Lee Edmondson is deep into martial arts.
The 37-year-old Gold Coaster has been practising martial arts for about 15 years now. Not only Thai boxing, which he did for about 10 years, he has also dabbled in karate and mixed martial arts.
"After a while I realised it was more sport-based," Lee says. "And so I started looking for something that incorporated weapons, there's a bit more of traditional in nature, not so much sport-based or modern."
It was an episode on his favourite television series 'Fight Quest' that brought the martial art of pencak silat, which incorporates a mix of grappling and throwing, strikes and weaponry, to his attention. He says that was the first time he has ever heard about it.
The martial art of Pencak Silat has over 800 known styles in Indonesia and can be found in many South-East Asian countries. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Edwip/CC BY-SA 4.0
Lee delved into research and decided to go to and stay in Indonesia with a visa sponsored by his Indonesian wife, to learn about silat firsthand.
"I probably have been luckier more than a lot of people that I have actually had the chance to go out there and spend a lot longer there and actually learn it."
The marketing executive lived in Yogyakarta for six months in the second half of 2014 and became an apprentice of Guru Eka Aris Suhartanto, known as Aris, learning a Wirayudha Pencak Silat style which is one of about over 800 known silat's styles in Indonesia.
Why learn pencak silat?
"I was quite interested in the diversity of the style, like it can be used for self-defence purposes," Lee says. "If someone comes at you with weapons, disarming, things like that.
"The technique is hidden in the art form which is very dance-like, very flowing," Lee says. "Indonesian people are more spiritual compared to Western culture, so the spiritual aspect is very interesting too."
Lee says that unlike other martial arts styles, for instance an Israeli self-defence and fighting system Krav Maga, silat doesn't teach aggression.
"It teaches you to be calm. It teaches you to try and bury those fears, those kinds of emotions," he says. "So you have to completely empty your mind and be calm so that's where really the spiritual aspect comes in."
It might not be known, but actually people don't have to be well-built to learn this style of martial arts.
"It's really built for anyone, in the sense that you don't have to use strength in silat," he says. "You can grab a wrist, bend a wrist, lock joints, and then your footwork and movement, just spin them around and knock them off balance.
"Some people who are not too strong, who are not too athletic, can use silat. It's not something that you have to be strong and athletic like Thai boxing or wrestling," he adds.
Although strength is not a necessity, other aspects such as flexibility and flowing movement are important in silat.
"It doesn't matter if you are not flexible now, you can obviously work on flexibility but that's going to take time," Lee says. "You have to be able to move your body from head to toe... when you're moving with weapons, you can't be too rigid or stiff, you have to be flowing. You can't feel someone's momentum or their balance or their change in balance if you're stiff."
Do Aussies know about it?
Lee admits that coming back home from Indonesia he found it difficult to find silat practiced anywhere in Australia.
"I managed to find one or two but they're quite different from the style I learnt," he says.
Lee says he couldn't find a style that he could continue doing so then he started it on his own.
The black belt in Muay Thai taught Pencak Silat at IGOR MMA in Bondi Junction in Sydney for two years before re-locating to the Gold Coast.
"A lot of different types of people come to me and say, 'I want to learn this particular aspect which is going to help me in this way,' or people who just saying, 'I want to learn everything about the style, can you teach me whatever you know,'" Lee says of his students who have learned of the martial art from films such as The Raid or John Wick.
Silat is not well known in Australia just yet, Lee says, but he wants to change that.
"Because it's relatively unknown, it's not as popular but once it gains popularity and people know what it is, people know the benefits, then I'm sure it'll gain popularity."
