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(More customer reviews)The Harimau tiger style from Sumatra is one of the most interesting and exotic styles of Silat and is associated with the Menangebau tribe. Its movements derive from the tiger and the fighters often work low or from the ground. As a result the style requires very strong and flexible legs. This video will give you a good idea of some aspects of the style. Most of the tape is devoted to a number of the self-defense combinations derived from the cudas, or basic postures, which are demonstrated by several students, including an older guy who moves very well for his age. Then guru de Bordes demos the lankhas or footwork patterns and shows applications of those. Also interesting is guru de Bordes's demo of some short sword against the knife and multiple attacker scenarios.
There are probably several dozen of the cuda applications shown so you can get a pretty good idea of the techniques and their approach, and you'll notice how often they go to the ground, kick and grapple on the ground, etc., compared with the other more well-known styles of silat such as serah or serak, tjimande, pukulan, bukti-negara, cikalong, perisai-diri, and so on. De Bordes has worked as a bodyguard in Africa and for the president of Ghana, and has a reputation for knowing how to apply his silat in practical situations. I've read that he's currently back in England and so he may be teaching there.
A brief note here, I notice Lionel Colangelo in his six now out of print Tjimande videos attributes the powerful "horse kick" to the Menangebau's so perhaps some of the techniques are being adopted by other styles. Certainly gurus such as the late Herman Suwanda with mande muda (derived from nine different styles of silat, if I remember correctly) and Rudy Terlinden's ratu adil silat (derived from four styles of silat) are very eclectic and synthetic styles. But John LaTourette (of "The Speed Man" videos) uses exactly the same kick in many of his combinations in these tapes, and he is a kenpo stylist.
My own opinion from studying and researching many different martial arts over the years is that some techniques have been recreated over and over again in many arts as parallel or convergent evolutionary developments since the human body can only more speedily and powerfully in certain ways due to kinesiological factors, and that constrains the development of the techniques. (I've been amused to encounter this myself a few times. Several times I thought I'd invented a new technique, or at least a new and better way to deliver it, only to discover later that another style already had it :-)).
But getting back to the video, I just had one final comment on this excellent tape. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see de Bordes himself do some of the cudas, since all of that is done by his students, but they move well so that is certainly a reflection of the teacher, and de Bordes does do quite a few of the langkhas and knife applications. Overall, a fine video on this unusual and rarely seen art.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Secrets of Harimau The Explosive Art of Pencak Silat Harimau Minangkabau
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