first of all you have the "magic" reference put in to this "fighting art". heres a wake up call: THERE IS NO MAGIC ASSOCIATED WITH FIGHTING AND HARMING ANOTHER HUMAN BEING.

second of all, the movements look like some ritualized form of dance rather than practical, SIMPLE, and effective means of defending oneself should they ever have to.

i think that its fun to fantasize about how we can study an "ancient cultures'" form of fighting and somehow have this magical ability to defeat an opponent with movements that waste energy and time. When it comes to the brass tacks of fighting i rarely see ANY of the techniques that are taught in schools actually utilized.
its really funny actually that you see someone do this really beautiful form of interpretive dance, call it martial arts, and when they actually fight one does not see this beautiful form in action, what you see is fists flying grabbing throwing to the ground, you see the reverting to the SIMPLEST way to defeat someone and it has no elements of the dance form, AT ALL.
Look at the UFC and PRIDE and some of the san sou tournaments i have watched in asia. we see the same thing over and over again.
count: my stay at SD DID actually teach me some good stuff and at times i have had to put it to good and effective use but when i did do it i wasnt prancing around. i have had my share of defeats and victories with what i have studied and practiced. and from an internalists' perspective count, YOU should know as well as I that it is the SIMPLE things that prevail over the complex and difficult.
Alot of what the forms and routines are in certain martial systems are ways to strengthen your internal self and to keep the body fit. but in all the years that i have seen fights and have been in fights(not claiming to be a master here) it has boiled down to the simple and straight forward.
i had to learn this from many people including reemul who handed me my a$$. doesnt mean that what i studied wasnt effective, it meant that i was too much in my head rather than on my center and i think thats where alot of these obscure martial systems like silat put you, is in your head, thinking that by practicing some form of ritual and mysticism that you can miraculously win a fight by doing techniques shown in those vids.
Hey these are just my opinions here, and i think that i am entitled to them, this is a forum of discussion and debate and i am not trolling.
TWS