08.06.05 - 2nd Annual West Coast Kenpo Confederation
Friday Night Workout
When we arrived, there were only a couple of other people in the room. We stretched out a little bit and then Walt and I started doing the hubud drill that Larry Lauer had taught us just a month before. One of the guys there recognized the drill and approached us. His name was John and he had traveled from Sweden to take part in the event. He was a Kenpo black belt and was intimately familiar with the drill. He and Walt started with the drill again and we immediately saw some differences. As opposed to a hard check, he used more of a parry. He also used rhythm and feel as much or more so than sight to track the movements through the drill. He was very good at it and it wasn’t long before he was showing us “checking” in the drill. He would take advantage of a weak parry or block and ‘check’ Walt on the top of the head, side of the face, or in the abdomen. Walt was quick to adapt but about that time John would change the direction of the drill. It was fun to watch and incredible to see how sensitive he was at reading body movement and watching how quickly he would adapt to changes with just subtle movements – all while staying completely relaxed and completely without tension. He mentioned to us that this was one of 15 speed drills that he used with regularity and that it had multiple extensions to the drill that could be used and adapted for various things.
It wasn’t long after Walt and John finished up the hubud drill that the people in the room started doing some line drills. I think it was Paul Metz that basically started organizing the line and eventually it grew to two long lines. They were starting with the lower techniques and going right up through the list. It was interesting to see the subtle differences in style and technique as they all went through the lines. I stayed out and watched. At that time, I had only been shown 1 technique and was anything but comfortable with it, let alone any of these other techniques they were doing. On top of that, the higher ranking black belts were encouraging the use of extensions on top of the techniques and I just felt completely overwhelmed. Bill was cautious as he approached and asked if I was enjoying myself. I stated that I was and fell back in line. Walt came over a couple of times and encouraged me to join in, saying that if I didn’t know a technique, they would teach me. I appreciated what he was doing very much but I just didn’t feel comfortable jumping in like that and stayed on the sidelines. As it was, Walt retired early that night around 7:30 or so and I left shortly after. Bill stayed until about 9:30 or so before he turned in for the night.
When we arrived, there were only a couple of other people in the room. We stretched out a little bit and then Walt and I started doing the hubud drill that Larry Lauer had taught us just a month before. One of the guys there recognized the drill and approached us. His name was John and he had traveled from Sweden to take part in the event. He was a Kenpo black belt and was intimately familiar with the drill. He and Walt started with the drill again and we immediately saw some differences. As opposed to a hard check, he used more of a parry. He also used rhythm and feel as much or more so than sight to track the movements through the drill. He was very good at it and it wasn’t long before he was showing us “checking” in the drill. He would take advantage of a weak parry or block and ‘check’ Walt on the top of the head, side of the face, or in the abdomen. Walt was quick to adapt but about that time John would change the direction of the drill. It was fun to watch and incredible to see how sensitive he was at reading body movement and watching how quickly he would adapt to changes with just subtle movements – all while staying completely relaxed and completely without tension. He mentioned to us that this was one of 15 speed drills that he used with regularity and that it had multiple extensions to the drill that could be used and adapted for various things.
It wasn’t long after Walt and John finished up the hubud drill that the people in the room started doing some line drills. I think it was Paul Metz that basically started organizing the line and eventually it grew to two long lines. They were starting with the lower techniques and going right up through the list. It was interesting to see the subtle differences in style and technique as they all went through the lines. I stayed out and watched. At that time, I had only been shown 1 technique and was anything but comfortable with it, let alone any of these other techniques they were doing. On top of that, the higher ranking black belts were encouraging the use of extensions on top of the techniques and I just felt completely overwhelmed. Bill was cautious as he approached and asked if I was enjoying myself. I stated that I was and fell back in line. Walt came over a couple of times and encouraged me to join in, saying that if I didn’t know a technique, they would teach me. I appreciated what he was doing very much but I just didn’t feel comfortable jumping in like that and stayed on the sidelines. As it was, Walt retired early that night around 7:30 or so and I left shortly after. Bill stayed until about 9:30 or so before he turned in for the night.
posted by Bonzai at 8/06/2005 11:02:00 AM
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