Self Defense Moves - What Is Tapak Silat?

Silat is a unique martial art. The self defense moves in silat are not the same compare to any other martial arts in this world. It is one of the best martial art in Asia that attracts many martial artists to learn it. Silat has it owns identity and can be learned even for a kid at age five years old.

One of the interesting silat syllabus topics is known as 'Tapak Silat'. It has been acknowledged by many silat warriors that anybody that masters this unique technique will easily understand all the combat and sparring methodology.

Tapak silat is a step pattern or floor plan that is used in silat to ease the step movements. It develops the silat exponent stances (kuda-kuda) and steps (langkah) in order to strike, to defend and to receive any strikes from opponent. The tapak silat is based on one or two legs position on the floor. Meanwhile, the step in silat means an activity that required a person to move his or her heel to walk or to move form one area to another area.

The pattern of tapak silat in self defense moves is based on geometrical line such as straight line, horizontal line, triangle, rectangular, circle and star shapes. When a silat exponents master all of these step patterns, they can easily receive any fast fists, unlock any locking techniques such as wrist lock and release from any catching technique that are very popular in other martial arts such as aikido, jujitsu or judo.

The tapak silat can be trained alone or with partner in order to develop the perfect silat moves. The maturity of silat moves in order to receive or attack cannot be mimicked or copied from others unless the silat exponent invests hours in training to develop these skills. Silat Melayu emphasizes on a proper step pattern movement as it can help silat exponent to defend and attack easily. Here are the seven step patterns and the explanation of each of them in seven levels of silat syllabus system;

1. Tapak Satu (standing on one or both legs).

2. Tapak Dua (moving on horizontal line).

3. Tapak Tiga (triangle shape step pattern).

4. Tapak Empat (rectangular shape step pattern).

5. Tapak Lima (star shape with five corners).

6. Tapak Bulat (circle shape step pattern).

7. Gabung (combination of all steps pattern in purpose of arrangement).

Tapak silat also is the secret technique for unarmed and practical self defense. One should never try to spar or fight until they get proper training in tapak silat. The self defense moves in fighting made easy once the silat exponents know how to combine the entire seven patterns in tapak silat either to receive or to strike the opponent.

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading silat and self defense coach online. Did you find these tips on self defense moves article are useful? Find out more about silat and self defense by going to Self Defense Moves blog and get a FREE report there.

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Self Defense Moves - What Is Tempur Seni?

Tempur silat is divided into two sections in self defense moves; Tempur Seni (the art of self defense combat that practically done with a partner) and Tempur Beladiri (the fast action of combat sparring that can be trained with two or more opponents). Owing the lack of understanding of the term tempur seni itself even in silat community, this article will cover the term of this soft combat actions, how to apply and why tempur seni is important to be developed alongside other silat skills combat in martial arts fight.

Tempur seni is an application of silat fists with bare hand mimic to the act of striking styles such as stabbing with keris (kris) or badik (dolk), chopping with parang (machete), pedang (sword) or sundang, and hacking with sword, kapak (axe) and so others. The methodology of weaponry combat striking and receiving strikes are preserved in tempur seni which are based from an action of striking using the traditional silat weapons. A signal is given once the silat exponent tends to strike his partner with bare hand using the weaponry symbol or sign.

The tempur seni combat action is done using specific arrangement procedures to preserve the originality of tempur seni which are based from the art of war in Malay's civilization. Here are the procedures;

1. Both silat exponents present their own Bunga Silat as a respect sign to guru and silat schools either together or separately. Normally, the performance will accompanied by Malaysian standard silat music.

2. Both silat exponents will perform the Tapak Empat. Tapak empat is a movement that needs the exponent to move to four angles (rectangular/square) through Tapal using langkah (step) silat. One Tapal means the pathway to one angle/direction. At every angle, the silat exponent will perform the Tapak Empat Beladiri (self defense moves) movements.

3. When both silat exponents reach the original/starting point angle, they will perform the Tapak Empat Beladiri towards the centre of Medan Laga (fighting area/compound).

4. Both silat exponent to do Langkah Melilit (wrapped around or circling between each other) in Tapak Bulat (centre of ring) in advance, reverse and change direction and will move using Galah Panjang (the movements while waiting to or to be strike) either one-way or opposite way between each other.

5. Both silat exponents alternately perform counter attack either using right or left hand. When, one exponent attack another will defend. Three type of Serang Seni (the art of attack) will be performed such as Tikam (stab), Parang (chop) and Tetak (hack or notch) between each exponent. While the art of receiving the attack known as Sambut Seni. The seven sambut seni are; Tangkap (to catch the strikes), Sentak (to pull down), Kedu (to flex the arm down in order to counter attack), Tindih (overlap on other's weakness point), Sisip (to insert the hand to self release from being locked), Sagang (to be in alert position) and Potong (to counter attack the opponent). These techniques will developed in stages from selapis (when one person attack another will receive or counter attack), berlapis (attack and defend that alternating between each other), berangkai (when both of silat exponent separated due to the silat technique, both of them will continue back with another strike other than serang seni) and so on.

6. Several signals were composed to facilitate the fight techniques such as Simbor (the sign to change striking technique) and Paras (to stop the fight). Both silat exponents will perform bunga silat at the end of fighting or combat to close the match.

Tempur Seni emphasize on the ecstatic and scientific values. It is a game played by people in the field or gatherings that has it own fighting secrets and meanings. Tempur seni is also known as Silat Pulut or Gayung Pulut. It tests the level of fighting techniques for every silat exponent and at the same time shares the experience and increase the level of silat knowledge or moves between the exponents.

Usually the tempur seni training will be accompanied by silat musics known as Muzik Silat Baku. The music team consistes of Gendang Ibu (head drums), Gendang Anak (small drum), Gong and Serunai (pipes). The rhythm that being played is divided into two rhythm which are Irama Tari (dancing melody) and Irama Tempur (fighting melody). The dancing melody is slower than latter. While the fighting melody is fast and can increase spirit level. Any silat exponent that already achieved the red or black belt can fight with other opponents than are not in the same silat school. Thus, it is important to exponent to train harder to master all the self defense moves in tempur seni in order to face another opponent from variety of silat martial arts styles.

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading self defense and silat coach online. Did you find these tips on self defense moves article is useful? Find out more about self defense and silat by going to http://www.silatforbeginners.com/

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Silat in Malaysia - Insider Information That You Need To Know

In Malaysia, there are almost 400 different disciplines of silat under the patronage of Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia (PESAKA) which four of the schools and its grandmasters are recognized as the founding members of PESAKA Malaysia. They are:

1. Seni Gayung Fatani Malaysia (Grandmaster Tn. Hj. Anuar Abd Wahab A.M.N)
2. Silat Seni Gayong Malaysia (Grandmaster Dato' Meor Abd. Rahman)
3. Silat Lincah (Grandmaster Dato' Hj Omar Sin Mauju)
4. Silat Cekak Malaysia (Grandmaster Ustaz Hanafi Ahmad).

While, the other disciplines of silat are members of PESAKA Negeri (State members).  As there are many types of this martial art in Malaysia, the disciplines of Silat in Malaysia can be categorized into three major disciplines.

The first is known as Silat Melayu, the local traditional silat in the Peninsula that are from the same source. They are called Silat Pulut or Gayung Pulut. The Malay Peninsula traditional art has been practiced hundred of years ago in the Malay society especially in villages. The martial art had its origin from the Malay art of war that had strengthened the Malay Champa empire, Kedah Tua empire, Silat Bunga, Seri Patani, Silat Melayu Asli, Silat Kedah, Seni Gayung Fatani and there are also other forms of traditional silat that recognized as word bersilat or bergayung. These schools trying hard to maintain the original practice of martial art covering the art, self-defense, sports, music, culture and Islamic spiritualism.

The second would be Pencak Silat, a form of self defense that was brought by the early immigration of Indonesia society. Pencak Silat had been recognized as the indigenous Indonesian Art of Self Defense. On the 24th and 25th September 1979, the first meeting organized by Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia (IPSI) in conjunction with other countries in an effort to develop Pencak Silat internationally. On March 1980, Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarabangsa (PERSILAT) was officially founded in Jakarta, Indonesia as its headquarters. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were recognized as the founding members of PERSILAT.

In an effort to develop pencak, Malaysia founded Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia (PESAKA Malaysia) on the 24th of September 1983 and was successfully registered on the 21st Mei 1986 to substitute the former proposal to form Majlis Seni Silat Malaysia on the 3rd of February 1978 (Minutes of meeting of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports 1978).

Finally, the third would be disciplines that were developed or created based on experiences, inspirations, guidance, mixture or consolidation of a few different disciplines of silat, pencak silat, art of self defence, or other martial arts from overseas, for example Silat Sekebun, Embun Putih, Kuntau Sendeng, Minang Jawa Kedah, Seri Minangkabau Tapak Suci and Gayung Cekak Sendeng. These schools grown from day to day as there are many experts that wanted to uniform their own martial art schools rather than stick to any one of the martial art school due to many reasons.

On the 4th of December 2006, the Malaysian Government recognized Silat as the Malaysia official art of self-defense and was gazette in the Akta Warisan Negara (National Heritage Act) (Silat Convention 3rd-4th, December 2006).

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading Silat and self defense coach online. Did you find these tips on silat in Malaysia article is useful? Find out more about silat by going to Silat For Beginners and get a FREE report at http://www.silatforbeginners.com/. You also can get more information about self defense at http://www.selfdefenseknife.org/

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Self Defense Moves - What Is Tempur Beladiri?

There are many martial arts style in this world. All have their own history, training system and identity. However, the one that attract many peoples to learn martial art is the uniqueness of self defense moves from one another. The most significant is whether it is practical and effective to use when fighting with more than one opponent.

Silat is a martial art that can have both artistic and contact variations. It has it own traditional and upgraded training system in Malaysia. It is also known with unique movement patterns and self defense fighting system. It is this unique fighting style that attracts many self defense experts from Europe and America to come to Malaysia to learn silat.

This fighting system is also known as silat combat or Tempur Beladiri. It is an application of self defense moves throughout fast combat actions that test the efficiency, agility, skills, understanding and ability of silat exponents in mastering all the knowledge in silat. Silat exponent can train tempur beladiri with his or her partner during the silat training session. The procedures of this silat combat are as below;

1. Both silat exponents start the training with Bunga Silat (the defensive and striking movements in silat).

2. The distance between both silat exponents before starting the fight should be between three to four metres.

3. Both silat exponents start the movements with Pecah Langkah (the beginning of the silat moves to start the fight, usually derived from bunga silat movements).

4. The pattern of the fight starts from the Sikap Pasang (silat position based on stance) and 'Pecah Langkah' in order to get close to one another. When both exponents come into a distance to attack, one of the exponents can start the spar either with hand or leg strikes. Then, both exponents should get back into sikap pasang postion once separated from one another. They should get ready to counter attack using the pecah langkah technique for the next moves.

5. Both silat exponents should stop the combat when one of the exponent signals the Paras (hand symbol to stop fight) signal to stop the fight. The tempur beladiri will end with bunga silat.

Every level in silat training system emphasizes to start the tempur beladiri with simple silat movements. When the silat exponents master the basis tempur beladiri, they can learn to fight using traditional silat weapons such as keris, machete or karambit. The best part is when the silat exponents are skilful enough to master all the self defense moves laid in silat syllabus; they can fight with anybody either with or without weapon. They also will know the fighting secrets on how to fight faster and when to finish the fight. At the end of learning, the silat exponents will feel that all the hard works and hours of practises are well worth with all the experience gains in the process to become an expert in silat.

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading self defense and silat coach online. Did you find these tips on self defense moves article are useful? Find out more about self defense and silat and silat by going to Silat Martial Arts official page and get FREE ebook there.

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5 Training Tips To Win Silat Melayu Match

Silat Melayu is a martial art that's inherited by Malay's in Malaysia. It is originated from the big empire such as Malacca and Kedah Tua. However, in this modern era the word Silat Melayu is synonym with a silat competition that's held every year in Malaysia.

The scoring system in Silat Melayu competition is similar with Silat Olahraga. The differences are on the scoring marks and the artistic performance scores. However, most of the principles of the game emphasize more on silat skills. Any hard strikes will results on deduction of points. Thus, in order to win the competition you need to train specifically as mentioned in the Silat Malayu regulations.

Here are the five tips and explanations on how to win Silat Melayu match. There are;

1. You need to train 'Pelampas' regularly in order to produce supple movements. Pelampas is the name given for silat activities that can increase your silat skills. There are seven pelampas that you can train during free time. You need to train pelampas in order to improve your hand and leg movements in receiving attacks from your opponent.

2. You need to master the three striking techniques that known as '3 Buah Seni'. These three striking techniques are stabbing, chopping and hacking. The most important thing is how you can counter attack the opponent once he receives your strike. This is because in Silat Melayu match you are not allowed to strike to score point until he receive any one from three strikes described before from you. The first two movements from both exponents should be 'give and take' movements. The points will be counted once both exponents engaged between each other.

3. You need to train the catching technique regularly. The catching technique can help you to score more points if the opponent is new to the sport. This is because many new exponents like to kick rather punching. So, the ability to catch followed by topple down technique will award you three points in the match. If you successfully topple down your opponent three times in one round you will be the winner.

4. You need to master the sweeping technique. Many silat exponents do not like to use this technique due to the risk to be toppled down or locked by the opponent. However, it is the simple technique that can help you to score big point in the match.

5. You need to master the locking technique in order to win by technical knock-out. This is important because once you locked your opponent in the game in count of five, you will be the winner. However, you cannot lock the opponent with a technique that can break his bone.

These five silat tips can help you to win a Silat Melayu match. However you need to remember that the most important aspect is to show to the juries that you are the expert in the ring.

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading self defense and silat coach online. Did you find these tips on silat melayu article are useful? Find out more about self defense and silat by going to Silat Melayu Official Blog and get a FREE ebook there!

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Silat Malaysia - The History and Development of Malay Martial Arts

Ever since Silat Malaysia has been recognized worldwide, it has been regarded as a Malaysian martial arts form. Silat is deeply entrenched in the traditions and culture of Malaysian civilization. Though, Silat has left its footprints in civilizations of many other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Philippines, but its association and involvement with Malaysian population and culture is remarkable and hence so highly acknowledged. In Malaysia, around 20% of the total number of schools existent offers training in Silat.

Originally, in Malaysian culture Silat was promoted more among the royal families and dynasties. Silat training was the mark of their superiority and authority over the others. People, who used to achieve great heights in learning this martial art form, were highly reputed and were also awarded merits by the King. In that era, mastering Silat was the mark of crowned heads and sovereigns. Among the weapons, which were used during Silat training in the ancient times, rattan shield or breastplates were the most common weapons to mention.

Today, Silat Malaysia is a very well known martial art form, throughout the world. The secrets of this success are based on the system that laid down in the silat syllabus. The Silat Malaysia system for silat exponent consists of seven different levels that can be identified and ranked using belt system starting from white, blue, brown, yellow, green, red and ending with black belt. Every silat topics will be majoring to 7 different topics such as:

Bunga (the pillars of silat attacking and defensive positions)Jurus (the art of attack and defense either using weapon or bare hand )Belebat (the techniques of receiving strikes and how to counter it back )Tapak (the step pattern in silat movements)Buah Pukul (the fast action of self-defense) Tempur Seni (the art of combat)Tempur Bela Diri (the speed and power movements of self defense combat)

Every silat exponent will learn different style of attacking and defensive skill such as Elakkan (avoiding technique movements), Tangkisan (blocking techniques), Tangkapan (catching techniques), Potong (counter-strike), Amuk (rampage with due diligent) and weaponry system such as sickle, sword, cudgel, kris or a short wavy dagger, rope, walking stick made of hardwood, dagger with straight cutting edge and trisula. The practical self defense, unarmed self defense and self defense knife system also will be given in each silat level.

This will make every silat exponent ready to receive any strike either one on one or in group strikes as every level of the syllabus will explain how to handle every fighting situation just like in the war. As the silat curriculum is based from the art of war of Malay civilization from thousands of years ago, it is important to know that Silat Malaysia teach their students that prevention is better than cure. It is better to avoid a fight rather get involved in it. It is prohibited to harm or kill others except in desperate situation where there is no other choice to defend yourself. Fighting is the last choice when there is no other solution to defend them from being killed.

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading silat and self defense online. Did you find these tips on Silat Malaysia article useful? Find out more about Silat by going to Self Defense Fighting and get a FREE report there.

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Self Defense Moves - The Seven Topics in Silat Training System

The silat martial arts syllabus was divided into seven topics across seven levels in silat training system. At each level every silat exponent will learn seven topics of self defense moves which are; Bunga, Jurus, Belebat, Tapak, Buah, Tempur Seni and the Tempur Beladiri. Interestingly, these terms are widely used by other silat schools. For an example the word Bunga Silat also been used by others but with different terms such as Bunga Sembah, Lela Sembah and Kembangan.

Bunga Silat is the key to all silat knowledge which includes the 'langkah' (step), the 'kuda-kuda' (stance) and the 'limbai' (hand position). The Bunga will teach the exponent how to master the defensive and striking position in silat.

The silat syllabus has ascertained that the Jurus is a discipline that develop the striking and defensive skills either single or multiple strikes to the aimed enemy body. With Jurus, the exponent will learn the attack and defense in silat movements.

The Belebat in self defense terms means 'Sambut' or to receive the strikes either from single exponent or multiple strikes from multiple exponents. The main objective of Belebat is to develop the self defense moves skills to receive perfectly the opponent strikes and to counter attack effectively back to the opponents, enemies or strikers. It also teaches the students the art of the defensive and counter attack movements in silat training system.

The Tapak is a footprint movement or step-pattern on the floor. This topic mainly trained to develop the ability to efficiently use certain space or room to strike or to counter-attack the enemy strikes. Using the Tapak the students will learn how to destroy their enemy through step pattern movement's analysis.

While, the Buah is the method to strike or to receive strikes in order to counter-attack either with single or multiple opponents. It is one of the main reasons why many experts want to learn Silat due to the effectiveness of the art of self defense in martial arts.

The Tempur Seni is the method of combat sparring but in the soft and graceful art application which consists of Tapak Empat, Lilit and Galah Panjang. Tempur Seni also will use '3 Serang Seni' or 3 types of strikes that based on traditional silat weapon that are; Tikam (stab), Parang (chop) and Tetak (hack or notch). These strikes usually will follow by '7 Sambut Seni' or 7 receiving strikes techniques which are; Tangkap (to catch), Sentak (to pull at or out with a jerk), Kedu (to flex the arm down), Tindih (one on the top of the other), Sisip (to insert), Sagang (to be in silat alert position) and Potong (to counter attack). The students will learn the art of self defense combat while practising this discipline.

The last topic is Tempur Beladiri. It is the opposite of Tempur Seni discipline which is the fast action of combat sparring between two or more silat exponents, enemies or fighters. Normally the students will learn the easy (unarmed self defense) Tempur before the advance (weaponry self defense) version from the white belt to black belt. All the seven self defense moves topics will be given orderly by the silat coaches in order to make sure that the students can master the skills from one topic to another topic within the specific time.

This article was submitted by Cikgu Nizam, an expert and world leading self defense coach online. Did you find these tips on self defense article useful? Find out more about self defense moves by going to http://www.cikgunizam.com/

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