If you are the kind of person interested in Pencak Silat and martial arts in general, and are fortunate to understand Indonesian language, let us introduce you to Denny Aprisani’s youtube channel. Denny is a Pencak Silat trainer and former Silat athlete that formed a youtube channel in Sep 2014 with Wewey Wita, a well-known Silat athlete (and also his wife). His channel DennyWewey is very popular with the Indonesian community with nearly 600,000 subscribers and 78 million views.
Born in April 11, 1990, Denny grew up to be a formidable Pencak Silat practitioner and was accepted to the Indonesian National team. He went on to win multiple titles including the ASEAN Student Sports Week (POM) gold medalist in men’s class B (50-55 kg) in Vientiane, Laos in 2012. A year earlier, Denny won bronze for the same class at the SEA Games in Palembang, Indonesia.
Although Denny is a student in the perguruan PSHT (Setia Hati Terate Silat Brotherhood school), he makes an effort on his youtube channel to reach out to other Silat schools and even other martial arts styles (Judo, Taekwondo, MMA, etc). He spars with others in a friendly non-confrontational manner and encourages his viewers to uphold the morals and values of a true Silat martial artist.
DennyWewey is a channel that also discusses a variety Pencak Silat techniques that can be used in competition or in self-defense in general. In one video, he teams up with Riska Hermawan, a west-Javanese athlete from the Ciung Wanara Silat school on a tutorial about training double golok (Silat machete).
Although he focuses on technique and promoting camaraderie between other martial artist, he is not afraid to discuss current events, including the hoopla surrounding Chintya Candranaya or a stabbing of a well-known religious figure Sheikh Ali Jaber or recent drama between his silat school PSHT and a rival school. His instructional and non-aggressive nature of his channel is what draws many viewers to subscribe.
A big problem with DennyWewey is that he speaks only in Indonesian language, which will turn away a huge number of non-Indonesian speakers who are interested in Pencak Silat. A good portion of each of his videos are just him talking to the audience about a particular subject of interest. For example, in the video where he spars a MMA fighter Mas Suwardi that lasted 32 minutes, he spars for only about 5 minutes and talks and explains techniques (in Indonesian) for the rest of the time.
Despite the language issue, DennyWewey channel is an important step in the development and promotion of Pencak Silat. He releases regular videos that are educational and promotes community and brotherhood among Silat schools and even other martial arts styles.
