structure, and for bipeds in one-gee, we think that position is more important than speed or power. Some styles think otherwise. You pays your money and you takes your choice ...
Cannot compromise body knowledge! Have to agree with you there my friend! Having said that, the principles germaine to the mechanics and neurology required to generate effective movement and the expression of power are the same across the board, whether one be a shrimp or a human of elephantine proportions. We all might have our genetic limitations to overcome as well. . If we can express those principles to direct our movement and our stillness, we transcend style. The vessel with which to convey the understanding of body knowledge i.e. "style" becomes superfluous once understanding is embodied. That is what it means, to have body knowledge. There is only knowing or not knowing. There are no shades of achievement in between and there is no compromise. It is Gerak Nurani. Salam, Krisno
interesting discussion. Body knowledge sounds like the thing I'm struggling with Only problem is...I have knowledge of the way to move according to the laws of gravity, but the main hindrance here is not being able to relax enough to let gravity do it's work So much to learn, so little time There is a big difference between consciously knowing how to move and subconsciously knowing how to move.... Greetings, Taoizt
Principles Well, in the most general of ways, sure, the principles of physics and chemistry are going to be the same; however, the specifics vary in real-time application, because the systems of the ballerina and the sumo aren't identical in how they function for real tasks. Strength-to-weight ratios vary. Pound-for-pound, there are lightweight lifters who are stonger than the super-heavyweights, even though in terms of totals, the big guys can push way more. Somebody who bench presses three times his body weight is proportionaly stronger than somebody who presses twice his weight. How many chin-ups can a sumo wrestler do compared to, say, a gymnast who weighs a third as much? The principles are the same, but the applications need to take into account the genetic differences. Expecting a sumo wrestler to strap on ballet shoes and balance on his toes is as realistic as expecting a ninety-pound ballet dancer to step into the sumo ring against a four-hundred-pounder and win. Which is to say, either event is highly unlikely. There are fast big guys, but a lot more fast little ones -- power is not the same as strength, and the bigger and heavier somebody is, the harder it is to move quickly. The applications will be limited by the particulars of the system. A mack truck that can pull a twenty-ton trailer is much more powerful than a Maserati, but if you are betting on a race for a mile up hill on a mountain road, put your money on the sports car. Sure. But to get to that point from don't-know-squat to total understanding involves something of a journey. The zen concept of mountain-no mountain-mountain works here. Without basic tools, you can't make that leap from point A to point Z unless you are some kind of genetic superman. Most people aren't, and before you can transcend style, you have to have a place to start, which, for most of us, is a style. I have to disagree with this. Yoda's "Do or do not, there is no 'try.'" is a fine movie line, but in no way deals with most consensual reality. There are many resting places where you have completed part of the path. It's true, you can either do a thing or you cannot do it, but there are, and always have, been levels of achievement short of total mastery. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and nobody I know can cover the whole distance in a single leap.
I'm not a Maserati! You are correct in that it depends on what one wishes to achieve. I agree that there are many different definitions of power. There appear to be many holy grails. I doubt that weight lifter who relies on weight lifting alone will achieve the flow that I enjoy. I also doubt that I could put on a tutu and ballet shoes and do what a ballerina does ... , but when I move with flow and presicion with a full reservoir of power, I need to be in a certain body state, optimally relaxed and attuned to my total environment. I also am of the opinion that this state would benefit most other specific types of activity. That is right. I think that I have already stated previously that style is the vessel on the journey to achievement. At a certain stage a person may make the decision to loosen ties to the vessel if it no longer serves the purpose for the journey, when the journey becomes more important than the vessel. Some people put the vessel above the journey. I think that you misunderstand me. Each time a person achieves a breakthrough in knowledge and understanding, there is the A-HA moment, the Eureka moment of I finally understand! However such moments are steps to the next level of understanding. In our current conciousness we might never reach the final understanding, even should such a condition exist! There is no in between level of achievement. In other words the process is fluid and continuous, never stopping at the last level until we become aware of the depth of mystery ... yes I'm waxing melodramatic again and I do think Yoda is a great role model Salam, Krisno
