This week in class we worked the Octopus series from Maphilindo Silat.

Maphilindo is the personal Silat style of Guro Dan Inosanto, the famous teacher of Southeast Asian martial arts, and top student of the late Bruce Lee. Based on his lifetime study of martial arts, he has created a style that is a blend of the arts of Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia – hence the name Maphilindo.

Guro Dan has grouped the techniques of his style into several series by type. Series two is a neck cranking series and is known as the Octopus series. That’s the series we worked in class this week.

You can see a video of Maphilindo’s series 2 here:

Maphilindo Silat, Series 2 – the Octopus Series

Caution: If you watch the video and decide to experiment with any of these Octopus variations, proceed very cautiously. Everyone has a different level of tolerance to these neck cranks. Some people can suffer neck injuries quite easily.

In my own class of six students, only one student could take the full neck crank. Others began tapping furiously before their partners even brought the leg forward to apply the crank. One young man only had the crank put on him halfway, and he got an instant headache and had to sit out the rest of the class with an icepack on his neck.

Since then, what we have done is this: set up the crank, then release your partner, and shadow the finish. Too many people are easily injured with these octopus cranks.Train safe, and protect your partner, otherwise you’ll have no one to train with in the future.