Kumango Pencak Silat

Since this fighting form developed along sandy beach areas, it prefers an upright posture and has shaped its tactics to terrain with a loose topsoil where ordinary speed of operation is hampered. It has influenced a few other major styles, all of them Sumatran. Kumango is, on the whole, a well balanced system, using both arm and leg tactics, but quite often the arms serve only to distract the enemy. This may be done by extending one arm and slapping the other resoundingly against the thigh, or it may be accomplished by means of throwing sand. Skillful footwork combines with real and simulated kicking actions to make frontal positioning against a Kumango fighter very dangerous. The characteristic, combative posture of Kumango can, when combined with its rhythmic movements, tend to lull the enemy into a feeling of false security.