Silat for self defense


I heard about a silat player fight well against a BIGGER judoka in the ufc 2 but lost, and a lot of teachers in JKD love the silat techniques.

I do not almost nothing about this style but i read about his efective techniques in self defense situation where most fights or attacks in the street start in close distance.

Is it a very good MA for self defense?

depends. Some of it is cool. But 98% of the people teaching it teach flash and 1 and 2 step sparring, and djuru's/sambats (aka KATA) just because it is easy way to make $$$$$$$$$$

I think it would depend on who you learn it from. My instructor, John Will (Machado BB), lived and trained in Indonesia for 8 years in the late seventies and early eighties. He trained with a few different schools and trained mostly in the slums because he said that's where the guys who really fight live.

John no longer teaches Silat, but the skills he possesses would suggest that it can definately be a good self-defense art.

now honestly....do you think his skills come from his years of silat or the fact that he is a BJJ black belt??




Train in it for a while and try it out for yourself, that's the only way you will know.

I would agree with JohnnyS. It's a difficult question to answer because there's no set standard on how it's taught. Similar to the FMA. Indonesian Silat is said to have over 400 known systems within the style. A lot of the variations of the systems will be based on climatic conditions, the type of weaponary, etc, etc. A lot of people who've been exposed to the bastardized versions of these systems will conclude that they don't work or that you're just learning useless mechanical drills that don't prepare you for a realistic opponent. That said, you have the dual difficult tasks of finding a legit instructor and then running what is being taught to you through your own personal BS detector to see if it's practical for self-defense or if you're just otherwise learning some fancy dance/kata.

gurukripa,

I think that John's standup skills have nothing to do with the fact that he's a BJJ black belt. John has amazing standup, and is extremely fast and explosive, especially with his blitzing. I would assume that John's striking skills come from his Silat years, as well as natural talent and hard work.


I think the Silat John learnt in Indonesia is far removed from the moves you will learn in a JKD seminar where it seems to be the latest flavour of the month.

Thanks for the answers....Silat is efective in more and less efective in a real fight, but why is the reason because there are a lot of jkd masters then love the silat??

Like anything, its largely depends on how you train and who your instructor is. Ive trained in Silat in the past and I do enjoy it very much. with that said, the majority of my stand up training consists of Boxing and Muay Thai but I still enjoy doing silat once in a while to keep it fresh in my mind. In live sparring, I have been able to pull off a few silat sweeps.

Some silat systems have some pretty interesting and somewhat goofy moves. However, the techniques that I have pulled off in sparring are the basic sweeps and throws. The problem with many silat guys is that many of them fall into the "this technique is too deadly to train" mentality. Yes it is true that silat sweeps hurt a hell of a lot when done to you correctly, but I've never really hurt anyone any time i used them. I guess a lot og JKD guys love silat becasue it is fun to learn and it can help you learn a thing or two about creating tight angles for sweeps and off-balancing.

RDS

ttt rds

Some Silat is cr*p, some of it has helped my stand up, take down, and ground games. It is very old school in most of its incarnations, but since in does focus on unbalancing, breaking and manipulating joints it gives some fresh perspectives vs. BJJ and western grappling.

Since most of it is from south east asia it does go well with boxing and Muay Thai.

If you look at the techniques they are mostly legit, if you look at the way it is practiced though, most of it could be livened up.

I take what I can out of it, and practice it out of enjoyment. I smile through Silat, I grimiced through Muay Thai. BJJ and boxing is somewhere inbetween depending on how hard we go on a given day.

Most of my experiences are with Mande Muda (www.suwandaacademy.com) and Maphilindo Silat ala Dan Inasanto.

Ray White