‘Boom-Ka-ChaBoom-Ka-Ka-Cha!’(i)

Please note: This blog, like many Hollywood films, is based on real events.

Sooner or later my private Silat Fitrah students have to learn how to Boom-Ka-Cha,

Boom-Ka-Ka-Cha! It’s an essential part of the training process and, in many ways, it’s

the gateway to some of the more important aspects of the art – both physically and

mentally.

What, you might ask, is Boom-Ka-Cha, Boom-Ka-Ka-Cha!?

Well, I’ll tell you.

It’s part catwalk strut, part dance, and completely a reflection of the fact that, as we age,

it’s increasingly easy to return to the silliness of our childhood years. And, given that I’m

well into my sixties, B-K-C, B-K-K-C, really is rather silly.

It isn’t stupid, though. Linguistically, there’s a big – and important – difference between

silliness and stupidity. The origin of our word silly is found in Old-English and the

original word referred to being ‘blessed’, ‘fortunate’ or ‘happy’. (On the other hand, if a

person is stupid, they are simply foolish.)

B-K-C, B-K-K-C is silly because we have to feel happy when performing our particular

catwalk strut/dance; we have to not care what anyone else might think; we have to

recognise our good fortune in being able to move through life.

Whilst B-K-C, B-K-K-C isn’t strictly a part of the Silat Fitrah syllabus (and I’m using the

word strictly very deliberately here), it is a necessary part of the training method. And it

isn’t so much the actual movements that are necessary, rather it’s the happy, fortunate

attitude of silliness that opens the gateway I mentioned earlier.

You see, if you can’t B-K-C, B-K-K-C, you can’t progress to moving with Joyous Freedom,

and if you can’t use your body and every type of weapon with Joyous Freedom, you

won’t be able to do a joyous Tari – and if you can’t do a joyous Tari, why bother to do

any other type?

For me, the Tari, or dance, is the very heart of Silat – whether you are focussing on the

martial aspect or the Life Art. After all, if we recognise the different rhythms of Life, we

realise that it’s all a dance of one sort or another.

For the Tari to be complete on a physical level, we have to be moving and feeling from

our toenails to our fingernails. (Remember ‘Feet to Core to Four…?)

To be continued...

1