06.17.06 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

• Kicking Shields
• Ground Fighting

Reviewed Other Items:

• Target Striking
• Mat Work: Break Falls & Forward Rolls
• Forms

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Warm Ups & Stretching
Our warm ups were pretty routine today for the most part. Sifu started us off and then Marty took over and got us stretched out and warmed up. Most of the stretching we did today was dynamic stretching. The warm-ups were mostly ball kicks and lead leg roundhouse kicks. Eventually, Sifu had us pair up and we traded lead leg roundhouse kicks. At first this was the normal drill but then he threw in a twist. He had us throw the kick and as soon as it landed, the other person was to throw their kick before the original kicker could reset. This caused the exercise to escalate to a rapid pace.

For some reason, my knees keep getting in the way. As I bring the leg back after the kick, my partner (Phyl in this case) was catching my knee with his own as he brought his up. Aside from the obvious pain clashing knees at high speed, I was confused at why this was happening to me and nobody else seemed to be having the problem. Phyl stated that he thought it was because he wasn’t getting his knee high enough before launching the kick. Logical. It wasn’t really a problem after that.

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Targets
Sifu had us get the hand targets out and we did some combination punching. First we did a 3-count consisting of a straight right to the left target, right back knuckle to the right target and then a straight left to the right target. After doing several of these doing our best to make each strike count, we went on to a 4-count combination. The 4-count was basically the same as the first drill but adding a straight right at the end to the left pad. Phyl noted that I was punching low on the last strike and I corrected for it. Other than that, it just felt good to hit something.

The next drill we did involved kicking shields. Sifu had us launch a lead leg round house from a neutral bow, reset, and kick again. The pace was fast and the air shields were pumped up hard so if you didn’t kick them correctly, you would probably just about break your toes! We did both right and left sides before putting the shields away.

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Mat Work
We pulled the heavier mats out and set them up so that we could line up in two lines. The first thing we did was practice break falls from a squat position rolling backwards. Then we started doing forward rolls landing in a fall position. After landing on both our right and left sides, we did forward rolls coming up into a neutral bow facing the direction we came from.

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Ground Fighting
We had a little surprise thrown in to the mix today in that Sifu asked Marty to share some of his Jujitsu experience with the class. We have talked about ground fighting in the past and I have even had the privilege of attending one of Shawn Monday’s classes during the 2005 West Coast Kenpo Confederation. Marty started out by defining some basic positions and then showing us a couple of maneuvers and reversals.

We started with the mount, which reminds me a lot of a bully on the playground. The “advantage” position is sitting on top of the other’s torso in front of their legs, effectively pinning them to the ground. From the disadvantaged position, we practiced attempting to get to the guard position, which is similar to the mount but you manage to get your legs wrapped around the attacker. If you have your feet lock, you are in a closed guard position; likewise if you do not have your feet locked, you are in an open guard position.

The closed guard position, while not optimal, does afford more control over your opponent than that of the mount position. By simply locking out you legs and straightening your torso, you can control the depth zone of your attacker, perhaps taking him out of striking range or at least controlling his power base. Sifu made sure we all understood that our Kenpo training still applies with ground fighting. He demonstrated how slight modifications allow you to use such techniques as Beheading the Dragon and Thunder and Lightning and stressed that Kenpo choices and zone control still apply if the fight goes to the ground.

We all paired up and worked these principles. At one point, I was working with Walt and we were simply going through the moves trying to understand them. There is a move in which, from the disadvantage position, you push against one of the opponent’s legs while at the same time bending at the waist in an effort to free the leg and get into a half guard position. As we practiced this, we discovered that this simple move sent the guy on top flying off! We called Marty over to observe as we couldn’t figure this out. Marty spotted what it was right away – each time we did this, the person in the advantage position was basically sitting up creating a higher center of gravity. When we push off and bent at the waist, the resultant reaction was similar to a leg buckle but it affected the whole body, thus throwing the opponent clear. Simply leaning over while in the strong position altered everything, and the movement accomplished the effect originally illustrated by Marty. It was an interesting lesson in relative body position as well as using gravity to your advantage.

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Forms
We wrapped up the day by going through forms. When it was my turn, I did the Orange belt portion of the Master Form. Based on the general feedback and criticism from the guys that observed, it seems pretty clear that I need to practice more. Many of the times noted were relatively basic in the context of the individual techniques. I am thinking too much about the next move or next attack. More practice will make the whole thing more automatic and I will be able to focus more on sharpening the rough spots. As before, I need some “perfect practice”.