Striving for Perfection, Together

Athletes usually try hard to avoid getting injured during practice. However, Indonesian pencak silat athletes Yolla and Hendy did the opposite, and became concerned that they were doing something wrong if they emerged unscathed from their practice.

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Yolla Primadona Jampil (right) and Hendy.

Athletes usually try hard to avoid getting injured during practice. However, Indonesian pencak silat athletes Yolla Primadona Jampil and Hendy did the opposite, and became concerned that they were doing something wrong if they emerged unscathed from their practice.

The two athletes typically stopped practice to discuss progress when they felt that there was something wrong with their training, as their bodies were “just fine and dandy”. “We need to improve our moves. We need to be closer and our moves need to be closer,” Yolla said on Tuesday (28/8/2018) at the Athletes Village.

As athletes in the pencak silat artistic men’s doubles category – which both have pursued since they were 7 years old – Hendy and Yolla must be perfect. They have to display their martial art moves correctly, gracefully and with speed.

The artistic doubles is the most difficult among the pencak silat disciplines. The two athletes perform a routine depicting two opponents in both barehanded and armed combat, using sharp weapons like the machete, sickle or staff.

When Hendy and Yolla said that their moves were not close enough, they meant that their punches, kicks or blade attacks were off target and therefore, not good enough. They would get high scores if their sparring looked real. On the other hand, performing their routine in closer proximity would increase the risk of injury, mainly cuts from the sharp weapon. For example, Yolla would try and perform a machete attack against Hendy as close to his partner as he could; so would Hendy. As a result, getting cut by the machete or the sickle was nothing new to the two athletes, who trained at the Pamur Madura. “Two days before competing [at the 2018 Asian Games], I got a cut on my shoulder from the sickle. But it’s okay,” said Hendy.

Meanwhile, Yolla showed cuts on his right index finger. “These cuts are from Hendy’s machete, three days before the competition. They have not healed yet,” he said. Their injuries helped Hendy and Yolla to gauge their moves. Their performance at the artistic men’s doubles final on Monday (27/8) at the Padepokan Pencak Silat in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), East Jakarta, impressed the spectators, who were thrilled at watching the pair attacking each other.

Hendy and Yolla won the gold medal after defeating opponents from Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. They earned a score of 580 points while the Vietnam athletes took the silver medal with 562 points.

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Yolla Primadona Jampil (left) and Hendy.

Understanding each other

The strength of the Hendy-Yolla doubles pairs does not rest merely in their technical abilities. They are able maintain their high performance because they understand each other, a great asset in pencak silat artistic doubles.

It all began when they were 7 years old. They had been learning silat for only a few months when their coach entered them into the regional selection for the 1999 National Student Sports Competition. They performed well and took the winning title.

Afterward, they continued their training to become men’s doubles athletes in pencak silat. They competed from one championship to the next. They developed a deep understanding of each other over the years, and can read each other’s moves.

This was evident when they participated in a national selection in 2014 for the following year’s pencak silat World Championships in Thailand. After winning the semifinal, Hendy suffered a severe back injury. Three of the five national coaches demanded that they withdraw from competition. However, Yolla did not reply immediately, as he was waiting for a sign from Hendy and did not ask his partner what they should do. Instead, Yolla, who appeared in the action movie The Raid 2 alongside actor Iko Uwais, left the decision to Hendy. “If he woke up and put on the silat uniform, it would mean that he intended to play in the final. He put his uniform on,” said Yolla.

Holding back the pain from his injury, Hendy and his partner Yolla won the national selection, and eventually the 2015 Thailand championships.

Seeing Hendy’s high determination, Yolla refused to complain or give up when he sustained an injury. For Hendy, silat teaches everyone to be tough. “We want to excel in silat. If the athletes whined, how could [we] excel?” said Hendy.

The pencak silat athletes who competed in the 2018 Asian Games, like Hendy and Yolla, were required to be both physically and mentally tough. In preparing for the Asian Games, they underwent a four-year training period, during which they went home only 2-3 times a year, with each visit lasting only 3-4 days.

However, their sacrifice paid off during the sport’s debut at the 2018 Asian Games, when Indonesia took home all 14 gold medals.

“We are happy that pencak silat as a national culture has been given the limelight,” said Yolla. He hoped that more people would become interested in pencak silat. Aside from being a sport, the martial art also teaches people to have a goal.

Hendy and Yolla is proof of this. Training from childhood, they had less time to play as children and were often injured during practice. Today, they have reached their goal.

Yolla Primadona Jampil

Born: Jakarta, June 5, 1992

Parent: Agus Sulaini (father)

Education: Sports Department, Jakarta State University

Achievements: First place, 2018 Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang (Jakarta); Second place, SEA Games 2017, Malaysia; First place, Pencak Silat World Championships 2016, Bali; First place, 2016 National Games (PON), West Java; First place, SEA Games 2015, Singapore; First place, Pencak Silat World Championships 2015, Bangkok, Thailand; First place, 2014 National Competition

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Yolla Primadona Jampil (left) and Hendy.

Hendy

Born: Jakarta, July 8, 1992

Parents: Julhaidi (father), Rahmawati (mother)

Education: SMK Negeri 24 vocational senior high school Jakarta (2011)