My Mute Monologue

Many Gayong practitioners are not full time trainer. Sometimes the training is done days and nights, and usually in a scheduled routine. As for me, the training is just once in a blue moon. huu. Therefore documenting the movements that I learn is a must. However, according to my grandmaster, he does not write any of the syllabuses. All of them are written in his heart. This is acquired by hardship that he had undergone under the special training module that was designed and implemented by the hand Dato’ Meor himself.

However nowadays, with the commitment that we have, remembering all the syllabuses is still possible but quite hard especially in the long run. That is my case, and I am not sure about the others. Once we have learned a skill, the teacher might not show the same thing as clear as the first time he introduced it. This is especially true when we met the rare or higher level movements.

Therefore we might want to think of ways to capture the knowledge that we have learned so that we can easily revise the knowledge in the future. There are various ways that can be done such as through writing notes, draw picture, taking photographs and capturing videos. Each of the ways has its own advantages and disadvantages.

For instance, since I am suck not good at drawing, I have no choice other than to write down movements that I have learned. After half a decade, I tried to read the notes again and I was in total blank. What did I wrote?. I have no clue about what I have scratched back then. huu..

At the same time, the technology (window 95) comes in. I was glad that I am able to type the notes and I can easily read them compared to my unfriendly handwriting. Not long after that, viruses attacked and luckily I can print some of the notes before they were all eaten by the lucky virus. I think the viruses became stronger because they had access to the sacred Gayong syllabuses. Zattt

Then, God has blessed me with more advanced technology which is called camera. Pictures were taken to change the traditional method. The use of video still was still minimum as we afraid that the knowledge will fall to the wrong hands. The mistake that I made was that I relied too much on the pictures that I did not put description to the pictures. Because of less training, some of the pictures do not really ring my bell. huu

After thoroughly thinking, I have decided to capture videos on the syllabus. This procedure is done under conditions that are agreed by my teammates. The drawback of this method is that the knowledge is save somewhere which cannot be touched (hard disk). Once the hard disk is broken or crashed all of the things inside go with it. Sodokollahulazim.. That happen to me recently.. huhuhu..

So, what is the best method in documenting the syllabus? I guess it is the traditional one. We need to write it in the heart through training and drilling, make the skills written on each and every muscle. There should be no mediator when we want to use it especially during emergency.  It should not come from the book then to the eyes and to the brain and lastly to the body, but the respond should be straight from the muscles, with the help from the heart and brain.

However, for the purpose of sharing and teaching the knowledge to the next generation, documenting it somewhere we can look back is a must. It is afraid that we might invent our own movements which we think we have learned from our masters. Then we claim it as the founder of Silat Seni Gayong’s movement. What do we call that? Where is the place for such a person? We want to do good deeds but it turns to be the other way around. Nauzubillah..

Moral of the story, backup is needed for all the documentation that is made.. huhuhu