As Ibu Rose mentioned in her recent guest post, Pak Steve and I are working on the definitive KunTao Silat book. Here is an early excerpt, subject to much change: One of the biggest victims of cultural misunderstanding and outright misrepresentation as the martial and medical arts of Asia have spread to the West is […]
That Doesn’t Work, Except When It Does
Recently I was re-watching an old Filipino martial arts instructional video from the 1990s. The instructor was highly qualified and clearly knowledgeable and skilled. He made a number of salient points about how many martial arts deal with knives using unrealistic methods. But then he made a statement to the effect of: “no one stabs […]
The Dead Man’s Ten
https://www.kbtx.com/2022/08/08/graphic-smoke-shop-owner-fights-back-stabs-attempted-robber/ I would think it’s safe to assume that everyone who practices martial arts, even those only interested in health, performance, or culture, still occasionally have the “hero” daydream. Faced with no way out they apply their training to an aggressor. Often the outcome of these mental scenarios is based largely on assumptions drawn not […]
A Message From Ibu Rose
Today I am honored to share this letter to the KTS community on behalf of Ibu Rose: “In regards to Kun Tao Silat, and what it has meant and will mean to me: Frankly without KTS I most likely would not be breathing today, as the spiritual and health side of this art has enabled […]
The Importance of Pukulan
By Dr. Jonathan Pyndus on October 28, 2022 in Applications, Forms, Informational, Inner Circle, Training
Pukulan (Poekoelan) is a word coming to us from our Pentjak Silat Serak heritage. It refers to the colliding of bodies, and implies one body crashing into (or through) another. Many (or most) of the Asian martial arts predating the “modernization” period of the late 1800s-WW2 (where the fighting arts were being standardized for mass […]
Soft =/= Easy!
By Dr. Jonathan Pyndus on October 21, 2022 in Applications, Forms, Informational, Teachers, Training
It is not uncommon in the world of martial arts to encounter a practitioner (sometimes even at instructor level) who, upon getting into one of the “Soft” or “Internal” martial arts, is ready to talk your head off about how much better they are than the “Hard” styles. “You see,” such a person can say, […]
Scaling Force: Effective vs Appropriate
If I seem to harp a lot on the important of “context” in my posts, it is because so much misunderstanding in the world of martial arts and its various subsections of focus are due to people equating whichever part interests them with the whole pie. When we are discussing the effectiveness of techniques, this […]
The Physics of Entering Stance
Stances are a key component of KunTao Silat, as they are in any system. Integral to our Family Art is the Entering Stance, as it is from this position that much of the ingress and body to body contact with the enemy is conducted. If we look at the structure of Entering Stance we see […]
Self Defense vs Fighting
By Dr. Jonathan Pyndus on September 30, 2022 in Applications, General, Informational, Training, Uncategorized
Depending on your background and life experience, the following statement may or may not make sense to you: fighting and self-defense are NOT the same thing. Now, let’s clear some semantics up: by “fighting” I am referring to a mutual physical conflict between two or more participants. “Self-defense” in this essay refers to the protection […]
Book Review: Meditations on Violence
Many people begin their study of the martial arts with the intention of developing self defense capabilities. Yet few people appreciate that the subject of violence is a complex one, and that self defense is as much a legal concept as it is a physical one (much less an ethical or moral one). Is a […]