On guard in learning a local martial art

On guard in learning a local martial art

Johnny Landung, Contributor, Denpasar, Bali

Your vision is blurry with sweat and physical exhaustion as you
throw yourself for the hundredth time into sikap pendeta, the
priest stance.

A demonic face appears in front of you whispering almost
inaudibly, "kencaaaang, kencaaaang" (harder, harder), and you
squeeze you knuckles and forearms and shoulders until you feel
like you're going to burst a blood vessel (because you're
forgetting to breathe) and involuntary, you let out a little yelp
like a small woodland creature in distress.

A guy in front of you suddenly bolts for the bathroom from
where a few seconds later sinister retching noises emerge. At
such times you wonder what induced you to take up a martial art
in the first place and not, say, gardening.

Well, for a start, the kudos. Martial arts gurus say things
like, "Stand like a mountain. Move like water". Gardening sages
give you tips on aerating your compost.

So back in the UK, where I took up Silat Perisai Diri (PD)
about five years ago, it was, well, cool.

For a start, no one had heard of it -- a martial art from
Indonesia with magical associations. You could expound on its
origins down the pub to a captive audience -- Perisai Diri means
"the shielded self" and combines a range of traditional Pencak
Silat techniques with kung fu styles.

It didn't matter that I was worse than useless at it. After
two years in Bali, a fractured arm, cracked ribs and countless
lumps and bruises, I'm still not very good, but much of the
vanity has been erased.

Arriving on the island with the worthy notion of "finding the
essence of PD", I encountered thousands of fellow practitioners
almost all of whom were better than me.

PD is what martial arts aficionados dream of -- a complete
system, combining the physical, mental and spiritual. Unlike
traditional Pencak Silat, where the focus on artistry and
precision of movement has made it similar to dance, with
performances often accompanied by a gamelan traditional
orchestra, PD is devastatingly practical.

The martial art eschews the flourishes and "extra bits"
visible in traditional Pencak Silat forms in favor of economy of
movement. In combat, the accomplished PD exponent is
simultaneously elusive and direct -- either avoiding the enemy by
moving out of the range of their attack (but staying close, and
rarely moving backwards) or, once they've reached the highest
levels, smothering an attack before it has even emerged using
papasan.

To achieve this, students need to develop speed and power in
terms of kicks and hand strikes, together with quick, light
footwork. At the same time, they need to have an unerring yet
abstract focus on the enemy, concentrating on their center (like
torso) with only peripheral awareness of the extremities that are
trying to hit them. This may sound kind of obvious, but then it's
not just the brain that has to grasp it, but the body with its
own innate intelligence (or lack thereof).

Putting yourself in a stressful situation like this has the
effect of catapulting you into the present -- which can mean a
state of almost heightened awareness, if you are able to tap into
the ilmu or essence of the technique.

You don't consciously "choose" a particular movement, it
emerges as a reflex; it could be harimau (the tiger), satria (the
knight) or putri (the princess) -- each has its own
characteristics. The aim is to assimilate these sikap, or
archetypes, and use them not only for physical combat but as an
approach to life itself.

By blending the physical techniques with gwakang (breathing)
and kerohanian (spiritual training/meditation), the PD exponent
seeks to become a fully fledged human being, no longer at the
mercy of the mosquito mind with its endless habits and
attachments. Yes folks, we're talking enlightenment.

Through good fortune and no doubt the sheer novelty value of
being a bule with a Silat obsession, I have found myself training
under a Pendekar Mudah (literally "young master") who is the head
of physical technique here in Bali. But it is his protege who
oversees our day to day progress.

Not much more than five feet tall, he can place his foot an
inch from my face (a good foot higher than his own) and put it
back on the floor before my brain has properly registered its
recent proximity.

Most mornings, my Australian friend and I go to his house,
sweep out the yard, warm up and then spar under his watchful eye.
Three times a week we have formal training with a bunch of banjar
(village) Bruce Lees. There's no vomiting these days and we can
do things we couldn't dream off a year ago, though no doubt we
still appear laughable to our instructors.

Maybe one day I will take up gardening. But if things go
according to plan, well, just wait and see what I can do with a
common garden trowel ...

I-BOX:

Pencak Silat is the generic term for an ancient set of martial
arts known in Indonesia and in the Southeast Asia region. There
are over 400 different styles that have traditionally been passed
from master to student for hundreds of years.

Perisai Diri, roughly translated as "The Shielded Self", is a
relatively recent system founded in 1955 by RMS Dirdjoatmodjo.
Pak Dirdjo, as the founder is familiarly known, started studying
Pencak Silat at the age of nine.

At 16, he left the court of Yogyakarta where he had grown up
as a member of the royal family, spending the next 17 years
traveling Indonesia and mastering no less than 15 different
styles, including kung fu from a Chinese master named Yap Kie
San. These he combined and condensed to create a practical and
devastating system of self-defense.

Exponents move upward through a hierarchy of techniques,
starting with Minang (Buffalo) and culminating in putri
(Princess). The progression is from the animal realm into that of
human archetypes, with each technique an advance on its
predecessor.

The martial aspect of PD is not its ultimate goal. Pak Dirdjo
was a remarkable man, a precocious student of theology and
psychology, the mastery of which led him to develop Ilmu Jati or
Kerohanian, the spiritual aspect of the PD system.

The relationship between the physical movements and the Ilmu
Jati is a complimentary one: if the PD practitioner is at the
mercy of emotions, his/her movements will not be intuitive and
will be slow -- as if the emotional content thickens the air you
move through.

Students begin to learn the Ilmu Jati from a relatively early
stage to prevent them becoming proud or arrogant. The ultimate
aim for the PD exponent is unity with the Divine, a state of
constant "connectedness" regardless of his or her situation.