Thursday, January 31, 2013

Ada-Ada Je Ngada-Ngada Bergada-Gada...

With my loyal "training partners": the coconut trees around my house

1st Step: Gada-Gada "Pacang"
It was a very busy month for me. So I decided to have my little vacation to my village. Couple of days indeed helped me to wipe off all of the fatigue and stress due to the professional work. It has been a while I want to talk about the most popular art of "Gada-Gada". Gada-Gada is a term used in Silat Seni Gayong that signifies a weapon. That weapon is a chain with (about one meter and half  to 3 meters long), and the metal ball (ping-pong or tennis ball size) at both of it's extremities. This art of Gada-Gada is one of the difficult weapon to be mastered. In Silat Seni Gayong, before one disciple can learn the art of Gada-Gada, he must undergo various training of different weapons as a "pre-requisite" as to facilitate the student when learning the Gada-Gada since it could be fatal if manipulated in a wrong way.

The Gada-Gada itself has many forms. They also have different names, describing of their shapes and techniques. Cokmar and Belantan, in the other hand were the first form before they evolved with the ropes, Cindai (cloths) and chain becoming the Gada-Gada. Before practicing the Gada-Gada Perang (this one is the most dreadful weapon ever! ;)), one must learn first the art of Cindai (especially Seni Tali : the art of Rope, and Seni Mayang Gesit: the art of throwing weapons to the enemy). I was initiated by my master with the simplest form of Gada-Gada, which named as "Pacang", believed came from the "pacang" used by the villagers to tie their cows somewhere. This type of Gada-Gada also represent the Arabic character of "Alif", as the first alphabet one to learn the language. It is one of the philosophy of the art of Gada-Gada in Silat Seni Gayong.


To learn a Gada-Gada, it can take just couple of hours. To master it, days and weeks. And years to be a very good at. But as the old Master said, 3 levels:

 "layang", "belit", and "libas". 

The art of Gada-Gada exists also in the other culture and civilization like in Europe, China, India, and throughout all over Nusantara. The Gada-Gada, as I talked before, relates a lot with the Cokmar, Belantan, Cindai and last but not least, the Cemeti. Cemeti is one of the weapon that had been used widely in Malay civilization. And for the Gurulatihs who had learned this art, practicing until perfection is the challenge. I do hope that one day, those who had mastered the art will gather, discuss, knowledge sharing and preserved this rare art among the Anak Gayong. It is a lost if the young Gurulatihs don't make lot of effort to learn it with the old Masters who are still alive. And for me, I am in my way of being a "murid".......

2 comments:

  1. saya belajar silat dah lama dah sejak sekolah menengah sampai la sebelum fly ke jepun..skrg dah almost 3 years tinggalkan silat..tak practice..what should i do? takdde partner. penah training sorg2 and at last jadi boring sbb sorg2..i miss bersilat in gelanggang. boleh bagi cadangan?

    *kalau sambung phd and try biasiswa UMP la..boleh berguru dgn cikgu..hehe

    -anak murid abang arab gelanggang utm kl-

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  2. salam shafiq. itu perkara biasa terjadi kepada anak2 gayong yg bergayong di sekolah menengah. yg biasa jadi, anak gayong masa di sekolah mendapat ilmu gayong yg cukup, biasanya yg dh bengkung merah. merah paling kurang dh diuji lah 21 kombat/pukulan, 21 kunci, pentas, 3-4 jenis pelajaran senjata (pisau, simbat, keris. dn kalo bagus ada parang sekali). pastu ade laa sket2 pecahan kunci mati. kalo dh ade ni insyaAllah pangalaman saya masa kt france, mmg cukup utk buka gelanggang. tapi, ade satu ilmu yg jarang2 anak2 gayong dpt di sekolah menengah iaitu ilmu kejurulatihan. ilmu inilah yg membolehkan kita tahu cara mcm mana nk buka gelanggang dan jaga. dlm hal ini kita bljar "up" sket lah dripada biasa iaitu bab pndaftaran, pengurusan, grading, adat istiadat, pedagogy (teknik mengajar), psychology dll.

    pendapat saya utk syafiq, ada dua cara. pertama: buat diam2, xde satu membe pon tahu kita ni org silat, dan balik mesia sambung belajar. kedua: awak amek tggjwb kembangkan gayong. ini decision yg bkn senang dn perlukan pengorbanan. kalo dh sedia berkorban, baru siapkn strategi. ilmu silibus kena ada utk bekal mengajar. yg utama ke mana target awk buka glngg. adakah sekadar utk tempat kita berpeluh? atau ia adalah satu perjuangan agar gayong terus bertapak di situ sampai bila2? haaa... yg ni kena fikir.

    sori syafiq, panjang sgt heheheh. nanti kalo nk pnjang lebar bole msg2 ikut FB. cikgu awak tu (abg arab) orang hebat tu. guru abg arab (cg mufti) tu guru saya juga. kira2 seguru jugalah hehehe. ok nanti ape2 kita roger2 balik. ;)

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