This is an interesting clip a friend of mine brought to my attention a long time ago and I recently started thinking about it again. Sifu Richardson hits the nail on the head: there are a lot of good principles in silat... "unfortunately, they don't practice in a manner that's very alive, anymore." [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGCbs134inU"]Burton Richardson: Silat concepts in MMA - YouTube[/ame] apologies for the bad video quality.
Burton Richardson recently launched a "Silat for the Street" program. http://silatforthestreet.com/silat-for-street-self-defense-videos/ it's very commercial in a "get your black belt in the mail" sense, but i'm still curious about the material.
His "Battlefield Kali" programme runs along similar lines and is superb I am on the fence with video testing depending on what day you ask me - all most exams are is a visual demo of techniques and skill so theoretically video is no different as long as the parameters and requirements are consistent and adhered to. On the flip side "video testing" can often go hand in hand with "video training" and that is very much a double edged sword
I remember a move of my old mma teacher. He also had experience in Sambo en Silat. He showed us one handy silat trick where you put your foot on the ground between his legs, put your kneecap against the side of his knee and push, causing the opponent to fall.
A lot of people have experience (like in the USA) in Silat through tricks like the one mentioned above. A lot of JKD guys have some silat in their bag of tricks, although i would not say they practice silat. The video course and testing of Silat is definitely not my cup of tea. Silat is all about training a certain sensitivity which is hard if not impossible to see on video's. I still prefer quality one-on-one correction by a skilled teacher. Same with detailed correction on movements. With a webcam it's very hard to see the proper distancing and positioning, at least, that's my experience. Perhaps a more professional video setup might help.
Majapahit Silat v.1 and v.2 by S. Spezzano(sp?) - an instructor under Guru Dan Inosanto- has excellent production quality with details "popping up" on the screen. but, it doesn't have any sparring.
I've got both 1 and 2 and you're right the production quality is excellent. They did leave me rather cold though and I'm not sure why (well with the exception of the "running backward downward dog"), maybe it was the repeated use of the phrase "Let's break that down".
