Silat Bridge to better translation of African Warrior Traditions into art.

Silat as a reference for translating the War dance of Africa.

In my initial struggle to understand the African martial arts I came in contact with one thing most troubling to me. What is the system, where is the cohesive structure that I was accustomed to in the Asian Martial Arts that I had studied? How could I organize these very organic principals and mechanics into a training method that I could also pass on.

My study consisted of being immersed in the culture, I quickly found that this was to shocking for my student as well as just plain unrealistic for most. I would then meet a Silat Guru (Dutch-Silat short forms) who could articulate pure principles of martial science unlike I had ever witnessed, in a way a college professor would discuss physics. This perspective was my bridge to translating the war dances so to speak into a system of martial science that could be easily transferred to the student. Without expounding, I found Silat and the African martial arts to be so similar in fact that as time goes on I wouldn't be surprised if Silat is eventually considered as part of the African Martial Arts and vise versa, after all it is a art of the Pyramid Temple builders, guard, and priests I suspect. ;)