Seeing that I wasn't too far from where this seminar was located I was able to attend and I am really glad that I did.
First of all I got to meet the "eccentric" Greg Alland who I talked at length with. After the seminar we all went out to dinner which was a nice addition to the day.
There is no doubt that Greg Alland knows his stuff and loves the art. He has visited the Philippines 11 times and Indonesia once. He came with a wonderful notebook full of all kinds of articles and magazine covers that I had never seen before.
Greg's training goes fast, For some he might be hard to follow. His big emphasis is on working the system. He said that you can come to know the whole system and not know how to fight because you have to know how to work the system. Greg teaches a technique and then goes onto working it very quickly. In the seminar we did footwork and he showed us body mechanics and the question came up about body mechanics and thrusting and Greg showed how the power of a thrust comes from our footwork. I had done that footwork over and over and never seen that on my own.
Another highlight of the seminar was a Pekiti Tirsia knife drill which looked like a silat dance when it was being performed. Greg also showed us a sinawaili which is the sinawaili in Pekiti Tirsia from which most or all of the techniques can be found.
Greg's no. 1 instructor Paul Lendley (who posts on this forum) was there and I have got to train with him a few times and he is a really good instructor and the only one sanctioned by Greg to teach Silat.
What I like about both of these men is their emphasis on working the system, they dont spend a great deal of time on technique and they are glad to refer you to Greg's tapes (which are reasonable to purchase)and to use them and work with them in addition to training so that you can work on the technique in your practice time.
