One More Brief Clip of Silat Tua:

A brief display of locking techniques and flow in Silat Tua.

A Couple Quick Clips of Kuntao Mantis (Silat Tua):

In this clip, Pakcik Zainal is giving a brief demonstration of Kuntao Mantis. Various Chinese arts and animal styles fall within the umbrella of Silat Tua under the title of Kuntao (Kuntau).


This clip gives a few applications for Mantis techniques.

A Clip of Silat Embo (One of the Silat Tua Arts)

Its Been a Long Time...

...since I posted anything here. My father passed away a little before Christmas last year and my mother spent some time in the hospital with some health issues. We moved around the same time...which was sooner then we had been planning. It seems our landlord had decided to stop paying on the mortgage of the house we were living in. We found out when the lender came and posted paperwork on the front door. We managed to relocate down in the greater Portland area, in a much better (and cheaper) home than the previous, but the move set us back a great deal and we're only just digging ourselves out. I've had issues with my back. I think they are slowly resolving.

While I haven't done a huge amount of martial arts training this year, I've been actively networking with various people, mostly via Facebook, here in the States and abroad...primarily in Britain and Malaysia. As I haven't really found a silat teacher here in the Portland area that I wish to train with, I'm devoting my efforts to distance training. I'll be taking my first test here very soon (as soon as I can sit down and figure out the camcorder we bought, and how best to film my test) in Pendekar William Sanders' Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka. Additionally, I've begun training in Guru Tuan Hj. Zainal Abidin Bin Shaikh Awab's Persatuan Silat Tua Pulau Pinang. Pakcik Zainal is a respected Malaysian teacher who offers a cluster of family arts gathered under the banner of Silat Tua, running the gamut from Malay, Southern Thai (Pattani) and Indonesian silat styles to Muay Thai and other traditional Thai arts like Muay Seah Khao ("White Tiger") and Krabi Krabong. He's very graciously agreed to teach me across the miles and accepted me into his martial family.

I will have much more to say about all of this in the next week or two, as I am going to be starting a study group here in the greater Portland area! Its always more fun and interesting, in my opinion, to be able to practice martial arts with other, like-minded people. So keep an eye out for the details...

Haven't Been Blogging...

...for months now. I just didn't feel like it. Its been a rough year. I had bouts of pneumonia and pleurisy, and shingles. Perenially tired. Financial worries. PTSD issues that I'd managed to dodge for quite some time caught up to me. Things are looking a bit better now, and I'm feeling happier and a lot more optimistic than I have in a long time.

We'll be moving down into the Portland Metro area at the end of the month. That'll take a big chunk of time off my daily commute, plus save on wear-and-tear on the car and fuel. We expect to cut our rent by several hundred dollars a month, which will translate into paid-off bills and money in savings. We'll also have much easier access to services for our son, friends, shopping, and entertainment.

On the martial front, I haven't been very active. My stamina was shot after the illnesses and its been slow to return. I have been doing a lot of looking and reading and thinking, in regards to the martial arts. I've been in contact with a number of people in the silat community, both here in the States and overseas, especially in Malaysia. I'm looking forward to completing this move. I'm starting to practice again on my own, working to get in shape. Cimande and harimau silat, primarily. Some baji quan foundational exercises, and some kunlun quan. When we get settled in down south, though, I am going to start up a study group and see if I can get a group of people together to train and learn from one another, work with some of the distance training that's out there. I'm also going to be trying out the Kunlun Awakening process with some of Max's people in Portland. I think it will be a good thing.

I have a number of articles I'll be writing and posting on here in weeks to come. There will also be information forthcoming on the Portland Study Group once the move is behind me.

Burmese Fighting Arts

We're living in an exciting time for martial arts researchers. The internet and electronic media formats have opened up the whole world to us. Here is a neat video clip of demonstrations of Bando. It contains various styles, from the traditional to the more modern and showy. It's worth watching all the way through, since the really interesting (in my opinion) is nearer the end.

The Indoor Yang Family System on the Internet

This is a little off-topic, but:

I have just started another blog in which I will lay out the forms and other material in the Indoor Yang Family System:

http://indooryang.blogspot.com/

I have so far put up the first section of the Little Nine Heavens form. I should be able to put up one or two movements each day.

I will still be publishing the books. This will give you the opportunity to work with the material before the books come out, and it will help me to sort out any errors, missing information and to find which areas need clarification.

So far I have published the Wise Hammers form book. It's available from Lulu.com, and also for a much better price from Plum Publishing.