Silat for the Street: Using the Ancient Martial Art for Self-Defense in the 21st Century Paperback – August 1, 2016

It is a good book. For those that have been practicing for a long time, it will seem basic. That said, there are ideas and concepts to clean from. For beginners, this is a great book. I would recommend it only if you have a coach, sifu, or guru to lead you towards doing this safely. Silat can leave a person seriously injured, therefore practice slowly, carefully, and sympathetically with your partners. As for the self defense aspect of the book it is still good. Even though we do have the right to bear arms and defend ourselves in America, it is essentially to learn about that fine line where the assailed becomes the one assaulting. It is a dangerous place where one believes he is protecting himself but the law determined that person took things too far. Please try this book.

Burton Richardson's "Silat for the Street" is straightforward in its approach and its appeal. The title is disingenuous, in a good way. The "street" appeal is used to make Silat -- and other -- martial arts practitioners re-examine the effectiveness of what they do. Richardson says the way to honing street effectiveness involves hard sparring, realistic training and cross-training.Richardson offers the central problem facing Silat and other arts: The divide between Pencak (the art) and Silat (the fighting). Similarly in kung fu, I've heard of demonstration and form champions referred to as having "flower fist and brocade leg." Ultimately, it's the difference between dancing and fighting, between applying techniques to compliant partners and executing techniques on resisting opponents intent on hurting you. It's a kung fu problem, a karate problem, a Taekwondo problem, a Japanese jujitsu problem, the Aikido problem.Richardson is upfront on the problem he faced: A six-month white belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu easily countered his years of Silat grappling. He had little to no answer on the mats. Richardson had trained in Silat under Dan Inosanto; he had fought in the Dog Brothers' full-contact weapons contests. Richardson retooled, earned a BJJ black belt with the Machando brothers, extensively studied Muay Thai (which he says is derived from Silat) and revised his approach. BJJ and Muay Thai, like boxing, follow a scientific method of testing and refinement. Richardson applied the same to Silat to tweak body positioning, to allow for the various head twists and tilts that -- as-is -- weren't dropping skilled grapplers with strong necks.The learning process shows. Richardson offers covered entries, guards, defenses and their potential issues, throws and ground work. The emphasis on defensive skills often is rare. Most books offer a few parries or blocks, which may deflect one punch but would fail before an onslaught. Richardson's techniques allow for deflection and entry to execute the throws and sweeps he shows. Richardson shows some great takedowns, from the ground, of standing opponents intent on kicking or stomping -- the way many ground fights really go. He then layers in the truly violent throws, MCL- and ACL-destroying leg kicks and other techniques that could maim an opponent. The author offers advice on how to train these realistically, some just by obtaining the correct body position, others by modifying the intent. I've seen the same approach in Japanese jujitsu and Judo, where the competition-banned techniques often are isolated or trained on stacked mats so you can practice without crippling a partner or breaking their neck.Some of the throws and ground sweeps mirror Judo and catch-wrestling and those found in other grappling arts. People, after all, have a universal bodily structure. Richardson expertly divides and explains the sections into a lesson plan covering all ranges of fighting, and where they bleed together. It's a dense book, and benefits from re-readings and thorough practice. The throws are quick and dirty, and their only intent is to slam someone to the ground and hurt them on the way down -- similar enough to Chinese Sanshou or the throws of pugilism under the London Prize Ring rules.

I've been reading and re-reading this book for while. It is fairly well written and interesting, but you definitely need to be working with an instructor to get the most of this book -- that is a trait common to all martial arts books that cover techniques. I would have liked to see more material covered and a more detailed discussion of what the author is doing, but this still works as an introduction to Silat.

Let me first say, this is an incredible book.I've read a good number of books on the martial arts over the last 43 years and this is one of the best. Probably top 3. Bruce Lee's book on Tao of Jeet Kune Do is a bit messy as he really didn't complete writing it. M. Nakayama's Dynamic Karate is a must have.I bought this book because I have had no exposure to Silat in the past and was looking for a good book on the subject.This is not a basic introduction book. This is for advanced martial arts practitioners that already have a grounding in martial arts are are willing to openly accept concepts to become a mixed-martial artist.The book is an arsenal of techniques and theories. It is well written.The first 65 pages go over the basic theory of the Silat mind set, stepping patterns, two main body positions, and the difference between combat martial arts and kata training.This book focuses entirely on combat martial arts for combat. This is not a self defense book. It is a combat book.Sure it touches on how to defend yourself and points out the best tried and true theories of self defense espoused in the Chinese Classic "The Water Margin" (aka "All Men are Brothers", "The 108 Heroes of Liang Shan Po", etc.) by Lu Da - "Of the 36 ways to get out of a bad situation, the best is to leave."It also points out what not to do in a fight to keep out of legal trouble (sometime I would have gone a bit farther on this I am sure eye-gouging is looked down upon by the authorities).That being said, if you can't get out of a bad situation, do what you can to damage, impair, or incapacitate your opponent(s) until you can get yourself and anyone/thing you hold dear away from them.The book does have a discussion on handling multiple attackers as well.I would strongly suggest this book to any seasoned martial artist that has trained for years and has studied or been exposed to multiple martial arts. (That goes for the other 2 books I mentioned as well).A beginner simply will not get what a seasoned martial arts will out of this book.