When we describe pencak silat we talk a lot about “meta-movements,” “principals,” “the flower,” “the fruit,” and a lot of different ethereal ideas. Ideas that people outside of our circles, without our training, likely don’t relate to well.
Sometimes we even hide behind all of the language, uniforms, and flash rather than just working hard.
When I put Combat Silat together, I vowed to make it accessible to people. In pursuit of that, I want to break down some of the ethereal ideas. In particular, the idea of meta-movements.
Meta-movements, in the context of pencak silat, are simply defined as gross movements and positions. They are achieved with relatively particular relationships of the hands for purposes of definition and instruction.
With moderate changes at how we move into those particular relationships, the energy used, trajectory of the hand movements, or focus of the hands, we can employ defense, strategy, and even offense with these gross movements.
Leading from simply feigning weakness to parrying, takedowns, counter striking, and even locking. If we choose, we can change them further by putting a manual weapon in our hand—any kind of manual weapon.
In Combat Silat, the purpose of these positions is to give us a base of movements and hand relationships to begin our learning from. They are not meant to be 100% inclusive of everything possible, but they are meant to define the bulk of movements and relationships.
In Combat Silat there are seven such meta-movements that will get you through the bulk of the curriculum.