Silat

[Royal Highland Fusilier]

I've heard some stuff about silat and I'm wondering if anyone here knows and/or has experience with this style.

Maybe considering taking it.

[Colt1911fan]

http://www.martialtalk.com

Don't know myself, but some people there ought to be able to answer your questions.

[NWPTrainer]

Silat is a generic Indonesian term for martial arts. Each family pretty much had/has its own version, kinda like the filipinos and escrima. Some of it tends to be real knife and stick focuesd, some is more empty hands emphasis, just depends on the style.
One of the better known "grandmasters" (aka "Grand poobas" is a Dutch-Indonesian guy named Willem DeThours. Theres a guy in Colorado named Bob Orlando that is a DeThours disciple and is reputed to be really good. I've done some silat, including some of Dethours Chinese influenced Kuntao silat. I've also done harimau, which is a bizarre form of groundfighting silat because of climactic conditions on the island its from....The "official" silat taught at the universities and stuff is called Pentjak Silat, which is just a more specific generic name for martial arts.

The bigget problem I had with my silat training was similar to my training in the filipino MA...lots of knife and stcik work, but all from a "duelling" viewpoint, ie, we both have weapons, and know it, and we face off before the fight happens. In a world of ambushes and sucker punch attacks, thats not the best training mode. On a positive note, some of the silat styles have really good fundamental skills and concepts for blade and baton work.

If ya need more specific info, PM me.
RLTW