Silat training program

April 6th, 2010

Written by: admin

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Silat Melayu, the Malay art of attack and defense, is one of the most fascinating of martial arts. The supple and graceful movements of Silat belie its effectiveness as a system of self-defense (Ku A.K.M. & Wong K.K., 1978). Silat is one of the arts for Malays self-defense that has been inherited from the Malay’s ancestors along the existence of the people known as ‘The Malays’ in the world (Paperwork, 2002, Ministry of Culture, Art and Heritage).The process of studying and practicing either physically, mentally or even spiritually through the Silat’s movements and the philosophy must be continued by students nowadays to prove that the Malays has their own identity especially through Silat. Therefore, in effort to keep and spread Seni Silat, the learning process must be started in younger age, so that the Malay society knows that Silat is theirs. Thus it is not a burden if Silat is practice and be teach in schools, else than other martial arts like Taekwando, Karate-Do etc.

Ever since 1980’s, martial arts from foreign countries like Korea, China and Japan are increasing and being fancied by students in school. In the mean time, Silat is losing its fans, especially from the young generation. Thus, it is the Malay’s responsibility to make sure that Seni Silat has it own students along besides Karate-Do and other martial arts. Regarding to the physical activity program, I have focused my study to Seni Silat Malaysia program. It seems that this martial art is considered as a classic Silat in Malaysia, which still maintain its traditional lessons, besides adding modern system. This silat is the combination of the art that consist of soft and meaningful movement together with traditional music besides the beladiri techniques against weapon (close range fight) (Rahman, A. I, 1996).

In Seni Silat Malaysia, seven levels were introduced that is 2 foundation levels that known as “Tunas Remaja” and “Remaja Perkasa”, 3 intermediate levels that known as “Pesilat Muda”, “Pesilat” and “Pendekar Muda” and 2 high level known as “Pendekar” and “Guru Silat” (Anuar A.W., 2004). For each level it will be marked by belt color, starting with blue to brown, brown to white, white to yellow, yellow to green, green to red, and, ending with black belt color. After that, silat student can upgrade their level to junior instructor, senior instructor, and guru and senior guru. Each level consists 60-80 hours of learning depends on silat student performances.