Naga Kuning Institute - Los Angeles
Group Leader - Chris Gielen
Serving Southern California
The Los Angeles group is led by Chris Gielen and we offer in person and online classes throughout the week to accommodate busy schedules.
NEW TRAINING LOCATION:
Advanced Self-Defense Concepts
1202 Monte Vista Ave., STE #9
Upland, CA 91786
Seminars Available - Book Yours Today!
Contact us for details.
What is silat?
Silat refers to the large group of indigenous martial arts of the Indonesian archipelago. Pencak (movement) Silat (application) comes in many forms with some being heavily rooted in dance-like forms while other pukulan styles can be very direct and lethal. Pukulan (the art of striking) is integrated into the silat styles where hand to hand combat is emphasized and is a necessary part of the training. Our style of pencak silat is a pukulan style and uses forms, solo drills, partner drills, footwork and conditioning to train the practitioner to move a certain way and use different strategies to gain an advantage over the opponent.
Pukulan Pentjak Silat Bukti Negara - The Unified Art
The Unified Art is the synthesis of the style created in the mid 1980s by Oom Paul de Thouars with the Pukulan Serak variations from the de Vries family (Netherlands). This martial art is effective, efficient and encourages the students to seek their own path within the art; play it hard, play it soft, or blend the two. You will learn both from day one!
The Pukulan Way - "The shortest possible way." W. v.d. B.
Pukulan is the hard way of pencak silat. This "personality" is not flashy nor flowery, and precision is the name of the game. As some pentjakkers say, "pijn if fijn, bloed moet." We are fortunate to be able to practice this traditional martial art now and into the future!
Meet your Instructor
My name is Chris Gielen and I began my pencak silat training in 1998 in the Rante style, which was a Dutch kickboxing variation with a bit of silat splashed in. Once the school closed its doors, I was fortunate to be accepted into the distance learning program with Pak Victor de Thouars in September of 1999. When Pak Vic moved to Southern California in early 2000, I began training in his living room with a small group of practitioners and over the next five years we trained the system of Serak and grew the VDT Academy in Bellflower. Pak Vic shared his knowledge of the system of Serak with the world and I am grateful that I was able to spend several years with him and learn about his passion for the art.
After the VDT Academy, I continued my journey and was lucky to learn from MG Jerry McCleary in Knoxville Tennessee in his pencak silat system Serbatik. It was a challenge as we were on opposite sides of the country, but I did my best and had a great experience learning from him. After several years of solo training and working in the kitchen as a chef, I went to visit my good friend Mike Roberto in the fall of 2016, and I was introduced to Walter van den Broeke. A few hours of careful questions and show and tell changed my views of pencak silat and the family art of Serak forever. On that day, I took as many answers as I could and the takeaway was, that Walter is the best practitioner of Serak and its variations that I have ever met, period. I have been at it ever since that first meeting and continue to train pencak silat every day.
