Tarung Derajat

Tarung Derajat is a full body contact martial art from Indonesia, created by Haji Achmad Dradjat. He grew up in a tough society in Bandung, where the youngsters were used to fighting on the street. This situation insisted Guru Haji Achmad Drajat to be a street-fighter. He didn’t start the fight, but the situation required him to fight in order to survive. Then he decided to create his own way of fighting. He realized that there are 4 basic movements in a fight, those are: punching, kicking, blocking/dodging, and grappling. In 1968, when he was 18 years old, his friends and other youngsters came to him and asked him to teach them. Then in 1972, he created a shelter for his students, called AA BOXER. In his opinion, a martial art created in Indonesia must have a name in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), so he changed “BOXER” to “Tarung Derajat”. The word “tarung” means fight and the word “derajat” means pride, dignity, or prestige. So concisely, ‘Tarung Derajat’ means fighting for pride.

Tarung Derajat is officially recognized as a national sport and used as a basic training by Indonesian Army. “Aku Ramah Bukan Berarti Takut, Aku Tunduk Bukan Berarti Takluk”, which translates to “I am friendly but it does not mean I am afraid, I am reserved but it does not mean I surrender” in English. “BOX!” is the greeting of the brotherhood among Tarung Derajat member.

Tarung Derajat emphasizes punching and kicking, but is not limited to these, as grappling and sweeping are also included in its training method. As a stand-up martial art, Tarung Derajat was nicknamed as “BOXER”. A practitioner of TD is called Petarung, which translates to “fighter” in English.
Since the 1990s, Tarung Derajat has been refined for sport. In 1998, the Tarung Derajat organization officially became a member of KONI. Since then, Tarung Derajat has a spot in Pekan Olahraga Nasional, a national multi-sport competition held every four years. Tarung Derajat main association KODRAT (Keluarga Olahraga Tarung Derajat) now has sub-organizations in 22 provinces in Indonesia.
After introduced in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia,[1] Tarung Derajat will be officially included on SEA GAMES 2013 in Myanmar

References and sources of this Tarung Derajat article