The Movements of the Cub

The first 10 movements of Gayong Kelantan
(used in the Gayong France syllabus)


One of the first training of Silat Seni Gayong is Gerakan Anak Harimau, which means the movements of the cub, or in french we called as "Les Mouvements des bebe tigre". Officially, it consists of 49 steps or movements, and is a part of the national syllabus of PSSGM and applied also internationally. As far as I could remember, no one would complain with the first 30 movements of this Gerakan. But from 31 and above, as many Gurulatihs would notice, there are many versions of the Gerakan. The Selangor and Perak as far as I'd seen is the same. But in Pusaka Gayung is slightly different, and that happens also to Kelantan. Since I came from Kelantan, I knew only 40 movements of Anak Harimau. Other than Gerakan Anak Harimau, some of us had a chance to learn certain rare Gerakan of the animals in Gayong.


Let me cite just few: Gerakan Rajawali (Movements of Phoenix), Gerakan Anak Helang (Movements of Eaglet), Gerakan Kipas Nandung (Movements of the fan), and other simple moves like Buah Labah-Labah (spiders techniques), Jurus Naga Bora (Dragons steps), Kuncian Harimau Kumbang (Black Panther locks), Tari Bangau (dance of the crane) and so on. Some should had hear the Gerakan Yoi, Serangan Bapak Harimau (Tiger attacks) and Serangan Harimau Betina (Tigress attacks. Those movements, some were copied from the animals movements and then have been named. Some were created during the battle or training, but accidently has a similarities with certain animal habits or movements. So to ease the learning, the Masters named it with the name of animals that the movements relate to.

So the 49 movements of Anak Harimau is a good exercice. 1-10 is the BASIC movement of the first level of Silat Seni Gayong. Punch, Blocking, front kick, side kick, rotation kick, and trench. The 11-20 is more on few movements in one step. 21-30 is the Tiger movements with more Claws and hand strikes techniques. 31-40 is the Phoenix movements. (Actually, the steps were derived from the 40 movements of Phoenix: Gerakan 40 Rajawali). 41-49 is more on the acrobatic skills of the practitioner.

The Gerakan Anak Harimau is not only to train the automatism and reflects, but it's also to build up the muscles, the distances awareness, and the stamina. Only after repeating the Gerakan for many times that one student could move on to the more complexe training like Kuncian or Kombat.