Fillopino Arts.

[Kensai]

I know nothing about these arts. So could some one explain to me the differences between:

 

Kali

 

Silat

 

Escrima.

 

And any other really interesting styles that are'nt from the big three. (Japan, China and Korea. )

[JerryLove]

There is a tremendous amount of variety in Indonesian fighting methods. They range from sports styles, to purely combative styles, to a style designed for a ritualistic challenge of a bridegroom for the bride. So I will talk in generalities.

 

The Pentjak Silat styles are the indigenous styles which include cultural elements. Here is where you will find the wedding styles, the dance styles, and many of the sport styles. There are also quite a few fighting styles in here. The Pentjaks tend to prefer outside over inside fighting positions. They tend to go from open defensive postures to closed offensive postures. They will occasionally have mystical elements.

 

The Poukilan Silat styles tend to be pure fighting styles without cultural elements. They tend to be direct and to the point. They tend towards close fighting (Poukilan means "impact"). They also tend to prefer outside positions.

 

The Kuntao Silat styles are conglomerates of Indo and Chinese fighting methods. They tend more towards closed defensive postures that open to attack. They also tend more toward inside positions when fighting, preferring the availability of soft targets to the safety of outside positions.

 

The Silats do have animal styles (Harimau (tiger) and Madi (monkey) being two of the better known). They have few if any unarmed styles. They tend to adapt rapidly. There is a tendency to throw out whatever becomes obsolete and add whatever becomes relevant. This is why most modern Silat schools to teach firearm retention and counter-firearm strategies, as well as more traditional weapons (knife, stick, spear).

 

One noted difference between the Indo arts and the nearby Chinese arts is the tendency of the Indo arts to use already strong structures within the body (as opposed to the Chinese tradition of conditioning the body). This allowed the old, the young, the sick, and the wounded to effectively use these arts.

 

With so many arts, there is a great deal of variation in training methods. Some schools teach Silat in a very conceptual way. Some are similar to classical Chinese or Japanese schools. Some teach it around the sparring (like kickboxing). Feel sure that there is a Silat school somewhere that matches your preferred training method.

 

0 Reposted from - http://www.clearsilat.com/silat/Articles/overview.htm

[Kirves]

Kali, Escrima and Arnis are all Filipino styles. They all have substyles also. What is common is this:

 

When they were used in real battlefields, they had to produce good fighters fast. That is a reason why weapons are taught early on, as the student might be dead in a year. The people were poor, so the weapon of choice was a rattan stick (grew everywhere). Blade was used when one got his hands on one.

 

These are very "concept" based arts. Instead of teaching "tech A, tech B, ..." they teach attack angles and possible counter angles. Then it doesn't matter what the attack is, as long as you know what angle it is coming from. Also, the improvisation of weapons is a high priority. Use a stick, umbrella, broom, shoe, belt, whatever to give yourself some reach, before resorting to bare hands. Tehcniques remain the same in any case.

 

PS. There are some concepts that modify your techniques for the weapon you are using, like if there's a blade, you can also cut, or if the weapon is bendable (chain, belt, cord, whip) you have some other options. But generally the basics remain the same.

[jiu-jitsu fighter]

kali and escrima are very similar if not the same,

 

kali is a weapons based art, but there are highly effective unarmed combatives as well(throws,grappling etc.....)

 

they use sticks to replace more dangerous weapons, for beginners.

 

silat has forms and is a very sophisticated form of combat, i believe it originated as a form of kung fu brought to indonesia+philipines

[Venezolano]

I really want to learn Kali, i've seen some demostrations and it's pretty good

[Kensai]

Cheers.

[magikchiongson]

Its really difficult to explain, people always want to categorize and put things into neat little orders. I've heard it this way, Arnis was supposed to be a Northern Filipino Style, Eskrima the Central Islands Style, and Kali the Southern Islands style.

 

I seriously doubt that Kali and Eskrima were the styles used by the various tribes to fight each other and would be conquerors, because then Kali instructions would include how to use Shields, and Spears. People have been trying to pass off Kali as the mother Art of the Philippines now, but I kinda just laugh at that.

[Kensai]

One of the clips that Jerry showed us, it looks a lot like Wing Chun Kung Fu.

[JerryLove]

silat has forms and is a very sophisticated form of combat, i believe it originated as a form of kung fu brought to indonesia+philipines

You are discussing a subset. The Kuntao styes (as I mentioned in my dissertation) originate primarily with the Chinese imagrants into Indonesia.

One of the clips that Jerry showed us, it looks a lot like Wing Chun Kung Fu.

My teacher was well into Chinese arts before discovering Silat. Many of his teachers are Kuntao practitioners and so have strong Chinese influences themselves. There are some quality similarities. Though I see a great deal of diference, if (and I assume this from your name) you are doing Japanese arts, I can understand why we might look more like Wing Chun from your persepctive.

 

That said, I believe all the clips I have up are from beginners (I believe the most experience person there is one year). I've been meaning to put up elements of what Phase 2 and Phase 3 (ciriculum is divided into pahses) fighting looks like.

[Kirves]

One of the clips that Jerry showed us, it looks a lot like Wing Chun Kung Fu.

 

Well, the arts are very different, but yes, Kali has LOTS of trapping and Wing Chun is one of the few arts that do this too (to such an extent).

 

That is also the reason why many JKD trapping stuff are a mixture of WC and Kali techniques.