Arts & Journey
In its purest form, martial arts manifest very beautiful philosophical ideas. To me, a true martial artist is the one who understands his true-self and be able to control (fight) bad part of himself. Growing up in my father's pencak silat padepokan (dojo), I have been fascinated with the world of martial arts since a very young age. I earned the rank of Pendekar at the age of 15 years old from a famous pencak silat school, Persaudaraan Setia Hati Terate (PSHT). This style is based on the teaching of Ki Hadjar Hardjo Oetomo, a respected silat guru and a national hero of Indonesia. Since then, I had been teaching pencak silat in East Java.
꧋ꦔ꧀ꦭꦸꦫꦸꦏ꧀ꦠꦤ꧀ꦥꦧꦭ꧉ꦩꦼꦤꦁꦠꦤ꧀ꦥꦔꦱꦺꦴꦫꦏꦺ꧉ꦱꦼꦏ꧀ꦠꦶꦠꦤ꧀ꦥꦄꦗꦶꦄꦗꦶ꧉ꦱꦸꦒꦶꦃꦠꦤ꧀ꦥꦧꦤ꧀ꦝ꧉
"Fight without relying on your troops. Win without degrading or shaming your opponent.
Command without relying on power, strength or wealth. Be rich without relying on materials."
— Javanese Proverb
In my mid 20s, I started to train in boxing under a national boxing coach, Normand Robert in Montreal. I quickly realized that integrating the striking techniques and footwork of boxing with the defensive maneuvers, joint locks, and sweeping techniques of silat can be really effective in a hand-to-hand combat. During occasional visits to Indonesia, I further learned pencak silat under Bp. Bambang Dwi Tunggal, a second generation in Hardjo Oetaman style, at Persaudaraan Setia Hati Pilangbango (PSHP) in Madiun, also known as Setia Hati Pencak Sports Club (SH PSC). My training was focused on advanced jurus, kerambit and lock techniques. I earned another Pendekar, sworn directly under him in 2022.
Due to the emergence of mixed martial arts (MMA) in the west, I became interested in different arts especially jiu-jitsu and kickboxing. It is fascinating to see how similar values of discipline, courage and perserverance are expressed in different art forms. I was honored a silver medal in the black belt category at the 43rd Canadian Open Martial Arts Championships. I have been the Chief Instructor at Cambridge Pencak Silat and an associate member of Pencak Silat Federation of United Kingdom (PSF UK). Under my leadership, our dojo has won multiple competitive funding including from Cambridge City Council. We have been regularly invited to self-defense demonstrations around the town. We also actively participate in pencak silat events around Europe and have two national juries/wasit from our dojo.
