Indonesian Fighting Arts

[Tom Yum]

Has anyone cross-trained in the Indonesian arts coming from a JKD/FMA background?

A few years back, I met a guy from New England in college who trained in an Indonesian style, pukalan tjimandje. My general impression from watching him and talking to him was that the style emphasized infighting both striking and takedowns. This guy wasn't in great shape, but he was fast and accurate and seemed to generate alot of power in a short distance.

I recently checked out a tape of the style taught from the guy that was his instructor. The tape shows the fundamental concepts from this style of silat. If I didn't know any better, the art seems like it has a heavy southern Chinese MA influence because you see an emphasis on center line, angle, control and balance (both yours and your opponents) but also a good deal of knife fighting which is particular to Indonesian Silat.

The style was used by the Indonesians to defend themselves from the Dutch. I think the style has a good reputation considering that one of the few master instructors from the style is from Holland. The country is serious about its MA. If this style were ineffective, there is no reason why the world's biggest people would take to it.

[aseepish]

I did a little Pencak Silat Mande Muda (The late Pendekar Herman Suwanda`s style) when I was at grad school in Vancouver, mixed in with a Kali/Eskrima class. I found the Indonesian and Filipino styles complemented each other to a very high degree.

Mande Muda is a blend of many Indonesian village styles (Cikalong, Syabandar, Harimau, Cipecut, Cimande... many others) - it also serves as one of the base systems for Guro I`s blend of Maphilindo Silat.

Guro Guy Chase http://guychase.com has a couple of Mande Muda tapes available. They give a pretty good flavour of the art. They are reviewed here: http://users.telenet.be/wim.demeere/video/vid024.htm

Cheers,

T.