Here’s another question I was asked recently:

What is the difference between Tai Chi & Silat?

We often talk about the differences between Tai Chi, Hsing-I and Bagua.

• Hsing-I moves forward in waves like a sine wave or water rolling into the beach.
• Bagua moves more like a gyroscope & a spinning sphere within a spinning sphere.
• Tai Chi moves more like a large ball that can expand or deflate instantly from the inside & outside.

But what about Silat?

Well that’s a little tougher.

Unlike Tai Chi, Pentjak Silat isn’t a single art. It’s a whole category.

There are around 900 styles of Silat including arts like Tjimande, Tjikalong, Harimau, etc…

So it really depends on which type of Silat you compare it to.

Here are a few generalizations to get you started:

• Tai Chi is usually much more concerned with health in the beginning.
• Silat usually starts with survival first.

• Tai Chi uses very refined structure.
• Some Silat will throw structure completely out the window in very effective ways.

• Tai Chi will tends to use a very calm quiet mental & body state.
• Silat will often do the opposite.

There’s a lot more…

Keep in mind that with a category as big and diverse as Silat there will always be exceptions to the rule.

You can learn more about how these arts compliment one another in the Internal Combat Arts Course:

www.clearsilat.com/internal-combat-arts