Explosiveness in Pencak Silat - Part 3

The torso and waist are the most difficult to make explosive for most people. It seems to almost be a natural instinct to try and create power with our limbs. Unfortunately, there are many times when the limbs alone are not enough. For instance, in our body evasion and our entries (ales dan Masukan), our body must become explosive. We must learn to move in a way that generates enough power within our movement to successfully move ourselves out of the way of an attack and ultimately to enter in. This is most noticeable in Ales Badan or Body Evasion. These are primarily Ales-ales satu through empat (though certainly not exclusively).

The first and most basic method of developing explosive movement in your waist is to perform your Ales without the use of your hands for parrying and against a fast attack. Keep in mind, that what makes a movement explosive isn’t how fast you can go overall, but how quickly you get to your fastest speed. That requires a combination of elements that were written about previously.

A second method to practice, which relates to developing body explosiveness, is learning to Gelek quickly. This works to develop your turning, where the first method of using the Ales-ales tends to develop the arching and rounding of your back.

The third method to practice that will develop your body explosiveness body is performing sliwa kuda in the opposite direction of the ales you want to practice. By doing so, you can learn to improve your sliwa kuda, the gelek, and your ales as a single fluid method. Again, the best way to develop this is not relying on your hands to parry a fast attack. Some might think that you could step, but the reality is that you cannot rely on feet typically because the hands are faster than the feet, so you must utilize your body in a way that nullifies an attack until your feet can catch up. At least for close range attacks.

You’ll find that by doing these three training methods and simply forcing yourself to move explosively, you’ll really start to see how your ales can begin to disappear and become more a part of your entry movement. Of course, if your waist becomes explosive it can dramatically increase the power of your striking as well.

>>>More to follow