Silat vs. Kali knife-which is better?

A

armbreaker 69

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Apr 23, 2007
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I know there are people on here that do mostly kali, and a number of you do silat, and maybe some of you, like myself, do both. What would you concider to be the pros and cons? I know some people say that silat knife is more direct, not as much movement, and silat knife just goes in for the "Kill" right away. And some people claim that there is alot more involved in kali knife work, and kali knife work is more complete then silat knife work. What are your opinions How are they different or similar? Is one lacking more then the other? Are they equal, what? Being a practioner of both I can tell you there are some similarities, but yet they are very different. What are your opinions on this? Thanks.
 
Hmmmmm! Don't know much about the silat knife techniques.I once had a silat teacher from malaysia that suppposedly was teaching me "authentic "silat knife techniques. It turrns out that he made it all up.I could though tell you that Kali knife where it's at.I learned from so many amazing kali men.Their skill where amazing.The Filipino are known for their baldework.I was taught to always defang the snake.How about you?
 
Well, to be honest, one Filipino gentlemen I learned from briefly told me that defang the snake was actually not a good idea. I also think he said that, thats a technique more taught in America then in the Filipines. Now, thats his opinion, not mine, and I guess not yours. I realy like the Filipino arts. I also like silat.
 
Hello folycath, and I am so glad we finaly have a female martial artist in our mist. I am so sorry about the jokes before. It will be great to get your prospective on the kali knife vs. silat knife. I am sorry you did'nt like your silat teacher much, or he was holding back on you with the knife work. Actually, silat teachers tend to do that much more then kali teachers do. Kali teachers are much more open, and make themselves more available to students, where as silat teachers are nottorious for being very selective of who they teach their art to. Silat teachers are kind of legendary for that. You realy have to work at getting your silat teacher to accept you. Filipino teachers, you just have to sign your name on the bottom of the check. LOL. I'm only kidding. Both teachers are very honorable. It will be great to hear your opinions. Its not that often we meet female practitioners. Thank you for joining us Foleycath.
 
it's been my experience that indonesian/malaysian knife techniques while effective lack the counter for counter flow drill structure that is inherent in FMA. i've always felt that FMA gives practioners a better advantage by training in a method that is closer to real combat. just my two cents.:)


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I'm not sure how one would even make the distinction between silat and kali knife techniques -- the systems I've studied have been so cross-contaminated with both I'm not sure how you'd pick one out of the other.
 
Sharp Phil said:
I'm not sure how one would even make the distinction between silat and kali knife techniques -- the systems I've studied have been so cross-contaminated with both I'm not sure how you'd pick one out of the other.
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Nor does it seem to even make sense to compare these as if they are two distinct systems, rather than names for myriad systems -- one is a huge family of hundreds of systems with vastly different training techniques and strategies, and the other is a huge family of hundreds of systems with vastly different training techniques and strategies. This particular form of silat versus that particular form of kali would seem to me to be the only way this question can be answered.
 
dagger vs bowie
ford vs chevy
9mm vs .45acp
harley vs Japanese
folder vs fixed blade
rainy vs sunny
argument vs discussion

Which of these have the most relevance to this thread?
:jerkit:
 
Unless any of you actually spent any length of time training in silat or kali, then you would'nt know the difference. I talked to Christopher Ricketts before, and he talked about kali of course, and then he mentioned he even tried silat before, and that there are similiarites and differences.

Also, if you talk with Willem DeThouars, he will tell you right away that silat knife and kali knife are different in his eyes.His wife I guess does some filipino knife work,( so i've been told anyway ) and it looks nothing like his.

Victor DeThouars will tell you immediatly that his style of Serak silat, and silat knife work, is very different from filipino kali knife work. Then Victor would procede to tell you why serak knife is better. He's very pro serak silat.There is a knife video that Pak Victor sells on serak knife, but the teacher in the video is also a pekiti tersia teacher. You can see that he is doing pekiti in the tape, as well as serak. When I brought that up to Pak Victor he laughed, and said you noticed that hah? You can see there are differences in the entries. He also said some other things I don't remember. Something about footwork.

You might be right that it would be easier to pick specific styles of each, but I thought most of you would have your own experiences with the arts to talk about your own comparisions.

If any of you are ever able to train in the malaysian styles of silat, you will see that there are some weapons very similar to Filipino weaponry. So some malaysians styles of silat look more similar to Filipino arts the the Indonesians styles do. Malaysian silat and Indonesian silat, their is differences in their weaponry.
 
armbreaker 69 said:
Unless any of you actually spent any length of time training in silat or kali, then you
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... would know that asking to compare kali and silat, given that they are names for hundreds of systems, may not make sense. Or perhaps has to be done in unsatisfyingly broad generalities. Comparing two particular systems under each does, it's just that that's not how your question came across. First thing to do seemed to be to straighten that out :) Back to our regular scheduled program...
 
Well Joe, did you train in a particular style of silat, and in a particular style of Filipino art? If you did, did they seem the same to you, or were they very different?

One example- there is no panantukan boxing in silat, only kali. And panantukan footwork is very mobile. Alot of knife footwork can come from panantukan.

Silat there is no panantukan, no boxing, and silat people don't move like boxers. So right there tells you the footwork is different. Silat people are'nt as mobile on their feet.

Thats an idea.
 
According to my Gayong teacher Gene Scott in Illinois, Silat knife emphasizes non-telegraphic movements and lighting quick reflexes.
 
In my experience, there is little difference in kali knife and silat knife application just on the methods of teaching how to get there. Some Silat schools have a very traditional way of teaching knife whilst many of the Filipino styles forego that for straight forward application.

Personally I really like the sayoc stuff, seems to be very effective.... and looks cool too.....
 
it's difficult to keep all your techniques consistent when you have trained in so many systems from the seni gayong silat, to the sayoc system, to lillustirimo, and bakbakan. after awhile it all begins to look the same. just look at this move and from it can you tell me what martial arts it comes from?

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I believe it's the person, not the style that matters ultimately. FMA has some mobile footwork like those found in panantukan, but there are probably some panantukan fighters that don't move around nearly as much, because their body type, age or preference dictates. The same could be said for silat serak, meaning, some of their entries I've seen place an emphasis on 'crashing', but it would behoove a silat pracititioner not to use some avoiding/mobile footwork when necessary.

And gnscott, very cool pictures... You're the first I've seen so far to illustrate yourself doing martial arts. You da man! :cool:
 
Cikgu gnscott, can you please post more of your pics. of you silat keris techniques? I think that would help illustrate your point of this thread.Do you remember when you showed me the tecnique keris #5? The one where you slip the opponent's forward thrust and go to the inside of his centerline and slice down on the basilic vein and up the axillary vein and thrust right into the abdominopelvic cavity.Thanks.
 
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