SEA Games 2023: There Is A Big Role In Pencak Silat Behind The Superior Of The Kun Bokator Team

Atlet kun bokator asal Indonesia, Desyla Anggraini. (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian opening team made gold ink at the 2023 SEA Games. From this sport, Indonesia won three gold medals, five silver medals, and 12 bronze medals.

The background of pencak silat has made the Indonesian Bobotator team able to make achievements at the 2023 SEA Games, so it is believed by Indonesian women's athlete, Desyla Anggraini.Desyla herself successfully won two bronze medals, which she got through mixed number and single bamboo shield form. "Because we are basically also pencak silat, which in my opinion is basic, our movement and motor skills are better than the opening athlete itself. So we feel and several countries also admit that much better than the original opener athlete," said Deslya.

Kun Bobotator is Cambodia's original martial arts, which is a form of movement closer to muay thai than pencak silat. However, this did not prevent Indonesian Bobotator kun athletes from adapting and achieving achievements on their debut at the SEA Games.

Desyla said that he and his teammates were actually pencak silat athletes. They only studied the Bobotator kun about seven months ago, and they actually studied the martial arts from scratch.

"So we were really all called out to Jakarta from zero, then two coaches from Cambodia were brought to Indonesia to train us really from the basics, like even though we already had the original martial arts pencak silat, the basics were very different, because this is more muay thai, right. What is really stiff is all of us, really like from scratch," he said, as reported by Antara.

After studying the basics of the bobotator kun for three months, only then did the Indonesian team enter the engineering memorize phase, strengthening movement, sharpening movement, and mobilization with regulations in the martial arts. He stated that he was still a fighter, but was ready to be deployed if he was given another confidence to represent Indonesia in the match of the Bobotator kun. "Actually, we will definitely stay focused on the pencak silat, but if for example there are opener matches we are ready to defend the country," concluded Desyla.