The Britsh Silat association is home to styles such as Silat Lincah, Pancasila Gayong Harimau, Pukulan Madura Pusaka Sapu Jagat.....

Click to learn more

Need to get in touch??

Click here for a full list of BSA personnel and their full contact details.

You can even fill in our online form

B.S.A. Information

The British Silat Association takes its principles from one of the old Malay warriors Hang Jebat. Our tenets are humility, honour, respect, dignity, loyalty, brotherhood and friendship. Some systems teach Silat without the Seni. One of the most respected old Silat masters said that Silat without the art is not Silat, but is merely fighting. Malaysian Silat practitioners place a great deal of importance on this aspect of the system, and on how to incorporate it into real fight situations. They say in Malaysia that it is called Seni Silat- the ART of Silat rather than Silat Seni, because the art is more important than the fighting.

There are 4 major styles in Malaysia, Seni Gayong Malaysia, Silat Cekak, Silat Gayong Fatani, and Silat Lincah. Lincah means fast. It is a fast moving, aggressive art. There is little bunga- flowery movements- in the art, with the emphasis being on combat. Many or most styles of silat have an element of dance where the movements are performed to music. Because Lincah is a fighting art, we do not have this aspect of silat. From my training in Malaysia, I found that there were lots of techniques in Lincah, but little structure, so I set about creating a system that I could teach here. The result is a basic system with 6 BUAH, and 6 pecahan for each buah. There are also 6 langkah. This is to black belt level. The seventh of all these is the final one.

The idea is that there are some more complicated techniques as you progress, but also some more effective and quicker ones. I aim to teach people body mechanics and principles of movement through the various techniques. Basic techniques and forms consist of the usual punching and kicking. From that the student moves on to the buah. These again are basic techniques, done on an attacking opponent. Once these have been mastered, the pecahan are taught. These are effectively add ons to the buah, or ways out of them, going into more complicated maneuvers. Buah in Malay means fruit. Pecahan means to open. The buah are the basic techniques, but you only get the essence of the fruit once you open it. They are the options that the style gives you. You don’t have to use them all, but the full repertoire gives you a style of movement. That is what STYLE is about. Dancing is dancing, but the samba is different to the waltz.

The grading system there is also a little difficult to transpose to Europe. I believe that in Europe there is an expectation of belts, and grades, akin to Karate and TKD, so when you have a style that has only a few, it doesn’t give students the feeling of progress and progression.

Our Grading System

The grading system that we developed, gives students targets, similar to the normal grading. There are grades to be achieved before you are allowed to progress to the next grade. Maha Guru in Malaysia has vetted this system.

So, together with my senior students we then examined the techniques that I had learned, and put a structure to it. We have tried to build a system that gives progression, where one technique can build onto a previous one. We also have made drills to teach skills. I have often been taught on the Nike principle- “Just Do It”. That is OK when you have 20 or 50 people to follow. When you are trying to explain it, because you are the only one who knows what you are talking about, it is virtually impossible to teach. The drills are to teach some of these movements. Once the skills have been learned in the drills, I also try to make them an aerobic exercise to give a cardiovascular workout. We also work on speed drills, and such like to develop all-round fitness, while still working in our art. The principle is of sport- specific training. Because of my professional experience in sport, working with two of Britain’s top athletics clubs, and then professional courses, I have acquired some experience in training. I put this into practice in my club. I also have specialist knowledge in areas like stretching, through my work with elite athletics and rugby and football so again, take that information from my work to my sport.

I believe in training for contact. My first silat teacher used to say that you train full contact to the body, and 1/2 or 1/3 contact to the head. That way you get used to getting hit, without the brain damage. Obviously you work up to it. The first time I got hit in the street, two things went through my head: the first was “I haven’t got a glass jaw”, the second was “I’ve been hit harder in training”. So I didn’t freeze or get scared, I just switched into training mode.

Redressing the Balance

Because I have been disappointed with the type of publicity that Silat has had in recent times, I felt it was time to redress the balance. I want to talk about the martial art, and get away from mumbo jumbo and incense sellers. One teacher described Silat as a complete art- not necessarily the best, but complete. I liked the humility, and respect accorded other arts, and trained with him on the basis of that statement alone. I have subsequently seen that with my teachers in Lincah. In 1987 a group of us went to the World Championships. The security people, who happened to be from Lincah, looked us after. The waited on us, food drinks whatever. They really looked after us. These were some of the top instructors in Malaysia. I was even more impressed with their humility. Where else would you see that? I have only ever seen it with remarkable men.

The Maha Guru of Silat Lincah is now in his 60’s, having been Maha Guru for over 40 years. He became Maha guru after completing a test when his other training partners held back. He was buried alive. This was shown in his film “One Step Into The Beyond”, when he was buried for 7-8 hours. He actually trained in a style called Silat Tarah on Pulau Besar- an island off the coast of Melaka. It is regarded as the spiritual home of Silat in Malaysia, and it is here that several of his teachers are buried. When he became Maha Guru his teacher said to him, that he was to use the name Lincah for his art. He made the promise to his Guru that he would see Lincah spread throughout the world. He says that his teacher foretold that he would meet me and that I would spread Lincah around the world. It has been my privilege to continue this work for him.

Lincah is a proud art, with a proud heritage. Maha Guru went to prison in Malaysia for speaking out about corruption in Government. Some have sought to use that to discredit the art and me. But he and all his students that went to jail as political prisoners are proud of that fact. I learned a lot from that. I also have a friend of my father, Wolfe Dourado, who was imprisoned and flogged for speaking out against another corrupt government. I am proud to know these people for the courage they have shown, and for their unwavering belief in truth.

I will not claim that Lincah is the most feared art in Malaysia. It is known and respected both in Malaysia, and Indonesia. Indeed Maha guru aided in the formation of the World Silat Federation, now based in Indonesia. He traveled to Indonesia and demonstrated his art there in some of the most hostile parts. It IS a fairly complete art, and it is still a fighting art. As yet it has not been diluted or altered. My aim is to keep it that way, and teach what I have been taught in Malaysia. I also intend to teach an art, not just fighting techniques. I know one silat teacher who was told his art didn’t work, so he changed what he was teaching to show the combat side of the art first. My first silat teacher in the UK did that too. I remember several of us asking him to teach us the bunga, but he refused saying that people did not want to learn it. We all felt he missed such a great opportunity to show people one of the nicest ways silat is differentiated from other arts. And we SOOOO wanted to learn it!!. It is the art that separates and differentiates silat from the majority of other martial arts.

Silat is an art. SENI Silat. To have Silat without the seni is merely fighting. There are styles of Silat where the art has been taken out, but to many people this is no longer Silat. Silat is alive and individual; it constantly changes, both rhythm and tempo, as the combatants strive for superiority evenbefore contact is made. It is not brutish, but refined, surgical, and precise.

Why Choose Silat and the B.S.A.?

Firstly because you will become part of and feel part of a special brotherhood, probably the martial arts "home" you have been searching for. Secondly for the art, put simply Silat is an all round martial art. It is NOT the product of one individual taking some fist fighting from here, some grappling from there, added a sprinkling of locks, repackaging it under their own brand name and garnishing it with the postfix 'do'. Silat is very aggressive, but it is also highly complex making it a thinking persons art. So if you want to train in an effective fighting art, and to train more creatively than punching air, then choose Silat Lincah.

Our Silat styles are still regarded as combat systems. This makes them much more 'live' than many of the martial arts imported from the East