Pick your weapon

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

Okay, so I've been practicing Pencak Silat for a while. Started somewhere in '96 orso, stayed for a year, and recently rejoined.
Today my Guru suggested to me that I'm ready to learn a weapon. (Whee! ) so I'm pondering which. Pencak Silat has a whole range of neat cool weapons. My main weapon will definately be the sarong (a cloth used to defend, disarm, and distract, and to throw your opponent on the floor) because it's such an unexpected weapon, and it looks very cool.
As a secondary weapon I am possibly thinking about a Kerambit, which looks abit like the Daoc savage's claws, infact I think those have been modeled to these weapons. Not lethally effective, but causes excrusiatingly painful wounds, due to tearing the skin open.

A couple of kerambits:
Kujangsakti.nl

Kerambits are worn with the ring around the index finger, and the blade pointing down from the bottom of the fist.

I could also go for the kris, which is a curvy bladed double-edged dagger with a curved hilt making it suitable for thrusting motions aswell as cutting motions, but this is the most used weapon, so imo boring
Then there's the three-pointed trisula, but that's available in every martial art out there, so boring aswell

To give you an impression of what Pencak Silat is, here are two small films. They're not exactly our style of pencak (there are over 300 different styles, some like wrestling, others like karate) but it's rather close.

YouTube - SIlat Minang

YouTube - SIlat Minang

 

[crispy]

How about dirty tricks like the merc?

 

[Hawkwind]

give me an uzi any day!

 

[Gorbachioo]

So do you use those weapons in matches? And if so, are they plastic or something?

 

[soze]

Seriously though the Kerambits looks cool.

 

[tris-]

What about spear,cane, baton?
At least if you learn cane/baton, you could use it IRL defence unlike the swords etc

 

[Ch3tan]

That is why he is learning the sarong tris! So when he is on the beach and is attacked by surfers, he can whip it off and give them a good seeing to.

 

[gohan]

those fights look massivly coriographed... are they a tourney or are they for show?

 

[Lakih]

Im with tris- on this one... Pick something you can substitute for some nonlethal, legal accessory... Sure your'e not supposted to use your skills to go out beating people up, but when jumped by some thugs you probobly will regret spending all that time learning how to use a claymore (the big ass sword not the nasty mine)

 

[old.Tohtori]

Im with tris- on this one... Pick something you can substitute for some nonlethal, legal accessory... Sure your'e not supposted to use your skills to go out beating people up, but when jumped by some thugs you probobly will regret spending all that time learning how to use a claymore (the big ass sword not the nasty mine)

I think ninjas use alot less claymores then they should to be honest.

In any case, the sargon is easily switchable with a scarf so i'd say that's as "regular" of a weapon you can get.

Although suggesting that you should choose your weapon with a mindset of "how can i use this in real life" is a bit iffy

I've always wanted to learn to use a bo staff, perhaps a naginata...or nunchucks. Then i could film knocking myself out.

 

[tris-]

Is sarong like a belt?
We use belt in Hapkido (i havent yet) and it is pretty brutal!

 

[Ch3tan]

A sarong is a skirt.

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

A sarong used in Pencak is a cloth belt. It's generally about 2m long and 30cm wide, used to keep your jacket closed similar as the belt is used in karate and judo, but anything cloth and square/rectangular is named a sarong. They also call those wrap-around skirts a sarong. When skilled in a sarong it doesn't matter if it's the size of a kitchen towel or a wrap-around skirt, you'll be able to use it as a weapon.
I like it because it's generally not considered a weapon, and most people would have no idea how you could use a piece of flexible soft piece of cotton in battle, so it makes great shows on demos (and yeah, I could use my T-shirt in a pub-fight aswell, but that's not a motivation for me since I haven't gotten in a fight outside of the dojo in ages.)

Tris-, I like the cane aswell. It's called a Tongat or Toya in Pencak, but I would prefer having atleast 1 real weapon in the fight.

Gorbachoo, no we don't use weapons in matches, only in demos. Besides, I don't do competition fighting either. When you enter a competition ring, all the style goes out of the door and it's just like karate. Doesn't really appeal to me.

Gohan, yeah those fights are massively choreographed. It's a demo in a mall somewhere in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Without choreographing the fight, most cool things won't be shown because the chance of being able to perform that throw or move is so small, so it would look a bit boring. A demo is generally performed to show the cooler stuff in a martial art.

 

[tris-]

When you say real weapon in the fight, what do you mean?

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

When you say real weapon in the fight, what do you mean?

Demo-fights
In demo's you choreograph it atleast somewhat realistic, like starting out with a kerambit, having it stolen or removed by opponent(s) and then as alternative grab your sarong to continue the fight

 

[Bugz]

those fights look massivly coriographed... are they a tourney or are they for show?

 

[Zebolt]

I've been training Shotokan Karate for about 9 years now and I would say fists as my choise of weapon. IMO it's much more useful and cooler to be really good using your body as a weapon

 

[Bahumat]

Ahh now I see why you want to learn how to use the sarong

Kinda NSFW

Spoiler