Is silat harder or easier to learn than wing chun?

[kehcorpz]

How many techniques are there in silat?

I noticed that in wing chun there are very many different blocking techniques.
If you want to learn them all you probably need many years. But I also don't know
if you really need them all or if you could also get along with just a few techniques.

Anyway, how is this in silat? Do they also have dozens of different arm deflections and
stuff like that? If yes, do you have to master them all in order to effectively use silat
for self defense or would knowing just a handful of them already be enough?

Personally I'd rather focus on fewer techniques and try to learn them instead of having like
50+ techniques and then not even being able to decide which one to use if somebody attacks
me. :/

 

[Dirty Dog]

Looks like you're doing an outstanding job then, since given your posting history, it would appear that so far you're focusing on exactly zero techniques.
Get off the computer, go find a school, and actually do some training.

 

[kehcorpz]

but before i can even start to train something i first have to decide what's best! that's my issue right now

 

[Dirty Dog]

but before i can even start to train something i first have to decide what's best! that's my issue right now

No, that isn't your issue. Not at all. Not even close.

 

[kehcorpz]

then what's my issue?

 

[Dirty Dog]

then what's my issue?

Well, your *** seems to be vacuum sealed to your chair, and as a result you don't actually do ANY training.

 

[kehcorpz]

No that's not it. I am simply uncertain about pretty much everything which makes it really hard for me to make decisions.

 

[Blindside]

No that's not it. I am simply uncertain about pretty much everything which makes it really hard for me to make decisions.

In one of the systems I studied one of the terms of "analysis paralysis," this is what you are doing now. Go try some classes, you are just spinning your wheels right now, and you could have started two months ago.

 

[drop bear]

No that's not it. I am simply uncertain about pretty much everything which makes it really hard for me to make decisions.

What do you think the worst case scenario would be?

 

[kehcorpz]

The worst scenario would be having to sign on for something for 12 month (which is common practice where I live) and then noticing that I made the wrong decision.

 

[geezer]

The worst scenario would be having to sign on for something for 12 month (which is common practice where I live) and then noticing that I made the wrong decision.

No, in your case, that would not be the "wrong decision". After a year of training, even in a system you decided you didn't like, guess what.... you'd actually know something!!!! Then you'd make a more informed choice about what and where to study next.

If I hadn't gotten involved in Wing Chun and Escrima, Maybe I would have spent my time doing BJJ, or HEMA. Silat is definitely cool, but harder to find. Aikido? Maybe not as practical in some ways, but also really cool in other ways. Any one of them, and dozens of others would have been awesome! Dude, if you find a good school, YOU CAN'T LOSE!

Even if you choose a bad school, you will learn something, and then know what to look for in a good school. Or you can keep on dithering, and start seeming really pathetic.

Of course you've already been told this, many times by some forum members that know a lot more than me. And I've been doing this stuff a while myself ...like since the 70's!
So get on with it. If you really can't manage that, maybe you should get some counseling ....because frankly you don't seem to have it together right now. Good luck.

 

[Dylan9d]

In addition to what geezer posted, get some links up from the schools near you and then we can help a bit better.

Im a Silat guy, and I couldn't get used to the postures in Ving Tsun, it would probably be same way around if I were practising Ving Tsun for a longer time.

 

[drop bear]

The worst scenario would be having to sign on for something for 12 month (which is common practice where I live) and then noticing that I made the wrong decision.

Then in 12 months you would at least know what the right decision was.

Took me more than a year.

 

[geezer]

Im a Silat guy, and I couldn't get used to the postures in Ving Tsun, it would probably be same way around if I were practising Ving Tsun for a longer time.

I'm told the term Silat is very broad, so I don't know if what you do is anything like this, but the standing postures this guy does in the middle section of this clip seem a lot like Wing Chun to me. The silat punches shown are very different, far more whipping and circular than the basic straight-line WC punch. But the elbows look very familiar to me as a WC guy.

Now the crouching groundwork is quite different, but very like the nasty stuff my DTE Eskrima coach likes to do to me. Not something my old knees can handle, but very, very cool. I really like the way the demonstrator always looks so cool and relaxed, like an Indonesian gentleman casually crouching down for a moment's rest and conversation ...all the while his opponent, as though by pure happenstance, is being torqued into a screaming pretzel! Gotta love it.

 

[Dylan9d]

I'm told the term Silat is very broad, so I don't know if what you do is anything like this, but the standing postures this guy does in the middle section of this clip seem a lot like Wing Chun to me. The silat punches shown are very different, far more whipping and circular than the basic straight-line WC punch. But the elbows look very familiar to me as a WC guy.

Now the crouching groundwork is quite different, but very like the nasty stuff my DTE Eskrima coach likes to do to me. Not something my old knees can handle, but very, very cool. I really like the way the demonstrator always looks so cool and relaxed, like an Indonesian gentleman casually crouching down for a moment's rest and conversation ...all the while his opponent, as though by pure happenstance, is being torqued into a screaming pretzel! Gotta love it.

No, Ving Tsun I experienced and the Silat I practised are very different in execution but I didn't practised VT long enough to see similar principles or tactics. The guy in the video is a student from Maul Mornie, I think Maul Mornie has alot of interesting stuff and it is alot like the stuff im doing nowadays.

Silat and Eskrima are way closer to eachother.

I also do the pretzel stuff sometimes to my students and they love it

 

[Juany118]

No that's not it. I am simply uncertain about pretty much everything which makes it really hard for me to make decisions.

Do what I did. In the end it's not just the Art, it's the teacher. Send emails. The ones who respond are worth trying. Most recent teachers let you sit in or try for a class or two. Get a feel for it. If it fits it fits. Even 1000 different techniques can feel easy if everything fits.

 

[kehcorpz]

Can it be that in silat they use the elbows much more to defend and hit?

I emailed different schools just to ask a few questions and some didn't even reply. They're off my list now.

 

[geezer]

Can it be that in silat they use the elbows much more to defend and hit?

I emailed different schools just to ask a few questions and some didn't even reply. They're off my list now.

That (the bolded section above) is understandable. Maybe they are too busy teaching students who actually show up and commit to training than some guy emailing them and wasting their time.

 

[Juany118]

That (the bolded section above) is understandable. Maybe they are too busy teaching students who actually show up and commit to training than some guy emailing them and wasting their time.

believe it or not I only had one school that didn't reply. That being said the content of any written communications matters. Mine basically said (short form)

"I am a Veteran and police officer with X years experience. I have formal training in Olympic Foil and Saber fencing, Aikido and Ryushinkan Karate. I wish to begin formal training again but with a focus on the Art being applicable to modern police work in a high crime area, does your school address such a concern?"

a precise question on a point like that tends to get an answer, generic questions, not so much.

 

[geezer]

believe it or not I only had one school that didn't reply. That being said the content of any written communications matters.

Yes content matters. I'd absolutely take the time to respond to an inquiry like yours. To the kinda stuff Kehcorpz is going on about... meh.