What is the current state of the art of Guru Dan's silat. I know he changes constantly and is adding upper levels to the art. This would obviously include material from Victor DeThouars and Steve Benitez/Tony Felix.
His original concept was to make Westerners familiar with the effectiveness of silat by A: Using Panantukan to deal with Western Boxing attacks, and B: Use MuayThai to deal with the kickboxer vs the Silat man. This allowed a steeper learning curve so you did not have to spend years on Djuru, Lanka, and Sambut. A few years ago he mentioned at a seminar that he was allowing his silat students to grapple when they hit the ground and some adopted a BJJ structure and others a Shooto structure. He said this was OK since everyone will find their own way. What innovations has Guru Dan added with the input of years with Dr. Gyi, The Machado's, Herman and Rita Suwanda, the Wali Songo Clan, and Richard DeBordes that would represent cutting edge adaptations to the Silat Ground Game??
I am very interested in this, and have been playing with Guru Cliff Stewart's material from WaliSongo relative to groundfighting. I'll probably be in LA in June at Cliff's annual get together.
--Tom Furman
