INDONESIAN Martial Arts!!!
Today I am going to speak a little about what one of my passion beside cryptocurrency. My other passion is in Indonesian Martial Arts or we call it Pencak Silat or Silat in short.
Silat is a devastating martial arts that comes from South East Asia region. If Japan has Karate, Korea has Tae Kwon Do then for us in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and some parts of SEA have Silat as our native martial arts.
In Indonesia alone there are more than 300 registered styles of Silat (and thousands more that are not registered). This art has been used in defending families and the country against invaders in the pasts. The diversity of styles existed because of the environment of where the style came from. Some style came from the mountains while the other came from the sea shores, etc.
Silat in the World
In the past, silat was unknown because they were best kept secrets. However, slowly many masters have opened up in teaching the art to the people outside S.E.A therefore the art can survive and flourish. And that is happening right now, there are many foreigners from Western countries come to learn Silat and there are many movies that utilize Silat in their fighting scene (e.g The Accountant, The Raid, Black Panther, etc)
My Silat
Why I like Silat? It is because I grew up with it. My father is a master in Silat and all my life I saw him trained and teach the art. And almost all of my uncles and aunts learnt Silat too!
But my greatest influence of Silat came from my father. He teaches West Sumatran style of Silat that we call it Silek Tuo (literally meaning Old Silat) and we call our school BULUH TUA. The art was created for elderly and women where they typically have a disadvantage in strength and endurance. However, by training Buluh Tua in a longer period will result a healthier, and stronger mind, body, and soul.Buluh Tua means "Old Bamboo" in English. Old bamboo is very strong yet flexible. It is also one of most utilised plants in daily life especially for Minangkabau people. Buluh Tua is also an abbreviation from "Budi Luhur Tujuan Utama" or "Ultimate Virtue". Thus the goal of practicing Buluh Tua is to become a virtuous person and can give many benefits to the society.The movements of Buluh Tua are simple and direct. There are no useless movements and it is designed to bait an attack, not initiate it.
My Journey
Right now I am teaching Buluh Tua for public. My aim teaching Buluh Tua is to promote Silek as a cultural enrichment for other people and providing a service to help them prepared in the art of self defense.
I have been teaching in the UK, Italy, and Germany with many more countries will be available soon. If you are interested to learn, please feel free to contact me from my facebook page:
Do you find that the growth of silat is causing some schools to water down and teach as many people interested quickly in a factory manner? Silat is slowly enjoying a revival here in Malaysia too.
BTW, just wrote a short article about women in fight sports.
https://steemit.com/martialarts/@travellife/makeup-and-blood-the-psychology-of-women-2018-05-13-14-39-01
some is doing that and some abuses the title pendekar or master..but many still trying to preserve the old way like we do
i have a lot of wing tsun training movies , a lot of the wisdom and knowledge that go's hand in hand with it .
i love wing tsun and i have a lot of friends that does that too!!
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I would love to know more.
Have done 11 years of Silat. And had an amazing teacher show me the art.
Well done! Following you and sharing this!
Hi @ganjafarmer, thank you for your words. 11 years in Silat? wow that is a great achievement!! may I know what style do you practice?
If you are interested to train with me we can discuss for the private training opportunity :)
Pukalan? Silat Serah Plinck under MahaGuru Stevan Plinck. He is real special forces and retired from the unit. Amazing teacher and great human.
For me Silat stretches and form has helped me retain mobility and kept me walking even through a massive spinal trauma.
And yeah in Portland Oregon! I've trained with many arts from across the globe. So of course I'd like to see what you do.
Oh I spent 5 years tripping on juru 1. The way my teacher explained it makes the time fly and endless possibilities.
Ah yes Silat Serah (or Serak?) I think it is similar with what de Thouars do (pls correct me if I am wrong). I have heard of Mahaguru Plinck but never got the chance to meet him. It will be a privilege to get to know him!
Yes all traditional Silat masters still retain their mobility and agility despite their age. I think the only time we can defeat them is when they passed away :D
My Silat is more focused on using legs 60% of the time and attacking the opponents balance and their legs, this due to the environment where the art came from (Bukittinggi West Sumatra) that is hilly, and has lots of paddy field. Our footwork is defensive (using square footwork) and our strike´s target are only to the softest area of the body and their nervous system so it will work even if the opponent is a big guy.
Ah Portland! It reminded me of a US TV series The Grimm hehehe, maybe one day I would have the chance to visit it.
It is good that you focus and expanding your understanding on one juru because it become part of you! Just like what Bruce Lee said: I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times!!
I also keep my daily training back to basic which are conditioning, footwork and breathing
I am glad to get to know someone who is passionate in Silat and crypto!! I thought I am the only one hehe
Actually I have some friends that were on that TV show.
And my teacher has students from Italy as well as Denmark I do believe.
And you are very correct about the lineage. My teacher began in Silat as a child and was taught by his grandparents.
It is very rare that I actually find a real silat player. The last guy I met who knew what silat was only trained with videos from YouTube
Oh really? I really like that TV Show, too bad it ended
Do you know who are your teacher´s student names? perhaps i would recognize the name
I met some of the people you mentioned, online warriors and it is their right to do it but that is not my way. I am the other way around, I am not skill enough to put my silat into Videos in Youtube even though for promotions sometime it is good to have a nice video of your style...
I eat some kinds do record myself doing form just to see what I look like. But unless I am in class making a point, I very rarely show my art.
And as for the students in Europe, I remember being really tired from working out hard. He was very interesting and had a very unique approach. I do remember that he was extremely polite.