My Days with Golok Betawi "Seliwa"

[Antara]

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet."

If I met Shakespeare in last few days I would ask him “How about a set of movements with a same name?” and I can imagine he would give me a dumb look .

So last week I joined a workshop of Tri Suwanda Silat in TIMA, Cinere. I guess the name of Suwanda family is still an irresistible temptation within Silat community.

To cut the story short, the first set of movements I learn there was the Seliwa of Timbangan. "Great", I said to myself. Let see what happen when Seliwa meets Seliwa.

Intriguing.

The sets are different from Golok Seliwa, of course, but the principle is the same. Too identical to be called coincident. However, before I come to any conclusion about the two Seliwas came from the same root, I arrived at other realization.

There I saw my Judo days...
Also my karate days...

All those leg sweeps, ashi barai, the cat leg stance, neko ashi dachi, the strange inside kicking leg, mikazuki geri... goodie... how I could be so foolish not to realize that lots of Judo’s throwing techniques were invented under the principles of Seliwa. Also some movements in Karate KATA like those of UNSU, and my very favorite TEKKI... now I see what’s behind them.

Practicing at home, I found that those Seliwa movement of Timbangan flows easily with my Judo or Karate openings. As if I have been learning them for years instead of just last Saturday.

Also, they somehow enriched my own Golok Seliwa. The complicated leg movements of Timbangan also exist in Golok Seliwa, except that in Golok Seliwa they are hidden in principle of Jurus. Say, the simple movement of raising one leg in Pu’un number four covers most of the leg jurus in Timbangan. How? The Pu’un simply teaches to put your weight on back leg and let your front leg free... then your own sensitivity will lead to effective utilization of your front leg, that’s why Golok Seliwa utilizes lots of body sway. I remember intuitively doing some of the leg jurus of Timbangan sometime a go, simply by doing Pu'un over and over again. In Timbangan, however, all possible applications of front leg are listed, detailed, and practiced.

I like both approaches. Now that I meet both of them, I simply say that I like silat .

At philosophical level, I take that everything finally return to simplicity. We may encounter numerous method of teachings, but at the end of the journey, they all talk about the same thing. At higher plane we all are brothers.

***

Knowing this now ... I guess I need to re-evaluate my "my school is better" attitude

... and... I feel pity to those I learn as collecting, or some people say, stealing movements from other schools.

Those people simply collecting applications, filling their brain with lots of ‘how-tos’... if they know better, they will benefit more from refining the wisdom hidden in their own school. Look around, yes, of course... I did just that last Saturday, but in the spirit of re-learning what you already have inside.

... and to have some variation in life too 

[akoekoko]

Wow, such a epic story and full with knowledge for newbie like me, Salute