This article was first published on Milk.Blitz.Street.Bom b in May 2016. Since the publication of that article, Guru Demank has greatly...

This article was originally published in the martial arts/travel blog Milk.Blitz.Street.Bom b in April 2016. Noeryanto has subsequently...

This Milk.Blitz.Street.Bom b article was published in September of 2017 a few years after I had met Kang Rafijen on my first "solo" training trip to Indonesia with Tharyana Sastranegara in 2014. I had first traveled to Bandung with Kang Yana, where I met with Kang Rafijen and a few other Sundanese silat instructors before continuing to East Java. This was a very memorable trip because it was more independent and because I was able to get some sleep (the previous three trainin

Tragically, Mas Amien passed away shortly after this article was first published in June 2018. He had a fairly large group of students...

The motion of Inti Ombak Pencak Silat (IOPS) is influenced by two major traditions from the islands of Java and Madura. The central Javanese aspect of IOPS is represented in high, upright stances and precision striking. Many of the low stances and grappling movements are representative of the Madurese heritage. What makes IOPS unique, however, is its core philosophy (and possibly our assortment of knife grips). Rather than being defined by a set curriculum or a typecast styl

This article was originally published on the martial arts travel blog Milk.Blitz.Street.Bom b in December 2019 shortly before the...

What is Pencak Silat? This is a difficult question to answer as there are hundreds of different styles that claim the name throughout...

While drilling techniques in my class, a student asked me how we decide to perform one technique over another. I explained that "it depends" on context and is probably decided based on instinct and/or intuition born from training. This is a non-answer, an answer that amounts to "it's complicated." While we train in specific self-defense techniques, our forms ( jurus-jurus ) are encrypted libraries containing hundreds to thousands of potential techniques and applications. The

On the weekend of July 13th-14th, history was made as the first internationally sanctioned national-level tournament for Pencak Silat (Indo

On June 25th, we received a last-minute request from the Indonesian Consulate (KJRI) in NYC to perform for the first-ever East Coast...

On Saturday, March 30th, silat coaches and players assembled at a pencak silat school in Middlebury, VT to take a seminar on sport silat.