ANIMAL MAGIC Part 2(b)
Patience and Power
(Ular Sawa Python)
Salam Datang
I'd like to talk in this article about something close to my heart and that is the Sawa mannerism.
I'd like to re-iterate before I start, what I said back in my first article, and that is that anything written in these articles are MY opinion.
My take and my expression, this for me is one of the beauties of our style of Pencak Silat,, in that expression of techniques, of flow and of spirit; are in my mind what separates this art from all the others.
For me Silat, is a liberated state of mind, where mind body and spirit which are not divided anyway work in union to express the movements.
So please do not take to heart anything I say, unless it resonates with you.
That said I believe the Sawa mannerism is one that is misunderstood by a lot of practitioners with the label of "Oh it’s just a sub-system of the Sendok"
People who take this approach in my view either just haven’t bothered to look beyond anything other than the techniques in the syllabus or what was "spoon fed" from their Guru, or are just to lazy to do the extra study, to their loss.
To me the syllabus is a great starting block to give the overview of the animal a “taster” for students to then go and REALLY study the animal, drill the drills and "seek".
If we want to call these animals kin, then we owe it to ourselves to put in the study and work, not just learn to pass the grading, we sell ourselves, the mannerism and ultimately the art short.
I've spent hundreds of hours (No exaggeration) on Animal Planet and Discovery Channels video feeds and YouTube studying the hunting and feeding habits of the Python and its cousins the Boa
I recommend all readers go and check out this link of a African Giant Python feeding now on
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LzVYgYlfRYs&feature=channel_page
Before reading on so you can see my point and watch the stages of the kill.
The Python like most snakes is a ambush killer and the constrictors are a good example of this, due to their body mass and weight it would be ineffective use of energy to chase its prey, even the way constrictors move is designed for there body shape.
All other snakes use what’s known, rather predictably "Serpentine" movement bending their body and pushing with there ventral scales at the point of the bend pulling the animal in an almost diagonal movement, best viewed by the Sidewinder a type of Viper.
Large constrictors use what’s known as "Rectilinear" movement the snake tenses and relaxes powerful muscles around the ribs in a wave like motion and using its ventral scales to pull it in a forward wavelike motion, this is slower than serpentine movement but uses a LOT less calories hence being much more energy efficient for such a large snake and with no real natural predator it doesn’t need to move fast.
There's SO much material in the Sawa if we only just looked, I've found hundreds of applications in the movements of the Plate Dance, which is one of many drills.
And one doesn’t have to just rely on Sendok for entries, the Sawa bites and fang strikes make great entries as do blows to the throat and face with the Sawa hands (See video for details) nerve pinches and flesh grabs to hold the opponent, mixed with trapping kicks, utilizing Sempok and Depok footwork one can stay just in Sawa hunting mode without having to always start out in Sendok.
A python in the wild doesn’t pretend to be a Cobra to bite its prey before becoming a Python again to feed! Why should we?
It is more than capable of being itself and they eat well!
A Reticulated Python now in an animal park in
It was kept in captivity by a local tribe on the island of Sumatra and wad revered as a tribal leader!
Back to the stages of the kill, the Python has we’ve mentioned moves in a liner rather than serpentine way, but uses its length to block its preys escape moving very slowly it tracks the movements of its prey by heat sensitive pits under its mouth and through vibrations picked up from the ground, these are felt through its jaw when placed on the floor picks up its preys footfalls.
Due to its mass the Python doesn’t need to coil to strike and can strike much faster than its size would give away, holding its prey fixed with a powerful bite while it throws its body over its prey for the next stage.
The big Squeeze:
Here where I step up onto my soapbox ;)
Contrary to a LOT of Sawa practitioners, applications, PYTHONS DONT CRUSH THEIR PREY! I'll say that again just to be clear PYTHONS DONT CRUSH THEIR PREY! They don’t brake their bones either!
It’s a general misconception that as found its way into many Sawa techniques that are all locks and brakes and that’s it. This is wrong.
Wraps and wrench’s to temporary immobilize your prey for the coming move’s is ok, but still like I said before, DONT go looking or “gunning” for a lock or wrap, you’ll learn a very painful lesson, remember this is not a sport, where the ideal is “not the winning or loosing but how you play the game”! in the ring this is ok, but in reality it could get you killed! We don’t play for trophies to our manhood, we aim to survive.
This as sadly meant that a lot of really good movements have been lost or forgotten in order to teach what’s looks more ”Snakelike” but isn’t in true alignment with how the animal your trying to imitate really works.
Its all in the name "CONSTRICTOR"! All constrictors kill their prey by suffocation they bite, hold the prey still with their teeth, wrap the torso of the prey and coil around the chest tightening slowly as the
Prey breathes out and every time it breaths out it tightens some more until the prey cannot expand its diaphragm to breath and passes into unconsciousness.
If you haven’t checked out that link please do it now, to illustrate by point
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LzVYgYlfRYs&feature=channel_page
The under belly of the Python is so sensitive it can detect the heartbeat of its prey and may constrict a little longer until it feels this stop.
The Python, then working against the grain of the fur; moves to the preys head to begin swallowing its food whole.
IT may happen that in the powerful squeeze a rib or to may be broken but PYTHONS DONT CRUSH THEIR PREY OR AIM TO BRAKE BONES! So all this locking and braking we see is only PART of the true spirit of the mannerism!
My old Sifu used to say locks and brakes are "incidental, if not accidental" Pythons don’t kill this way, so why are we looking to lock or wrap for the sake of it, look at the animal as well as the syllabus for a while and see.
if on the way into your opponent you get a limb obstruction you may through the Principle of Adhesion want to stick and brake but ALLWAYS make these ballistic brakes. Don’t hold it on and try to muscle it, adhere to the limb and blast the brake through the limb, but NEVER look to just brake.
Obviously we aren’t 28 feet long and over 300 pounds so stopping our opponent this way is impractical but we can imitate this in a number of other ways.
Choking:
I've looked at a lot of Sawa from a lot of systems and have almost never seen a choke used! This is the easiest way to imitate the Python or Boas Squeeze.
Using our limbs and I mean legs too, to encircle and cut of blood supply or more closely to the animal oxygen to the brain to the lungs!
Think about it for a while do we study the animal or the syllabus?
Our style IS the closest I've seen to the real movement of the Sawa and our use of mannerism allows us the freedom to really look and study the animal and express that in our techniques and this is what I’m doing, not picking at our style, I love it or I wouldn’t be doing it and all the work I put in for promoting it over here.
I’m just giving what I believe is a "closer "interpretation of the Sawa; so go look learn your chokes, there are hundreds of different chokes and cranks that are very effective and mirror the movements of the Sawa very well, yea you may have to look to other styles to learn them but when you look back at the plate dance and Kembangan movements there all there, they where there all along, just you went looking for them, because you thought Sawa was a locking subsystem to the better Sendok!
In fact one of the best way’s to bring down a huge guy is by cutting off the blood to his brain, or oxygen to the lungs; it doesn’t matter how big he is he needs blood for his muscles to work
In my research a well placed choke can cause black-out in 3.5 seconds regardless of attacker’s size, think about it again.
Also using the Sawa hand as a blow to the windpipe as a similar effect as does chops to the carotid arteries, nerve pinches applied to the carotid and bites to brachial and vagas nerve with the fingers or with your teeth , fang strikes to the eyes etc will drop the most determined foe, you cant build muscle on these targets.
So look at that YouTube clip again, and think about it.
I've found dozens of ways of using the Sempok and Depok for neck traps and chokes and the selor posture to is great for this
Due to the fact that the Sawa as more of the earth element to it, than the Sendok it follows, that using it to bridge between Cobra and Harimau IS OK! So spend some time looking at groundwork and ground choking the "Anaconda" technique (Hence the name) from Brazilian JuJitsu (and also in nearly every grappling style around,) is closer to the actual animal than a lot of Silat I've seen I'm sad to say.
So look around, just don’t get tempted to study BBJ instead ;)
Legs:
I'd like to mention the use of the legs.
Just as the Sawa is a much longer snake than the Cobra I think that using the whole length of our bodies to effect rather than concentrating on just the upper (discounting the kicks for this example) is again closer to the Python.
Whether these are used for foot trapping and trips or entanglement or for ground choking, look at how they can be used to disrupt your enemy’s structure using the Principle of Destruction, and Adhesion to best effect.
using the weave step to trap a leg and then sticking to the trapped limb and twisting the hips and dropping into a Sempok posture will bring him down and brake his knee and leaves you in a perfect position to apply your chokes.
Sempok step is good for getting behind an opponent period; from here the applications are limitless.
Training:
There are so many training methods I've discovered that showing them all would be pointless, the clips show some of them.
All the drills mentioned in the last article apply to the Sawa but Chi-Sau type drills for sensitivity and fluidity, leg Chi-Sau for the same on the lower line.
Energy drills are invaluable for all Snake styles but probably more for the Sawa the ability to wrap and lockdown your opponent without him realizing until the chokes on,
Ball training is another good drill for sensitivity and adhesion, finger grip training for the bites wrestling with the heavy bag on the ground is also good for low choking techniques and just playing. The Indonesians and Malay have a word “Mi-ing” which means to play, like a child a high spirited free flow played against another like we played as children just innocently without preconceived ideas , not looking for applications or opinions just get into the flow with adhesion and fluidity will help get into the Sawa mindset and you’ll be amazed what you come out with ;)
Apologies to anyone offended by my take on Sawa, but remember it’s just that; my take or expression on what I believe to be a "Truer" Sawa mannerism.
Until next time train safe and play hard;)
Any thoughts or feedback or for more information on classes, workshops or private tuition please don’t hesitate to drop me an email simpson76@tiscali.co.uk
