Pencak Silat Discussion Board

During the 2007-2008 time frame both History Channel and Discovery Channel had 3 televised series that were of interest to pesilat like myself. Each of these had their own variations on a common theme: A group of athletes... or a pair of athletes... would travel the world looking for martial arts to train in or look for contests of strength,skill and combat ability and test themselves in these contests. These programs did not teach how to do these arts but they were nice entertainment. They also seemed to act as an "Advertisment" of sorts for their featured subject of the week since many of the arts were not commonly known here in the USA. All 3 of these series had an episode that featured Pencak Silat. If you have any background in silat, there will be no secrets revealed, revelations or teaching of secret techniques. Because of the success of the UFC , the producers generally wanted a sparring match at the shows climax. Each episode probably had 40-80 hours of filming but most of that was left on the cutting room floor as anything that really didn't show the host-participants getting ready for their sparring contests was deleted show. However, these series are entertaining to watch if you remember they are designed for the general viewing audience and not martial artists ,let alone students of Pencak Silat.
These three series are now available in certain stores or online. They are :
1. Last One Standing- with an episode of Indonesian Pencak Silat
2. Human Weapon- with an episode of Malaysian Pencak Silat
3. Fight Quest- with an episode of Indonesian Pencak Silat

Last One Standing is the series that is most likely to have been missed by many of us as the focus was not consistently on Martial Arts.

Fight Quest featured Pencak Silat Mande Muda and showcased Guru Besar Rita Suwanda as well as Guru Besar Dadang Gunawan as teachers.

Both Human Weapon and Fight Quest featured an episode featuring Filipino Kali and showed some Pekiti Tersia work with Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje as well.

Human Weapon did have some "semi explanatory " demonstrations of some of the techniques shown to the participants. They touched on the arts of Silat Seni Gayong, Silat Lok Sembilan, Lian Padukan and Silat Harimau.

If you missed these on TV , they are now available for order !