Autumn Training Camp '07

This year Autumn Training Camp was held in Ballymena Seven Towers Leisure Center. The event was hosted by Guru Robert Scott. Saturday started off with some Stick training, where students learnt, fundalmental blocks and disarming. After a short break students began to train knife disarms. To finish off the training students had the opportunity to do some full contact stick fighting, which brought some interesting results. One of the main things students learnt over the weekend from stick like any other form of combat "Good Footwork" its essential !
in combining what you're are learning and to apply it.


Sunday morning and afte a good Ulster breakfast we move into Knife training, working on more advance footwork and disarming. Than we move on to sinawalli (double sticks) standard grip and reverse grip.

New Kids Class Sept 08

Due to the high demand, and high numbers of new students for the Summer Term we are expanding to a second night for our Kids Class at Firhouse Sports Center. The second additional class will be in Firhouse 6.30pm - 7.30pm and will commence from Sept 08

Combat Silat International

Combat Silat International is the name given to the Association, which I formed, to promote and develop the styles of combat that I teach. I wanted people to know, from the start that, this was a very functioning combat system from the very beginning of training ! Our focus is to promote the combat principles of Silat. Over the years, the style we teach has reach out to various countries (UK, Finland, France, Spain) so we decided that to help to run this ever expanding network of like minded people, we would need to have an Association, somewhere for people to find info on training, classes, teachers etc... and so Combat Silat International was born.

As you can see on our logo we have Celtic symbols, this is represent our European Celtic heritage, as we have develop our style of Silat to deal with physical aggression from a European view point. We are a Western European version of Silat. The four animals on the logo represent the 4 main styles / ranges of Combat we use to develop our fighting abilities.

Harimau (Tiger) Ground Fighting / Wresting, Ular (Snake) Close Range / Knife and Stick , Monjet (Monkey) mid range style using alot of elbow- knee techniques, it also gives us our staff training. Blakok (Crane) Long range / Kicking/ Punching. It also has a unique combat Sword style. Bringing all these combat attributes together we merge with the human body to create Raja Naga (Dragon) which is unique way of training for each and every single student.

Weapon Training consists of the following - Pisau (Knife), Kermabit (Tiger Claw Blade), Keris, Pendang (Sword), Kunjang, Cabang (Trident Blade), Golok, Trumbu (Staff), Kanching (Pocket Stick) Cane.

Unlimited Unarmed Combat System consists of the following - Striking (Kicking / Punching / Knees / Elbows ) Locking, Sweeps, Trapping, Grappling, Groundfighting, Throws etc..

The goal of our training is to develop the natural talent, abilities and skills of each student, in an alive modern enviroment, equiping you with the best training and mindset.

Hello and Welcome

Hi.
Welcome to my first blog entry. So I suppose I should start by introducing myself. Well as you can see by my blog name I'm Guru Liam mmmhh.. a Guru? Well in the term we use that for, is in relation to the Warrior Art that I do, it's call Pencak Silat and its a Malay Warrior Art. The Guru is the name give to teachers of this art form, and it really means "Guide" for this is what we do, we guide people through difference combat experiences they will have, not only Physical Combat Training, but also corresponding Internal and Spiritiual training . Silat is much more than just standing in front of a bag thumping it. No.. Silat is an artform that develops you in so many ways. Over the next few weeks we will discuss more of that.

I became interested in Silat way back in the 80's when I came a cross an article by a Jak Othman, a Malaysian Teachers, at the time I was training in Karate, but the minute I saw Silat, I felt this is something I want to do. From there, my travels have taken me to Jeet Kune Do, Eskrima, Boxing, Grappling and back to Silat. I also now study Self Defence and Awareness. Some of the teachers that I host seminars in Ireland for or train under are Jak Othman, Glenn Lobo, Bob Breen, Rik Young, Terry Barnett, Krause Brothers, Pat O' Malley, John Harvey, Jude Tucker, Krishna Godhania, Richard De Bordes and my current teacher William Sanders. I've been bless having many great teachers to learn from in the past.

In Eskrima in 1995 I won a European Bronze Medal and taught and train 3 European Gold Medalist. I was the first person on the Island of Ireland to coach an Irish Team and develop them to second place in the European Championships. For the past 10 Years I've been studying
Pukulan Cimande Pusaka which was develop by my teacher Pendekar Sanders. I've have found it to be, one of the most complete Martial Arts been taught anywhere in the World today, and it also cool, need I say more.

So here we are the end of my first blog, with a huge journey in front of us, that I hope we all share.