Why Most Martial Arts Don’t Work

The vast majority of martial arts will not work in self defense.

Many of them were not made for self defense in the first place, most provide no education in or understanding of real violence or how to prevent it, and a very large number of them utilize training methods that do not and cannot lead to real skills. Due to unrealistic training methods, these martial arts use techniques that will not work against a fully resisting, uncooperative opponent. In addition, most styles lack realistic training with and against modern weapons. In this article I'll explain why most martial arts don't work in self defense, and what is required for them to do so.

They're Not Made For Self Defense

A great many martial arts were never made for self defense; some purposefully, some not. Tai chi for example, was not created for self defense. Nothing in the practice remotely resembles an assault or fight. Kenjutsu trains the use of samurai swords. Tae kwan do is a sport, with very limiting rules. Although some train Aikido as a self defense system, does this look like realistic self defense?

Granted, the above is an extreme example, but nevertheless real attackers do not attack like you see above, nor flip through the air at the slightest touch...or even without being touched for that matter.

Some styles that were not created for self defense, purposefully or otherwise, do have techniques that can be made to work. However, everything about these styles aside from those isolated techniques goes against the principles required to attain real self defense skills.

They Ignore Violence, Awareness, & Prevention

It's rare to find a martial art that even mentions why, where, how, and who violence happens to. It doesn't take long, but this needs to be the first step in any self defense system. Whether it's individual self defense, a domestic violence situation, or a war, a practitioner needs to understand what they're up against to effectively learn to defend against it. Prevention strategies can and should account for most self defense. They're nonexistent in most martial art training.

Ineffective Training

Very few traditional martial arts provide comprehensive, quality training methods. In many karate, tae kwan do, and kung fu schools, the primary training method is solo, prearranged forms performed in the air. This method of training alone will prepare a student for a real assault only a little better than ballet classes. Students must spend time striking and wrestling with other humans, getting hit and wrestled, and avoiding these things. And this training must be against completely uncooperative, fully resisting opponents. Cooperative training, no matter how hard, will not prepare a student for the chaos of a real attack.

Many training methods that look good on the surface are useless at best and counter productive at worse. Take a look at this very common "stick fighting" drill done in Filipino martial arts:

No one fights with sticks like this. But it's just a training drill, right? The practitioners are getting accustomed to attacking and blocking, right? Wrong. Look a little closer, and notice that no one is following through on their strikes like a real attacker would. Thus, the blocks these students are learning to use would be ineffective against a real attacker swinging a stick hard and fast. The positions they're learning to put their hands in will get their hands nailed by their opponent's sticks in reality. Not only is this drill useless, but it's teaching the practitioners to do things that will get them injured in a real stick fight. The same can and will be seen in martial arts schools around the world.

Isolated drilling of a technique is not only fine, but necessary. The problem isn't the isolation, it's when the attack doesn't resemble a real attack, and the defense doesn't resemble a real, effective defense. When a technique is isolated in training, practitioners must be able to do the technique with full speed and power, and the defense must still work. Otherwise, the training is creating bad habits. Unfortunately, this is standard operating procedure at most martial arts schools.

Ineffective Techniques

Largely due to poor training, most martial arts are filled with sub-optimal to horribly dangerous techniques. These include karate and kung fu style punches and blocks that leave practitioners wide open to counter strikes...

Karate Block

...to crazy aikido throws and wing chun complex trapping. Because most traditional martial art training is not realistic, the practitioners never realize the techniques they're learning aren't realistic either; until they actually need them.

No Emphasis On Strategy

Even with good non-lethal self-defense training and techniques, strategy is essential. Most martial art schools do not promote or consider various strategies for self defense. When is it time to attack? When is it time to run? What type of defense is most appropriate for a small woman vs. a large man? Because the majority of martial art training follows a strict, stylized curriculum, there is no room for strategic or technical differences in size, strength, gender, and disposition.

Lack Of Weapon Use And Defense

These days, an attacker is likely to have a weapon. The vast majority of martial art schools do not train realistic defense against modern weapons, if they train with them at all. And even fewer train practitioners to use modern weapons. Those that do, especially in the Filipino martial arts, tend to be the worst regarding realistic training and ineffective techniques. Quality weapons training must be a part of every self defense system.

Martial Arts Cults And Beyond

In addition to poor techniques, training methods, and strategies, many martial arts go far beyond in regards to guru cults and pure madness.  Original article here [link]

The article was seen here : Why Most Martial Arts Don’t Work

Pencak Silat Master Gets MMA Smackdown, Regroups, Comes Back Even Stronger With His Martial Art!

Fighters have practiced Pencak Silat for thousands of years, but it didn’t capture the attention of Western martial artists until the late 1980s. Suddenly, the Indonesian system was everywhere, with its vicious counterattacks and precision takedowns attracting self-defense practitioners who wanted the best in street-fighting functionality. As a bonus, it offered a fascinating dose of Southeast Asian culture.

I had the good fortune of starting my Silat training under Dan Inosanto in the early 1980s before it became popular. Several years later, Herman Suwanda, master of the Mande Muda style, started a class at the Inosanto Academy, which I naturally attended. Inosanto later got me into the backyard Bukti Negara group operated by Paul de Thouars. With those wonderful teachers guiding me along the path, I was in Silat heaven.

Silat worked very well for me. As one of the original Dog Brothers — I was dubbed “Lucky Dog” — I used the art in the group’s all-out, minimal-protection stick fights. In our style of combat, which was deemed “too extreme” by UFC co-founder Art Davie, I was able to regularly apply foot sweeps and my go-to move, the Tarik Kepala, or head-tilt takedown. The latter technique proved so effective, in fact, that after some time, a couple of my fellow Dog Brothers asked me to stop using it because they feared someone would get injured.

I used Silat in stick-fighting tournaments, in a challenge stick match in the Philippines and in two empty-hand challenge matches. When people questioned the effectiveness of the style, my teachers would point to my success as proof that it really worked. All was well in the world of Silat. Then came MMA.

RUDE AWAKENING

Back in the mid-1990s, MMA was called no-holds-barred fighting. I began training with some of the NHB pioneers — in particular, with Egan and Enson Inoue. The experience proved an eye-opener, to say the least. I couldn’t get my Silat to work against athletes who had a strong grappling background. Sure, I wasn’t kicking them in the groin or gouging their eyes, but I had to acknowledge that most of my techniques didn’t function as planned.

Example: I couldn’t break my opponent’s posture sufficiently to execute a good sweep or takedown. It was frustrating because I knew firsthand how effective Silat takedowns could be. I’d used them against resisting opponents many times, but MMA was a different world. The grappler’s base was just too stable, and I couldn’t do the head tilt because my opponent’s neck was often too strong. To make matters worse, I found that my stance was vulnerable to wrestling takedowns.

After months of trial and error — mostly error — I decided to set aside my Silat skills. It was a sad and difficult decision, to be sure. I enjoyed being known as a Silat fighter, but the truth had to come first. My goal in life was, and still is, to be the most effective martial artist possible and then to pass along my knowledge of functional skill development to my students. Silat wasn’t working, so I had to move on.

DIFFERENT DIRECTION

I began investing the majority of my energy in MMA and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu while still maintaining my roots in Kali, Jeet Kune do and Muay Thai. The No. 1 lesson I learned during this period was that a person’s training method is paramount. You must contest against a resisting opponent or you’ll never be able to apply your techniques against a real aggressor.

This proved so important that I coined a phrase: “If you want to learn how to fight, you must practice fighting against someone who is fighting back.” The martial arts are that simple. As John Machado, one of my BJJ instructors, says, “No sparring, no miracles.”

Ten years later, I was the owner of a BJJ black belt who had coached top fighters for matches in the UFC and various grappling events, but something was missing. Although I’d immersed myself in the fight sports for a decade, it dawned on me that I was neglecting the street-fighting facet of the martial arts. Yes, MMA definitely worked, but when there are no rules governing the combatants, you often need something more.

My remedy was to put groin strikes, throat grabs and simulated eye attacks back into my sparring sessions. My partners and I trained with resistance — of course, while keeping safety at the forefront of our workouts. And things changed again.

RENEWED RECOGNITION

While sparring with a longtime training partner, I made a move in the clinch. He countered, and I countered back before flowing into a Silat technique. Hmm.

A few days later, I found myself in the clinch again. He effected a counter to my arm-drag attempt, and that left him open to a cross-arm trap. Another Silat success! An hour before it occurred, I would have told anyone that the cross-arm trap is great for movies but nearly impossible to use against a real fighter — but I had just pulled it off. In subsequent sparring sessions, I got it again with other training partners. What was happening?

Analysis: Most Silat techniques work well in the clinch. Typically, a practitioner makes a strong entry with a strike and, once his opponent is stunned, moves directly to a takedown. If the strike doesn’t have the desired effect, the Silat stylist will remain in the clinch and likely resort to additional striking. Meanwhile, the opponent is striking, as well. If the Silat stylist has good clinch-fighting skills, however, he can nullify the strikes while looking for an opportunity to unleash his next blow or set up a throw. The key to all this? Proficiency in the clinch.

SUPPORTING SKILLS

To get to the clinch when your opponent is a street fighter who’s throwing wild punches is one thing. To do so safely when your opponent is an MMA fighter is quite another. You need kickboxing skills because a trained mixed martial artist is difficult to approach unless you possess solid strikes and tactics.

Because MMA practitioners also are likely to be skilled wrestlers, anyone who intends to use Silat as a base should work on takedown defense. It requires lots of experience to deal with the power, suddenness and penetration of a strong wrestler — which is where sparring with a resisting partner comes in.

If your aim is to use a Silat off-balancing technique in the clinch, you can increase your chance of success by using any number of street tactics. For instance, you can maneuver into position to grab his throat, then lift to make him rise onto his toes. Or you can slap him in the groin to cause him to bend forward — he usually will, even if he’s wearing protection. The best part is, such tactics can be practiced safely in sparring sessions, which is the optimal way to gain experience against an opponent who’s fighting back.

SIMPLE SOLUTION

Sparring has been removed from most of the Silat that’s taught in the West because it was deemed too dangerous for modern society. But MMA is flourishing, and martial artists now have access to protective equipment that enables them to spar safely. Each of my Silat instructors engaged in real fights while learning the art in Indonesia, and that experience gave them the ability to apply their knowledge against resisting opponents intent on doing them harm. If you want to be able to use an art like Silat in a chaotic situation, you must train in an environment that mimics the street as much as possible, and that’s no-holds-barred fighting.

Yes, learning the techniques and then practicing them with precision is important, but training with resistance is even more crucial if your goal is self-defense proficiency. It’s the single best way to make Silat — or any other traditional martial art — functional in the MMA era. You need to be able to ensure that your techniques work against a mixed martial artist because nowadays there are lots of people, both good and bad, who have experience in this form of fighting.

Conclusion: Silat is great martial arts for MMA and on the streets. It can help anyone defend themselves from danger. If this is joined together with any non-lethal self-defense weapons it becomes deadlier. We offer a training on handling non-lethal self-defense weapons like stun guns and pepper sprays.

Source : Pencak Silat Master Gets MMA Smackdown, Regroups, Comes Back Even Stronger With His Martial Art!

Passing On A Legacy

Once known as a hamlet of warriors in colonial times, Jampang village is now striving to pass on that legacy to its younger generation.

The sun shone brightly one Sunday in the village in Parung, Bogor. Dozens of children wearing black-and-white uniforms swarmed onto a field to learn and to practice the traditional Indonesian martial art known as Pencak Silat. Teachers soon led the pack and showed the students a few moves, followed by the students’ echoing shouts under the scorching sun.



The practice sessions are part of weekly activities in Kampoeng Silat Jampang, a training center of traditional martial arts in Indonesia.

The country, with its diverse cultures and ethnic groups, is home to what has been estimated to be 150 variations in style. Different provinces even have their own self defense traditions. The Minang Kabau in West Sumatra have Silek Harimau, the Sundanese have their Cimande style and Bali has Bakti Negara. Some of those fighting methods have even gained reputations on the global stage, with their popularity reaching Australia, the US, Europe and Japan.

The self-defense technique got another boost from the success of the action movie The Raid, which features Indonesian actors performing Pencak Silat.

But despite the global fame, it is still a challenge to maintain the Pencak Silat tradition in the midst of modern society.

This has occurred in Jampang, where the heirs of the Betawi folk hero of the same name are believed to reside and are struggling to preserve the art.

According to local legend, Jampang was a warrior from Sukabumi, West Java. He was a good fighter and used his skills in Pencak Silat to battle against Dutch colonialism. On his way to Batavia (now Jakarta) to confront the enemy, the man was believed to have sojourned in what is now called Jampang, where he taught local people fighting skills.

A few hundred years later, Jampang’s legacy is now under threat, according to Saptadji, 47, who was one of the teachers at Sunday’s training session and the head of Kampoeng Silat Jampang. He said that youth in the area these days seem to have lost interest in Pencak Silat.

“They prefer to watch television or play video games,” said the man.

The current situation is much in contrast to the past, Saptadji explained. In the old days, Pencak Silat was more than a self-defense technique but a way of life, as almost all the people in the village, both young and old, knew how to fight.

This strong cultural influence can still be traced through family histories, with almost all locals interviewed for this article explaining that their ancestors — either fathers, uncles or grandfathers — were pencak silat fighters.

Saptadji himself is the nephew of Sukarna, who is believed to be a sixth generation descendant of Jampang.

In attempts to pass on the legacy of his predecessors, Saptadji with the support of private foundation Dompet Dhuafa, initiated Kampoeng Silat Jampang in 2009 to revive the fighting tradition in his village.

One of the programs is free Pencak Silat training for everyone.

Saptadji said more than 1,000 people, mostly under 18 years of age, had joined.

“Most of them are residents of Jampang,” Madroi explained.

In order to expand, fighting lessons are not only given on Sunday at Kampoeng Silat Jampang’s headquarters at Rumah Sehat Terpadu Hospital for the poor founded by Dompet Dhuafa in Parung. Trainings are also offered at schools in the form of extracurricular activities.

Dompet Dhuafa representative Moh. Noor Awaluddin said the program had so far entered 17 schools in Jampang subdistrict.

Apart from regular exercises, Kampoeng Silat Jampang also holds an annual festival. The latest Kampoeng Silat Jampang festival was held at the beginning of November, which coincided with the program’s fourth anniversary.

The event is a major gathering for traditional Indonesian martial arts groups. Saptadji said different self defense clubs attended the last festival to show off their unique skills and styles.

In the long run, Awaluddin hopes that Kampoeng Silat Jampang will become a new center for the development of the ancient self defense method in the country, standing side by side with the existing martial arts hub at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, or perhaps replacing it.

“I hope in the future Kampoeng Silat Jampang will become the destination for people interested in finding out about traditional Indonesian martial arts,” the man said.

Currently, Kampoeng Silat Jampang is the training ground for four different martial arts groups (Satria Muda Indonesia, Pancer Bumi Cikalong, Perisai Diri and Beksi Traditional Haji Hisbullah) and targeting two more (Tapak Suci and Merpati Putih), he said.

Joining Sunday’s training session was the Satria Muda Indonesia group under the leadership of Saptadji, and Perisai Diri, believed to be the most popular Indonesian fighting group, with memberships extending to Europe, Japan and the US.

One of the Perisai Diri members is 16-year-old Bella Oktaviani. The senior in high school may be the perfect example of a Jampang village youth who helps to preserve Pencak Silat. The long-haired girl said she started with Perisai Diri one-and-a-half years ago through an extra curricular activity at her school.

“I wanted to learn about self-protection and through this program I have so many new friends,” said the girl who participated in the Pencak Silat World Championship in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, this year.

The program’s good influence on the young seems to have encouraged many parents to enroll their children in the Kampoeng Silat Kampang training program, including 35-year-old Lilis Kartika, who enlisted her 7-year-old, Muhamad Arravi, in Satria Muda.

“The main thing is so we don’t lose what we had,” said the woman, who is a native of Jampang.

The mother of two explained that her father and grandfather were Pencak Silat masters in the village and she said she was eager to see her son follow in the steps of his predecessors.

However, it turns out the program has strayed from its original mission of preserving the tradition. But in a good way.

Self defense skills, international recognition and soon financial benefits are on the list of good things coming from the efforts to save Pencak Silat in Jampang.

During an interview with The Jakarta Post, Awaluddin revealed Dompet Dhuafa’s plan to develop a local home industry to produce martial arts weapons and accessories.

“We want to support locals in the production of daggers or silat costumes,” he said.

This kind of support, Awaluddin added, is expected to improve people’s living standards in the region and give residents strong reasons to continue preserving the tradition.

And good things lead to other good things. That is the lesson from Kampoeng Silat Jampang with its effort to preserve the pencak silat tradition, which in the end brings wider benefits to the whole village.

As seen on Passing On A Legacy from http://silat-melayu.blogspot.com