In 1985 almost 30 years ago my life completely changed when I came across my Silat teacher Guru Jak (who in this clip). He show me the gift of Silat and I fell in love with it. There was no Silat in Ireland at that time, and I made a promise to him and have kept to this day to expose Silat to as many people as I could, and to help it grow and develop. This has been a life work for me. My number one goal is for students to enjoy training in this art, and way to often students forget this. They seek out problems, where there is none, and expect teachers to be supreme beings and to live divine all knowing lives, when they actually only human, who have there own feelings, desires and love for their family and friends. For me I have tried to help silat grow, by always despite my own finances have silat classes open for people to train in. I have always tried to bring as many different teachers to Ireland so students in Ireland can experience these Masters and to learn from them directly. We have created the ability for students who wish to travel to the homeland of Silat can do so, or to visit other teachers in different parts of the World. Along the way mistakes were made, thats part of life learning curve, yet despite not receiving a single cent in any form of aid 30 years later silat has grown. We now have over 5,000 teenagers and kids introduce to silat every year at school and events. We have students of every age training, and silat has numerous clubs throughout Dublin and Ireland. Silat has maybe not develop in the Ireland unity we had hope, but it has stayed alive, Not once and some people forget this, has any student ever been turned away at the door from wanting to learn. It didnt matter there age, their ability, their back ground or how much money they had. Every single student was welcome with a smile, a handshake and words of encouragement by me personally and by the seniors. Never in my 30 years as a teacher,when asked, not tried to help a student to the best of my ability, or within the confines of being an ordinary human with family commitments. To this day like many other teachers the introductory handshake and warmth they were shown on first day, is never often return, the gift of acceptance they got at best is return by a few single touches on a mobile text a totally faceless format.. None of silat development in Ireland would have been possible, if students and teachers of past generations throughout the World had not sacrifice their time and life, to keep the art alive for us to learn. Thou we may create some small aspect in the art, we stand on the shoulders of great teachers who walk before us, and we are externally grateful for that. Now at this stage hopefully some one or two or three, will begin to step up and take Silat where its needs to go, so that the next generation can feel the love and benefits of Silat. Peace and Respect to all who share this journey, not just the silat path but the Martial Path. We have our own journeys, and hopefully at times our paths can cross... https://youtube/watch?v=l50yFtYTwkA
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 08:58:03 +0000
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