Disarming Firearms by Silat Suffian

Above video is a demonstration of disarming firearms by Silat Suffian. Silat Suffian is a popular martial art in Brunei Darussalam, neighbour of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Enjoy the video. It is presented for entertainment and informational purpose. If you seriously want to learn how to disarm firearms, please see a trusted military trainer.

Stepping Pattern in Martial Art

Stepping Pattern is often overlooked in martial art training and education. Actually this is important and determines the quality of a person's self-defense capabilities.

I often see trainers who only teach one stepping pattern. Straight line pattern. All the attack and defence are done by stepping forward or backward. With this pattern, I believe that students who are trained will not develop much, because they are formatted merely.

Now try to imagine a more flexible stepping pattern. Stand on the sandy soil. Draw a pattern of eight winds, where the line length of 2 meters. Stand right in the middle point. Ask one of your friend to attack you with a straight attack from the North.

Avoid the attack by stepping into the direction of the winds. You can escape to the Northeast, Northwest, West, East, Southeast, Southwest, and South. Easy, is not it? You will find it easier and your horizon is open widely. You will also feel a lot of more defence techniques can be developed with this stepping pattern.

Eight winds stepping pattern is not the only pattern beside straight line pattern. There are also triangular pattern, saw pattern, square pattern, and other stepping patterns that you can develop yourself according to your creativity. Martial art  is actually flexible and not difficult.

This is a shallow study of stepping patterns in Martial Art. Hopefully it will be useful for Martial Lovers.

Martial Art Orientation

Every organization or activity has its own orientation. It could be more than one, although the organization/activity is only one. For example; a hospital could be profit-oriented, but it could be charity-oriented on the other side.

So does Martial Art. It has a few orientation, depending on its nature or its user's willing. Following explanation is three orientation of Martial Art:

1. Defensive Orientation

Remembering Buddhism atmosphere and influence in martial art history, some martial arts have defensive orientation. Only using techniques to defend ourselves in emergency situation. Not using them to show up capability. Humility and succumbing attitude are priority. Examples of martial arts which have defensive orientation are Shaolin Kung Fu and Pencak Silat.

2. Offensive Orientation

In the development, martial art experts did not only consider defence, but also offense. The advantage of offense is to disable opponent before he does it. This principle is used in fighting big bodied opponent or multiple opponents. Examples of martial arts which have offensive orientation are Karate and Tae Kwon Do.

3. Eliminating Orientation

In ancient time martial art was also used by fighters for military activities. Do not be surprised to hear existance of elimination-oriented martial art. An example of martial arts which have eliminating orientation is Ninjutsu.

These are three orientation of Martial Art in author's opinion. Hopefully this information will be useful to Martial Lovers.

Disarming a Rifle Man by Krav Maga Art

Above video is a demonstration of disarming rifle by Krav Maga, the Israeli Military Martial Art.

Enjoy it. It is shown for information and entertainment purposes. If you want to learn it seriously, please learn with a trusted military trainer.

Unarmed Tactics: Fighting Single Armed Opponent

This form of fighting is very technical and heavy. So, it is relatively difficult to explain with words. I encourage you to practice with a trusted trainer intensively to defeat an armed opponent.

Weapon can be divided by 3 categories: firearm, sharp weapon and blunt weapon. We will discuss here the sharp weapon and blunt weapon. Firearm is part of job of police and soldier.
 

Principally you should get closer to defeat such opponent. If  it is not possible to seize enemy's wrist, you simply dodge first from a blow / puncture. Once you get an opportunity, seize the wrist holding the weapon.

Now you have two choices. First, you can apply on break-joint technique to break the opponent's hand to get his weapon dropped. Secondly, you can slam your opponent first. When the opponent falls down, you disarm him.

Basically this is not the only principle. Many principles have been developed by martial art experts. But this is easiest principle to understand for novice practitioners.

If you want to see a demonstration of disarming armed opponent, please visit youtube.com and in the search box fill in "Disarming a knife" or "Disarming techniques". Then press enter or click search. You will be presented with a lot of videos to watch. It may be useful to give you an idea how to fight an armed opponent.

Again, please practice intensively with a trusted trainer to prepare fighting against an armed enemy.

Karate: The Most Popular Martial Art

Who doesn't know Karate? A brave martial art. Almost entire populations in this world know it, a martial art from Japan.

Karate consists of two words, "Kara" and "Te". Kara means empty, Te means hand. So literally we could understand Karate as art of empty hand. Or in English term, we could interpret it as "unarmed art of fighting".

Karate is name of the martial art. Karateka is people who learn Karate. Karate-do is karateka way of life.

I am not a Karate expert, so we will not discuss the principles of Karate. It is better to discuss about its history.

In seventeenth century, Japanese conquered Okinawa. They banned all weapons of inhabitants, even farm devices must be stored in Government Ware Houses. The Okinawan people responded it by developing unarmed method of fighting to high level. They called it "Te", meaning Hand.

Local Chinese Immigrants contributed some of their ways of fighting, Chuan Fa. In this modern age, we call it Kung Fu.

After a long time, the name of "Te" changed into "Karate".

In 1922, an Okinawan Karate Man, Gichin Funakoshi, began to teach Karate in Japan. It became established in universities of Japan successfully. From this moment, Karate began its modern age.

It is short history about Karate's beginning. The beginning of Most Popular Martial Art.

Pencak Silat: An Indonesian Martial Art

Pencak Silat is one of Indonesian Martial Arts. Its origin is unknown historically. No historical evidence found about this matter.

Suroso Orakas (1977:8), a Pencak Silat Fighter, guessed its basic was brought by Chinese merchants from fifth century to tenth century. In the time, Strait of Malacca had been a central traffic of sea trade between China, India, and Nusantara (ancient name of Indonesia). This mercantile, religion, and cultural relationship was on top in 670s, Golden Era of Sriwijaya Kingdom. Sriwijaya was a famous Buddhism education center. Probably in this age Nusantara People learned martial basic from their trade partner, Chinese merchants.

In fifteenth century, Pencak Silat Teaching taken over by every "Kiai" in "Pondok Pesantren". Kiai is Islamic Priest, Pondok Pesantren is Islamic Traditional Education Center.

After long process which took centuries, finally Pencak Silat found its own personality like we all know now.

Buddhism Influence can be seen in Pencak Silat Philosophy. It teaches not to be the first attacker. Fighter who strikes first blow will lose the fight.

This is prediction of history of Pencak Silat. If you are interested in learning it seriously, please visit Padepokan Pencak Silat, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta, Indonesia. Or you can join Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antar Bangsa (Persilat), if it exists in your country.

Reference:

Orakas, Suroso, Bela Diri Praktis Pencak Silat, Karya Anda, Surabaya, 1977.