The first Midlands Indonesian Kung Fu (also known as Pentjak Silat ) Club has opened recently in the Athlone Sports Centre on the Ballymahon Road, Athlone.
Classes are held each Saturday from 11am to 12 noon. Children aged five and up and adults are welcome and no previous experience is necessary.
Classes are run by Guru Baru Tom Hickey (second black sash ).
Indonesian Kung Fu (or Pentjak Silat ) originated in Indonesia. The world's largest archipelago stretches like a huge scimitar from Malaysia to New Guinea comprising of more than 13,000 islands and is home to a deadly fighting art known as Silat, or Pentjak Silat.
There is no overall standard for Pentjak Silat. Each style has its own particular movement patterns, specially designed techniques and tactical rationale. However, although all styles use hand and foot motions, the percentage of use of either one depends on the style and the tactics being used.
Silat is a martial art that utilises agility in attacking and defending oneself. In this exercise, the two partners begin some distance apart and perform freestyle movements while trying to match each other's flow. One attacks when they notice an opening in the opponent's defences. Without interfering with the direction of force, the defender then parries and counterattacks. The other partner follows by parrying and attacking. This would go on with both partners disabling and counter-attacking their opponent with locking, grappling and other techniques. Contact between the partners is generally kept light but faster and stronger attacks may be agreed upon beforehand.
Despite its satirical appearance, Silat actually enables students to learn moves and their applications without having to be taught set techniques. Partners who frequently practice together can exchange hard blows without injuring each other by adhering to the principle of not meeting force with force. What starts off as a matching of striking movements can end in successions of locks and groundwork, a pattern that is echoed in modern mixed martial arts.
For more information, please contact Tom on (087 ) 9708780 or email [email protected].
