Silat for the Street: Using the Ancient Martial Art for Self-Defense in the 21st Century

Burton Richardson's "Silat for the Street" is straightforward in its approach and its appeal. The title is disingenuous, in a good way. The "street" appeal is used to make Silat -- and other -- martial arts practitioners re-examine the effectiveness of what they do. Richardson says the way to honing street effectiveness involves hard sparring, realistic training and cross-training.Richardson offers the central problem facing Silat and other arts: The divide between Pencak (the art) and Silat (the fighting). Similarly in kung fu, I've heard of demonstration and form champions referred to as having "flower fist and brocade leg." Ultimately, it's the difference between dancing and fighting, between applying techniques to compliant partners and executing techniques on resisting opponents intent on hurting you. It's a kung fu problem, a karate problem, a Taekwondo problem, a Japanese jujitsu problem, the Aikido problem.Richardson is upfront on the problem he faced: A six-month white belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu easily countered his years of Silat grappling. He had little to no answer on the mats. Richardson had trained in Silat under Dan Inosanto; he had fought in the Dog Brothers' full-contact weapons contests. Richardson retooled, earned a BJJ black belt with the Machando brothers, extensively studied Muay Thai (which he says is derived from Silat) and revised his approach. BJJ and Muay Thai, like boxing, follow a scientific method of testing and refinement. Richardson applied the same to Silat to tweak body positioning, to allow for the various head twists and tilts that -- as-is -- weren't dropping skilled grapplers with strong necks.The learning process shows. Richardson offers covered entries, guards, defenses and their potential issues, throws and ground work. The emphasis on defensive skills often is rare. Most books offer a few parries or blocks, which may deflect one punch but would fail before an onslaught. Richardson's techniques allow for deflection and entry to execute the throws and sweeps he shows. Richardson shows some great takedowns, from the ground, of standing opponents intent on kicking or stomping -- the way many ground fights really go. He then layers in the truly violent throws, MCL- and ACL-destroying leg kicks and other techniques that could maim an opponent. The author offers advice on how to train these realistically, some just by obtaining the correct body position, others by modifying the intent. I've seen the same approach in Japanese jujitsu and Judo, where the competition-banned techniques often are isolated or trained on stacked mats so you can practice without crippling a partner or breaking their neck.Some of the throws and ground sweeps mirror Judo and catch-wrestling and those found in other grappling arts. People, after all, have a universal bodily structure. Richardson expertly divides and explains the sections into a lesson plan covering all ranges of fighting, and where they bleed together. It's a dense book, and benefits from re-readings and thorough practice. The throws are quick and dirty, and their only intent is to slam someone to the ground and hurt them on the way down -- similar enough to Chinese Sanshou or the throws of pugilism under the London Prize Ring rules.

Let me first say, this is an incredible book.I've read a good number of books on the martial arts over the last 43 years and this is one of the best. Probably top 3. Bruce Lee's book on Tao of Jeet Kune Do is a bit messy as he really didn't complete writing it. M. Nakayama's Dynamic Karate is a must have.I bought this book because I have had no exposure to Silat in the past and was looking for a good book on the subject.This is not a basic introduction book. This is for advanced martial arts practitioners that already have a grounding in martial arts are are willing to openly accept concepts to become a mixed-martial artist.The book is an arsenal of techniques and theories. It is well written.The first 65 pages go over the basic theory of the Silat mind set, stepping patterns, two main body positions, and the difference between combat martial arts and kata training.This book focuses entirely on combat martial arts for combat. This is not a self defense book. It is a combat book.Sure it touches on how to defend yourself and points out the best tried and true theories of self defense espoused in the Chinese Classic "The Water Margin" (aka "All Men are Brothers", "The 108 Heroes of Liang Shan Po", etc.) by Lu Da - "Of the 36 ways to get out of a bad situation, the best is to leave."It also points out what not to do in a fight to keep out of legal trouble (sometime I would have gone a bit farther on this I am sure eye-gouging is looked down upon by the authorities).That being said, if you can't get out of a bad situation, do what you can to damage, impair, or incapacitate your opponent(s) until you can get yourself and anyone/thing you hold dear away from them.The book does have a discussion on handling multiple attackers as well.I would strongly suggest this book to any seasoned martial artist that has trained for years and has studied or been exposed to multiple martial arts. (That goes for the other 2 books I mentioned as well).A beginner simply will not get what a seasoned martial arts will out of this book.

Book is very informative with clear photographs.

I love this book! I have both the video and the book. What I really love about this book is because I can already see the functionality of these Silat techniques in MMA, self defense and BJJ training.As an Indonesian, I have been exposed to Silat from a very young age. I was always curious about how it relates to real fighting because they always conceal it with a dance. Its implementation at time was never reveal to me. It was always that I had to spend much time to commit and study to know what the moves were for. Because of that, I left Silat and pursue other arts that I can see its application right away like Jeet Kune Do, Kali, and later BJJ and MMA.After more than 2 decades, I am all about functional training. As a Brown Belt in BJJ and also has been practicing MMA training even before they call it MMA, I can sense if things will not work against resisting opponents. But these explanation and techniques that Burton shows in the book and video are really spot on. With each section of the book, he also gives out tips on how to train this Silat so that you can pull it off in sparring.He is also honest on the limitation of Silat techniques and why is it like that. But he doesn't stop there. He gives you solutions, regardless of its limitation to patch up those shortcomings with training ideas, on how to implement them in MMA training as well as street self defense. Totally worth it for anyone to get, to add into your arsenal of fighting tools.Yuri AmadinBJJ Brown BeltLong time martial artistyurimag.com

Interesting martial art. Nice to his experience. Relevant to today's UFC.

non molto costoso e ben fatto

Muy buena obra sobre el Silat, lo unico malo es que no esta español.

A really good, in depth look at training silat for modern day encounters. Simple, effective and honest. Richardson demonstrates the ability to put across relatively complex ideas in a simple, easy to understand way.

As a silat practitioner and self defense instructor, i found this book really clear, detailed with effective techniques . Highly recommended to self defense goers whatever your skills are. This book offers a wide range of techniques i really loved.

バートンセミナー経験者必携！これから参加予定の方の予習にも。英語がわからなくてもなんとかなるわかりやすさ( ＾∀＾)古流武術を現代に用いる参考になります。