Coach Silmon Blog

It's a beautiful day!

Well, its the start of a brand new year, supposedly one of doom and gloom and mass destruction, and a possible end to all life as we know it according to the ancient Mayans!  With the way things are going on our crazy little world you just never know what might end up happening.  Fact of the matter is that not one of us really knows what the end of this year will bring let alone next week!  It’s out of our hands, but what is in our hands are the choices we make every day and in keeping an excellent attitude and mindset to life.  These are the things we can have some form of control over and hopefully thoughtful and quality decisions made will amount to positive outcomes.

Are we going to abandon all hope and give up our desires, aspirations and dreams because of an  ”oh whats the point it’s all going to be in vain” thought pattern?  I for one am certainly not going to throw the towel in.  Being vigilant and looking at the signs of the times is a mature thing to do but the here and now is more important.  Let your focus be on superseding everything you achieved last year in order to make 2012 your best and most memorable year to date in your journey through life.

2011 for me was a superb year with many great new experiences and connections made but I still am not satisfied, not by a very long shot!  Dont you just feel there is SO much more to achieve and experience?  Whatever targets, goals or ambitions your have don’t let anyone bring you down.  Stay away from the life and positive energy sucking vampires and surround yourselves with those that will edify, encourage and inspire you to soar to new heights.  If I want all of you to take away one thing from this post its this:

KNOW YOUR WORTH!!!

Too many settle for mediocre.  We only get one shot at being us so lets all make it count.  A poet once wrote:

“I bargained with Life for a penny, and Life would pay no more, however I begged at evening, when I counted my scanty store.

“For Life is a just employer, he gives you what you ask.  But once you have set the wages, you must bear the task.

“I worked for a menial’s hire, only to learn dismayed, that any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid”

The sweetest victory

That pretty much sums it up for me.  The challenge is not knowing just with your head but by really owning how unique you are and how much your worth.  This isn’t just a first day of New Year thing, it needs to be any everyday thing and slowly but surely as you apply faith, desire and action, pushing through all those voices of doubt and fear you will look back over 2012 and say “wow that was one heck of a great year”

In KL with my homeboy Mark Wilenkin

What an incredible couple of weeks its been!  After a number of last minute itinerary changes, I said my goodbyes to Java.  I had been eager to meet with and at least interview a couple of Betawi Silat teachers during the two days before leaving the island but alas, my contact for them let Guru Ed and I down, so no go.  Shame really because Betawi Silat which comes in many styles that are located around Jakarta (Batavia being the old Dutch name for the city), has some interesting schools, some of which have roots in Chinese martial arts.

Still, I feel I had covered great ground on Java Island.  My next stop, Kuala Lumpur was always going to be a main highlight for my trip as I was staying with one of my very ‘bestest’ of friends, Mark Wilenkin and family.  I had not seen my pal in almost two long years as he took up a role in a Post Production facility in Malaysia’s capital.  It was great to see him, Ana, and their two kids. It would be a welcome few days rest prior to facing Sumatra.  After three nights of recharging there it was time to head over to the land of the Minangkabau.

Mak Udin's home and mine for a few nights.

The flight from KL to Padang airport in West Sumatra was just a short hour and once there Ed and I were picked up by his ‘partners in crime’ Eky Anwar & Andi Gedes.  Right away it was off to the Jungle to spend several days with Eds teacher, Mak Udin.  I had heard so much about this shaman & Silek Tuo Grandmaster  that chose a quiet life in farming as well as offering many forms  of bespoke ‘hocus pocus’ programs for individuals, even those from the Indonesian government!  Well, I was not as prepared for the jungle as I thought.  Make Udin was a lovely man with a kind face and had perfect traditional Minangkabau Silat.  You just could not get more authentic in terms of pure Silat and such a perfect location

Enang, Me, Mak Udin in the home all 'saronged' up.

He and his wife live in a jungle clearing made over a  seven year period.  His main crops are rice, coffee and cinnamon as well as a number of other lesser crops.  His place truly is a wild paradise, but with no running water or toilet, minimal solar powered lighting and worst of all millions of creepy crawlies, this wasn’t going to be so comfortable for me!  Being literally devoured by flying insects during the first night was made worse by Mak Udins two cats catching a big rat and eating it up no more than 2 feet from me at 3am as I tried not to squirm loudly.  Welcome to the jungle indeed!  With a sleepless night what could be more refreshing than a cold bath in the loca fast flowingl river which incidentally was used for everything else, albeit a little further downstream.  Ah yes pure luxury!!!  Mak Udin, Ed and I trained Silek Tuo and it was interesting the see the ways in which this jungle mans system was developed.  At night there were discussions about silat development and inner knowledge.  All interesting stuff to say the least!   Again, more in this in a future article but suffice to say…I survived the jungle!  I found myself adapting well and by the end of those few days, even the moths and other flying insects didn’t seem too bad.

After 4 days Eky and Andi came to pick up Ed and I on the motorbikes and after a short

Taking a short break during ascent of Mt Talang

stop off  for a few hours and pick up some supplies all of us minus Eky who’s wife was almost due with first child made our way to climb the 2600m volcano Mt Talang.  I truly thought this was going to be easy but I was gravely mistaken.  It is possible one of the hardest things I have done both mentally and physically.  In my eagerness to get up there we began out ascent at around 2pm instead of at night as Ed and Andi suggested.  Their way meant we climbed at night, stay up top a few hours and descended after daybreak with a clear path.  I sort of didnt understand the program, lost in translation.  The long and short of it is it took almost 7 hours to get up and I was breathing out of my backside all the way.  As I sort of messed up the plan Ed felt it dangerous to even stay up very long due to wild animals.  The decent was HELL ON EARTH.  With only a small torch, negotiating down a more than a 60% mud, tree and rock laden decline was no fun at all.  I often tripped, ripped arms on branches and twisted my ankle badly, which now as I write this two days later looks pretty damn swollen and will keep me out of action for a week or more.  The moral?  Shut my gob and listen more!

Sumatra was a fairly short but eventful leg of my trip and one I wont forget so easily.  I am now back in KL and will stay here until 1st April when I catch a flight back to Jakarta, stay 1 night and then head back to the green and pleasant land of England.  I will spend this time to review and decode the things I have learnt, make notes and keep the training development ticking over.

Catch you all soon!

Johnny

Well I finally got back here to ‘Indo’ after a long 5 year wait. It has been a very

5 minutes from Guru Em's home

tough first week if I am being honest, mentally more than physically. Everything is way outside of my comfort zone. I am most definitely the only ‘bule’ or foreigner in these parts. Purwakarta, where I am currently staying is around 20 miles north of Bandung and your typical provincial west Javanese town. There really is nothing here aside from the typical array of small shops, food stalls and markets. Absolutely everyone stares at me wherever I go. Most probably just wander what on earth I am doing in these parts but there is the odd hostile jibe too. Thank goodness Guru Edwardo Guci is with me. He has been a total star!

With Guru Em Suhemi

My Cimande teacher, Guru Em Suhaemi lives 12 miles away in a rural setting and this is around a 40 minute motorcycle ride up and down the hill roads that surround this area. I have to say I cant feel my backside or anything else for that matter by the time I get off the motorbike – hmm worrying stuff!   Guru Em is a tiny man, around 5ft2 tops and I would say no more than 8st or 112Ib. He is very dark skinned Sundanese and is partially deaf. He is totally eccentric which makes for interesting training but his Cimande is incredibly authentic and his movement is fluid and accurate.  He was very keen on me doing all of these rituals to give me ‘superpowers’ lol, but via Ed I just told him I am happy to do the physical training. The hocus pocus stuff is mainly a huge waste of time in my own opinion, however I do understand for the locals it is a huge part of their culture and daily lives. Hey if it works for them then awesome but not for me thanks.

I do however feel very humbled by this man as he is incredibly poor. His wife

Outside Guru Em's half built home

and him live in a half built home that resembles a building site with no proper floors or ceilings.  They also look after their 5 year old grandson as their daughter, the boys mother has been working away in Saudi Arabia to send money home.  She has not been home for two years.  Experiencing how people like this live certainly puts my own world into perspective and no matter how much I may moan about this that or the other, I also know how fortunate I really am.

Training is going well but I will talk more about the technical aspects of this style of Cimande in my next Martial Arts Illustrated article, hopefully the May 2011 edition so don’t forget to check it out, if your even remotely interested!  Slowly I am adapting to life here; I even found a weak, unencrypted net connection.  Result!  Things are looking up.  Two more weeks here and then next stop is Kuala Lumpur for a few days before heading over into Sumatra for climbing of volcanoes, living it up in the jungle, oh and of course more Silat training, this time Minangkabau style so stay tuned.

Coach Johnny Silmon