Stealing pencak silat

Someone recently asked me if I was "worried about putting my material on DVD" because people would steal it?

Well, there was a time when I wouldn't have put the information out and certainly wouldn't have made it available to everyone but somewhere along the line, my thoughts on the subject changed...

First, people are typically, not very honorable. I know that is an aspersion against the whole rather than the few who are obviously dishonorable, but there are few of us that are without flaw. Those flaws manifest themselves in little things most of the time. This is just a principle of life. For it is within the little things that we can see the flaws of larger things. So for instance, would a person who cheats on their taxes today, when they have little, do so when they have much? Yes, and probably much more.

Well, this is also a reality concerning those who try to shortcut training. If you are trying to find a shortcut by "stealing" material and claiming it as your own, or trying to bypass real training for superficial training, the reality will show itself eventually IMO.

Second, I don't worry much about stealing my material since the majority isn't mine to begin with. I've added quite a bit, but within the martial arts, there are few "secret techniques" (which is about all someone not studying the system would get) therefore, there's not much to steal. The primary secret technique within MA is training and lots of it.

Third, for someone looking at the material as a quick fix to their martial dilemma, PSP won't help them much. I recently had someone contact me who was interested in PSP because he felt that he really needed more help in entering. He assured me that he had good hands, good trapping, good kicking, good grappling, blah, blah, blah. I in turn, assured him, that based on how he was communicating, I couldn't teach him. He was already set in what he knew for the most part, and I'm not interested in trying to fit my materials into his context. This is what the majority of people who steal from DVD's are trying to do. They will fall short, because PSP is a system of thought.

It isn't just about this piece or that piece, it is about the entirety. Furthermore, as those who have studied with me personally can attest to, what you might see on the DVD does not quite communicate the reality of the methods, principles, movements, etcetera. Be assured, I've tried to be very careful to communicate it all via the DVD's and books, but it is still yet again, seemingly quite different in person. This is because, words don't always have the same meanings for everyone and our brains don't process movement the same way, and we are all cognitively different in our make up. As such, once you have studied with me, and then you go back and view the materials again or read the material again, you will understand them differently. Same words, same movements - deeper and more meaningful.

When you train, context is everything. When you read this, context is everything.