All ancient societies have had their own combative arts. Tendjek is one of the oldest of those martial systems. Tendjek forms the basis for many of the Indonesian silat systems, our basic tendjek comes from the Serak® system.
The platform of footwork, angles and levers from Serak® combined with the striking technology from the tendjek gives the SerMal practitioner a solid foundation in combat and self-defense upon which the student then adds the tricks, traps, decoys and animal attitudes from the Shaolin kuntao and the internal aspects of the Taoist kuntao. Tendjek SerMal provides inspiration for a life-time practice.
The Common Defense guards and protects the practitioner from the ravages of old age and ill health. The value of daily exercise is beyond question. The CommonDefense provides an easily understood and implemented system which the average individual can build into their daily life that will pay dividends in health, confidence and protection that will enrich every day of the life granted to you by the Creator.
"Steve Gartin" <stevegartin@spamlessyahoo.com>
wrote
> ....Serak is a complete system that is almost totally unique and the
> skills that are honed and perfected are not of great value without
> understanding the system. It does, indeed, require un-learning virtually
> everything that you've ever mastered in most any other martial art.
Serak is unique in silat in that it is the product of one man with a serious
body structure difference from most men. The fact that he had a clubbed foot
and a 'short' arm demanded a whole different approach to common martial
concepts.
Utilizing the insights into structural concepts that were forced upon him
gave rise to the technical essence of the art. That's what I mean by
'angulation', and angle of incidence to the opponent. That's why we make use
of odd body weapons and odd torquing movements. That's why we fight so close
and make going to the ground very hard on you. We depend on attacking the
structural vulnerabilities of the skeleton mostly, using
gravity/positioning/focusing on a particular small part of the body- that
kind of stuff.
> KunTao Silat has always been an MMA. .....The fact that all of this is
> integrated into a 'system' speaks to the genius of our Teacher, Willem de
> Thouars.
Actually, truth be told, it'll be Gartin that is credited with organizing a
system out of what Willem teaches. No one was ever able to isolate his
skills, make records/archive of them, repeat them in slo-mo and multiple
records of the changes, modifications, variations, evolutions, influences
and practice methods necessary to achieve successful expression of the
method.
> Our art is not so meticulously organized and taught as is Serak.
There's a couple of different attitudes about 'Serak'- the Tulen Pusaka
which is 'closed' and must pass intact or not at all, and 'serak', the
personal protection art made up of aspects of the tulen pusaka.
Their whole lineage thing is very strict- to the point of being a religious
obligation. You can do serak without doing Serak, and you can do parts of
serak without doing serak at all.
> Several of the qualities that KunTao Silat and Serak share is the constant
> training principle, the never-back-up concept, the critical nature of the
> legwork, the blade, the proximity concept, the heavy entry concept and
> some of the leverage principles.
And now we find that the Brothers who did serak also did kuntao, and the
kuntao brother has always done serak, and views the whole thing as kembaggan
freeform exercise in any case.
I love it.
> What I suppose you BJJ guys refer to as 'dead training' is what we do
> constantly, when we don't have a partner to train with. Constant training
> is required in order to develop the automated response mechanism, proper
> timing and posture.
Some of the serak skills require learning. That's just all there is to it.
It's not the honing of a natural ability, it's the honing of an acquired
ability/skill/response/mind-set.
Kuntao is full of such acquired skills- the intellectual application to a
physical question.
As such, you've got to put in the training time or you won't have the skill
necessary to bring off the application of technical principle.
> KTS could be construed as hyperactive and although we use some of the same
> rooting concepts as Serak, it is difficult to tell by looking where and
> when they occur. Many of the hand motions, djurus, are similar, but due
> to the Shaolin and Taoist influence are applied differently.
there is an aspect of cultivated physical athleticism that kuntao is famous
for. Serak is very 'intellectual' because of the re-learning of the body
structure and new body weapons. Serak cultivates a very direct physicality,
but kuntaoers are famous for being knuckleheads.
> The legwork is similar in application, but different in training because
> we don't train much on the Platform, in favor of freeform outdoor training
> on irregular surfaces. So our legwork is not as easily learned and
> practiced as in Serak.
Yeah; true dat.
As one starts to understand both the kuntao attitude and the pantajar, each
instant of planting a foot begins the triangle if you want. changing
position is just changing position.
The heavy reliance on leg strength mixed with agility is really hard to
train up to.
> Uncle Bill is a living encyclopedia of martial tricks and a little weak on
> organization and structure, whereas the other de Thouars Brothers are
> meticulous in their teaching methods and very well organized in their
> presentation. My mind bounces around like a fart in a hot skillet, so
> I've always gravititated to Willem although I have learned a great deal
> from the other Brothers, especially Victor.
My structured training was with Victor, and Willem has augmented me with so
many variations and principles that it seems to seamlessly move from one to
the other- I view it as the De Thouars Family Art, because each of the
brothers seems to know what the others do- body differences aside and
specialties noted.
Chas
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