Second Verse, Same as the First ...

So at silat class this week, we went back to the defensive and attacking sambuts. (That word is pronounced "szam-boots," not "sam-butts," and is Bahasa Indonesian for "parry," or "ward off.")

These are essentially short combinations of techniques to teach body mechanics, and you wouldn't try to fight with them as such. We like to think of them as ingredients from which many things may be made.

This is after several weeks of working pukulan exercises: "pukul" means to strike, or hammer, and these drills are about hitting, primarily with the fist, and to learn how to use the back-up hand whilst doing the hitting.

Suddenly the sambut exercises are cast in a new light, and the use of the back-up hand becomes much more realized ...

Round and round in a spiral we go. Every time we pass the same spot on the mountain, it is at a slightly different vantage point, and it looks the same, but different ...