Bobster
22-Aug-2006, 07:25 AM
I have been wanting to say something about this for some time now. In my past 20 years of doing Silat (I know…I’m a pup compared to some of you crusty old bastards) I have heard the Kembangan of Pencak Silat described in a remarkably wide range, with everything from mystical to impractical. With such a varied point of view, it’s no wonder why even many of the Malay & Indo styles still conflict when it comes to this aspect of the art. So, ignoring the fact that I’m not exactly the highest carving on the Silat totem pole in this forum, I thought I would offer my views on the subject. With any luck, I can start another political war. In fact, I’ll be SORELY disappointed if we all discuss & critique this as rational human beings with a capacity for thought. Don’t let me down, guys!!
First, I want to say that I focus on rhythm, tempo and flow in my ENTIRE ART, more so than anything else. Yes, you heard that right. I know it’s a fighting art, but I don’t think technique is as important. I can teach technique to a baboon in 20 minutes and it will have at least a good rudimentary concept of how to use it. I know it’s weapons-based, but I don’t think that’s as important, at least not at first. I find that if I can instill the element of relaxation in motion to a rhythm of some sort (I always play music in my classes…My students don’t really know it, but I am trying to subtly convert them into fluid beings) then they will be much more receptive to it later on in the training. So everything I do in the first three years to the student is to promote FLOW.
This is different than how I was taught, and I do realize it goes against conventional wisdom. I chose this for a reason, though: I am not interested in producing “Black Belts”, I don’t care what others think of me, or if I ever get published in a major martial arts publication and I don’t teach for the money…I’m considered “bargain basement” in my neck o’ the woods! No, what I want is clearly stated in the mission statement of my website: “each student is a uniquely developed individual, usually with skill built around the individual strengths & weaknesses of that person. Any three students in comparison, although they will move well, will move differently from each other and myself.”
I want my people to MOVE.
This may appear to be a simple thing, but America is very different than Indonesia, and getting my students to move to a rhythm of ANY kind usually involves threats of violence. First off, white people can't dance. It's a scientifically proven fact. Don't believe me?
We invented Vanilla Ice. :bang:
I defy anybody to contradict me on this one.
All kidding aside, :p what I'm trying to say is that our cultural nuances differ so greatly from Indonesia's that Silat often seems like something from another planet. Let alone the fact that no other martial art calls thier forms a "dance". Except maybe Capoeira.
So, having said that, to address Kembangan:
There are a few critical elements you will have to master BEFORE tackling the flower dance. You have to crawl before you can walk. In my school the murid begins with basic langkah, sikap and tengan masukan solo, and then with a partner to understand how the applicative works. Very little training will be done as a “solo exercise” in my school. Very little fighting takes place in the form of just one person. Next come the Badan Dasar, or “Body Base”. This isn’t stancework, it’s a few series of motions from both Jurus and Kembangan strung together in difficult sequences to train the murid to achieve balance while transitioning between sikap at an accelerated rate of speed and not become tense while he does. After that, Juru one and two. After that, section one of Padundun (A Sundanese Kembangan). This much alone usually covers the first two years.
It’s easy to attain balance in stillness, most martial arts capitalize on this with sinking and rooting being the only options (Wing Chun & Karate come to mind). You see it time and again in the forms of other styles; that kind of “Sink-Root-Step-Repeat” staccato rhythm. Kembangan is called a dance for a reason, it is at once fluid and meticulous in that fluidity. A skilled pesilat has balance in MOTION, as well as rooting and stancework. He can lurch, jump, twist, drop, stand erect, post on one leg & return to a harimau position without once losing his balance. But why is this important? What does it have to do with fighting?
That’s not something that can be answered in the same two-sentence interrogative that it was asked, there are too many factors to consider to brush it off with a simple answer.
First of all, kembangan doesn’t teach you how to actually FIGHT, although there are fighting techniques and motions included in the dance. It doesn’t teach you how to enter on a punch, how to read your opponent’s timing, when it’s time to switch from sapu dalam to sapu luar. It doesn’t teach you trapping.
But what it does teach you is to move fluidly to a rhythm while lurching and jumping from one are to the next gracefully without losing your balance or your tempo. It teaches you FLOW at the basic level. You will finds many of the same techniques in your kembangan that also exist in your Jurus, but with a wider range of motion (bigger circling arms, stances are wider). This is not a mistake, it is there to ingrain certain balance principles in your body’s development. It is also there to help you promote flow. That wide range of motion will serve you well in a fight, allowing you to move comfortably and skillfully at your discretion, and not hindered by a limited motion range, had you only trained the Jurus. You can move at a quarter, half, or the entire range of motion at your disposal, because you already do it in kembangan. The Jurus give you a more precise key to EXACT motion, the Kembangan gives you a key to GENERAL motion. I usually describe it like this:
1: Jurus give you the TECHNIQUE tool.
2: Buah (or Sambuts) give you the APPLICATIVE tool.
3: Kembangan gives you the MOTION tool.
“Structure” – “Posture” – “Rooting” – “Base” …These terms are bandied about as the all-important aspects of ANY martial art. You know what, they are important, no denying that. But the idea of a structure that promotes rooting in your stance over moving with balance is usually one that says: “In this stance, you will be able to absorb ANYTHING if you can only root deep enough”. It’s like they want you to just stand there & see how much incoming force you can take. Well, to seven hells with that, I wanna get out of the way! But you can see many practitioners searching for that so-elusive secret to tapping into the energy of the earth’s core when they should be looking at their lack of footwork.
Guru Todd Ellner mention in a previous post that in kembangan >”correct form can be "remembered" and pulled out when it matters most.”<
I agree with this, but with an addendum: Your first impulse in a fight is to relax & start moving, not “tense up” and freeze in place.
As I said, the noob is giving a lecture at the Louvre in this post, and I realize that. I am not a native Indonesian, and I have not been training as long as most of you. This is just how I see it. Thanks for listening.
First, I want to say that I focus on rhythm, tempo and flow in my ENTIRE ART, more so than anything else. Yes, you heard that right. I know it’s a fighting art, but I don’t think technique is as important. I can teach technique to a baboon in 20 minutes and it will have at least a good rudimentary concept of how to use it. I know it’s weapons-based, but I don’t think that’s as important, at least not at first. I find that if I can instill the element of relaxation in motion to a rhythm of some sort (I always play music in my classes…My students don’t really know it, but I am trying to subtly convert them into fluid beings) then they will be much more receptive to it later on in the training. So everything I do in the first three years to the student is to promote FLOW.
This is different than how I was taught, and I do realize it goes against conventional wisdom. I chose this for a reason, though: I am not interested in producing “Black Belts”, I don’t care what others think of me, or if I ever get published in a major martial arts publication and I don’t teach for the money…I’m considered “bargain basement” in my neck o’ the woods! No, what I want is clearly stated in the mission statement of my website: “each student is a uniquely developed individual, usually with skill built around the individual strengths & weaknesses of that person. Any three students in comparison, although they will move well, will move differently from each other and myself.”
I want my people to MOVE.
This may appear to be a simple thing, but America is very different than Indonesia, and getting my students to move to a rhythm of ANY kind usually involves threats of violence. First off, white people can't dance. It's a scientifically proven fact. Don't believe me?
We invented Vanilla Ice. :bang:
I defy anybody to contradict me on this one.
All kidding aside, :p what I'm trying to say is that our cultural nuances differ so greatly from Indonesia's that Silat often seems like something from another planet. Let alone the fact that no other martial art calls thier forms a "dance". Except maybe Capoeira.
So, having said that, to address Kembangan:
There are a few critical elements you will have to master BEFORE tackling the flower dance. You have to crawl before you can walk. In my school the murid begins with basic langkah, sikap and tengan masukan solo, and then with a partner to understand how the applicative works. Very little training will be done as a “solo exercise” in my school. Very little fighting takes place in the form of just one person. Next come the Badan Dasar, or “Body Base”. This isn’t stancework, it’s a few series of motions from both Jurus and Kembangan strung together in difficult sequences to train the murid to achieve balance while transitioning between sikap at an accelerated rate of speed and not become tense while he does. After that, Juru one and two. After that, section one of Padundun (A Sundanese Kembangan). This much alone usually covers the first two years.
It’s easy to attain balance in stillness, most martial arts capitalize on this with sinking and rooting being the only options (Wing Chun & Karate come to mind). You see it time and again in the forms of other styles; that kind of “Sink-Root-Step-Repeat” staccato rhythm. Kembangan is called a dance for a reason, it is at once fluid and meticulous in that fluidity. A skilled pesilat has balance in MOTION, as well as rooting and stancework. He can lurch, jump, twist, drop, stand erect, post on one leg & return to a harimau position without once losing his balance. But why is this important? What does it have to do with fighting?
That’s not something that can be answered in the same two-sentence interrogative that it was asked, there are too many factors to consider to brush it off with a simple answer.
First of all, kembangan doesn’t teach you how to actually FIGHT, although there are fighting techniques and motions included in the dance. It doesn’t teach you how to enter on a punch, how to read your opponent’s timing, when it’s time to switch from sapu dalam to sapu luar. It doesn’t teach you trapping.
But what it does teach you is to move fluidly to a rhythm while lurching and jumping from one are to the next gracefully without losing your balance or your tempo. It teaches you FLOW at the basic level. You will finds many of the same techniques in your kembangan that also exist in your Jurus, but with a wider range of motion (bigger circling arms, stances are wider). This is not a mistake, it is there to ingrain certain balance principles in your body’s development. It is also there to help you promote flow. That wide range of motion will serve you well in a fight, allowing you to move comfortably and skillfully at your discretion, and not hindered by a limited motion range, had you only trained the Jurus. You can move at a quarter, half, or the entire range of motion at your disposal, because you already do it in kembangan. The Jurus give you a more precise key to EXACT motion, the Kembangan gives you a key to GENERAL motion. I usually describe it like this:
1: Jurus give you the TECHNIQUE tool.
2: Buah (or Sambuts) give you the APPLICATIVE tool.
3: Kembangan gives you the MOTION tool.
“Structure” – “Posture” – “Rooting” – “Base” …These terms are bandied about as the all-important aspects of ANY martial art. You know what, they are important, no denying that. But the idea of a structure that promotes rooting in your stance over moving with balance is usually one that says: “In this stance, you will be able to absorb ANYTHING if you can only root deep enough”. It’s like they want you to just stand there & see how much incoming force you can take. Well, to seven hells with that, I wanna get out of the way! But you can see many practitioners searching for that so-elusive secret to tapping into the energy of the earth’s core when they should be looking at their lack of footwork.
Guru Todd Ellner mention in a previous post that in kembangan >”correct form can be "remembered" and pulled out when it matters most.”<
I agree with this, but with an addendum: Your first impulse in a fight is to relax & start moving, not “tense up” and freeze in place.
As I said, the noob is giving a lecture at the Louvre in this post, and I realize that. I am not a native Indonesian, and I have not been training as long as most of you. This is just how I see it. Thanks for listening.