Welcome to Willy’s Gym, home of the Indo- American Fighting Arts Institute, founded in 1973 under the direction of my teacher, Mas Goeroe Agoeng Willy Wetzel. My name is Barbara Niggel and I would like to give you a brief history of our school and this beautiful flowing art founded by Mas Goeroe Agoeng .
I began my training in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania where I met an amazing teacher of martial arts and life. At the age of seventeen Mas Goeroe Agoeng convinced my father that I should open a Poekoelan Tjimindie school- little did I know at the time that Mas Goeroe Agoeng intended to teach me his direct art, Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen. Mas Goeroe Agoeng spent every free moment he had traveling to Lowellville Ohio to our new school the Indo-American Karate School located on Water Street in Lowellville, Ohio. During these visits he began to teach me the art of Tulen, his art of compassionate balanced action. Sometimes my training took place outside, sometimes in the school, or at my parents house where we would move all of the furniture and practice advanced techniques. Mas Goeroe Agoeng was fast as lightning. He asked very little from me; that I practice what he taught me and if I didn’t I wasn’t taught anything else until I did, and that I spread his art of Tulen with the highest light and ilmu as he taught it to me. Mas Goeroe Agoeng also taught me about the healing art of Tulen, and the language and culture of Indonesia, his homeland. Another part of his training involved learning to cook Indonesian food. We were quite a team in the kitchen. My teacher was not only my mentor but a father figure and my best friend. I am proud to bring to you his art Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen, the art of compassionate balanced action. In the spirit of gatong rajong, share and share alike, I invite you to experience his art. I am not in my teachers league but I am committed to bring to the world his art in it’s purest form and with the highest light and love.
Yours for World Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen
Mas Goeroe Pendekkar Barbara