Silat is it effective?

Discussion in 'Silat' started by MartialKid, Oct 18, 2008.

  1. Shihabudeen

    Shihabudeen Valued Member

    Salaam Alaikum, my teacher said he did not want to teach women...as a personal preferance... he said imagine a pregnant mother... in close proximity when we move with extreme silat speed and power...( my teacher moved with incredible speed and amazing force/power) it will not only take her breath away to see that... but it can have a horrific effect on the baby.

    He also looked for signs from God Most Merciful before he would teach a person... you could not just join us... you had to have an invitation, it took me a year to get mine...

    I chose to teach women... 'cause I perceived a sign that I was supposed to teach someone... so I taught her... she was a very good student and I grew to appreciate her warrior spirit... knowing that true warriors are not warlike...but rather dressed in the spirit with impeccable manners... and a direct connection to their higher power...
     
  2. Toy Weapon

    Toy Weapon New Member

    My Silat coach sensibly wasn't impressed about the *look at me look at me* manner in which I connected him with you senior level guys to help with his senior level training regime architecture but there doesn't seem to be a way to undo those associations.

    Please discount all such comments and the implications of them.

    Cheers.
     
  3. Rodger97209

    Rodger97209 New Member

    Silat is VERY effective. Anyone who studies WC or JKD will find it deep and visa versa. Silat is the most street style if you only do one.
     
  4. SoKKlab

    SoKKlab The Cwtch of Death!

    All the systems of Silat 'I've played around with' are excellent principle-based fighting arts.

    But! The way they're trained - without much in the way of resistance and feedback - makes the training itself less effective.

    One of the reasons you can take a raw beginner. And teach them the basics of say ring-rules Muay Thai. And if they train say 3 times a week. And do padwork, resistance-based partner work, a bit of sparring etc. Within a few months they'll be a pretty good fighter...

    Train for the same 3 months at the same rate in Silat - and without the resistance aspect - and you'll still be making raw beginner mistakes. And not be able to use it to 'fight' as such. I'd say 3 years and you might get the same level of 'fightness'.

    And yes ring-rules Muay Thai is basic to intermediate system. A whittlling down of the older Muay systems into a pure ring sport.

    Most systems of Silat are more sophisticated. And far more 'Principle-Based'. But much less effective because of the way they're trained.
     
  5. taoizt

    taoizt Valued Member

    Sokklab, i agree with most you are saying.....apart from your last sentence. It might take more time to become effective, but that is something different than being less effective. What you perhaps mean is that it's less efficient in taking time to create fighters.
    That might also vary on the teacher.

    Sometimes Silat is just a more advanced stage after training a style like Muay Thai. For instance a guru like Jak Othman, who trained Muay Thai as well as Silat.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-R2wA4ow4o"]Jak Othman - the martial arts maestro - YouTube[/ame]
     
  6. SoKKlab

    SoKKlab The Cwtch of Death!

    As I say the 'Training is Less effective'...Because of the lack of 'meaningful resistance'.

    This'll remain the same whether someone's been training for 5 months or 5 years. Mostly the Silat will fall apart quicker under duress in an adrenalised situation. Unless you find a way to bring a bit of resistance into the mix.

    Yes I referred to this in my initial post. And I train in Silat. So I know what you're referring too.

    Ring-Rules Muay Thai is a beginner to intermediate system in terms of sophistication. It being a whittling down to a purely ring art.

    The older styles of Muay are a tad more indepth. But not as principle-based as most of the Silat systems so far encountered by me.

    Yes I am aware of Mr Othman.

    Jak trains his beginners in Muay Thai. The more they go through his syllabus the more of the Tomoi (Older Muay) they do. They can then go on to do his Harimau Berantai.

    A clear progression. Just like in Thai Martial Arts where you must learn a Muay system first (usually an older one like Muay Korat, Chaiya etc) and then go on to learn Krabi Krabong and other weapons-orientated arts. No biggie.

    Remember though. Sophistication does not equate to effectiveness.

    I'd define something as effective if you're able to apply it under duress and come out of it mostly in one piece.
     
  7. taoizt

    taoizt Valued Member

    Sokklab, yes offcourse it depends on 'bringing resistance in the mix'. There are various ways of doing this, and my opinion is not like most who just prefer to focus mainly on sparring with protective equipment. Anyway we need to find a way to bring resistance in the mix, you are right about that.
    Silat needs to train for instance, not just on robot-like single right hand punches to the face and just leaving the arm outstretched. You need to train your apps on speedy boxing combinations, thai-boxing kick-punch combinations, on shoots of MMA guys etc, random left and right attacks etc..
    With that you can make it more realistic in my opinion.
     
  8. SoKKlab

    SoKKlab The Cwtch of Death!

    Yes. And I'm working on ways to bring this into my own Silat Training.

    You seem to be doing this too. Please let me know what works for you. And also if you'd share some feedback drills and the like that would be fantastic.

    My goal is to bring meaningful resistance into the mix - but make sure the practice remains Silat. As opposed to turning into an MMA clone.

    I was initially looking to do some cross-training to get that resistance back into my training.

    But most things are 'close-enough to be useful, but far enough away (in practice skills) to be diametrically opposed' - in terms of rhythm, relaxation 'bad Silat habits' etc.
     
  9. 8limbs38112

    8limbs38112 Valued Member

    Go to youtube and type in karate kid vs cholo. I think its silat but I could be wrong. If it is silat then it seems pretty effective. I thought it was silat the first time I watched it.
     
  10. tahutempe

    tahutempe New Member

    it depends

    hi all,
    i am new to this forum, just want to share my 5 cents, hope you don't mind correcting me when i am wrong.

    As a teacher once said, menang atau tidak tergantung kemahiranmu, kehebatanmu, kecerdikanmu, keadaanmu, alam sekitar, dan Yang Kuasa.
    Means, to win is about your skill, your might, your ingenuity, your condition, environment, and God Himself.
    In other words, effective or not it is about you, the nature, and God.

    There are dozens, if not hundreds, of fighting style / principle (my friend says it is not martial art but rather cruelty or useless art, i don't know). From Aceh to Timor. Not to mention family styles which are likely many of them are not publicly exposed. Some of them has foreign influences, some are based on daily life, some are based on war, some emphasized on metaphysic or mystic, some has many basics, etc. Is silat effective ? I think everyone has different opinion.

    again, just my 5 cents. :D
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2016
  11. Dylan9d

    Dylan9d Valued Member

    It depends in what field you want to be effective.

    Effective in sports, there are Silat styles that focus deeply into sports.
    Effective into demonstrations or performance, there are styles that focus alot on Seni.
    Effective in selfdefense, there are many styles that focus alot on beladiri.

    There are some styles that focus on all these aspects so yes I think Silat is a well rounded style that has something for everyone.

    On the part of selfdefense, I think you should train as you fight, and surely don't train thinking that the oppisite side doesn't know anything because more and more people are starting to train martial arts.

    My 2 cents...
     
  12. yamadin

    yamadin New Member

    I think all arts have some effectiveness and non effectiveness with certain situations.
    The same with Silat. I can only say this because I have been exposed and train in different arts and sparring against resisting opponent.
    One of my old instructor, Burton Richardson, trained Silat and started to apply them in sparring against grapplers and MMA resisting opponents. I myself have used Silat techniques in sparring sessions. I have been grappling in BJJ for 17 years and also been doing other stuff like MMA, Kali, JKD,etc.
    But it is true that you cannot just take the style and technique and throw yourself in an MMA match. It all takes training methods to apply the techniques. For example, the Cimande forearms conditiong drill helps to smash people forearms during boxing and if grapple, it helps your grip tremendously, but you need to blend these yourself to find a way to implement them.
     
  13. taoizt

    taoizt Valued Member

    Also MMA, even though it's an effective format for competition, still is what it is, a combat sport.
    Personally i think Silat should be enough to manage yourself against whatever style. However you have to train and meet with people from other style to test if you have effective solutions against a leg shoot, a clinch, a thai-lowkick, a mount, etc.etc.
     
  14. yamadin

    yamadin New Member

    It is a combative sports. Still if we are talking about just empty hand fighting one vs one. From experience, its all has something to do with resisting energy, timing and motion. Therefore; regardless of the art, whether it is Silat or not, if its not applied with the right training methods that contain energy, timing and motion. Its just not gonna work.

    The good news is Silat techniques work on certain occasions: some striking situations, throws and grappling, but not all of them. There is always time and place for each art and techniques.
     
  15. taoizt

    taoizt Valued Member

    True Yamadin, the correct training methods are essential. I understand your pov with 'silat techniques working on certain occasions', however you can also strive to make most of your silat work instead of switching over to another art for countering certain types of attacks. For instance, you could incorporate a 'sprawl' to counter a shoot for the leg, but you could also stick to pure silat and stick to to it's way of counter attacking.
     
  16. yamadin

    yamadin New Member

    I agree, for example, with the right timing, i had pulled putar kepala technique successfully. I just use whatever works and not prejudice or gung ho about one art. Just use what works and Silat does work. Just for me, at this time, not all of it.
     
  17. tahutempe

    tahutempe New Member

    Yes my friends you are right.

    In its origin land, the term "silat" may be confusing.
    Some people may think it is all about streetfight. Some think that silat masters are the people with "kesaktian" (supranatural ability), like ajian, ilmu kebal, silat gaib, and so on. Some think that silat practitioners are good in traditional medication. Even Kung Fu is often called "silat cina". :D

    In the streets, the are often crowd fighting between two groups of people who hate each other, called "tawuran". Usually between students, or young men, or jobless people. But rarely a silat master join this.

    As for supranatural thing, yes indeed it is a common knowledge here that silat has something irational, like debus, ajian, kebal, silat gaib, and so on. Some also has something to do with "tenaga dalam" (inner power, or Chi), like kang Yayan Ruhian in Youtube that he resist direct punch to ribcage, despite his small body.

    And also there is a style called "silat lidah", often used by politicians, government officials, or tricky people, to lie and deceive others.

    The last one is only joke, just for laughs.:D
     
  18. AJMartialArtist

    AJMartialArtist Valued Member

    As a practitioner of pencak silat with experience in Melayu I can tell you that there are many forms of Silat each of which is very effective to it's own degree the form I would recommend learning would be Pencak rather than Melayu just for the fact that it is from Indonesia and it tends to be more effective than Melayu Silat which is more about looks than actual effectiveness however if you want to learn Melayu Seni Gayong is considered the best for melayu however for pencak the best and most effective would be Bakti Negra which is the one I recommend
     
  19. Purespite

    Purespite Valued Member

    Balinese Silat?

    I've seen bits of it and it looks ok but what is it about it that makes you recommend it? :)
     
  20. AJMartialArtist

    AJMartialArtist Valued Member

    Ok good question I have been doing silat for nearly 4 years silat has everything strikes locks and throws it is great for closing the distance and close quarter combat it has a sense of rawness if you want self defense silat is one of the best
     

Share This Page