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(More customer reviews)Ever since I read my first article on Silat about Rudy Terlinden (founder of Ratu Adil Pentjak Silat) in Black Belt magazine back in the late 60s, I have always wanted to learn more about Silat. After seeing some of the earlier videos done on Silat, which I tremendously enjoyed, a few years ago I discovered Guru Simonet's two video sets on Serah or Serak, which joined the ever growing list of quality videos produced over the last ten or 15 years by a number of Pentjak Silat and Kuntau-Silat instructors.
Perhaps the first videos to reach a large audience, Guru Simonet's two 2-disk sets on beginning and advanced Silat concepts do a fine job of presenting the history, theory, concepts, techniques, and applications of this still relatively unknown art. Serak has a reputation for being a brutal in-fighting art, and it certainly shows here. The combinations are direct and powerful, with a mindset and strategy of continuously taking the opponent's space and moving in while battering him with rapid fire blows and counter-attacks. Also shown are the footsweeps such as the sapu and bisset, which are integrated with the upper area movements. The vertical downward elbow strike that is more glued to the side of the head and is harder to block compared to Muay Thai is one thing that is emphasized as an infighting technique. Another feature that is interesting is showing how powerful the supported blocks from the jurus are when Ms. Hernandez stops a powerful punch from Guru Simonet.
Guru Simonet also shows some application of the movements to the stick and knife, but I can't remember if he does more of that in the beginning or advanced video, but if you get both sets, which I'd recommend, you'll get to see that too.
Before I forget, I had the opportunity to see Gurus Simonet and his partner, Addy Hernandez, do a demo at the 2004 Dragon Fest in Glendale, CA, hosted by martial arts movie great and San Sou kung fu master Gerald Okamura, where I was fortunate to meet Pak Victor de Thouars of Pentjak Silat fame. My style of southern Philippines Kali, in which I hold instructor rank, is said to be about 25 percent Silat, so I have always wanted to learn more about the subject. Guru Simonet shows many dozens of applications, including empty-hand, and also some knife and stick applications. Guru Simonet's excellent videos helped me to broaden and deepen my knowledge of the art of Silat.
Both sets have disks that are between 70 and 90 minutes long, so you get a lot of material, unlike some instructor's videos these days where you barely get 45 minutes.
If you enjoyed this video I can also recommend the five DVD Kali-Silat set by Jim Mahan and Roger Lewis which is available on e-Bay (I mention it since it doesn't come up on Amazon), the Silat videos from Stevan Plinck and Richard Crabbe de Bordes (also available from Paladin), and Steve Gartin's video (also from Paladin), and Ron Balicki's Kali Entries and Combos video, and Rudy Terlinden's two videos on Ratu Adil Pentjak Silat. Also, if you can find it is the Blitzing Sticks video that Danny Inosanto did at the VDT Silat Academy in Bellflower, which shows a large number of entries, combos, and grappling applications. It is very strong on the Serak takedown applications, and which he mixes in with the John La Costa system escrima stick entries for an extremely effective combination. Finally, I can also recommend Bob Orlando's video on Kuntau-Silat.
A little aside here, I noticed an interesting thing in looking at Guru Orlando's curriculum at his school, which covers the traditional Silat and Kuntau techniques, but he also includes the nunchaku for a weapon kata since he feels that it teaches valuable principles and techniques also. Whichever of these quality videos you choose, happy viewing and good luck with your training if you're one of the lucky few to have had the opportunity to have studied Silat.
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