Guru Stark

Guru Stark

Look, I’ll be honest, I mostly came to what I am presenting to you as Pencak Silat Pertempuran (PSP) through years of fighting, getting hit, hitting back, years of struggle, and the constant search to understand those failings.

I don’t have any BS story of being in 600 street fights and never losing. I’ve never worked “the door” at the [blah blah blah] club. And I’m not a Navy Seal—nor have I trained any. Oh… and I’ve not been stabbed or shot—though I’ve had some close encounters.

What I have done is spend years walking amongst predators, I’ve worked with a few LEO, trained a “door man” or two, and I’ve been in some interesting situations. Thankfully I’ve seen shit developing soon enough to disrupt it or to just avoid it altogether.

As it concerns PSP I’m a guy with a passion to do it right, to figure things out, and to be the best I can be at whatever I choose to do.

My journey then has been bruised, banged, and bloody so that hopefully yours won’t be.

To that end, in Pencak Silat Pertempuran, I have tried to keep in mind some guidelines. Many of them overlap in value and consideration but all of these questions, though redundant, have been questions I’ve asked of the material I use and teach. They are the lens by which I view the material, training, and development as well as the way I view other systems of training.

They are as follows:

  • After class TODAY can it be applied on the street?
  • Does it address probability over possibility?
  • Does it account for unknowns?
  • Can YOU use it spontaneously?
  • Could YOU employ it in an elevator, bathroom, or small space?
  • Is it dynamic and adaptable?
  • Is it really simple and attainable for most anyone?
  • Is it systematic, learnable, and teachable?
  • Does it value relationship over technique?
  • Does it develop, strengthen, and highlight YOUR personal attributes?
  • Does it improve the overall quality of YOUR life?
  • Does it challenge YOU to personal growth?
  • Is it cohesive AND explorative?
  • Is the material relatively universal to the martial arts or to common ways people react or move?
  • Could you learn the core of it in 1-2 years meeting once or twice a week?
  • OR Could you learn the core of it in two weeks of solid training?

With those questions as my guideline, the system of was developed, and iterated. It is an iterative process. Having taught hundreds of students I’ve learned what works for more people and what the majority need to learn. 

TRUSTED BECAUSE IT WORKS.
“My first thought was, who am I to teach?”
TRUSTED BY OVER 6000+ STUDENTS