The importance of footwork

There are silat practitioners who claim that footwork is unimportant in order to defend oneself. The validity of this argument depends on several factors, and Pukul Pelaga has fighting styles which do not rely much on footwork. Nevertheless in general footwork is important partly because humans have two legs for moving around.

Due to the recognition of this fact a lot of stress is given to footwork in Pukul Pelaga. Many silat practitioners used to laugh at this, partly because they do not really understand the difference between footwork and pattern.

Another factor is the proper execution of many techniques depends a lot on proper footwork. This is why Pukul Pelaga has thousands of techniques. Granted that most of the techniques are not used but they can surprise the Opponent.

The importance of footwork has made many silat practitioners adopting the concept while claiming the new moves have always been part of their training.

Sets of footwork in Pukul Pelaga include
1) Lam Dalalah
2) Sembilan (nine)
3) Mata Angin (compass points)
4) Zig zag
5) Abjad

Patterns include
1) Empat Benda Hak (four prime directions)
2) Square
3) Triangle

The footwork set can easily be changed into different patterns.

Blocking and Evasive Moves

The initial stress in Pukul Pelaga is on blocking and evasive moves.  They are considered as important because a natural reaction of a person being attacked is to block or evade the strike.

There are four basic blocking techniques.  They are further sub-divided into more than 20 moves.  A person who really understands the basic idea can easily understand, and possibly do, the rest.

Evasive moves involve body movement, and/or footwork.   This concept was originally alien to silat.  In fact Pukul Pelaga was once said by many other silat practitioners as not silat.  Nowadays many have copied the concept, and claimed that Pukul Pelaga copied them.