Breathing For Health

I had a chance to be in Holland again. I guess I am lucky to meet one of Holland silat respected figure who sit in the NPSB {Netherlands Penchak Silat Board} in Dewan Sesepuh. Before this I was also been honored to be friend of another Dewan Sesepuh board members of silat Holland, Bapak Herman Theuvenet. Only this time I was introduced for the first time with Bapak Frits Drijsen who are from Perguruan Cikaret and Setia Hati. At the age of 90 years , still standing strong and in a good health. When ask ,what is his secret of staying healthy. Humbly he answered , "exercise". The method of exercise he practice without fail is the breathing exercise. Bapak Drijsen is a friend of the late Bapak De Vries who taught Sera. He also told me a story of his style and explained what the history of Setia Hati in  Europe especially.

With Bapak Drijsen

Jump in my mind that Silat Seni Gayong did have the breathing exercise as well. maybe the method of breathing is different from one to another style but it is towards the same target, for health. I did remember watching a VCD in the 80'.The video is about a Muslim martial arts from China performing some techniques and breathing exercise. What interested me is the breathing exercise. When looking at it clearly, I found out that there are a bit similarity in Silat Seni Gayong exercise. Is this a coincidence or any relations between it. After another viewing I realized that there are not the same and at one glance it looks similar but it is not.

Hard Method Breathing

The method and manner of breathing is different definitely. The way it control the breathing is different ,of course. In Silat Seni Gayong one of the breathing techniques practice is standing in a parallel, lifting both hand and after continuing with lifting the leg forward and backwards. This rare breathing exercise is not shown publicly, only a few had a chance of the knowledge.

In Silat Seni Gayong there are hard and soft breathing exercise. Also standing in a parallel position. Move the both hand towards the hip and push forward to the front are one of the hard breathing exercise. In the hard breathing exercise the training is for building the muscle. While the soft method is to train the internal part. Both method has its own important interests and play a role in their own way. As a practitioners of Silat Seni Gayong we must know when it should be applied in our training. The hard method is there in the forgotten warming up exercise but the soft method keep hidden to those who have been given the knowledge. A knowledge that should be preserved continuously and a great Silat Seni Gayong art of breathing.

Semoga kita diberkati.