TONGKAT
When the deThouars brothers began teaching Serak to Europeans and Americans they initially had some difficulty. In Indonesia, martial arts are a lifestyle based on an Indonesian cultural paradigm. For the most part, martial arts in America are a hobby. The traditional teaching methods and process of Serak, designed by and for Indonesians, did not fit well with the American expectation of a martial arts academy, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. Because of the gulf between traditional Serak and the American martial art expectations, the deThouars brothers began developing daughter arts to Serak specifically designed to cater to American expectations and cultural traits. Once a certain level of proficiency is attained in the daughter art, the student is well equipped to absorb the teachings of Pentjak Silat Serak.
Pukulan Pentjak Silat Tongkat (Tongkat) was innovated by Maha Guru Victor deThouars in the 1960s – 1970s and was released to the public in its current form in 1980. Tongkat is a complete fighting system unto itself, derived primarily from Pentjak Silat Serak, but also influenced by two other arts Maha Guru Victor learned while growing up in Indonesia, Pamoer and Soempat.
The Tongkat platform is based on the triangle or tiga which helps the practitioner identify lines of strength and vulnerability. Well adjusted to the American mentality, the art rapidly teaches the student to fight very aggressively using powerful punches, kicks and elbows. As the student advances he learns to use long staves (pantjang), short sticks (machan), and knives. Also as the student progresses, he becomes more and more adept at finesse and less reliant on brute force. Tongkat is very versatile because each technique can be performed with an attitude or purpose applicable to a wide variety of situations or preferences. For example, the same technique can be used to subdue a drunken friend and harmlessly strip him of his car keys, or can be "capitally" applied in a life-or-death struggle against multiple opponents. Because of the focus on exploiting body physics, finesse, and because of its versatility, Tongkat is a very practical and complete self defense system for anyone, regardless of age or body size.
Tongkat is delivered to the student complete with short forms (jurus), long forms (langkahs) which are based on animal characters, grappling techniques (tepaks), hand and weapon techniques (pukuls) and historical and philosophical teachings to round out the student’s understanding. What makes Tongkat so complete and unique compared to other systems taught in America is that the forms and techniques are not so much a menu of ideas to choose from as a set of keys to unlock the practitioner's imagination. To clarify, Tongkat is not built on a philosophy of "if A then B, if C then D, E and F."
Rather, Tongkat is built on the mentality that the various techniques and forms teach ideas in addition to teaching specific attacks and counters. Each practitioner builds his own technique from the ideas presented by the pieces of the art. In other words, if fighting is like making stew, Tongkat is not a recipe, it is a shelf full of ingredients and it is up to the cook to make something that is appropriate for the dinner party. It is the versatile and practical mentality of Tongkat and other Indonesian arts that is making them increasingly more popular in the Untied States.