Flash

I think 1- and 2- step sparring have their place to familiarize people with techniques, concepts, etc. The analogy I make is that they are like examples that a professor or teacher gives during a lecture on a subject. However, learning examples of engineering problems doesn't make one an engineer (to use one example). One must learn how to apply ones knowledge. And that means some sort of "alive" training. The difficult thing about Silat is that a lot of the stuff seems to be "situational", i.e. more self-defense oriented, which makes it sort of difficult to "spar". I guess the way to go would be to do the old motorcycle helmet routine, i.e. have one guy the designated "aggressor" and fit him with boxing gloves and have the other guy be "Silat man" or whatever with bag gloves and have Mr. Aggressor come at Mr. Silat in an "alive" manner, slowing upping the intensity as they get comfortable with it. As is often the case in these sorts of things, I think one would see a lot of stuff getting dumped and people sticking with the really simple stuff after they got walloped in the noggin one too many times.