Van Zandt
04-Oct-2009, 11:23 PM
This thread was inspired by a suggestion from TKDMitch (cheers Mitch :cool: )
Very recently I decided to dive head first into Pencak Silat. It's one of the lesser known arts and has a somewhat quirky reputation in the West. This is due to poor coverage and some rather tall tales of strange and fantastical occurances. The aim of this thread is to share with you my experiences and hopefully clear up any confusion you might have. (Bear in mind though that this is just one person's experience, and like anything else you should research as many sources of information as possible to make rational decisions.)
I've been training in martial arts since the age of four. I'm 25 now, so that adds up to 21 years. Most of that, however, was spent in "sport" styles such as Taekwondo (predominantly WTF), kickboxing and Muay Thai. I'm happy to say I was quite successful on the tournament circuit and sparring had become the main focus of my training.
But earlier this year I underwent hip surgery. It would be an event that would shape the outlook of my martial arts training. During my time off to recover I realised that fighting careers have a very short life expectancy - even more so when you have an artificial hip. The orthopaedic surgeon advised that even though I might be able to return to full kicking again (which I've already done :D ), competing again might be too risky due to the potential of receiving blows to my hip.
Even though I consider myself to be a good kicker and ring fighter, I have to admit that my self-defence skills are lacking. I wanted an art that could give me the skillset to defend myself effectively, and having heard of its fearsome reputation from the likes of Dan Inosanto I turned to Silat.
Having seen videos on YouTube and watched my wife and mother-in-law (both Indonesians) in action, I like the way Silat looks and moves. The culture of Indonesia plays a huge part of my life already (saya bisa bicara di berbahasa - I can speak the language :woo:) so it feels natural to extend my interest into the country's native arts. Unfortunately there aren't any teachers in my area so my Silat journey will be a long one, with extensive travelling.
My initial training will just involve hours and hours of drilling the basics at home. I'm learning from books and DVDs, which I would usually frown upon but it's just to give me a head start until I train with a teacher. I'll soon start training two days a week at Bob Sykes' academy in Huddersfield, as well as travelling once a month to Luton for a 1:1 accelerated training program with an instructor there. My goal is to be training up to 6 hours per day. Also, next February my wife and I will travel to Indonesia to vist her family. While there I'll be able to train with her uncle (a Silat teacher) and other gurus. I'll also hopefully visit the IPSI Padepokan in Jakarta (similar to the Kukkiwon in WTF Taekwondo).
I'll come back to this thread every so often to update you on my progress and hopefully use my expanding knowledge and experience to answer any questions you might have. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading it as much as I will (hopefully) enjoy writing it :cool:
Very recently I decided to dive head first into Pencak Silat. It's one of the lesser known arts and has a somewhat quirky reputation in the West. This is due to poor coverage and some rather tall tales of strange and fantastical occurances. The aim of this thread is to share with you my experiences and hopefully clear up any confusion you might have. (Bear in mind though that this is just one person's experience, and like anything else you should research as many sources of information as possible to make rational decisions.)
I've been training in martial arts since the age of four. I'm 25 now, so that adds up to 21 years. Most of that, however, was spent in "sport" styles such as Taekwondo (predominantly WTF), kickboxing and Muay Thai. I'm happy to say I was quite successful on the tournament circuit and sparring had become the main focus of my training.
But earlier this year I underwent hip surgery. It would be an event that would shape the outlook of my martial arts training. During my time off to recover I realised that fighting careers have a very short life expectancy - even more so when you have an artificial hip. The orthopaedic surgeon advised that even though I might be able to return to full kicking again (which I've already done :D ), competing again might be too risky due to the potential of receiving blows to my hip.
Even though I consider myself to be a good kicker and ring fighter, I have to admit that my self-defence skills are lacking. I wanted an art that could give me the skillset to defend myself effectively, and having heard of its fearsome reputation from the likes of Dan Inosanto I turned to Silat.
Having seen videos on YouTube and watched my wife and mother-in-law (both Indonesians) in action, I like the way Silat looks and moves. The culture of Indonesia plays a huge part of my life already (saya bisa bicara di berbahasa - I can speak the language :woo:) so it feels natural to extend my interest into the country's native arts. Unfortunately there aren't any teachers in my area so my Silat journey will be a long one, with extensive travelling.
My initial training will just involve hours and hours of drilling the basics at home. I'm learning from books and DVDs, which I would usually frown upon but it's just to give me a head start until I train with a teacher. I'll soon start training two days a week at Bob Sykes' academy in Huddersfield, as well as travelling once a month to Luton for a 1:1 accelerated training program with an instructor there. My goal is to be training up to 6 hours per day. Also, next February my wife and I will travel to Indonesia to vist her family. While there I'll be able to train with her uncle (a Silat teacher) and other gurus. I'll also hopefully visit the IPSI Padepokan in Jakarta (similar to the Kukkiwon in WTF Taekwondo).
I'll come back to this thread every so often to update you on my progress and hopefully use my expanding knowledge and experience to answer any questions you might have. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading it as much as I will (hopefully) enjoy writing it :cool: