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.

Silat in America: Where are the Pure Styles?

By Mas Jonty

Interest in Pencak Silat is growing furiously here in the U.S.A. Almost weekly, new teachers are popping out of the woodwork. However, there is a puzzling question:

Where are all the pure styles? It seems that almost every teacher of Indonesian martial arts in the U.S. is teaching their own personal "Kuntao" blend of different styles. You won't find a pure Cikalong teacher, or a straight Cimande teacher. Even the supposedly pure styles being taught over here seem to be modern Dutch/Indo blends. What gives?

Before we try and answer that question, I'd like to note that I think this is can be a blessing and a curse: As far as I'm concerned, Willem DeThouars can make up his own styles all he wants, but on the other hand I have seen some truly inferior arts in this category.

So I have a few possible answers to our question:

1) People are making up their own arts because they never finished studying any one art.

        There are a lot of "multi-yellow-belt" teachers out there, and Silat is an open field for people to pass themselves off as masters.

2) Traditional Silat styles are small, modular systems that each focus on a narrow set of skills.

        Traditionally you would perhaps have to learn several different styles to round out your fighting skills. This fits with my understanding of the older arts. If you read the Chinese and Japanese classics, the old masters used to learn several styles on their road to mastery. Large, all-in-one styles are more of a modern invention.

3) We have modern, left-brained methods of organizing and teaching our arts that require different approaches to styles.

Please "write in" and discuss. I'd love to hear your ideas.