Welcome to THE APPROACH

I am very excited to introduce THE APPROACH.

What is THE APPROACH? Is it a new system ? What it is, is a distillation of Pencak Silat Fitrah, with influences of Thai, Filipino and Indonesian martial arts all of which I have practiced over the years, what it provides is a very practical, easy to learn and efficient way of defending oneself and your loved ones.

Remember an APPROACH with a structure is different to a style with a syllabus.

I would like to say that I have the permission of my teacher, Guru Tua Chris Parker and the blessing of his teacher Bapak HJ Idris B Alimuda in sharing The APPROACH with the martial arts world. I have had the privilege of being the private student of Guru Tua Chris Parker since 1993, I hold the grade of Guru Muda and I am lineage holder to Silat Fitrah. This year after being involved in Muay Thai for nearly 20 years I was awarded the title of Arjarn. I still continue my training in these arts, see my teachers on a regular basis, I make regular trips to Thailand to update my training and knowledge of the Thai arts, I train alongside Muay Thai fighters who are more than half my age, who look at me in disbelief why a middle aged Farang puts themselves through the training that they have to do.

Throughout my years training in Silat I have read comments both in martial arts magazines and the ever popular internet keyboard warrior forums about how unrealistic, flowery, posey Silat is, I scratch my head in disbelief how people can hide behind the keyboard and say such things, have they been practicing the life art that has totally enhanced my life for the past 15 years. I can honestly say that I have never found an art as devastating as Pencak Silat. When you consider that I am a Muay Thai coach this is a bold statement, Every concept from ground fighting, weapon and empty hand fighting is undoubtedly in my opinion very practical even in todays Reality based world.

My mission is to dispel the belief held by some, that Silat is just a flowery dance, with no combative use, my opinion is that these people are totally unaware of the combative and practical art that is so devastating.

We all have a natural way of moving, we may practice the same martial art, but you will look completely different to me and the next person and the next. That is what is unique about the Human race, it would be very sad if we all looked the same, imagine everybody the same like carbon copies, we all model our teachers but we have our own distinct natural way of movement, The common denominator in The APPROACH is what it teaches us, is to attack the threat, presupposing we cannot avoid the threat in the first place.

If you have a background in the Filipino, Indonesian, Malaysian arts the concept of attacking the threat, ‘defanging the snake’ is nothing knew to you, however lets take a closer look at the meaning of the word APPROACH in the English dictionary,

  1. Ideas or actions intended to deal with a problem or situation.
  2. An attack… the act of drawing spatially closer to something.
  3. We were approaching our destination.
  4. The enemy came nearer and nearer.
  5. Approach a task

Any form of self defence has to be able to fill space, the way THE APPROACH does this is basically in a primal, heavy hitting way, it reminds me of a cross between getting hit by a combination of a pick axe handle then getting thrown into the propellers of an aircraft, it hits and destroys everything that falls into its path.

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I want you to think of a lumberjack holding his axe, his job is to chop down a 100ft tree, the lumberjack goes about his work, this small axe is going to bring down this huge tree, the lumberjack coils and expands and with good body mechanics chops into the tree, he continues with the same technique until the tree topples, you might say that you cant for legal reasons go around carrying a pick axe handle, but do you know that your body has its own mini versions and you have two of them and they are perfectly legal! I’m talking about your forearms, imagine somebody throwing a punch at you, any punch! You respond by attacking there punching arm by diagonally chopping your forearm into the punching arm smashing the muscle, you then bounce of the target and ram your forearm or hammer fist into the carotid. The tidal wave continues until the threat has been eliminated.

What makes THE APPROACH so appealing is that it is so easy to learn and is friendly to your hands, if I could put it into one line it would be is YOU HIT YOUR OPPONENTS SOFT BITS WITH YOUR HARD BITS.

The use of elbows, forearms, hammer fists, knees, shins hitting the body all done with forward energy, correct body alignment and body mechanics, with no passive movement makes THE APPOACH a formidable way of fighting.

Every South East Asian martial whether it be Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Filipino is or was weapon based, the use of weaponry gives the Practioner many attributes, the ability to flow is perhaps one of the most important. When you use a weapon you are taught to destroy the oncoming attack with an attack of your own, you hit and destroy the threat then you move in to the major target areas. When the student has had a grounding in weaponry he will knowingly or unknowingly have an understanding of body mechanics, hand eye coordination, and flow, he will be able to translate everything he has learned whether it be with two swords, two sticks, two knives to empty hand techniques, his attacks will be fluid, precise and with power.

My aim in THE APPROACH is to emulate the above but empty handed, however the training in THE APPROACH will work if the student has a weapon to hand.
The APPROACH also works if you are unarmed and attacked by a weapon.

There are only a few stages that make up THE APPROACH, the first and arguably the best is the use of the forearm, you might be wondering if the use of the forearm is to block or attack? The answer is that there is no blocks, no defence, always attack, always in combination, often simultaneous. One of the main principles in Silat Fitrah is there is no passive movement, so your defence is to attack.

For many people they have not got enough time to go through the process of spending years learning a martial art, what has evolved out of me from my training and what I have done with THE APPROACH is that what I have distilled from Silat Fitrah, is the elements I feel are most easy to learn, for people who want an APPROACH to self defence without having to learn a complete system/ style.

In my experience all the elements of GOOD Silat are highly effective if taught by a good teacher and trained appropriately……..

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