Why Silat?

[infinite beginner]

no one is actually a martial artist but rather

just a martial practitioner that strives for

flashes or flows of the perfection, that is

the art , when ten things come together

perfectly in one step and everything is

countered and works the way its suppose

to ,that is a glimpse of the art , like who

thinks of perfect chess being about hours of

two staring entranced into the squares, its five

moves, checkmate, its the opening

setup, that make these games possible

to imagine just the first move could set them up a

hundred percent, so that any follow up becomes

possible , is to imagine being a martial artist,

 

[infinite beginner]

no one is actually a martial artist but rather

just a martial practitioner that strives for

flashes or flows of the perfection, that is

the art , when ten things come together

with one step and everything is perfectly

countered and works the way its suppose

to ,that is a glimpse of the art , like who

thinks of perfect chess being about hours of

two faces staring sharply into the squares, its five

moves, checkmate, its the opening setup, that

make these rare victories ever possible , and to

imagine how just the first move could set them up

a hundred percent, in such a way so that most any follow

up becomes possible , is to imagine being a martial

artist, its like chess in that one makes their move having

calculated every imaginable possible counter move ,from

the opponent and the counters to those, so seems the more

counters and options we can find and fathom for our opponents

to react with the better, and easier to take them away from them

 

[infinite beginner]

It seems physical fitness and strength is the icing on the cake

or the cake under the icing, meaning its good to train and stand

cross legged and smash the air, but without once in a while trudging

up some steep hills and throwing some some wts around ,and

possessing some super gymnastic strengh, never slowed Bruce

Lee down ,in his moves, a great, few might deny possibility the greatest

modern martial arts practitioner, on or off the screen, now if he had sat

in a chair all day and drank scotch and taught his martial arts

techniques at night, it would've not been the same, he would've

been bruce who ?, but the fact that his peak physical shape was

inseparable from his martial art, mindset that he could move like a

feather weight and hit and kick like a heavy weight, its like

everyone learns the same art in a style , but they express

and process the knowledge though a different machine, and

vehicle, heres where everyone takes the art to their own limits

same thing with Ali fitness fanatic , how could he have been

the greatest without that, those two both strived constantly to attain

Rolls Royce level physiques, few are close to, most have in comparison

volks wagons they would be lucky to ever upgrade to BMW's, but were

they to if at all possible how could it not help but, serve more

respect to the expression of whatever art they claim their involvement,

Lee would explode into motion hit or kick at someone quicker then they

could see it, with power lifting them off the ground didn't really matter

what art he lent his hand, that precision timed explosiveness he possessed,

that made it JKD

 

[infinite beginner]

Ok the elbow is silats secret weapon no one uses it so

sneaky widely and efficiently, as the Indonesians, have

come to , it is the most elbow, of all the arts, silat has more

variations of elbow than boxing has jabs, as every strike may

either follow with an elbow or start with one ,but its always

there like a hidden short baseball bat, the whole objective

of the arts strategy is to close range, land the elbow, like

a thousand paths leading to one road, here's a secret why ,

a coconut cracking silat elbow can be fired full force from

nearly any position and it won't affect stability or structure ,

say that about a hong kong hay maker, or ask if a powerful

western left hook can always include a triggered incidental

foot sweep and knee,

 

[infinite beginner]

missing , if you miss you were not focused, if you focus you can not miss

of course thats an extended embellishment on the reverberating echo of

my teachers words , but those precise words just came to me, as I was just

out back breaking apart a big old wooden lounge chair , for the trash

with a claw hammer, had the arm free with the first hard swing, at the

half inch high lip,I went at it focused had it in pieces in no time,

Its a hand eye fusion of total trust , then when I started thinking about how

perfectly accurately I was hitting off the narrow tips of the steel springs

I missed three swings , caught up in the gloating for a moment, broke

the actual focus , reminding me thinking about it is not close to the same

as actual focusing, when theres focus there can be no thought about it only

more focus

 

[infinite beginner]

speed is useless sometimes, if the object is to balance the coin on the table

the fastest, racing the coin to the table makes no sense, once there,

you gotta start all over anyways, to gradually find its precise axis of

gravitational alignment,

 

[infinite beginner]

funny how its not how fast the punch goes out but

how fast it retracts that gives it its snap , what, do ya

wanna leave it out there all day like its taking a long

cruise, its sure most anyone can throw their punch

fast but can they catch their punch back faster and use

that to empower a spinning back hand rolling crescent forward

lunge sweep not a fat chance or rather not a slim chance, unless its

silat common sense yells in the ear if something comes back

faster than it gets out there leaves ahead a surplus of energy

somewhere upon its return

there is no wasted movement of motion, just as every

technique has a hidden flaw every counter is balanced

as its checked

 

[infinite beginner]

just completely understanding all of physics, is a bit difficult ,

there might be martial science but there are no martial physics,

its cool ,but it aint that cool , nothing is , no there is just

the one and only physics ,and physics doesn't ever go around you

you go around it , again the same leverage principles shown

us as an effortless scissor throw are applied to everything

all heavy lifting or tossing , we run across , of course there's

adjustments and limits to fling a tree log over the heap turn

over a rock or throw out and old couch ,or drunk all what

physics that was learned is class is perfectly adaptable

and applicable,the exact principles are in place, thats why

more physics based martial arts take a while , some might

talk of body physics as if the body has physics, when it is

physics, that has the body, say a strike comes flying in

one might turn to slip and trail the force , but, specifically to

what exact, calculated measure of degree , to say make

them come freely fully charging in, past everything, except right

down clotheslined into the fired elbow, where their head used to be ,

its like don't we want to time it perfectly and just hit the fast

ball over the fence without having to physically grapple with its pitcher

on the diamond rushing in to tackle us ,as the elbow is to silat what the

bat is to baseball, it sounds simple, but so does winning a game of chess

in three moves,


Yeah, I see what you're saying, Blind .That describes it well . It kinda reads

back, in a blurry streamline flurry like that, to me too. But then again, if no

one is so sure or too confused what they are reading, they are much less prone

to pose a dispute or conflict ,could about count those on one hand that have

here, in the past, seems they all lost all hope and gave up trying, soon enough,

I don't know ,but anyones disagreements still is appreciated, and amusing.

especially non silat people

 

[Blindside]

Do you have a period on your keyboard? It would help if you used it, and paragraphs would be good too.

As it is it feels and reads like a transcript of someones stream of consciousness dialogue while tripping.

 

[infinite beginner]

We know nothing about silat on our own.

We owe it all to those who taught us.

It is not our art, but our teachers, just as it

is not their art, but their teachers .


as with good faith a fact out weighs fiction

for one, no art can be put into words,

especially martial , it can be only visually

demonstrated with an explanation,

but without the visual, there is no art

to speak of ,if you're just standing there

in the wrong place ,someone just standing

there in front wants your watch and takes

a swing , to explain and breakdown every

motion they made from head to toe in the

one second from just standing there,

would be full of allot of fast detail

its not a description that would sound

unlike anyone else who has done the same

but to see it it would stand out to others

because the visual detail is complete

words can only describe the completeness

perceived

 

[infinite beginner]

if its a triangle, one line is seeing the next feeling the last doing it

, so if one watches

a ping pong lesson , then goes to the table and the teacher is a world

class player , they may use ten percent of their skill to beat them

in a match, and they wouldn't move much , their great refined

detailed skills may not be so plainly visible to look at them, yet

another champion could still pick them out instantly ,

seems the more skilled the more refined and harder to

read they become

 

[martiallightnin]

some great anecdotes here. I've been thinking of taking it up myself. Plenty to think about!

 

[infinite beginner]

Its hell of allot allot to grasp , it looks so different ,

than other martial arts again its full of unorthodox

joint contortions , just watch Indonesian dancers,

see, notice how far back they bend their hands

and fingers and the sharp insane angles , in which they

pivot their wrists, watch the plate and candle

dancers , they bend their joints till they almost look

double jointed ,

once early on, my teacher got tired or bored with me asking

different ways I can trap his arms

and next thing I knew I was on my toes the painful

very efen tips of them , and he had

his arm raised making two vertical fist turn down ,

holding my two index fingers with

my palms facing up, well it was fun for about

the first five seconds ,but after a couple if

minutes it was getting old, I looked at my teacher

just smiling looking right through me

,well I didn't ask him about trapping , for some time ,

to this day those two fingers can bend backwards

quite a bit farther then the rest, Indonesian style ,

it was like I was bugging him enough and he punished

and rewarded me by giving me two Indonesian fingers,

sore for a couple of weeks , but its the little things that make the

big things flow smoother, so what I first took for just pure sadism ,

I came to appreciate thinking the Indonesians must do something

drastic to contort their fingers back as far as they do, and my

teacher could bend his back pretty damn far, so I like to think

his teachers did that to him and he knew exactly what he was doing

that one morning, he almost broke both my fingers , but when you

see its not just the dancers bending bending their joints for the aesthetics

when the old masters can all flex their fingers back as well, again the hand is

like a swiss army knife , so many tools besides the fists and so many kinds of fists

I think I have it on film I should ,try to find it re watch it see how long I was actually

on my toes ,wanna say two hours but that aint right one thing it did make a minute

seem like hours in pain time but I'm guessing a few minutes real time,come think of

it that tweaks the toes out too, as you are off your feet balancing on the very points of your

toes , and that hurts too, at the same time,

 

[infinite beginner]

the fact seems the martial art for weaklings is a myth

weaklings don't belong in martial arts I realize I have

just offended all you weaklings who train, but so what

you are just a weakling ,you went to train because you

are weak , so you could still stay a weakling but kicksomeass

that was your plan, or worse you expected martial arts to

turn you out of being a weakling, instead of first just deciding

not to be a weakling in the first place,you can't do anything

with weak muscles , weak muscles are like having sick muscles

strong muscles are healthy muscles and the stronger the better

oh I'll go to class two hrs a week be strong in no time, a weakling

is just three short degrees from being a sickling , don't think of martial arts

once a week think of all the ways of

getting stronger 24'7 going to martial

arts cause your a weakling is among

the worst reasons, because it seemingly justifies

the lifestyle of maybe staying a wimpy

weakling , are we not every moment getting

stronger or weaker quicker or slower,

more or less coordinated , so if you are a

weakling it only takes a few months to be

non weak and another few to start getting

strong, as long as you don't injure muscles

they will keep healing

you go to martial arts mostly to get hurt so

you need extra strong and healthy

muscles , they are as easy as a few months

total dedication and a lions share

of common sense , so best to get strong

first on your own time and dime

them when you go to martial arts you can

storm on the floor and go right to wreaking

havoc upon the biggest weaklings in the class ,

saying yeah I

was one of you, a pathetic weakling,

strengh is good weakness bad , not conan

thats mutant deformation

just strong solid muscles , should be the

prerequisite for martial arts

rather than looking for secret strategies

to protect and preserve your

weak physique , theres a million programs

for getting stronger martial

arts is the hardest , cause of all the

hits and falls be strong and you might

break even , besides martial arts gets

complex and difficult where getting stronger

on your own is practically a no brainer, it just

takes patience persistence and devotion

things you need for martial arts anyway,at the same skill why don't they mix heavy wts with middle wts,

in boxing, ever, because if you run into some one at your skill

level only stronger bigger or quicker , who's gonna win, you, ?

how ?

 

[infinite beginner]

what skills do you have when you lose your balance,

but hope to race gravity to the floor stop drop and roll

go at it low level but what if they take your balance

and you don't know it , its like this if you don't have

theirs at close range , theres a good chance they have

yours, how can you keep your balance in any struggle

if first you don't have theirs, silat is the art of never

having to lose your balance, or never doing any move that

places balance in danger , when you lose your balance you

lose your , all your hard earned skills in good standing at the

same time ,when the silat players dance in exhibitions ,they look like

they are trying to shake themselves to the ground twisting

and jumping around all jittery, but no that is just a dance what

martial value could that have, it stabilizes balance in motion

they swing their balance around in every direction , try to make

yourself almost fall recover then do it again, then really try,

why not get comfortable being at that point of no return

and working down from there , be your own worst enemy

try and take your balance with missteps tripsteps and wt shifts,

walk jurus on a two by four , how hard is it to find one of those

and a couple of blocks , stand around with weight on one leg

walk on rice paper , but nothing refines the balance like

the foot work left to the flow in the dance

 

[infinite beginner]

they need to extend the editing time limit some,

its like every martial artist is okay with falling

and okay with catching their balance, but

not okay when they can do neither of both

same spooky feeling when realize you've leaned back in

the chair too far but not quite so far back enough to fall or

come back up

sheer panic replaces the moment as it short circuits all thought ,

you can't even think about falling , maybe you will maybe you won't,

so same thing happens when standing not thinking the legs will

involuntarily scramble to find any source of stable footing

be it the form of a pretzel ,now having taken the bait in their

last and only available retreating clumsy step, back off balance

they go only now their legs are maybe locked in a tangle its a

chase to checkmate you take out the balance take away the legs

whats left , except the easiest way to fight is the hardest to learn

 

[infinite beginner]

And so what the heck is a stance , its not to be taken loosely

jumping all over the place, its not really an option , we have

little choice how to stand , its the decision of the art how to stand

variations of mobility dictates the stance , ok , for example your

in your stance, what can you do , from where you are to where

you go ,and when you transition to your next stance do you

have as many or more options , in other words, can you be as

powerful in any direction ? no because all structures are not equal

, some are more strategic , and the most strategic of them all

is the most practical and efficient , that is to say if one is best

according to the physics of the body, shtcan the rest or at best

put them on the back burner , why bother with even slightly

inferior positions , so common sense says , there can be only

one core stance worth putting forth , one position of ultimate

instant transition , that is with the smallest adjustments what

is possible , the time it takes to take a stance is the time it takes

for a fist to already come flying in ,many may drop into their fancy

dancy stance only to find themselves swept or hit inside of that

moment, its about splitting hairs shaving fractions of a second,

being an expert means doing more with less motion, motion is the enemy

it must be minimized to be maximized, cause its the little things that

take the longest to master ,or even to see, so we gladly pay out our dues to

our teachers out of pure amazement, of their abilities cause we don't know

just exactly wtf they are doing, if we did should we even need to be there

but the reason we don't so easily ever catch up with our teachers other than

the likelihood of their god given physical talents ,is because they too are

still learning and progressing as they teach , and at a much faster rate than

their students , because their understanding is so much deeper , you might

learn five new things at a class session, consider your teach then has just

discovered ten new things, approaches or angles , remembering they

only became the teachers through first being learning experts, while

you're distracted at work, or out doing your daily thing , they are still focused

on the art

knowledge is alive the more there is the faster it grows , which is why

good teachers can always continue to never cease to amaze their students

 

[infinite beginner]

and popularized strategies dealing with multiple opponents

is built on fairytale, for one, the facts seem to conclude, they're

more likely to throw a about thousand pounds of pressure your way ,

in one near simultaneous stomping pounce , so you have about the time

of one breath to win or lose , with no time for added defense thats why

breathing is held to be such a valued skill in silat , yes no one shows you how

to breathe proper, well they do and they don't I mean its not like

explaining standard a judo flip where you can just go start doing it ,

no you say for months or even years internally experimenting am I regulating

this right most times ahh wtf feel like I'm just suffocating in chi land I know

the breath is like a metronome , and at the heart of timing , but so many specifics

and not enough damn oxygen to go around , it is said silat is an internal

martial art breathing is a part of the internal aspect of silat , yeah duh ,

doesn't get much more internal than that, all breathing is inside alright

of course some don't stay only with the breathing but go on to chase

shadows in the imaginary dark , never seeing the light of day in any

arena awarding themselves untold amounts untested internal chi force

energy and yes and no, but then apart from the trained breathing , not

so much, which can be so tediously complicated in itself to ingrain into

particular motions, who would guess a little thing like breathing could

be such a big deal ,yeah how hard could it be whats easier then breathing

it ain't yoga but being an Indonesian art we steal their chi energy element

out from under their lotus pillows and match it to dynamic motions,

 

[infinite beginner]

and popularized strategies dealing with multiple opponents

is built on fairytale, for one, the facts seem to conclude, they're

more likely to throw a about thousand pounds of pressure your way ,

in one near simultaneous stomping pounce , so you have about the time

of one breath to win or lose , with no time for added defense thats why

breathing is held to be such a valued skill in silat , yes no one shows you how

to breathe proper, well they do and they don't I mean its not like

explaining standard a judo flip where you can just go start doing it ,

no you say for months or even years internally experimenting am I regulating

this right most times ahh wtf feel like I'm just suffocating in chi land I know

the breath is like a metronome , and at the heart of timing , but so many specifics

and not enough damn oxygen to go around , it is said silat is an internal

martial art breathing is a part of the internal aspect of silat , yeah duh ,

doesn't get much more internal than that, all breathing is inside alright

of course some don't stay only with the breathing but go on to chase

shadows in the imaginary dark , never seeing the light of day in any

arena awarding themselves untold amounts untested internal chi force

energy and yes and no, but then apart from the trained breathing , not

so much, which can be so tediously complicated in itself to ingrain into

particular motions, who would guess a little thing like breathing could

be such a big deal ,yeah how hard could it be whats easier then breathing

it ain't yoga but being an Indonesian art we steal their chi energy element

out from under their lotus pillows and match it to dynamic motions,

 

[infinite beginner]

so you take what you get and you run with it

you learn all the rules ,thats the perimeter

and off the track , there is no skill in technique ,

its like technique is the retarded brother of

counter technique or the dumb end of a tape

measure, its the one with the best counters

that has the best system , so there must be

imagination to find different ways to train ,

hang a metal bat on a rope attached to a garage

spring anything to make reflexes sharper

and chops choppier , but as soon as you do

something , say after the third move from jurus

xyz in response to a surprise en counter is, what

should the jurus tell you , to do

automatically , but to counter ,so just hung up a

swinging plastic bat over a swinging medicine ball,

about easy chair level , but it drove home this valuable

principle,when I punched the ball the bat slowly swings

every third or fourth hit or second ? who knows its unpredictable ,

first was striking then when it swung countering it

it was breaking the timing of the simple repetitive strikes

just enough that the only thing to do, was add the little counter

to the recoil every time, but do we ever know when it will

be time to counter , no, we don't, so thats why its easy to chop

at a target , no strategy needed just lighting fast speed and frozen

coconut cracking force , or theres a good chance it will be countered

or obstructed, so the counter focused offensive method is always thinking

what can they do, not what can we do so the intent of the technique

is to outsmart the counter ,its not who can counter you but who you

can counter , for every move, or tech, there is, its out numbered by

multiple counters , so you start your tiger form 27 flurry to counter

a sucker punch you see from a mile away at the 7 eleven ,only to feel a

boot buried into your shin as you started your elaborate lash , its a hard

move to counter ,as low kicks are the most invisible , and unpleasant to

deal with , sure you might get through you combo form , but the kick

still smarts, at best, are we willing to take a good solid sneaky shin kick

because we were too focused thinking about our fantastic technique

that will send em soaring through the air ,and you might be halfway

to a reverse arm lock knockout only to realize the shin kicker has taken out

your foot and leg , think they were going to stop with a simple shin kick

when that was just part of their entry , they practice like a boxer does a jab,

as a lead in, so when you go in with a punch you better take their legs out

with it, know that the low kick is coming just as sure as the low back sweep

is on the way ,