For the record of Macan development...

I do not know what is happening now. I am confused. Do all these people know what is politiking all about. Why people can say something that they themselves do not know what it means. Just to let off some steam is it...

Recently I have been getting people writing in the Macan Forum page about Macan's politics. To me if one is to play politics then there are something that they want to hide and reserved for the people that they like only.

If these people think that the people that I have chosen for the national team are those that I like, then I say to them that they are sadly mistaken. Their selection was done last year in front of all anak2 macan old and new. I have offered other anak2 macan a place in the national team if they feel they are up to it.

Remember, there was one time where all of us gather and I have said that as far as I am concerned, I can withdraw my commitment with Macan. This is because I have achieved the things that I have set out to do before starting the my involvement with Macan.

Firstly, when I started, I told Ali that the reason I come was to train for olahraga. At that time my age was around 35 years old. Unfortunately, at that time the cut off age was below 35. So I have to withdraw my intention. But they revised it recently and by that time I was out of focus already and I felt that I was not fit enough to represent Macan. Moreover at that time I have become a full instructor and the name of the Perguruan was at stake if I did not perform up to expectation. But I still did not give up and turn to anak2 Macan that are young and fit enough to enter the tournament.

At first I was sad because we cannot seem to win in the tournament. Getting the people to train consistently was also very difficult. After every tournament people would come up to me and said that our elak very good tapi tak ada attack, macam mana nak menang.

I took the comments seriously and tried all kinds of ways to improve our attacking techniques. Then again I did not get the support of the anak2 macan of that time. They would not come regularly enough to see the technique developed.

Then comes the break. Jali came to scene. He was very fed up too about our losing state. He called me right after one of the tournament and I said that he would sacrifice his time to urge the rest to train. At this time, Farhan and company were still not in the scene because they were not old enought yet. When we were just getting started, Jali would come to my house to train and analise some techniques but we could not find any dedicated anak2 macan to follow up. Meanwhile, Jali's skill was improving... then he got selected for the national team.

I told him to absorb some of the basics of olahraga techniques while he was there but he could not stand being left alone in the squad so he decided to leave the national team. However, Jali had done his duty for Macan while he was there, that is now he is familiar about the basics of olahraga until it had influence his movements and it had to be reprogram so to speak. At the same time Salihin was also in Ngee Ann poly silat team and he too knew about olahraga techniques.

But the rest of us were not convinced that with the new techniques we can still use macan movements to fight in the olahraga. So I decided at one of the training session at Yew Tee RC that I have to don the vest and sparr with the anak2 macan at that time. This was the time when Farhan and company were there. I went in and I started to use the techniques that we have developed and managed to fall everyone that sparr with me that day except Salihin managed to sweep me.

At last we have the techniques for olahraga that we can call our own.

You may ask me, why do I kept saying Farhan and company. This is because I owe it to him that we could get the best out of Luqman, Jumaat, Adham, Ainul and especially Maisarah. Farhan was the one that urged everyone of them to come consistently for training and he kept them on their toes by training up their fitness level. For the first time we could organise eight training sessions where everyone was present without fail and on time. I could even penalise someone when they arrived just a few minutes late for training and I could even convince them to come if there was a kenduri at home unless if there was death in the family. The discipline level was very high then.

Then something terrible happened. I broke my ankle while playing soccer. This did not put me off ot come for training but actually it was a blessing in disguise. I took videos of their training and burn copies for them to bring home to correct their sparring techniques. And that year we got our champion in olahraga. That person was Luqman. The others also did well to win one or two matches and at last the feedback came in. Now they say that these anak2 Macan fought differently. They said we imported them. What a joke...

If you all know silat Macan like all the instructors, then you will understand that our silat will be shaped according to the practitioner. Each of our shape in silat are different in execution. Why I mention this is because now you see that the pelapis have all their own unique way of executing the techniques but it is still silat Macan. That is also one of the reason I dare say that the art will grow on you if you persevere enough.