Wahoo bud-
The greatest exemplar that my teachers have provided for me is *how*much*they*practice* in solo; five hours a day is standard, ten is not unusual and twelve to fourteen is not unknown if you add in teaching commitments. I've seen people *advertise* that their martial art can be 'practiced' in an half hour a day; no wonder it takes them ten years to get squared away. One of the 'keys' to kuntao and silat (as we practice it in a small special group) is learning to practice 'all the time'; taking all the common everyday movements and 'remembering' where in the djurus they occur- staying in the 'martial mind' and physicality. We also have a tendency to 'tap' things on martial contact points- also in the idea of low impact/high reps.
That's why I like the Indonesian idea of separating 'pentjak' from 'silat' (as I understand the words/concepts). The principles which comprise silat can be applied to virtually any movement system (it seems to me). If the movement system being practiced has a sophisticated understanding of body mechanics, it will accommodate most any principle in an application. Group meeting is for instruction, correction and group drills. Doing solo practice in group is like tuning an instrument on stage or running riffs on stage; practice at home, perform in public. (obviously that can't include the early time of learning the forma with corrections) The other thing is that people get into collecting forms and hoping that lots of forms will give them lots of applications. Then, when they look at old men work, they first thing they say is; 'It looks so simple'- go figure.
Chas 'It's Fighting, not Folkdancing!'
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