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, […]
Archive | Training
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 […]
Internal/External Horse Stance: The Root of KunTao Silat
By Dr. Jonathan Pyndus on September 2, 2022 in Applications, Forms, General, Health, Informational, Inner Circle, Teachers, Training, Uncategorized, Video
Depending on long you have been in martial arts, or how wide your experience has been with the innumerable traditions available to us now in the 21st Century, you may or may not have noticed that some version of Horse Stance (aka Tiger Stance in Malabar) is found in virtually every system. Even “modern” combat […]
Why Forms?
In American martial arts culture, particularly with the influence of Bruce Lee, it can be common to encounter the argument that the choreographed solo practice routines we call “forms” in English and “Kata,” “Djurus,” “Hyung,” “Taolu,” etc. in other languages are a waste of time. When you consider how most “strip mall” Dōjō conduct their […]
Djurus Satu: One Form to Rule Them All
By Dr. Jonathan Pyndus on August 12, 2022 in Applications, Forms, General, Health, Informational, Inner Circle, Knife, Training, Uncategorized
It does not matter how many years or repetitions I have playing Djurus Satu. There is always so much more combat lore to mine from its depths I truly stand in awe of it. Of the various forms I have studied in 21 years of martial arts, an argument could be made for Djurus Satu […]
Greetings to Everyone in KunTao Silat
By Dr. Jonathan Pyndus on May 8, 2022 in Applications, Forms, General, Health, Informational, Inner Circle, Interview, Letters, News, Teachers, Training, Uncategorized, UpDates
Hello KTS Community, As I’m sure most of you have seen, last month Pak Steve Gartin made the surprise announcement that he wants me to carry on his KunTao Silat legacy as Keeper of the Lineage. This means that I will be carrying the banner for Pak Steve’s Malabar and American KunTao Silat disciplines, as […]
Sticking Hands at ThunderRock
Live video Application Training Classes now live ~
By Steve on January 3, 2022 in Applications, Forms, Health, On-Line Learning, Teachers, Testing, Training, Video
Guru Muda Dr. Jonathan Pyndus conducts weekly application classes on-line. For those of you who have a desire to explore the depths of KunTao Silat’s combat technology, whether you currently have a training partner to practice with, or not, should participate. Each weekly class is archived and available for download by subscribers. Last week’s class […]