Inspiration, Admiration, Enlightenment and a childhood dream fulfilled.

Ok today was breathtaking day for me. I haven’t been this happy in a while, kinda feels like I’m drunk on joy. I finally got to complete my childhood ambition of meeting a grandmaster, what’s even better than that? I GOT TO MEET TWO! Unfortunately they did not teach me how to fly or be all ninja-like, but never have I been more inspired to continue my Silat training.

One of the Pendekar did not speak a word of English, so introducing myself was kinda awkward where as the other one spoke a fair amount. I also got my first taste of free style fighting, which I don’t learn till my green belt but you don’t say no to a grandmaster. Some of the most interesting 10 minutes of the day were spent trying to hit and dodge Kai while commands were being shouted at in Indonesian. I also got those little inspirational riddle-replies to a question. I asked what the best way to practise breathing while moving. It might sound simple enough but standing on one leg, shielding yourself with the other and pretending your hands are beaks then jumping half a meter into a tiger stance requires all your concentration on the movements so you tend to forget to breathe till after you do a few sets of moves. The pendekar replied to me,

"If you promise to me that you train hard for a year, and I mean very hard, next year i will teach you how to breathe." In semi-broken English, so incredibly cool.

I was also incredible impressed at the guys fitness level and his amount of power he had. One of the new guys, he’s like 25 was told to hit one of the pendekar as hard as he could, a man of 68 years just tensed that shoulder muscle to the state where the younger guy hurt himself from the punch.

I look forward to Saturday, i get the honor of spending 12 hours with the two pendekar and all the other people coming to Brisbane for the Perisai Diri conference, 6.30am to 6.30pm like i know ill be so incredibly tired but i can not wait.

Maybe he'll teach me how to fly?....