Calm but Deadly

By William Dobich

Bill “Butch” Dobich holds the Indonesian martial arts seventh degree Poekoelan Black Belt - a rare distinction. A formidable opponent in world class martial arts tournaments, Bill seldom returned home without the winning trophy. But as you will find as you read his life story, it wasn’t always that way.

He and his two older sisters were raised in the rust belt of western Pennsylvania. As a preschooler from a loving blue-collar family, he was uncomplicated and good natured. Life changed for him when he started school younger than most first graders because his birthday fell in a gray area. As a naïve to the ways of the world and physically smaller than his classmates, he naturally became a bully magnet.

His tortured life at the cruel hands of relentless and vicious bullies lasted until he was twelve years old. Then one day his mother saw an ad in the local paper that would change Bill’s life forever. A local school for the mystical Asian art of self-defense was offering classes to the general public and children were welcome to attend. This is the story of a bullied child who developed from being called “four eyes-four-eyes, fatty-fatty two by four, can’t fit through the kitchen door” to holder of the Black Belt martial arts status of Poekoelan Tjimindie - the Indonesian style of Kung-Fu.

Bill’s life story expands into the story behind the story. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of martial arts and its various forms or anyone that may be considering learning and practicing any form of the art. It includes a comprehensive instruction guide and reference material for students of Poekoelan, starting from their first day on the mat through to the highest Black Belt status.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Dobich
• Release date: Mar 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005090128

Book preview

CALM but DEADLY

The Indonesian Art of Poekoelan Tjimindie

William A. Dobich (Nagasep)

Copyright 2022 William (Bill) Dobich Published by Marilyn Brumbaugh at WimPen Publishing

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE of CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

About the Author

PART ONE

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Chapter 2 - Goeroe – Goeroe Willy J.C. Wetzel

Chapter 3 – My Introduction to the World of Poekoelan

Chapter 4 – My Chrysalis

Chapter 5 – White Dragon School of Martial Arts

Chapter 6 – Dragon's Temple of Poekoelan Kung-Fu

PART TWO

Chapter 7 – Understanding Lineage

Chapter 8 – Rank Hierarchy

Chapter 9 – Kun-Tao Self-Defense

Chapter 10 – Ten Rank Poekoelan Progression

Chapter 11 – The Patch and the Symbols

Chapter 12 – Edicts and Philosophy of Poekoelan Kung-Fu

PART THREE

Chapter 13 - The Langkah

Chapter 14 - Stances

Chapter 15 - Dynamic Tension

Chapter 16 - Kicks

Chapter 17 - Siku Sekin

Chapter 18 - Djuru Training

Chapter 19 - Kembang

Chapter 20 - Injury and Fear

Chapter 21 - Ilmu

Chapter 22 - Prayer and Meditation

PART FOUR

Chapter 23 - Willy and Me – A Personal Reflection of Our Lifelong Master-Student Relationship

Chapter 24 - Student Guide

Chapter 25 – Training Manual

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I want to thank my mother Margaret Vesolich-Dobich for her courage and insight to enroll me in the Martial Arts training program and my Father William Dobich for his unquestioned support and encouragement throughout my training, competitions, and teaching career. A special thank you to my Uncle Bud (Donald Dobich) for always being there to take me to classes when dad had to work.

To a true angel in my life, my wife Paulette (Polly) Pico-Dobich who was and still is the one constant who stuck by me, the schools, and the art of Poekoelan through all the good and bad times.

An immense level of gratitude to Goeroe Willy Wetzel for being the source of all the Poekoelan knowledge that I and others obtained in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. And his son Wim Wetzel who encouraged me to reach deep within my mind and body to extend and maximize my potential as a practitioner and ultimately an instructor of Poekoelan Tjimindie.

Thank you to the phenomenal instructors and Golden Boys of the Beaver County School for the Oriental Arts of Self Defense for their friendship, knowledge and guidance that molded me into the fighter and teacher I became. Without the dedicated training efforts by Dick Klugh, Duke Snyder, Eugene Tuffs, Frank Boyer, Fred Gilbert, Phill Scott, John Abraham, Pat Pritchard, and Roy Wetzel I could not have achieved the high level of Martial Arts expertise to become an instructor myself.

My unquestioned gratitude to all my students who I have had the opportunity to meet and share my knowledge. My special thank you to the Golden-Boys, Black Belts and Radja Naga’s and all those I may have forgotten to mention. Their love for me and the art is something I will always remember and cherish.

Above all, I want to thank God for the grace and gifts He bestowed upon me. Everything I became in my life and was able to accomplish is through His blessings and guidance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Having been trained by Willy Wetzel, the last known ninth degree Poekoelan black belt, Bill Butch Dobich is a seventh degree Poekoelan Tjimindie black belt. While holding down a job and going to college fulltime he opened his first Poekoelan Tjimindie martial arts school. After college he enjoyed a fulltime career in security as well as opening a second martial arts school. He trained thousands of students over his 25-year teaching career before retiring in 1999. However, because of his driven desire to teach, Bill could not walk away from his passion and in 2021 he returned to teaching. As of this writing Bill is still passing on his love of Poekoelan Tjimindie.

His mentor and teacher Willy Wetzel’s extraordinary life story is revealed in a book titled SURVIVING DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS written by his eldest son Wim.

Unlike many Poekoelan black belts that trained under Willy Wetzel, Bill broke the ancient tradition of holding back certain techniques to stay ahead of his students. Bill kept no secrets, telling his students that they could be as good if not better than him if they wanted. He worked side by side with them as a brother rather than a father.

During his career as a Kung-Fu instructor his dedicated teaching fostered 153 students from the Kun-Tao self-defense rank to 35 Golden-Boy (24%), 27 to Black Belt (18%), 22 to Radja Naga (14%) and four to 6th Level (2.5%).

On multiple occasions Bill was honored by his former colleagues and students after his retirement from teaching in 1999. He was honored at two Poekoelan Conferences in Beaver County Pennsylvania and again at a follow up reunion and seminar in both 2013 and 2014 at Roosevelt Park in Campbell Ohio.

He cherishes the plaques presented to him, but the most precious gifts are less tangible, the memories, unconditional love and friendships he received over the years.

He reflects back on his teaching years as powerful and special in so many ways that it seems surreal to him. God works in mysterious ways and it is by his grace and guidance that everything turned out as successful as it did.

Student’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Poekoelan Conference Award Plaques

PART ONE

CHAPTER 1 - THE BEGINNING

I am a 3rd River student of Willy Johannes Cristoffel Wetzel, a 2nd River student and Master of Poekoelan Tjimindie.

It was 527 A.D. and Bodhidharma, a Buddhist priest in India, traveled through the Himalayas and into China introducing the Buddhist religion to China. Buddhism infiltrated the country and Buddhist Monasteries quickly became part of the Chinese culture. Forbidden to have weapons, the monks had no way to defend themselves from dangerous thieves and robbers.

The Leang Dynasty monks living in the Shaolin-Szu monastery studied the movements of the monkey, a sacred animal of the Buddhists. They observed the monkeys’ powerful graceful movements and realized that by mimicking the monkey they could ward off enemy combatants with great success. Studying the monkeys’ movements and strategies helped them develop a secret form of weaponless self-defense. These monks became the originators of the disciplined balletic art of Kung-Fu (empty open hands). The Chinese soldiers learned the artful skill from the monks and became the best soldiers China ever had.

In 1600 China was at war with Japan and used Okinawa as their base of operation while fighting against Japan. A Chinese soldier living near the Shaolin-Szu monastery was sent to Okinawa. The soldier developed a kinship with an Okinawan boy and revealed the secrets of the art of Kung-Fu to him.

The teaching spread throughout Okinawa making the Okinawans the first people outside of China to have the secrets of the Shaolin-Szu monks. The Japanese culture quickly embraced the value of having this formidable form of combat too.

***

Chuan -Fa is a Chinese technique using empty open hands and fists and Poekoelan is an Indonesian technique that uses kicking. In a small town in west Java called Tjimindie a Chinese Master of Chuan-Fa and an Indonesian Master combined Poekoelan and Chuan-Fa. They took out the bad parts of both and used only the good parts. It took the two master’s a period of three years of daily study and practice to develop this style. This combined Indonesian/Chinese type of Kung-Fu is called Poekoelan-Chuan Fa and the style is referred to as Poekoelan Tjimindie.

These Masters used the better points of the hard and soft two forms of Chuan-Fa and combined them with the two forms of Poekoelan, the Indonesian form, tiger and snake and the Chinese form, the monkey and crane. These animal forms or ways are called Binatang Ampat form, meaning four animal forms.

Poekoelan Tjimindie style Kung-Fu is a combination of movements derived from the long low to the ground movements of the tiger, the weaving of arms, body, legs and fast striking out of any position comes from the snake. The monkey inspired the parries, crawl, low moves, leaping, jumping and rolling at medium height. And the long legs stances come from observing the beautiful movements of the crane. The position of the closed hand used in various fist blows and moves came from a form of Japanese martial arts called Kenpo.

Goeroe Willy Wetzel, the son of Dutch and Indonesian parents was born in Loemadjang Village on the island of Java, a territory that was controlled by the Dutch. At about ten years old Willy became a student of a Chinese Chuan-Fa Master named Oei King Boen and a Poekoelan Master called Mas Djot. Immigrating to the United States in the mid-1950s Willy Wetzel introduced the art of Tjimindie Poekoelan Kung-Fu to the United States of America.

***

Willy Wetzel was taught by the Well (meaning 1st bloodline) Master. This means that Willy is 2nd River, and we are 3rd River students. Willy’s teachers were the 1st River and originators and developers of Tjimindie Poekoelan Kung-Fu. The name for master in Indonesian is Mas Goeroe Agoeng and for master teacher it is Goeroe-Goeroe. The name for a substitute teacher is Goeroe Bantoe.

Willy was a skilled and experienced combat warrior with a treasure chest of secret maneuvers that he developed and never shared with his students. Some believe Willy had fathered his own style consisting of a combination of Poekoelan and Chuan-Fa, but there are some mysteries about Willy Wetzel that will always remain unsolved.

Wim, Willy’s oldest son, describes Poekoelan as an ever fluid progressive art. Every student has the freedom to develop their own new maneuvers as they become proficient in their skills. Some of those newly developed techniques may get passed on to their students but some techniques and maneuvers will remain closely guarded secrets no one else will ever know. Some of Willy’s techniques were never revealed and went to the grave with him. Still, I will always be grateful for being trained by such a great combat warrior.

It is a rare thing to be such a low number of Rivers. The more teachers one has, the less he is taught because each teacher will hold back maybe one or two things from his students. In this way teachers stay ahead or better than their students which is their right and privilege.

CHAPTER 2 – GOEROE WILLY J.C. WETZEL

Goeroe Wetzel (Willy Johannes Cristoffel)

Goeroe Wetzel (Willy Johannes Cristoffel) was born into privilege in 1921 in Loemadjang Village on the island of Java. The son of prominent Dutch and Indonesian parents, Willy was raised on a large plantation with a household of servants and plantation workers. His father ran the plantation and owned a lucrative export business. Willy grew up in the shadow of a brutal father that made life intolerable. At about ten years old he befriended a Poekoelan Master. By the age of seventeen Willy had reached the ninth rank of expertise and was ready to advance to the tenth rank (or master) when he decided to join the Royal Dutch Army.

Captured by the Japanese during WWII, Willy spent four and a half years in POW camps throughout Asia being used as slave labor. After the war he returned to Indonesia as a career soldier where he met his wife, another Dutch colonist, Gerri. Their home was attacked by Indonesian rebels forcing them to flee Indonesia in a harrowing escape with their two sons, Wim and Roy and an infant daughter Jane. With only the clothes on their backs they were escorted to the safety of a waiting ship bound for their homeland, Holland. In 1956 Willy jumped at the opportunity for he and his family to emigrate to the United States.

Sponsored by a Methodist church in Rochester, Pennsylvania, he and his family began to build a life in Beaver County. He worked at Westinghouse Corporation in the town of Beaver and began instructing self-defense to a few local police officers and firefighters, pro bono, in the basement of a church. As interest grew one of his students suggested he advertise, start a school and get the students to pay for the training. I had the distinct honor to have Goeroe Wetzel as my mentor, teacher, and friend.

The school progressed from being a small group of students in a church basement with only Willy and his sons as instructors to a fully operational school at the National Guard Armory in New Brighton, PA. He worked at Westinghouse full time to support his family and never charged much for lessons. Students paid modest dues by the month and were never held to contracts. His art was not a sport or a primary means of income, but a total combat art.

Many other of his students became instructors and experts in their own right. Willy quickly gained the respect of the community at large and became recognized as an exceedingly and highly skilled teacher and master of Poekoelan. As the school’s reputation grew it eventually had to move to a larger building in Beaver Falls, PA.

***

Willy was a man that commanded respect and got it. I was performing my Kembang at a Kung-Fu tournament and Goeroe was one of the judges. The competitors are judged on a scale of one to ten. I finished the competition feeling confident that I had been on the top of my game and performed perfectly.

I won the division but as I waited for the judges to score and saw four nines and one lone eight given to me by Goeroe. After the tournament I asked, Goeroe, what did I do wrong? Why did you only give me an eight when everyone else gave me nines?

He put me in place with his answer. Butch, I gave you the highest score I could. Only God gets ten, Masters get nine and everyone else gets eight or below.

That was Willy and that was a life lesson I will never forget.

***

Even though the Japanese opened the 1st Judo school in the United States in 1921,