Martial Arts | SCG - SILAT IN TAIWAN

We are now in July and I have just returned from a trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Just before I left for Thailand we had a busy week as it was the week that Guru Ed, the founder of Modern Cimande and Urban Survival Systems arrived in Taipei for a Modern Cimande certification course. This course was the first of its kind not only in Taiwan but the first of its kind in Asia also.

From the moment I met Guru Ed at the airport I could see that he truly lives what he teaches and has a continued passion to share but also to learn more from everyone he meets. This occurred throughout the week with me sharing Chow Gar Southern Mantis, APA Tactical training and Satria Fighting Arts on day 1 of his visit this was followed by Guru Ed giving me a preview of the material to come in his Modern Cimande system and also a look at the some of his ground positions from the Silat he has learned. This was very interesting for me as some of positions were the same or similar to my Silat but had different interpretations and uses so a good learning opportunity for me. Add to this the sharing by other experts who were attending the course we were all treated to a series of mini seminars during our breaks on the course and for those that stayed on after class.

Day 1
Now we move to the first day of the Seminar which was to be a Friday evening session. Everyone made it for this session which being a weekday evening is never easy with work and family commitments so thanks everyone for being there on time full of energy despite some of you traveling from Tainan and Hsinchu.

This first evening introduced the tools of Modern Cimande and in my mind more importantly the attitude and the manner with which these tools should be used. I wont go into detail on the seminar as this is for Guru Ed to share or qualified Instructor to share in a training environment. But I will give you a general overview. So this first evening we packed a lot in and Guru Ed had us working hard right from the start. So we partnered up and were introduced to a series of drills on how to get our power out onto a pad and how to integrate the waist, footwork, forward movement with aggression. This set the scene for the rest of the weekend that it would be action packed with only as much talk as is necessary to get the learning point across.

Day 2
On the Saturday we were introduced more on how to use the weapons of the Hammer, the Club and the Spike (fist/hammer fist, forearm and elbow for the upper body) on different levels (high, middle or low) from different starting points orthodox, south paw, side on etc. Then onto how to use these tools on the ground whether in mount or in someones guard or if we are in a disadvantaged position being mounted.

What came through in Guru Eds teaching and the Modern Cimande method again and again was that regardless of what you faced you had several powerful tools now that were simple to use and that could be completely personalized in how we use them, then the glue on top of this was the aggressive mentality in the delivery system. That we are not the victim instead the would be attacker is now the victim and should there be multiple attackers then we now have multiple target options. Its never a problem its just an opportunity disguised as a problem.

Day 3
The last day and credit to all participants everyone was still full of energy and camaraderie. Today was test day. We first went through lots of new material which was like a mini system condensed down into seven partner drills. This was a lot of material at first glance but thanks to the prep work done on the two previous days we were familiar with the approach and the weapons used.

As the day wore on we started work on multiple attackers slowly building up layer by layer how to use our guard and movement to protect ourselves while still being able to attack our attackers. Every one did well as we ramped the intensity and variables in these multiple drills until it was test time.

The first test was multiple attackers. Everyone participating in the course against you! I loved this as I have missed the opportunity to do lots of this kind of training since I was living in London as its hard to get people to do this as it is testing both physically and more so mentally. You have to survive and have to keep going you have no other option but to survive for the 3 minute round (though it seems a lot longer than 3 minutes).

So this means that if you are thrown you have to protect yourself and find a way up (Guru Ed introduced us to these methods earlier) and taken down to the ground you will be. Staying in one place too long and you get pummeled, all good fun on a Sunday afternoon. Reza our friend all the way from Singapore went first ( a good strategy) so I thought I would get it out of the way and get in second.

Every one did really well and each person also dealt with the problems presented very uniquely dependent upon their personality type so its hard to giver a more detailed description of this or to give highlights other than to say that one participant I think stood out and impressed everyone with his courage, determination and general toughness and that was Connor Wilson. He was the youngest at 13 years old I believe under the supervision of his father David Wilson. He went through the exact same test as everyone else with no special treatment given. Well done Connor.

After this test we moved straight onto the Modern Cimande circuit training which required several specific exercises to be completed in under 5 minutes. Now normally if you are training regularly its not too hard, its still a challenge but doable. Now try doing it after the multiple attackers training and testing and it becomes a different beast entirely. Again the determination of all the participants could not be stopped and everyone passed the course after their technical skills were checked by Guru Ed.

This for me is what I look for most when looking at these kind of seminars and certifications. Is it a matter of turning up and you pass or do you really have to work for it? In this case I am happy to say everyone had to work hard on not only a lot of technical material but also had to dig deep physically and mentally. What was learned on day 1 had to be reviewed with your training partners before day 3 or on the way home in your minds eyes other wise you would fail. I like this. You really feel like you have achieved something with this approach.

Summary
Personally the seminar material was similar to the Silat I have covered in the past but different enough to give me new ideas on how to apply and train it. Its as Guru Ed describes it purely about the fight and taking these arts back to their roots as’ War Arts’ of South East Asia. What Guru Ed gives is enough material to work with on your own to be confident in protecting yourself with the all important Modern Cimande mentality that glues it all together. What ever comes you destroy it, you don’t fight the person you assault them (of course this is after you are given no choice but to protect yourself), this is the important difference in the thinking.

In general as I was the organizer for this event the feedback I have had from other participants has been 100% positive. Whether you are an experienced martial artist or someone with no martial arts or fighting experience this course will deliver what you need and give you the confidence to make your next step.

So I highly recommend Guru Ed and his Modern Cimande course and I believe if this event is anything to go by then there will definitely be demand for Guru Ed to return to Taiwan and share his level 2 course.

I would like to thank everyone who supported this event and made it possible for us to be the first Modern Cimande event in Asia. Well done everyone and a big thank you to Guru Ed and his assistant Guru Peter who came all the way from Vancouver to share with us.

For anyone interested in our approach to Internal Force which is built upon the generous teachings of Sifu Mark Rasmus please take a look at this video. I will post more on this and connected subjects but this gives some different ideas to think about none of which has to be taken as fact just ideas to widen our perspective and inform our search of who we are.

For those thinking what does this have to do with Silat? Well for me Silat or any physical art is an expression of our consciousness of where we are ‘at’ in our growth. How fully our mind has mapped our body and how fully we can feeeeeeeel each part of ourselves. So Silat and this video in the great scheme of things has many things in common. Remember before the Religous influence of Indus Valley and then the Buddhist and Islamic influences upon Silat (as a generic term), it was very much based in Shaminism (Generic) and Animism. Whether you believe in forces or energies or not, these people did and built their lives around these forces including their fighting methods. These methods aligning themselves with the power of predators like the Tiger, Crocodile and Mythical beings such as the Garuda were taken on as the ‘idea’ behind these systems or you could perhaps say the totem behind it. I give a disclaimer here and clarify that these ideas are not given as fact just something to add to your thinking pot when looking at Silat or any of the older methods of fighting and body development.

Remember nothing is as it seems the more we learn through areas such as Quantum Mechanics the more it is shown that reality itself is not as the materialists would have us believe. This fluid thinking I believe is required for investigation of ourselves if we wish to see the quality of our movement and expression improve this way we become less and less concerned with techniques or 3 steps to locking or getting a Rear naked choke instead our movement finds strikes locks and escapes naturally, in the moment exactly when its needed. I leave you with the following quote and for this quote lets just think of ‘God’ as mysterious quality nothing religious here.

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”
― Werner Heisenberg

Further info:

Graham Hancock