Kepala aliran
| Kepala Aliran Cherry Smith |
 The
other guru pelatih of the Perguruan Pencak Silat Minangkabau Satria
Muda Cabang Belanda is the younger brother of guru Nick Smith, he
is named Cherry Smith. Cherry started his training of the art of pencak
silat at the young age of nine. Since then he also trained very long in many other martial art disciplines as judo, karate and through karate to kickboxing. However, still his heart went out to the beauty, gracefullness and effectiveness in the Indonesian art of pencak silat. Like his elder brother guru Nick Smith, he also started his own perguruan in Hoofddorp in 1980. With this school many of his students trained to be very good fighters, as they won many championships. Some names; Dania Kassangali, European Champion and World Champion in Austria Rick Anjes, World Champion in Austria Rosina Kotey, World Champion Ashwin Imambaks, second at World Championship in Thailand Efrem Aktan, European Champion. But still Cherry Smith leads his perguruan in good hands for more then 27 years, this with the help of his assistents, Wesley Vaasen, Sven Steenvoorden and Roger Waldt, plus Mohamed Sabri which will start in Uithoorn. |
| Guru Nick Smith |
| Guru Nick was born in West-Java, in a village called Rajamandala.
As a nine year old boy he left to Holland together with his parents.
In '60's he aquainted with judo, the japanese martial art, at the
judoclub 'Sing-Sing' in Amsterdam-Slotermeer. However he did not
find any satisfaction in this martial art, then he transferred to
the sportsclub from Jon Bloeming, in which Kyu-ku-shin-kai Karate
was taught. This took place in the Yet, it was not easy to enter the 'club', as they handle certain principles, no hotheads, no fighters. It is like this how young men are tested, just to look and not to join. Until a certain day, he got the permission to join. This was the beginning of his knowledge of the Pencak Silat Minangkabau. From 1962 to 1974 he intensive trained the style Minangkabau and aquired it. However, he did it not alone, his brothers and sister too, are also aquainted with this style and have their own school too in the aliran Minangkabau. In 1969 he was tranfered, on behalf of his activities, to Emmen. In Emmen, he came up to the idea, to spread the art of Pencak Silat Minangkabau and to open his own school, with the permission of his teacher. It turned out to be a succes and many curious people from the region signed up for this style, however because of the hard, monotous techniques which are required, many people had to quit. But the people who had stayed, scored succeses regularly in national and international matches. Some names of people who regularly became national champion of Holland: Odylle Kruyshaar, Sylvia Klaster (European champion) and a lot of other ladies were succesfully too. Gentlemens who often won were; Jan Wehkamp (multiple Dutch champion heavyweight), Gert Zwartscholten, Erik van IJsseldijk (first Minangkabau exponent from Emmen who won a prize in the European championship in Aachen, Ger). To extend the style's possiblities, Guru Nick went to Indonesia,
his land of birth, to add more styles from the Minangkabau to ours.
The style he chooses was Satria Muda, a school of Satria Muda can
be found near Bandung in Batujajar. Other Minangkabau styles are
: Kumango Silat, Sterlak, Harimau, Patai, Pauh, Paulu Sembilan and
many others.. |
Valkenburgstraat
in Amsterdam. Here too, he did not find the satifaction he was looking
for. Then he met the neighbour from the fourth floor in his building.
This man turned out to be an expert in the Indonesian martial art
Pencak Silat, with the style 'Minangkabau'. In the evening, he taught
young people this art in his own livingroom. Those young people
came black and blue out of the living room. This was the first introduction
of Guru Nick Smith with the Pencak Silat.