White Crane Silat?

[Mtal]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about a style of Silat, called White Crane Silat.

I am thinking of getting into Silat. From what I read about it, it seems like great for self defence. Also it's something different, I am sure it would surprise an opponent. Oh and it is proven.

One school I found in my area teaches the above style. Reading up on it, I see it comes from Chinese Martial Arts. That kind of makes me wonder. Just that would I be learning Silat or Kung Fu.

Oh then I am in my 30's and have some aches with my knees and back.

So I am wondering if the style would be good for me. Thanks for any feedback.

 

[Carol]

There are about a thousand styles of Silat in Indonesia. The Javanese styles tend to have influences from other nations such as China, Japan, and the Philippines.

From what I've seen from some pictures, it seems to have a heavy Kung Fu influence. I saw some moves that look very much like the flavor of Silat that I practice and a few moves that, to me, seem a bit odd, such as a high side kick to the attacker's neck area.

Silat has a lot of painfully deep stances. If you have some back and knee issues, I would strongly urge you to check with your doctor and take the practice slowly.

There was one thing on the Wikipedia entry that caught my eye...

"All of our training takes place on a wooden floor, without mats. This inspires students to perfect their technique!"

In Indonesia, a lot of students practice on cement. I personally don't care for training in Silat without mats for a couple of key reasons. The mats absorb some of the strain that would otherwise be absorbed by you knees and lower back...and more importantly...some applications of Silat have such a risk of injury it would be irresponsible to practice them without a mat for safety.

Visit the school and try it out!

 

[Kiai Carita]

From what I've seen from some pictures, it seems to have a heavy Kung Fu influence. I saw some moves that look very much like the flavor of Silat that I practice and a few moves that, to me, seem a bit odd, such as a high side kick to the attacker's neck area.
......There was one thing on the Wikipedia entry that caught my eye...

"All of our training takes place on a wooden floor, without mats. This inspires students to perfect their technique!"
....
In Indonesia, a lot of students practice on cement. I personally don't care for training in Silat without mats for a couple of key reasons. The mats absorb some of the strain that would otherwise be absorbed by you knees and lower back...and more importantly...some applications of Silat have such a risk of injury it would be irresponsible to practice them without a mat for safety.

Visit the school and try it out!

Hello my name is Bram and I have been studying White Crane silat for around 23 years or so. It is a very good system in terms of and yes, we do not use mats because we learn to fall properly (so as not to hurt ourselves) and in real life situations you can't always have a mat to fall on ... check out www.pgb.org for more information, the links to the New York, Paris and German sites are interesting and there are some videos.

Our school is silat, Indonesian silat, to be precise and it has a very deep and strong root in Chinese Pek Ho Pai, but being based in Bogor, one of the main centres of silat in Indonesia, we are also in dialogue with more indigenous styles of silat like, for example, the famous Cimande style. When the White Crane silat founder was young he also studied under the exiled king of Lombok. In the pre-WWII language we might have been called a kuntao school.

White Crane silat has a health sylabus as well and is good for bad backs, bad fronts bad sides. Just inform the trainer and there will be some movement special for you designed to gradually make your body able to execute the techniques properly.

Salam Perguruan!
=()=
Bram.