What students said after training with Guru Felix evening class in Lucan last night. So can you afford not to go?? Don't miss out on the weekend of the year !

Felix valencia is a real nice down to earth guy with amazing stick and knife skills...Loved the training and cant wait for more this weekend...Respect... Anto

Awesome!!!... Just had one of the most amazing nights training Guru Felix Valencia is a legend.....Mick

An absolute gentleman as well, looking forward to the weekend... Harry

OOOOWWWWWHHHH... Dan (If you were there you're understand)

See you all on the weekend, have loads off fun

Guru Jak

A short clip of Guru Jak who is a true Warrior teacher of Silat. Guru Jak was the reason I started doing silat and I have many very fond memories off him. I will always appreciate what he show me and the gift of silat he give me. Thanks Guru Jak...

Training Tip 4 - Understanding the Animals Mannerisms

"What is the purpose of the animal mannerism systems?" Is a question that is ask by a lot by beginners. In Pukulan Cimande Silat there is 4 main systems, Monjet, Ular, Blekok and Harimau now thou each of these systems is a animal name, for the moment I want you to look at it from a different viewpoint!

Each of these animal represents a range of combat for e.g. Harimau is the groundfighting range, which in this area students would learn how to fight and defend on the ground, they would learn how to lock, counter, wrestle etc.. either against an opponent who on the ground, or against a attacker who still standing. If you go to Blakok the complete opposite to Harimau, than you working in the Kicking range or the longest distance range of combat. Here footwork and striking that involves a lot of kicking and punching, which is design to either to keep the attacker at bay, or allowing you to crash into an attacker by closing the distance. It's important when closing the distance we move into Monjet (trapping range) which is Elbow and Knee range then to Ular which is very close range where you learn how to use your body to develop maximum striking power with extremely little distance (another training tip).

Each animal system is therefore name after a range of combat! But we need to aware as in Combat very few fights stay in one range, therefore for students to be successful he/she needs to learn to master how to fight in all ranges and to be able to blend all ranges together when needed. Pukulan Cimande is not when completed 4 different systems or ranges, its is one unlimited complete combat system! This system even has its own name "Raja Naga" A system which is completely your own personal system which uses your natural talents and abilities to the maximum and strengthens your weakness. This type of learning how to fight has been brought to forefront first with JKD, than Cross training and now with the rise of MMA who have been credit with given birth to this line of thought in Martial Arts, even though its been a silat concept for centuries ! Kinda like reinventing the wheel.

So next time your teacher mention a animal name, link that to the range of combat, and work on the techniques you can use in that range of combat and what you can do to make you a more complete fighter.

Class Test - July 2010

We going to be having a Buah Test last week in July for all students who have completed their first two Bela Diri Levels. The test will comprise of the following

1) Grappling Buah's 1 - 10
2) Striking Buah's 1 - 8

So over the next two months we will focus on these Buahs, so make sure you turn up for class, as I won't be going over material that I have already taught in a previous week.

New Training Class on Mondays

Over the summer months we going to make the Monday night our big cardio night with padwork and Buahs follow by Sparring / Pressure Testing. Each Monday night students will get the opportunity to pressure test their skills. Each week we pick a area so we could be doing knife sparring, stick sparring, Wrestling, Groundfighting or could be working on striking aspects. So if you want to take part than come along on Mondays and experience the "Burn" Please note only students training at least twice a week will be for health and safety reasons can take part in the sparring.

Bela Diri 1

A short clip of entry to Buah 1, taken from the Bela Deri 1 Dvd.
The entry of the first grappling Buah.
Buah's are combination of Martial Arts techniques which help students learn the basic of combat techniques. There are 18 empty hands Buahs on the first level, covering grappling, striking, locking, and groundfighting. Each Buah is divided into three sections entry, destruction and finishing. Each section can interlink with another section from another Buah, meaning a unlimited combat system. Each Buah should be practise both right and left side and all various counters and re counters would be taught for maximum combat efficiency.
For more details check out www.guruliam.blogspot.com or www.silateurope.com

Bela Diri Dvd #1

Bela Diri Dvd 1 is available from 1st June and covers all the techniques on the White Sash.

Dvd cost including postage €20

Stepping Through Drills 1 - 2

Sensetivity Drill 1

Speed Drill 1 - 2

Basic Pad Work

Buah Entries 1 - 6

Self Defence Techniques 1 - 8

Intro to 4 Steps

Trailer for Guru Felix Seminar June 26th - 27th

Places filling fast Don't Lose out - Book your place Today e-mail guruliam@hotmail.com

Long Distance Training

At long last we are please to launch the first stage of our unique "Silat Online Experience" on Friday 4th June. The first stage is aim at the Long Distance Students. For the first time you can now become part of our World wide Family. When you join our program you will get personal online support and advice, Monthly assignments, regular digital updates of whats happening in class, so you can be part of the whole training environment, and online gradings. You will be trained as hard as a class student and be expected to reach the same level. This will never replace a teacher in a class, but it will be the next best thing! So if you not living close to a teacher or club email guruliam@hotmail.com today for more details and start learning.

Felix Valencia Returns June 2010

Just 5 weeks to go to the Seminar of the Year. If you met Guru Felix in 2008 than you know how amazing this guy is! He is one of the top Combat Instructors in the World today and in 5 weeks he make his long awaited return to Ireland. Guru Felix will be teaching in Firhouse Sports and Community Center Sat 26th / Sun 27th June 11am - 4pm each day. Places going fast, so make sure you book your place today. E-mail guruliam@hotmail.com for more details

Training Tip #3 - Read the correct Instruction Manual

Martial Arts Training, is not something that takes a tremendous amount of intelligence to grasp. However, just like assembling your office furniture or your kid’s toys on Christmas eve, you do need to read and follow the instructions.

Most Martial Artist understand this, but this is exactly where the problem starts for the majority of them. Imagine you’re assembling a new desk for your office. And, instead of reading the specific step-by-step instructions for that particular piece of furniture, you took the instructions from several different pieces of furniture and started following steps from different sheets at random.

I’m sure you can see where this is going – you’d soon have a confused mess on your hands.
Without following the instructions that were created to build that particular piece of furniture, you’ll soon be lost. And, by following steps randomly or out of sequence, you’ll likely have to go back, disassemble your work, and start all over again at some point in the process. This usually leads to confusion, frustration and apathy. Which ends in them giving up in the art and leaving the training.

There was a recent survey done, where it said that people nowadays living in the era of Instant Information Super Highway (classes, seminars, privates, dvd, social media, emails, Youtube, webinars, downloads, skype etc..) only have to do something wrong "once", and they begin to question the value of what they doing, and there so much choice for us. So make sure you are reading the correct Instruction manual for what you want to learn and give yourself a proper chance for your journey and follow your teacher (if you lucky to have one) advice!

Meet the Guru Team

Looks might never have been a strong point in Silat, but when it comes to fighting skills these guys are Awesome ! When you join a class look out for these guys, as at anytime if you need help, you just have to ask.

Tony Insights

Guru Baharu Tony gives a few insights into why he loves training in Silat.

Long distance Silat Training Commences

The first stage of our new online Silat experience begins officially 1st June 2010 as we launch our Long Distance Grading Program. This will be the first of a number of great new exciting online projects that we been working on, to try and help students who live to far away from a club to train regularly. These will all come online over the next few months, and will mean you will have online access to training and personal info in a way never before done.

We now taking names for places in the first course starting 1st June. So how do you learn?

1) You enroll onto the "Silat Training Online "

2) You purchase the syllabus dvd for your level

3) End of each Month you will be given a Home Study Test in which you have two weeks complete the Test, and return by either DVD, or by email i.e online clip.

If you pass all the Tests at the end of the 3 Months (6 Months for Intermediate Level) you will be given a grading test which you must complete within 2 weeks. Apon passing you will receive a certificate and Grade. Long Distance Students will grade and train alongside the class students, and you will become part of our silat family. Training with us, will give you a strong, deep understanding of our Art. Our promise to you, is that we will do our best to help you!! This is a on going progressive learning curve in your development, and we will take each step with you!

As a added bonus each student will be given a personal Guru to help you, so you will never be alone. If interested in starting the program or would like more details email guruliam@hotmail.com

Guru Dan means business

Guru Dan will be in next month "Irish Fighters" if you want to know what makes Guru Dan tick, check out the magazine, due out 1st June. Just stand well back when you ask him a question, that Keris is very sharp.

Animal Mac Young

One of my concepts is that each year to bring over World Class Instructors, leaders in their field of knowledge, so my students can experience and learn from this at first hand. And I very proud to be able to say after many years of trying to arrange it, we will be hosting Marc "Animal "Mc Young on Sat 28th Aug - 29th Aug 2010. This is Marc first visit to Ireland and will be a weekend to remember. Marc is a leading expert in the field of self defence knowledge and awareness, and has written many books and dvd's. Check out http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/ More details to follow soon.. This event is open to the general public and there will be a big demand for places, and due to nature of the training numbers will be limited so register your interest early, so you don't miss out! Roll on August......

Martial Arts Social Media

We now living in the age of social media, youtube , facebook, twitters etc..... everyone now has access to everyone. We can follow their every movement, every thought and just like our multi channel tv's where we have 100's of channels, or thousands of songs on I- Tunes. If our needs are not satisfied instantly or the views being express, don't fit in with our needs, we simply just click a button on the remote or the mouse and hey presto another range of views. We living in the age of "Instant" access.

At the beginning this was a revolution for the good, it's now in my view become a disadvantage to Martial Arts teaching and the development of students. We as a generation surf and scan over information, not spending time or going deeply into learning. We want everything yesterday and believe we learn something as fast. The concept of spending time learning something correctly is alien to the vast social media generation. With the easy access to email, youtube, dvd, downloads etc.. we are bombarded with information from every angle, which has meant we have turn into "info junkies", constantly looking for the next fix.

Now I understand there always exceptions, and everyone believes they are the exceptions, but for 99% of students training, this form of social learning, is going to end up making you unhappy, frustrated with your training and the end product of this is you leave your training.

I posed this question to my students last week and asked them to think about it. Which would you rather have. 5000 different techniques for 20 street defences or 20 Defences that will answer all 5000 different types of Street Attacks. Your answer will depend on how much time you spend on social media! Have a think. Do you have the skill to learn 5000 techniques or even 500 techniques? Do you have the ability to give all your time to learning, for example say 1 technique takes a hour to learn? 5000 hours. Do you have the ability to make it work in real time, under pressure and your life or your love one at stake? Would you bet on giving the correct answer? Or by researching and developing 20 techniques to perfection be more suited for you?

Train hard and see you in class...

Confidence

When you’re training and you may get knocked, or get something wrong or take a bit longer to get something learn't. The biggest thing you have to protect is your confidence!

It’s easy to focus on the negative stuff and think about the things that don’t go right, and when you’re training there are lots of times this happens. It’s easy to focus on the defeats and not the victories and give ourselves credit when something works. Having a healthy positive focus and mindset is crucial. Don't sweat the small stuff, enjoy where you're at, enjoy the experience and have fun.

Lameco Eskrima

The next Lameco Eskrima Course Starts Saturday 17th April at the Fitness Dock Gym Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2. This is a 5 week course and cost is €50. Class time 10am - 11am. This course will focus on how to successfully defend yourself if you find yourself on the ground, after been thrown, slipped or pushed there. Course is open to all, beginners and Eskrima students and if you like to take part email Guru Liam guruliam@hotmail.com or tel 087 9956569 The course numbers will be kept to a maximum of 12 to ensure quality learning.

Knife Training Seminar Dvd (New)

If you missed out on the great Knife Training Seminar last month, or would like a reminder, for all the material you covered, than this Dvd is for you! It covers every Knife technique you did at the seminar. From High Speed Takedowns, to Knife Buahs, to Multiple Attack Defences, to Knife Awareness etc... you can relive the experience and make sure you haven't forgotten anything. As this been our first dvd we offering a special price... €17 and what even better if you attend the seminar we throwing another 30% off, so you can get the Dvd for €12 as a special thanks for attending, and even better we throwing in free Posting to all our Long Distance Students across the World. So don't miss out !

I would like to thank Guru Dan for filming the seminar and Guru Jon for editing the Dvd.

Coming next month Bela Diri Vol 1, Bela Diri Vol 2