Blocking in PCK Silat

Blocking in PCK Silat is hitting. It is just striking the opponents limbs. Now lots of systems use this idea of Pukulan and hunting the limbs but in our art we put an emphasis on it.

In PCK we use the blocking methods of Cimande, Sera and the variations of those methods created by expressing them with the flavor of the 4 animal systems in our art. We have slaps, guntings, clawing, bludgeoning, crushing, smashing, pulling, punching, spearing, dislocating, breaking, splitting of muscles and a variety of other ways to destroy an opponent's weapons. We actively seek the opponents limbs to destroy their ability to effectively attack and defend.

It is a relentless and overwhelming method of defense. But in reality I have never really looked at it as defense. It is all attack all of the time. Just like the principle of the thorn where we impale the opponents strikes on the knees and elbows, any time we employ our blocking methods the harder the opponent strikes, the more he gets hurt.

Practice getting your blocks into a flow just like you do with striking. Mix the palms, forearms, elbows, web of the thumb, back of the hand, full fist, half fist and anything else you can think of into a flow and master being able to blend and adapt to ranges with your blocking. Then take that flow and absorb it into your striking. We use the same tools for striking as in our blocks, but the methods can be slightly different at times. Learn the difference. Learn to hunt the limbs on your way to your striking targets. Sometimes you will need to really break an opponent down before entering that closer striking range. Other times you will move in and just start smashing with strikes. The key is to have both skills equally available at all times, especially in a multiple attacker scenario.