Silat Buka Lingkaran - Birmingham Seminar

This past Saturday I travelled down to Birmingham to attend a Silat Buka Lingkaran seminar. Until this point my experience with Silat has mostly been what I have learned from Guro Bob Breen and Guro David Onuma. I have also had the good fortune to meet and train a little with instructors of Kuntao Silat, Silat Cimande Asli Tarikolot, Silat Harimau and take part in a seminar a few years back at the Bob Breen Academy with Guru Zainal Abidin. 

Amongst other systems and styles, I have had a special interest in Silat based on my limited experience training in various Silat systems. The style being taught by Alvin Guinanao however, was a style I had long wanted to learn about and train in but the opportunity never came until now.

After the 2 and a half hour drive on a Saturday morning we arrived at the gym. After some introductions and chatting about martial arts with other attendees the seminar started off with some excellent warm and conditioning exercises which were one the highlights for me. 

The warm ups took us through postures found in the system and excellent body weight exercises to aid mobility and build strength for the postures and positions we were to find ourselves in later when drilling techniques against various attacks.

Once we had completed the warm-ups we then began with drills to counter straight punches using the twisting Gelek movement and built on them to include a knee strike from the Buaya crocodile posture. As we moved to upright drills we started with the same drill from a standing position and included finishes on the ground.

As we worked on ground vs upright and vice versa, I really enjoyed the takedowns, especially the Harimau shoot and follow ups, which could easily be incorporated into MMA.  I found the stand up techniques and ground finishes very crisp and fluid and the Harimau and ground aspects very effective and dynamic.

I spoke with Alvin before and after the seminar as well as his assistant instructors who done a great job assisting and offering insight throughout the seminar.

I came away very impressed with what little I had seen of the system (so far!). Alvin is a very skilled Silat practitioner, a knowledgeable instructor and a real gentleman. I would recommend anyone interested in Buka Lingkaran and Silat in general to go train with Alvin or his representative instructors throughout the UK. Check out their website for more details.

Here's a clip summarising what was covered on the day, enjoy!

 

Trip to Turkey

Last month during my trip to Turkey I was able to catch up with old friends and make new ones whilst sharing techniques and drills from the Filipino Martial Arts and Silat.

On Thursday 12^th Sept I was asked to take Guru Galip Akdaş’ class and cover self defence applications from the South East Asian arts. We looked at making use of the elbow offensively and defensively against the wide right cross as well as to establish openings and control. We also worked clinch/grappling range in to the puter kapala.

Guru Galip and I had fun with some free flow and exchanged ideas on the different approaches and counters we used from different positions.

On Sunday 15^th I met with friends new and old for a 4 hour session on Panantukan/Silat. We talked about the history, geographical region/landscape and cultures of the arts and looked at various techniques defending kicks, punches and over under tie ups. 

We drilled techniques to explore:

• Low and mid level rear leg round kicks
• Jab, cross counters
• Puter kapala
• Kenjit
• Defending an attempt to counter the puter kapala with a single leg takedown 
• Locks, ground finishes
• Tehniques from over/under clinch

As is the case when you spend time with good friends you don’t want the time to end and I look forward to meeting with everyone again next year. It was a great trip and I was able to catch up with old friends and meet many new ones as we went for Turkish tea after each training session to talk about everything and anything to do with Martial Arts.

I would like to thank my friends for giving me an opportunity to share what little I know in the vast areas of Panantukan and Silat and hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

I would like to extend my thanks especially to Guru Timur Ahenk, Sifu Seçkin Köknar, Guru Galip Akdaş, Sifu Kaan Ahyan, Sifu Adnan Erzen, Hamdi Çevik and Sensei Ömer Tamdogan, especially for his inquisitive questions that helped share extensions to techniques and their principles.

I look forward to future training sessions and cups of Turkish tea! 

Teşekkürler arkadaşlar, Osu!

Daniel Lonero

This past weekend AMC Leeds hosted a 2 day seminar with Guro Daniel Lonero. Guro Daniel is a fantastic martial artist and shared with us details, drills, history and techniques from multiple disciples.

Assisted by Frank Ruppert, himself highly skilled, Guro Daniel taught a multitude of drills and techniques covering Kali and Majapahit/Maphilindo Silat.

We started with double stick drills and as well as staff and stick, disarms from 3 and 5 count sumbrada and stick grappling.

Guro Daniel shared history and background as we moved into some great ground and standup techniques from Silat. I forget how many times the attendees gasped and wowed at what was being shared with us, both in terms of Guro Daniel's talent and the effectiveness of the techniques.

It was a privelage to attend a seminar by a martial artist who is not just skilled and knowledgeable but also very down to earth and humble.

Thanks again to Steve Gaulton and everyone at AMC Leeds for organising and making the day that much more enjoyable.

See you in class!