Harimau Pencak Silat

Pendekar Herman Suwanda

I have been asked by several people to give a dissertation on the Pencak Silat system of Harimau. Since it happenes to be the style we’re concentrating on in class at the moment, this might be a good time for such an article while its nuances are still fresh in my mind. Usual disclaimers here, my Silat is a far cry in the opposite direction than most people’s, and my opinions are usually way out in left field than the conventional consensus. I’m not exactly Mr. status quo.

Harimau is unquestionably the single most physically challenging system of Pencak Silat. Almost all systems of Pencak Silat do a high style and a low style. In many cases it’s simply the same hand motions done from a seated position, with minimum to no mobility. Harimau takes this concept into unique directions, utilizing squatting, rolling, leaping and a variety of knee, shin and ankle maneuvers.

A common misconception in martial arts is that life after a takedown is grim for the person who hit the floor. Just because you’re on the ground doesn’t mean you’re losing the fight if it’s a perspective that you have trained for. Harimau takes the approach of the lowline attack, forcing the opponent to sink to the Harimau level or back the hell off completely.

The central tactic in Harimau is to deceive your opponent into defending from a high position, often a headshot or overcommitted punch, and capitalize on his forward momentum with a sudden drop to attack his legs, preferably at knee level or lower. Although possible to enter from the initial attack (i.e. blocking the first punch and diving into the legs), it’s a lot of distance to cover through midair, or on the ground while your opponent is still mobile.

To the untrained fighter, the defense from Harimau is difficult to achieve because they have one or both legs in capture before they realize it. By then, the opponent is playing catch up and probably too far out of balance to correct easily. Also, there is an added advantage to attacking the legs: Most martial arts don’t train a realistically fluid leg art, so an automatic response to an attack there is usually non-existent.

The use of the legs isn't limited to leg attacks, there are many variations of arm maneuvers and locks that are performed with the legs to free up the hands to do other jobs, or simply to put yourself into a better position with your hands free. This is a clip from my class of me teaching such a technique:

Harimau also employs a deceptive inside-line trapping system coupled with unusual limb manipulations and joint locks. The trick here is suckering your opponent into stretching his arms, or punching with his weight fully committed to the attack. Once they're got it's difficult to discern the logical release, since most Harimau lockups tend to visually confuse the attacker as well as inflict pain.

Harimau is often performed with one or both of your own legs entwined with the attackers’ legs, as well as your hip or butt on the ground. This is important to understand, because your are much more limited in your range of motion from this position than a person standing on both legs is. This is not to say that a person on the ground cannot be mobile enough to overcome a standing opponent, he can, but the odds are stacked against the Harimau stylist if he takes this technique into combat without better than average flexibility, dexterity and conditioning.

The degree of Harimau’s effectiveness is solely up to the practitioner; The better conditioned you are to fight, the better your chances of success using it. However, the path to knowledge in this style of Silat is a constant uphill climb, one that many practitioners turn back from after a limited amount of training in, and for good reason: Harimau can be brutal on the body, especially the knees. Strenuous, exhausting leg work coupled with advanced flexibility and lower body dexterity, Harimau stops just short of being impossible to carry on into later years.

I've always felt the more extreme expressions of Harimau Silat was a younger man's game, like the Monyet (monkey) style. Older people can do it, of course, but the physical demands of the system tend to burn one out quickly, and keeping up with necessary stretching and cardio work will eat up more and more of your training time.

You can modify Harimau to fit your personal movement style, however. My teacher Pendekar Herman Suwanda did it, and although he took some flack for doing so, his Harimau was a lot more accessible for us mere mortals than most of the classical stuff. I have further modified what I was taught to reflect the techniques and training methods that I felt were the most solid, with sound principles and minimum flash. Personally, I have an aversion to systems that are overly acrobatic, or require the practitioner to be hyper flexible or super strong. If a sensible workout and cardio routine isn't enough to support your combat system, it's time to look elsewhere. Age and experience of the practitioner at time of exposure is an important factor as well. If you didn't START Harimau in your early to mid 20's at the latest, then you are training in the deficit, in my opinion. As I said, it's a younger man's game. There are ways of conditioning that don't require you train methods that induce arthritis at age 25.

You wouldn’t try to operate a car on the interstate unless you knew how to drive. Similarly, you shouldn’t take Harimau into a fight unless you can use it fluently, or at least to a degree of proficiency that won’t simply get you into a compromising position with no way out if things go wrong.

Harimau Percepts:

1: You’re only as good as your legs

2: If you can’t get out of the position, don’t get into the position.

3: On your knees is never as mobile as on your feet. Don’t go to ground unless you are close enough to touch your opponent.

4: Never make it an “even fight”. Break something before you stand back up.

5: Don't do things you will only have a narrow window of time to peak at. Work systems and techniques that you can carry with you later in life with a degree of skill and proficiency.