Sunday, December 07, 2008

Silat Jurus vs Wing Chun Forms

Yo !

I am going through some basic juru training in Silat. As I have some knowledge of Wing Chun forms, (including different lineages versions), I wanted to do a mini-comparison.

From a beginners perspective when you examine Juru 1 and Sil Lum Tao as entry level forms the differences are interesting. Silat has more double hand movements in it. Wing Chun has some double hand movements initially for the generic salutation, then focuses generally on single hand movements.

In Juru 1 there is this underarm slide that looks like the underarm slide in Biu Gee. This is interesting indeed. The application I was shown is very simialr to Wing Chun's. But the gap in being shown these in your Wing Chun 'career' vs the Silat novice is measured in years.

I wonder if the concepts gained in Silat are more mature / faster than those in Wing Chun (as expressed in modern teaching of Wing Chun ?!). Would a Silat player come out with more concepts than a Wing Chun player in a similar timeframe ? 2 hands go into battle early on plus you get footwork and lower level training introduced.

I always thought Silat and Wing Chun look simiar in the hand movements. Hence this comparison. There is no point trying to shoe-horn Wing Chun into the Silat mold and vice versa as they are different mentalities. BUT if you want the same function out of these systems then the comparison is 'fair-use'.

On youtube look about for Silat jurus and forms and contrast this with Wing Chun forms. See a variety of practitioners.

I am begining to think Silat is a more flexible passport into other systems.