- Joined
- Dec 30, 1999
- Messages
- 125
hello,
i received permission from my friend to post this review which he emailed me.
HTH.
------
I finally received the Steve Gartin video "Secrets of Silat Knife". Before I
give you guys my review I wanted to give you a little of my personal history
so that you have an idea of where my viewpoint of the video is coming from.
I've been studying the martial arts for the last 8 years. I started with
Kenpo that ended as soon as I met my first JKD instructor. I studied with
various instructors of the Progressive Fighting Systems branch for about 6
years. I then began to study Kali and Silat from an associate instructor under Dan Inosanto. Last September he gave me permission to start a club. He told me it was time to get to the next level and the only way I was going to do that was by teaching. He has retired from teaching so I
have been attending seminars and continue to work out learning Brazilian jiu jitsu and when Todd Milhoan is in town we get together
and he schools me in Sambo and ROSS. That kid is talented!
My true loves are Kali and Silat. Living in Arizona is like living in a
martial art oasis. We have 30 million TKD schools but none that offer Kali or
Silat. I hope to one day change that. I would consider myself an intermediate
player with a lot of room for improvement.
Now on to the review.
"There is no silat without the knife"
That is a quote that Mr. Gartin opens with. During his opening he discusses
the history behind his silat and kuntao studies. He tells us that he hopes to
help us explore the relationship of the empty hands of kuntao and the bladed
uses of silat. The video is divided into three sections; Silat, Kuntao and
drills.The first section is Silat. He shows defense of three attacks: a knife
pressed to the throat, a thrust to the abdomen and a downward overhead
attack. Mr. Gartin shows the defensive techniques for each attack twice. Once
with a knife and once empty handed. I like this as he does show the subtle
changes necessary to alter a technique to make it work with or without a
knife. Each technique is shown twice. Once in real time and then again in
slow motion. There are some interesting uses of still shots of the technique
as it's being done to allow you to see where he is grabbing his opponent or
how he is manipulating a joint.
Two aspects of this first section I did not like. The audio can at times be
hard to hear as it was filmed outside in the Colorado Mountains and the wind
is blowing. Second is that Mr. Gartin does show techniques but he doesn't
much discuss the principals behind the techniques that make them work. For
example I much rather would have been instructed on when and where to apply
leverage to complete the takedown then to be told, "this is where I break
his arm and then jump on him." This makes it very easy to interpret this
video as a paint-by-numbers, do as I'm doing kind of video.
The second section is the Kuntao portion. Here he shows the defense for two
types of attacks: abdomen thrust and a right handed round house (if your
familiar with the Inosanto numbering system it would be an angle 1). He again
shows how the techniques are done both empty handed and with a knife. I
enjoyed very much the emphasis Mr. Gartin placed on the execution of the
techniques with a "Kuntao" mindset. He really wants you to understand that
there is a significant difference not only in the execution of techniques of
empty hand vs. knife but of Silat vs. Kuntao as well. All of Mr. Gartin's
defenses were based on the animal styles contained within Kuntao. Monkey,
eagle, dragon and so on. Being an intermediate player I would not attempt
many of these techniques on the street. They are not easy, they can be done
but I personally wouldn't try some of them.
The last section of the video was dedicated to drills. It's not very long but
the first drill he covers is also the best-taught portion of the video. The
first drill is a silat triangle stepping drill combining sapu and biset. A
basic drill I'm sure most of us know but I liked his detailed explanation of
the pushing and pulling of the upper body as you execute the stepping within
the triangle.
The next drill was from kuntao called monkey foot training. You move forward
as your opponent retreats. It is an entering drill to help with foot
placement as you counter your opponents centerline punch.
The last drill was kuntao sticky hands and unfortunately it was not taught it
was only demonstrated both empty hand and with a knife. I'm sure most of us
could figure out a similar variation but nonetheless it was a little
disappointing that there was no instruction for this drill.
Overall I would give the video 3 out of 5 stars. I liked seeing the visual
style of being able to see the difference between empty hand and weapon
technique execution and kuntao vs. silat. I felt a little more time of
actually explaining the concepts behind the techniques definitely would have
been more beneficial.
He mentions concepts quite a bit but rarely and never in detail explained
them. Learning just the techniques from the video would in my opinion would
be dangerous. Mr. Gartin is obviously a very highly advanced martial artist
and for me to do what he does at times would most likely not work for me.
That doesn't mean that they don't work I just couldn't see my self leaping
into an eagle technique that stomps on the opponents lead knee as I angle
away and capture the thrusting arm and eagle claw his jaw line. I'm just not
there yet. The video is fun to watch and I'm sure I'll that learn the
techniques on the tape they look like they would be fun to play with, but for
me personally the best knife defense tape('s) on the market is still Ron
Balicki's three tape series "The Defensive Edge". Maybe after I master those
tapes I can do a monkey technique on the sidewalk
i received permission from my friend to post this review which he emailed me.
HTH.
------
I finally received the Steve Gartin video "Secrets of Silat Knife". Before I
give you guys my review I wanted to give you a little of my personal history
so that you have an idea of where my viewpoint of the video is coming from.
I've been studying the martial arts for the last 8 years. I started with
Kenpo that ended as soon as I met my first JKD instructor. I studied with
various instructors of the Progressive Fighting Systems branch for about 6
years. I then began to study Kali and Silat from an associate instructor under Dan Inosanto. Last September he gave me permission to start a club. He told me it was time to get to the next level and the only way I was going to do that was by teaching. He has retired from teaching so I
have been attending seminars and continue to work out learning Brazilian jiu jitsu and when Todd Milhoan is in town we get together
and he schools me in Sambo and ROSS. That kid is talented!
My true loves are Kali and Silat. Living in Arizona is like living in a
martial art oasis. We have 30 million TKD schools but none that offer Kali or
Silat. I hope to one day change that. I would consider myself an intermediate
player with a lot of room for improvement.
Now on to the review.
"There is no silat without the knife"
That is a quote that Mr. Gartin opens with. During his opening he discusses
the history behind his silat and kuntao studies. He tells us that he hopes to
help us explore the relationship of the empty hands of kuntao and the bladed
uses of silat. The video is divided into three sections; Silat, Kuntao and
drills.The first section is Silat. He shows defense of three attacks: a knife
pressed to the throat, a thrust to the abdomen and a downward overhead
attack. Mr. Gartin shows the defensive techniques for each attack twice. Once
with a knife and once empty handed. I like this as he does show the subtle
changes necessary to alter a technique to make it work with or without a
knife. Each technique is shown twice. Once in real time and then again in
slow motion. There are some interesting uses of still shots of the technique
as it's being done to allow you to see where he is grabbing his opponent or
how he is manipulating a joint.
Two aspects of this first section I did not like. The audio can at times be
hard to hear as it was filmed outside in the Colorado Mountains and the wind
is blowing. Second is that Mr. Gartin does show techniques but he doesn't
much discuss the principals behind the techniques that make them work. For
example I much rather would have been instructed on when and where to apply
leverage to complete the takedown then to be told, "this is where I break
his arm and then jump on him." This makes it very easy to interpret this
video as a paint-by-numbers, do as I'm doing kind of video.
The second section is the Kuntao portion. Here he shows the defense for two
types of attacks: abdomen thrust and a right handed round house (if your
familiar with the Inosanto numbering system it would be an angle 1). He again
shows how the techniques are done both empty handed and with a knife. I
enjoyed very much the emphasis Mr. Gartin placed on the execution of the
techniques with a "Kuntao" mindset. He really wants you to understand that
there is a significant difference not only in the execution of techniques of
empty hand vs. knife but of Silat vs. Kuntao as well. All of Mr. Gartin's
defenses were based on the animal styles contained within Kuntao. Monkey,
eagle, dragon and so on. Being an intermediate player I would not attempt
many of these techniques on the street. They are not easy, they can be done
but I personally wouldn't try some of them.
The last section of the video was dedicated to drills. It's not very long but
the first drill he covers is also the best-taught portion of the video. The
first drill is a silat triangle stepping drill combining sapu and biset. A
basic drill I'm sure most of us know but I liked his detailed explanation of
the pushing and pulling of the upper body as you execute the stepping within
the triangle.
The next drill was from kuntao called monkey foot training. You move forward
as your opponent retreats. It is an entering drill to help with foot
placement as you counter your opponents centerline punch.
The last drill was kuntao sticky hands and unfortunately it was not taught it
was only demonstrated both empty hand and with a knife. I'm sure most of us
could figure out a similar variation but nonetheless it was a little
disappointing that there was no instruction for this drill.
Overall I would give the video 3 out of 5 stars. I liked seeing the visual
style of being able to see the difference between empty hand and weapon
technique execution and kuntao vs. silat. I felt a little more time of
actually explaining the concepts behind the techniques definitely would have
been more beneficial.
He mentions concepts quite a bit but rarely and never in detail explained
them. Learning just the techniques from the video would in my opinion would
be dangerous. Mr. Gartin is obviously a very highly advanced martial artist
and for me to do what he does at times would most likely not work for me.
That doesn't mean that they don't work I just couldn't see my self leaping
into an eagle technique that stomps on the opponents lead knee as I angle
away and capture the thrusting arm and eagle claw his jaw line. I'm just not
there yet. The video is fun to watch and I'm sure I'll that learn the
techniques on the tape they look like they would be fun to play with, but for
me personally the best knife defense tape('s) on the market is still Ron
Balicki's three tape series "The Defensive Edge". Maybe after I master those
tapes I can do a monkey technique on the sidewalk