Selasa, 16 Januari 2018
Difference Between Pencak Silat and
Karate
Martial Arts is codified combat skill which have a main reason for self-defense, and spiritual activity. As a human, naturally we have an instinct to protect ourselves from harm like wild animal, and war. In this world, there are so many unique martial arts, but the most renowned are Kung Fu, Wing Tsun, Taekwondo, Aikido, Ninjutsu, Pencak Silat and Karate. Each one of them have the difference style of movement, weapon, and techniques, the oldest renowned martial art is from Spain between 10.000 and 6000 BC.
Indonesia also has its own martial arts called "Pencak Silat". Pencak Silat history come from Sundanese traditional self-defense culture, pencak silat once called as "Pencak Sunda" but day by day silat spread throughout Indonesia even the other country such as Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, and many more. There is a unique traditional self-defense culture like silat called "Karate". Karate martial arts that come from Japan especially from Ryukyu kingdoms, it has a relationship with Kung Fu (Chinese Martial Arts), karate practicioner called as "Karateka". There are seven differences between Silat and Karate, such as technique, weapon, organization, outfits, competition, arena, and ranks.
The first one is technique, there are nine basic techniques in pencak silat they are called kuda-kuda, sikap pasang, arahan, pola langkah, pukulan, tendangan, tangkisan, guntingan and kuncian. Most important technique in silat is kuda-kuda, because the function is not only for attacking it can be used as defensive stance.In karate, there are only four basic techniques they are dachi, zuki, geri, and uke. Same with silat, dachi is the most important basic technique. Silat movement look a little bit slower than karate but that is still deadly compared to karate.
For the weapons, silat usually using staves, keris, kujang. Silat have a mystical weapon called "Ilmu Kebal" or the immunity from sharp weapon, and gun, this mystical art usually using by sundanese traditional tribes called "Baduy" from Banten province. Karate usually "pure" bare-handed and have no special weapon, but karate have a quick deadly movement in order for taking down the enemies.
In Indonesia there is a pencak silat organization called IPSI or Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia. IPSI formed in 18 May at Surakarta, Center Java now led by Letjen TNI Prabowo Subianto.For karate, there is a famous organization in Indonesia called FORKI or Federasi Olahraga Karate-do Indonesia, this organization formed in 10 March 1964 at Jakarta, now led by Gatot Nurmantyo.
Like the others martial art outfits, Silat usually have a white coloured outfits but sometimes there are some silat institution wearing a black uniform. Same with silat, karate have a white coloured outfits, but the difference is karate's uniform is much lighter than silat, because karate is designed for speed. Karate uniform is called "Karate-gi" similar with Juudo uniform or "Juudo-gi", but juudo's uniform is much heavier than karate itself.
Pencak silat international competition is led by PERSILAT, this competition take places every two or three years period, and more than thirty national teams competed at Jakarta, Indonesia (2010), Chiang Rai, Thailand (2012), and Phuket, Northern Thailand (2015). In 2016, Pencak silat competition take places at Denpasar, Bali Indonesia. For karate, there is a competition called as, World Karate Championship. This competition is the highest level of karate competition and organized by World Karate Federation (WKF), karate world championship held every two years in different city. In 2018 there will be a karate international competition at Spain.
Silat have an arena size with 10x10 m width, the floor is covered with mattres with maximal thickness at five centimeters, for "Tanding" or Sparring category silat have 10x10 m width and at the center of arena there is a circle with 8 meters width. Meanwhile, karate have 8x8 m width the floor is made with mattres, and each side have safety fence sized 2 meters. For world championship, karate have 10x10 m, with three coloured mattres such as white, red, and blue.
In pencak silat, there are four skill ranks, they are pemula, menengah, pelatih, and pendekar. Pemula or beginner is taught all of the basic movement techniques, menengah or intermediate in this rank the silat fighter focused on the applications of basic movement, and start learning the variety movement, next one is pelatih, pelatih or trainer have a deadly combination from the basic movement and teach to the lower level silat fighter, last one is pendekar, pendekar is the highest level skill rank in silat, they have approvement from the elder of silat institution and have a secret deadly movement. For karate, there are five skill rank, they are denshi, kohai, senpai, sensei, and shihan. Denshi is a name for regular karateka, kohai mean junior student, senpai is higher level of kohai they have intermediate skill of karate, next one is sensei, sensei have a black belt of karate, which is they are master of denshi, kohai, and senpai, the last one is shihan, shihan is the highest level of all karateka ranks, some karateka call this rank as "Master".
So which are the most deadliest martial arts? they are both deadly and great self-defense techniques. We just need to be patient and keep practicing if we want to become a "Master" in martial arts. Both silat and karate, they are the traditional self-defense culture that came from the different country, we must keep conserving them from the extinction. In this modern era, the number of pure traditional martial arts include silat and karate has been decreased slowly, as Indonesian we must keeping silat as our ancestors gift from the extinction.
