An Old Art of Belati Video Clip

The two individuals in this more than a decade old clip are my Guru, Guru Jak Othman and currently my sole training partner Guru Ed Chard doing the Belati or blade training. The first part of the video shows them doing the Pelampas or the sticky hand drills with blades.  It has been a while since I train doing this Pelampas or Buah of the Belati art.  Currently Guru Ed and I are training using the Sauh or Tekpi and another traditional weapon called Sakti Pencawangan.

Lessons I can learn from this video is, Belati or any bladed arts is an art of its own. If a martial artist were to encounter an expert blade fighter, it is advisable to immediately flee from the scene. Choose flight, not fight. An altercation with an expert knife fighter always end in a few seconds and the victim would not be the knife fighter.  Guru Jak even quoted a saying by Guro Dan Inosanto, "The chances for a martial artist to survive against a skilled knife fighter is nil."

Only another blade fighter who have studied and trained in the bladed art can engage in a knife fight with a blade fighter.  The Belati is so sharp that a simple cut by a knife fighter would cause the victim to lose conciousness or die in a matter of minutes or even seconds, depending which part of the body the cut is inflicted. Probably, the Timetable of Death developed by William E. Fairbairn would be a good reference.

One who learns the techniques and drills of the bladed art must train over and over again until it becomes muscle memory, because a knife fight usually occurs so fast that the attacker will attack with blinding speed, the defender will have no time to think on how to react. How you train is how you would react in a real knife fight. That is a saying, or words of wisdom, commonly known in the Asian martial arts world that one must hold close to heart.

To know more about the Belati and how the belati-fighting applications, concepts and techniques that has become the very foundation of Harimau Berantai Pencak Silat's art to this very day, please read up the previous entry titled The Tiger is Loose!.

Above is a picture of Guru Jak and Guru Ed demonstrating the art of the Belati, in their latest documentary project, Inside Silat - Weapons of Destruction that recently won two awards, Best Editing, and, Best Arts and Culture awards at the recent 2009 Malaysian Documentary Awards Festival. Again, demonstrating the Art of the Belati