Guru Cass Seminar Oct 2009

What a great weekend was had by all, at Guru Cass Magda Seminar. Students from Dublin, Wexford, Athlone, Ballymena, Kilrea, Letterkenny along with students from UK and Germany, travel to experience one of the World's top Instructors on Silat. Guru Cass has been travelling around the World the past 20 Years promoting the culture and combat aspects of the Fighting Arts of South East Asia.

The style of Silat Guru Cass teaches is Buka Jalan, (Buka means to open and Jalan means the way / path, so together it means the "open way" or "open path". Training in this system like most complete styles of silat covers 1) Jurus 2)Langkahs (Footwork Strategies) 3) Sambut (Combat Techniques) 4)Sambutan (Counter Combat Techniques) 5 ) Ritasia 6)Weapons (staff, knife, stick, flexible weapons, Golok, Cabang etc..) 7)Specialize Exercises.

On the Saturday students work on aspects of Serak Silat covering three Langkahs, 1) Tiga 2)Amput 3) Lima. From each of these 3 Langkah students were taught how to use the Langkah to better develop combat techniques such as a) Sapu b) Kensit siko c) Angkat Kaki d)Biset / Besot e) Puter Kepald f) Kensit Kaki g) Tarik Kepala. Guru Cas finished off Saturday with a great display of Sarong technique.

On Sunday Guru Cass taught aspect from Mande Muda (the Suwanda family style) This system is made up of 22 Silat Styles. There was only time for Guru Cass to show some aspects of the following styles Kari, Maddi, Cimande, Tjipetjut, Harimau and Sybandar. Later on the Sunday students were taught some of the main philosophy of Silat Combat Tactics, such as "Pukulan" which is a Striking concept to tenderise an opponent, by delivering a series of strikes or "Pleekit", which teaches students to stick to their opponent (Principle of Adhesion, so Attacker can't get space to move or to be able to counter attack.

I along with all the members of Combat Silat International and Pukulan Cimande Combat would like to thank Guru Cass for coming to Ireland and to take the time out to teach us. It was one of the best seminars I ever attended and has left me feeling enriched by the wealth of knowledge and openness shared by Guru Cass and his Assistant Tom Woods. Best Wishes to you both.