How Many Blades?

Found this video on Youtube while I was taking a short break from work in the office. I was not sure how I found it because I was sure I was not looking for it, but, I did get into trouble as soon as I shared this on my Facebook. Don't worry, it was not silat related, I did not offend any silat or any other martial art guys. However, I do regret that accidentally hurt someone's feelings that afternoon.

Actually, I wanted to say that this video kept me glued on it for a while for several reasons. First, was for the number of blades the guy was carrying on his body. Second, was for the speed of his counter attacks without causing hurt to the other guy. And third was for the moves that were demonstrated. I was very sure that the moves shown was performed on me before by Guru Ed. Well, at least the first four counters, the breaking of the knuckles, wrist, elbow and up to the neck.

However, before watching this video, I thought the hit on the elbow was only to shock the biceps muscles thus to render them useless for a while and the damage on the neck was not up to the point of breaking, only to stun and inflict pain to stop the opponent's attacks. About the similarity, I guess, Visayan knife fighting is Silat. Well, that is my conclusion.

I remember asking my Guru, how many weapons did a Harimau Berantai soldier carry on their body, when they launch a sabotage mission against the Dutch during the colonial days? I don't remember exactly, but, during a mission, a Harimau Berantai soldier wears his Javanese batik that acts as a camouflage that blends with the tropical surrounding. He carries a few blades, a few kerambits, maybe two pairs of Sauh (Tekpi), one Ekor Pari (Stingray's tail). It's highly possible that the Sundang is part of his arsenal of weapons too. He also carries a little pouch containing a powder substance, the War Dust that was used to temporarily blind the enemy soldier.

How many of them in a group? Hmm, I don't know, I guess, it's a very small army unit that I would imagine a five person group infiltrating the enemy camp and take out the number one guy, then quickly vanish into the dark.

Okay, now back to the question again. How many blades can you see on the guy's body? Yeah, the guy in the video. I don't know, I have to watch the video again.

Salam.

Back Into The Gelanggang

Image via Wikipedia

Hmm.. World cup 2010 has finally ended, and I'm now back at training. Well, actually there was no relevance at all between the two, but I did take a two weeks break. The first week was because I just wanted to take a break, but the second week, I was down with flu. Bad.

Last Monday night, I came back to the gelanggang for training. I was late, but at least I made it. No, I should not have justified my tardiness. Pendekar Scott was there earlier. Flipping the Tekpi (Sai) or what we at the Harimau Berantai call, the Sauh, which is a Malay word for anchor. I too have to train with my Sauh, as instructed by Guru Jak, but I usually leave them in my car. It was time for me to take them out and train with them again. Awesome!

Throughout the night, I was deflecting and 'breaking' a horizontal rattan pole that sticks out towards me and acts as a hand thrusting a weapon, stabbing and hitting tires that act as the body and legs of an opponent. There's also a wooden pole sticking out of the body of tires that act as the head that I have to remember stab and hit too. I got really into it. Felt really good training that night. I used to not like them as weapon as they are not easily concealed, and who brings around these things into battle these days? Except Rafael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elektra of course.

However, when you deflect an attack with your Sauh, then counter with attacks that render your opponent useless through blunt force trauma, and stabbings, I find them very fascinating. All night, I focused on practising with speed and power. I do try to get my footwork done properly too.

Great training session that night. Salam.

Picked Up My Weapons Again

Guru Ed was back in training last Wednesday night. So, it was time for me to pick up the Belati,  Sauh, Sakti Pencawangan and the Bokken again and start training weapons again after several nights of empty hands revisions.  So, that night we did eight Buahs and three Pecahans of Belati, eight Buahs of Sauh, and five Buahs of the Sakti Pencawangan.

My knee hurt a bit from a collision during a very light kickboxing sparring session earlier. Not that I am complaining but I felt a bit uneasy during my Silat training last night, especially when I was going for the low attacks. It was my left knee that collided, but my right knee felt strained too due to my shifting most of my body weight onto my right leg.

Hmm.. to ease the pain on the left knee, I allowed the right knee to suffer too. Reminds me of a Malay proverb, 'Cubit paha kanan, paha kiri terasa juga', which translates, 'Pinch the right thigh, the left thigh aches too'. What the proverb really means is 'If one cause hardship to one's own family member, one will only cause hardship to one's own self ultimately.

Well, the proverb and its meaning bear no relevance to the circumstances that I went through, but, the proverb itself, in relation to my mishap, do bear some degree of similarity.

 Salam.

Wednesday Night Training, New Members

Last Wednesday's training night, we received a guest, Scott McQuaid who will be with us on and off for about 2 months. I have seen him before, in Youtube.com where he produces some clips to promote mainly the Harimau Minangkabau system. Then, he had visited our place before, few months back when I was 5kg lighter, to do a little shooting and conduct an interview with Guru Jak.

That night too, we received new silat students, they are those who have went through kickboxing training under Guru Jak and are now being offered a place to learn the Harimau Berantai system.

Now that we have the new students with us, I would take the opportunity to polish my basics again by training with them. Actually, I had to jump up a level so that Guru Ed could have a training partner. I being the only one left doing Silat would feed him attacks for him to deflect and counter. Good for me as this situation allowed me to learn more weapons techniques besides the Belati.

While the new students were training the basics of Belati attacks, yes, we learn to understand the mechanics of belati attacks, learning how to attack before we can learn knife defense, Guru Ed and me train our 8 belati buahs again. Again and again and again.

When we're done with Belati, we proceeded to train using our Sakti Pencawangan, as oppose to the Sauh that we had last Monday night.

The Sakti Pencawangan is a two-part weapon which looks like a tonfa with a concealed blade. While our left hands are holding the tonfa-like part of the weapon, doing defense and counterattacks, our right hands will be holding a blade that is unsheathed from the tonfa like part and hidden close to our body, away from the opponent's view. Again, we train using the Sakti Pencawangan against a Bokken. To our surprise, that Bokken is very strong and durable, taking punishment after punishment for months against the iron made Sauh and also the Rattan-made Sakti Pencawangan. The Sauh should be the more punishing weapon against the bokken as it is made of iron steel.

Up until now, we have learnt 5 buahs of the Sakti Pencawang, taking attacks from different angles, attacks from up slashing downwards, from the right cutting diagonally down the body, from the front coming straight stabbing through the torso and one coming from the left cutting the neck.

Usually, I do kickboxing before silat which takes place after that. However, I have been missing kickboxing classes for quite some time due to my own lack of motivation and current state of mind and emotion that I decided to give myself a break from it for a while. I really need this break. However, last night, I told myself that I should resume training soon, because, I could feel that I was catching my breath during Silat training. This would not have happened if I still do my Kickboxing training. However, I've been told by Guru that come December, Kickboxing and Silat classes would run concurrently. Hmmm.. Probably, when that happens, I could sometimes do Kickboxing sparring while wearing my Black Silat uniform. Kickboxing rules though. You Silat practitioners should understand why. Furthermore, I don't know how to spar using Silat.

After our training has ended for the night, our Guru brought in a box of newly made Silat training weapons consists of the Belatis, Parangs and Kerambits. They look real, they feel real with their weight and their balance are made to feel like one, and their finishing, the metal they were made of and the little details carved on their shellacked wooden handles, I can only say that I was so impressed. I must get each one of those for myself. Now that we have these new training weapons, we can train better in disarming these bladed weapons.

Salam.