I have dabbled a bit in the martial arts in a few practical ways over the years, but it was mostly 'book research', as I have always been more of an intellectual than a physical sort of person. I did take advantage of The Australian Academy of Tai Chi who conducted a voluntary workshop thru my work place. I don't know what 'family' their art is - but when I had the opportunity to try some Chen, I was absolutely blown away over just how much more aggressive that style was!
But it was when I had the opportunity to do a couple of Escrima seminars with Cacao Canette (the 12 angles method) who came out in his old age to tour Australia, that my mind was opened, and I became 'enlightened'. It was the most amazing physically aggressive, yet mentally calming thing I had done.
The art, which he had a strong development input into from a traditional history, had elements of Tai Chi, Akido, and many others which he had studied. It is, as far as I know, the only Martial system which starts you off with weapons (with perhaps the exception of the related art of Kali which uses metal weapons instead of rattan sticks), and then you naturally realise that you can fight unarmed, even against armed opponents without much further specialised training. The secret is that from the beginning, you study angles of attack and corresponding modes of defence as the primary thing - the weapons themselves then become irrelevant to the techniques. The fastest way between two points is a circle. The basic training involves being able to fight from lying down on the floor and continue to fight while standing up. The speed at which he takes you into the techniques is truly astonishing!
When I attended his second seminar, he insisted that I stand with 'The Advanced Students' who had been studying for years! The katas that we did were absolutely amazing. The First - done with three players, involved 6 attackers, and started out with a defensive move over the head to fend off the attack aimed at one's back. When one cycle was finished, the three rotated, and thus one full cycle was 3 times thru, doing all the various attacks & defences (using all 12 angles!)! The other katas were so much more complex, that I cannot remember the details, as life took me away from being able to carry on with the practise, and I can't find anyone local to keep up with it.
The style also includes the 'espada et daga', which is traced back to the Spanish C15 Sword and Dagger techniques, from when they invaded the 'East Indies'. I became totally unperturbed by the fact that we were going full speed, full strength blows, fractions of an inch past one's head and body without any fear of being hurt, so confident did one become of anticipating the attacks and being capable of reflexively using the correct defence. The techniques are fairly common in Indonesia, and Cacao had been strongly instrumental in outlawing the 'fights to the death' done with hardwood sticks - in which he was acknowledged as having killed over 100. He finally said, "Enough is enough, this is wrong, there is no point". Incidentally, he also fought the Japanese during WWII - a truly interesting, but very humble guy - he didn't have to prove a thing!
I have always found that the absolute best in any field are truly wonderful human beings - it's only ever the second raters that need to order everybody around and demonstrate their 'pseudo-greatness' to everybody (including most especially thhemselves!).