German kickboxing heroes embrace silat, Malaysian culture

Alexandros Kamanis and Antonia Eggeling practising silat at the Xtreme martial arts school in Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: German martial arts expert Alexandros Kamanis is so affable he makes an unlikely fighter.

In the ring, he fights with frightening intensity, resembling a smiling assassin.

His student Antonia Eggeling radiates a relaxed aura that contrasts with the mayhem she causes in the ring, much like a pretty killer.

Both the former world kickboxing heroes are now bursting with enthusiasm about mastering silat.

They said they fell in love with the traditional art for the hard physical and mental training, and the strong culture of honour, respect and loyalty.

Kamanis, 50, and Eggeling, 36, were in the country recently to learn more about silat from AVS Bathi Allimuthu, a former kickboxing and taekwondo world champion.

Bathi, who runs Xtreme martial arts school in Plaza Damas at Sri Hartamas, holds a ninth degree black belt, and has produced 24 kickboxing and taekwondo world champions since 2006.

The recipient of taekwondo’s International Grandmaster of the Year award in 2012 does not conduct silat classes but uses the art as an integral aspect of his healing and meditation programmes.

Alexandros Kamanis, who holds more than 50 fifth-degree black belts, considers silat training harder than most martial arts.

As a young fighter, Bathi gained valuable tips from the founder of taekwondo, Korean Choi Hong-hi, while Kamanis had hapkido (judo, karate and aikido) grandmaster Kim Sou Bong by his side.

Why silat

Kamanis first met Bathi in Spain at the World Kickboxing Union championships in 2009, and has been to Malaysia 13 times since 2014 to learn silat and to conduct self-defence workshops.

He said his interest in silat was fuelled by its holistic curriculum that allows for mental and spiritual growth, respect, physical endurance and self-development.

“I’m drawn also by the power of silat to empower culture and artistic heritage,” said Kamanis, who runs martial arts school, Sportschule Alex, in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Kamanis holds more than 50 fifth-degree black belts in various martial arts, and his school has produced about 200 world titles in kickboxing and Thai boxing since its inception in 2008.

“Compared with other martial arts, silat is more difficult, and the training is harder, much like in kung fu when an action is repeated over and over again,” said Kamanis.

He said in silat the moves involved were indelibly imprinted onto the brain, creating a natural flow of energy in harmony with muscle memory.

Bathi Allimuthu, watched by the founder of taekwondo Choi Hong-hi, showing his skills at an instructors seminar in Malaysia in 1999 (left), and posing with the late Korean army general (right). (Bathi Allimuthu pic)

“The more the action is performed, the more permanent the moves become, which means you will be able to perform them quicker and more precisely with each passing day.”

Asia, he said, had a different thinking about martial arts. “In Europe, people mostly do martial arts because they are interested in competing, and are not keen on silat because it’s harder to train and not interesting for competition.”

Kamanis has been the president of Thailand World Kickboxing and Karate Union (WKU) since 2014, and he conducted muay thai camps there for two weeks before coming to Malaysia.

He sends his fighters to Thailand to absorb the lifestyle of muay thai exponents “because in Europe they have an easier life.”

“In Thailand, muay thai fighters normally live in the gym, sleeping and training there. If they don’t fight, they don’t have money, and if they don’t have money, they can’t eat and can’t feed their family.

“When the young fighters from Europe see how they live, it helps them understand more about life,” said Kamanis.

Hip-hop dancer to martial arts

Once a hip-hop dance enthusiast, Eggeling’s rise in martial arts has been straight from the Kamanis playbook.

Within three years under the tutelage of Kamanis she became the world champion in kickboxing in 2018.

Eggeling said she tried taekwondo by chance and that the combination of physical and mental challenge stuck with her.

She was 19 when Kamanis introduced the basics of silat to her. “After the long break, we felt now is the right time to really dive into it.”

Eggeling is hopeful that the discipline, respect, perseverance, courage, hard work, patience and determination that comes with silat will further help shape her life outside of martial arts.

In 2017, she came across a project called “Daughters Rising” in the mountains of Chiang Mai, Thailand, during a journey she made on her own.

The project involves troubled women and girls who are given employment, get an education and learn self-defence.

Former world kickboxing champion Antonia Eggeling says self-defence is about getting to know yourself.

Eggeling had just got her instructor’s licence for women’s self-defence and volunteered to organise classes, using a self-defence system created by Kamanis, at the centre and nearby villages.

Eggeling, who has a master’s in social design, was back there two years later, and is now working with her mentor to develop a long-term plan to sustain the concept.

Her message to young girls afraid to take up martial arts is: “It’s not about fighting and about anger. It’s about getting to know yourself.

“For me, it was an opportunity to get to know the sides of myself I never knew before.”

Antonia Eggeling and her mentor Alexandros Kamanis, in traditional Indian attire, on their way to a Hindu temple.

Loving Malaysia

On the first day of the stay in Kuala Lumpur, Kamanis and Eggerling, decked in traditional Indian attire, accompanied Bathi to the Perumal temple at Scott Road, Brickfields.

Said Kamanis: “I was impressed by how people with different beliefs live closely with one another and respect each other.

“In all my visits to Malaysia, nobody asked me what I believe in. In Europe, when you meet someone and they will inevitably ask where you are from and about your religion.

“What does religion have to do with a person? If I’m Muslim, Christian or Hindu, am I a bad guy?”