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Surprising Similarities - Silat and Karate
August 27, 2008 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Bunkai, Martial Arts, karate
***Special Thanks to my visitors from BlackBeltMama.com. For those of you who aren’t familiar with BBM’s site, I recommend checking it out right away. She is a friend of mine (and I teach her some karate from time to time), but she is also my blogging Sempai! Many bloggers look up to her (including myself), and you’ll see why once you read some of her entertaining commentary on life and the martial arts.***
On to the topic at hand…
It is said that once you study a martial art long enough, you begin to understand all martial arts. I thoroughly believe in that. Over the past few years, one of my goals has been to identify connections between what I’m doing and what other people are doing.
Even though I’ve had this mindset for awhile, I’m still shocked when I realize a new connection, and wonder how I hadn’t seen it earlier.
Silat - Malaysian Art of Self Defense
I’m a fan of the show Human Weapon, but haven’t had the chance to see all the episodes yet. I finally sat down today and watched the episode about Silat.
Silat is a Malaysian born martial art that has roots that go back as far as the 7th century. In the cluster of Asian countries that have significant martial arts backgrounds, Malaysia is tucked in quite nicely. Have a peek at this map -
You’ll notice China, Korea, Japan, India, and Okinawa all hanging out in the same vacinity. You’d better believe that trading routes were open between these countries, and it wasn’t only material goods being exchanged. China, as the dominant force for a very long stretch of time, is a common thread to which almost all Asian arts can trace roots. Take that shared background, combine it with cultural contact through trading and war, and what you’ve got is a lot of styles that share ideas.
Silat and Karate
My empty hand training is in Okinawa Kenpo Karate, which is why I use that style as a reference point when looking at other arts. But I wonder, when you read some of the similarities I found, will you notice them in your art as well?
Here are some things I saw:
1. Movement to the Outside. When slipping a punch or kick, Silat combatants love to move to the ‘dead side’, or outside of their opponents. This is a critical concept in Okinawa Kenpo as it removes many of your opponent’s weapons from effective range.
2. Quick,Circular Block/Counter Combinations. No doubt from Chinese influence, both Silat and Karate try to shorten the time needed to respond to an attack by using circular block/counter combinations. These can often be found in karate kata as ‘rolling backfist’ style techniques. Practitioners of Nai Hanchi Kata should be pretty familiar with this rhythm of attack.
3. Balanced Stances. I noticed something that strongly resembled shiko dachi. While both Karate and Silat utilize these stances, they don’t rely on them during quick techniques; only as tools to add power and balance when appropriate.
4. Vital Point Striking. By vital point striking I mean targeting those areas of the body which are naturally weak. A ridge hand strike to the throat or claw to the eye can be much more effective than a straight punch blindly aimed at the chest region.
5. Bunkai. Bunkai is analysis and application of techniques in a kata…and something neat happened while I watched the Silat practitioners show their self defense tactics - I was able to slip each combination into my own kata with very little stretch of the imagination. There were series of strikes and targets that I immediately equated with particular sequences in Karate kata. Not that it took any special skill on my part to do so, it was just a matter of keeping an open mind.
If you get a chance, go back and check out that episode. I think I’ll watch it again in the near future to try and pick out even more connections.
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8 people have left comments
Hey, thanks for stopping by my place and offering your feedback into the tournament. As a brand new martial artist (can I even call myself one yet?), I truly value your input, especially once I came back and read about your background. My sensei actually nicknamed me “the Sponge” because of how I’ve been soaking up everything karate related since I got involved. I’ve thrown myself into this new world. therefore, your site is quite the find. Thanks again
You certainly can call yourself that! That name indicates a state of mind and a strength of character more than color of belt.
So long as you keep being the sponge, you can use that title!
Thank you very much for stopping in.
After I finally got serious about taekwondo I too started to see connections from the other arts I’ve dabbled in. Now that I’m mainly studying chin na the tradition continues so your post is very interesting. Short and sweet:
1. Most of the chin na that I’m learning tries to position you to the attacker’s outside. This so at best they have to punch across their body which is not very effective.
2. Not sure about block counter parallels…We are taught to emphasize speed over technique. If you pull chin na off with speed and get it half write you still can disrupt someone. This opens them up for the “kill shot” aka a punch, kick, knee, etc.
3.Balanced stances are very important. Last night when I learned “forward turning elbow” we use that exact same horse stance. Basically you check a punch, slide and grab, crank them into a goose neck wrist lock while simultaneously stepping through and to the side into horse stance. When you do this even if you mess the lock up they are off balance (aka uprooted). In fact, attacker is practically bent backwards and in half.
4. Vital striking is stressed more in chin na than taekwondo. Every chin na technique has the option (and intent) to give you a window where you can strike vital points. Funny but some martial arts might consider it dirty fighting. Also something called “stealing your opponent’s mind”.
5. The closest parallel to bunaki would be how the advanced chin na folks learn to freestyle flow from technique to technique and respond to their changing opponent. Sadly, at level one there’s not much of that because we are still foundation building.
Very impressive article Matt-san!
I’ve watch most of these episodes, but haven’t seen this one. I find it interesting how the two American gentlemen hosting the show always comment on the force of the power and speed of the blows, but never mention things like slipping to the dead side on the first video and the roll of the fist around the captured wrist in the second.
Nice catch you your part sir!
I’m looking forward to your next couple articles… I know you’ve probably got a dozen or so pre-written, so out with them!
BrandenSan: Yea check out the episode if you can; in fact, most of it is on youtube (Sshhhh). The rolling technique is something Sensei Bill Hayes does really well, and he utilizes that kick as part of kosa-dachi transitioning.
Mr. Patterson: What a killer comment! Thank you for taking the time to provide us with some insight into chin na. For readers that are interested in more, check out Mr. Patterson’s blog Striking Thoughts.
Thanks for your very kind words there Ikigai! I can’t believe you hadn’t seen this episode before! I missed the TKD one where Jason supposedly tears his ACL so I’ll have to see if I can find it on youtube now that some time has passed.
I had all of these episodes saved on my Tivo, but something tells me that they are gone thanks to the move.
Excellent post. I have also noticed many similarities between the two systems, at least based on the YouTube clips I’ve seen.
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