Monkey in our Silat style teaches you one of the most valuable lessons for combat. To be unpredictable (and in turn not telegraph strikes). To go from 0 to 100% violent in a heartbeat. To only train just to physically respond to violence and not train the mental aspects is basically like carrying a gun around with no bullets. This is why in PCK the focus is on the ATTITUDE and not just the movement. You train to let go, to adapt, to do whatever is necessary. To be calm, explosive and back to calm. This helps get you into a mindset where you are controlling your demeanor, your breathing, your awareness and also your opponents awareness.

It trains you to understand that bringing out the violence is not necessarily to go into or have a "combat mode" but rather to be so thoroughly trained that you have this attitude kind of coiled and ready to release when something escalates. It is like a switch. It is a skill, like anything else that must be trained just as much as the physical. 

Really think about that concept. Monkey is detached and calm and looks away until it attacks. This detaches you from the situation slightly mentally (which will affect your attacker), helping keep your nerves under control, also allowing you to scan your surroundings. Then within a second you attack with no warning, greatly increasing the success of your attack. Then within the attack is the zig zagging, unpredictable nature of the movement with off timing and indirect hitting. Here is a clip from our manual on monkey:

"Basic PCK Monkey mannerisms teach evasiveness and redirection of strikes along with hard hitting slaps and violent parries that are severely disruptive and disorienting to attackers. In combat monkey is used when you need to be fluid but destructive. You learn to flow like water but at the same time use those same fluid motions to develop devastating power." 

It is calm then erratic. Eerily calm until the last moment. Looking away from the opponent.

The lessons monkey can teach are how to get out of the way of something with no warning. To be truly capable of adapting. Wits composure and confidence. Not adapting out of fear, but adapting with assuredness. PCK Silat monkey is not an imitation of the animal or a fancy way to do silat differently. It is borrowing the very nature of the animal when it escalates to its most violent. That was the reason the animal Silat was created. They are better at it than us. We learned from them. Mother nature is a good teacher.

All power in silat comes from gelek (twisting or coiling), although sometimes this can be difficult to see.  If you do a strike or technique slowly enough, however, you should be able to tell where the twist is.  Pay attention to your entire body.  The twist for a kick or punch is often in the hips or waist, not the striking limb, although it can be there, too.  Some movements have gelek in more than one place.  Gelek even exists in stances.  The ways in which a posture allows you to twist defines the set of options that posture gives you in combat.  Find the gelek, and you find the source(s) of your power.  Put your consciousness in those places when you train a technique.  Work to keep those specific parts of your body strong and supple and responsive.  Then try to make the gelek smaller until you can deliver the same amount of force with less wind up.

Also, be mindful of gelek in your opponent.  The job of the rasa (intuition) is to detect tension.  Find the tension, and you find the danger.  With practice, you will intuitively put yourself where an opponent has the least gelek.  Fewer blocks, more energy, less bruises.

Finally, experiment.  Find all of the parts of your body that can coil and uncoil and all the ways they can do so.  These movements are the roots of your silat, and all of the techniques that you have learned or will learn use them.  They are what make silat strong, unpredictable, and beautiful.

-- Guru Muda Chris