04.16.06 - Practice Out of Class

Session with Bill during lunch at work

We were a little pinched for time today but we got right down to business. We started out with me dummying for Sifu as he went through the 15 Black belt techniques. He basically did the same thing we do in class when we practice our stuff; that is he did it slowly at first and then did it fast. I tried to give him a good body reaction but I’m not sure I succeeded. It was pretty cool to see the techniques but they went by pretty fast. It wasn’t long at all and we were on to the next thing.

The rest of the session was spent primarily on the Orange belt portion of the Master form. I had seen it before, and had even followed others through it once or twice. This time Sifu ran through it with me and we practiced it.

After going through the gross movements, we had a discussion of what makes a ‘good’ form. Part of it is proper technique, which really means:
- Blocks are crisp, accurate and powerful
- Strikes are crisp, accurate and powerful
- Stances are correct
- There should be proper flow throughout the technique
The other part of a ‘good’ form is getting the transitions between techniques down correctly. With the Master form, this means getting the direction (angle) of the techniques down as well as making the transition smooth.

We also discussed doing the form itself. It’s important to focus on the attacks when going though the forms, and by that I mean picturing your attacker and the attacker’s position. This helps with intent, targeting, and visualizing the transitions between techniques. Sifu also brought up another interesting item. He stated that the pace should be appropriate. The entire Master form is comprised of 55 techniques and when the time allotted is divided out, that gives you approximately 3 seconds for each technique – plenty of time. It’s critical that the pace is correct or you can wear yourself out by the time you get half way through the form!

To illustrate this, Sifu listed the techniques learned at each belt level:

• Orange: 6
• Purple: 7
• Blue: 8
• Green: 9
• Brown: 10
• Black: 15

If you do the math, you will see that if you blaze away through the techniques, by the time you get to Brown belt, you are only about half way through the 55 required! Proper pacing and breathing will help to keep the form smooth from start to finish.

04.15.06 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

• Purple Belt Techniques: Circling Serpent & Hooking Thunder
• Mat work: Side falls

Reviewed Other Items:

• Mat work: Back falls and forward rolls
• Purple Belt Techniques: Stopping the Storm & Hidden Wing

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Warm Ups
We worked with our usual basic drills and then got into some combination movements. For example, one of the drills we did was a forward back knuckle strike with a foot replacement roundhouse kick. We also combined the back knuckle strike with step drags and step through foot maneuvers. Sifu referred to this as “marriage of movement” and described how we should be thinking of the different possibilities of moving and striking. By the time we finished, we were definitely warmed up.

Mat Work
The mat was laid out and we practiced some basic movements. I’ll admit that I’m not real comfortable on the mat yet and so I tend to over-think what I’m doing. Today we started with what looks to be a simple backwards break-fall. We’ve done these before, and I’m sure we’ll do them many times more. Next was the forward roll – right and left sides. Again we have done these but I have yet to be able to consistently land with any control or precision. The last item we worked on today was a new item to me – the side fall. This is much like it sounds in that you basically fall straight down from a standing position using primarily the flat of the arm and leg to break the fall. Sounds easy, I know, but it’s harder to do it correctly than you might think.

Purple Belt Techniques
I was exposed with much more detail today the next two techniques for Purple belt. First I practiced with Elliott Stopping the Storm and Hidden Wing. Still working out the bugs but they are feeling better. Next up was Circling Serpent and Hooking Thunder. Circling Serpent is a defense against a right straight punch or back-fist. There is a lot of movement with this one but it is fun to do. I’ll leave the explanation to the technical journal but it involves stepping outside of the strike with a “K” step and then pinning the striking arm as you move back in. Once inside the fun really begins and ultimately comes to a stop when you plant the attacker on the ground (or your knee). Like I said, lots of movement but it all makes sense as you are doing it, which makes practicing a little easier.

Hooking Thunder introduced something that was new to me – the crane hand. The technique is an outside defense against a straight right kick. The crane hand is used to control the kick as it reaches its apex and then pull the attacker slightly off balance. Once accomplished, you kick the groin and knee and then move in with a “hidden” punch. This one is pretty cool too. The trick for me so far has been the crane hand and allowing the kick to follow its trajectory. Nothing a little more practice won’t cure.

04.04.06 - Practice Out of Class

Session with Bill during lunch at work

Sifu and I took advantage of the empty conference room and got in a nice workout during lunch today. The first thing we covered: The Formal Salute. I don’t know where the mysticism is with this thing, but that whole wrist thing has me thrown! There is also some symbolism behind the revolving claw and fist but I haven’t gotten to that yet. The hands trip me up… the first maneuver is to present the claw and fist in a manner that is identical to the short salute, but in a forward bow stance and as you transition backward into a cat stance, the hands revolve around one another and essentially trade positions so that you end up with the left hand as the claw and the right hand in the fist. That’s the sticky part! That isn’t the whole salute but it’s the part I’m dealing with right now.

After the salute, we started discussing techniques, namely Stopping the Storm. Bill again iterated how the major differences in Orange and Purple are that I am now intercepting and moving in on the attacker. Sifu went into greater detail and covered the specific targets that I am to practice with ideally. The stop punch drives the second knuckle of the fist directly into the philtrum to the pressure point called su gu. The elbow comes up under the chin and then the back fist comes down to the bridge of the nose or in don. The scoop kick connects at the hoe um pressure point in the groin.

Beyond the pressure points, we also discussed and went over the actual movements, particularly the parry that is part of the initial launch. I have a tendency to bring the hand up to intercept the punch with the palm facing down. Sifu described and demonstrated how the palm is facing mostly upward and then turns over as the parry turns into a block and then a grab, controlling the attacker’s height and depth zones. He also pointed something else out to me that I had completely missed to that point regarding the upward elbow strike to the chin. From the position of the hand at the stop punch to the fully extended upward elbow, you can achieve about ¼ turn of torque. I think I had been doing the movement correctly but I hadn’t even considered the possibility of torque with that strike. Very cool.

After some other items we moved on to Hidden Wing. Sifu stressed that one of the primary things to get right on this technique is the path of travel that the elbow takes to the target. The strike is not a sideways arching swing but rather comes directly up from beneath, with the lower arm being essentially vertical at the point of contact. He demonstrated why this was important by having me dummy while he slowly arched an elbow on a horizontal trajectory and I noted at least two things immediately: the trajectory was visible (no longer ‘hidden’) and I was able to avoid the strike without too much difficulty by simply leaning back away from it. Doing the elbow strike correctly eliminated my abilities to avoid being hit.

We were just getting into the third Purple belt technique when we ran out of time. We were able to get through the basic moves but we didn’t really have the chance to break it down. I learned a ton today and I have plenty to practice with before our next workout, which will likely be next Monday since Bill, Juan and I all have to work on Saturday.

04.03.06 - Practice Out of Class

Met at Walt’s house in Raleigh

Walt, Alex, Phyl, Elliott, Khedron and I were joined by Sifu Bill Parsons for a workout this evening. I think we were all there and ready to go around 7:00pm or so. Sifu had mentioned that he would be joining us for our Monday evening workouts but had made it clear that it wasn’t another formal class and that he was there to work out as well. As I expected, that didn’t last real long and within a few minutes, he was leading us in exercises and giving instruction. I hope that we can all gain something from these workouts – including Sifu. We’ll see how it goes in the future.

We started out with some wicked stretching! Sifu had us primarily stretching the legs and groin. I stretched muscles I didn’t know I had and am pretty sure I’m going to feel it in the morning. For the time being though I feel pretty good and actually feel less tight; more flexible. I’ll have to ask Sifu about stretching as I would like to be more flexible and gain greater range of motion. Some of the stretching we did tonight seemed like such a slight movement but there wasn’t anything slight about the stretch. Good stuff and I look forward to more.

Warm ups were a little different tonight. We gathered in a circle and each person chose a movement or strike that we all did to warm up. I think we covered many of the basics, including ball kicks, rear arm extended blocks, thrust punches, thrust kicks, inward blocks, rear kicks, and a couple I’m forgetting. The blood was flowing pretty good now but we continued on with Sifu’s recommendation. In a similar fashion as the warm ups, we did the Orange belt techniques in a circle as well. There were two added stipulations to the norm: cover out after the technique and growl! In Sifu’s words: “Nobody is going to laugh at your growl. Much.” Good fun and growling all around.

Next was something new for me. We lined up in 3 staggered rows and did the master form. As we went through the Orange belt portion, Sifu called out the moves and clock orientations for each technique. After attempting to do it with the Orange belt tape, I must say this was much easier – although I got home and tried it again and was still lost. Need some more practice. Anyway, when they finished the Orange belt techniques, Khedron and I dropped out and the Purple & Black belts continued on through with their material to Blue.

When I had first arrived, the purple belts were practicing on the new mat. Once everyone had arrived, they mat was put up and set in the corner. It was like it was calling to these guys! At the word from Sifu, it was unfolded and ready to go. I think everyone that was there tonight was in class on Saturday when the mat was originally broken in so I was the only one in tonight’s group that was new to the maneuvers that Sifu had us doing. First up was falling from a squat position and breaking the fall with a quick slap of the arms/hands to the mat at the proper time. Ideally this maneuver should stop the fall completely. One of the keys is to keep your chin tucked, for mostly obvious reasons of safety. As soon as Sifu mentioned this, the first thought that went through my head was that I he has been telling me since I started Kenpo to keep my head level and chin up. Now that I’m getting comfortable with this, he says “tuck the chin!” I understand the reasons, of course, but it struck me funny at the time.

Next was a sort of shoulder roll from a crouched position. The trickiest part of this one, at least for me, was that when you come out of the roll you need to break the momentum of the fall by creating as much surface area to the matt at once as possible while retaining some semblance of a defensible position. We did this from the right and left sides. To be completely honest, I’m not sure how I was managing to do this. As I’m rolling over, I’m totally lost. My only saving grace was that I had a mental image of what I’m supposed to look like when I stop, and each time I did it I managed to get my body position closer to that image. This is definitely going to take some work but is was a lot of fun. I’m sure Bill can give me some pointers as to keeping my bearings as I’m tumbling about – assuming I’m supposed to do that.

After our mat work, we sort of split up. The purple belts folded up the mat and went out into the back yard where we heard happy thudding and slams of glee on the mat through the window. Sifu broke out the targets for us and we did some focus work. It was an interesting drill in that he had Khedron and I striking first with a “punching combination of our choice”, so long as we could repeat it. After a couple of light taps, he told us to continue with the same combination over and over again. After a few repetitions, I was moving to strike the target and realized that it moved – Bill had slowly shifted its position and I was supposed to track it and strike it. A couple more repetitions an he told us to go faster. Then again. Then a final spurt and I was gassed. My accuracy was pretty good with the strikes but my technique was beginning to suffer as I fatigued. As I focused on the technique, my speed went down. It was an enlightening exercise. We did it again with a different combo using the opposite lead hand. Again, results were about the same though I did find my second combo a bit more flowing and rhythmic. Once we finished the second round, we swapped pads and I held for Bill. He did well but I unintentionally added a little more ‘work’ to his work out by allowing the focus pads to drift apart a little bit. Sorry, Sifu! Hehee…

We put the pads up and started working with techniques. First up was Beheading the Dragon with a partner. I worked with Elliott through these techniques and Bill used me as a dummy as he went over some of the finer points and differences between the way he teaches, the way it is done on the tapes, and the way Elliott was taught by his original instructor. It was interesting in that all of the changes were subtle and none of them took away from the base technique. It was primarily the targets that changed but the technique stayed solid.

After the Orange belt techniques, we got into a couple of the Purple belt techniques starting with Stopping the Storm – a defense against a straight right punch. Sifu went much more in-depth on the movements with me and described a few of the nuances regarding the technique. I’ll go more into detail in the technique journal but there was a key concept that he wanted me to take away tonight and that was interception. It is the main difference between the Purple belt techniques and the Orange; now I am moving in on the attacker instead of creating space. I am intercepting his technique or maneuver and taking over.

I had a tendency tonight of not stepping properly into a neutral bow during the first part of the technique, thus putting me out of position for the rest of the technique. I think it is the close proximity that I am dealing with now and the effectiveness seems to be in the subtle moves and solid technique. When you are so close to the attacker, you have limited space to move in so you have to be efficient and this technique lends itself well to this – when I did it correctly. The mental notes I made to myself was to keep the arms in, shoot the “stop punch” straight (NOT an uppercut), and nail the stances. A fair amount to work on with this one.

I don’t want to say the next technique was “easy” but it seemed to stick in my brain better than the first. It is called Hidden Wing and it is a defense against a right rear shoulder grab. The only cumbersome thing about it is the multiple movements at once (though, when I look at it in print, it just sounds like everything else in Kenpo). After the “badge check”, you are stepping back to scrape/stomp the leg/foot while delivering an elbow straight back to the chin. This series of movements seemed a little weird to me at first but the more I do them, the more natural it feels. At first I was fighting the flow, particular the transition between the elbow strike and the hammer fist to the groin, but I realized that, after the elbow strike, if I just let the point of the elbow go straight down, the fist will naturally accelerate into a downward arc and nail the target. The more I learn, the more I see that there is to learn.

While working with Hidden Wing, Elliott described to me how the elbow strike is largely out of the attacker’s view, even after he gets popped on the button. There is another “hidden hand” strike coming up on the next technique, too. I like these strikes; they are sort of like little surprises that take the attacker to place he never wanted to go, and they aren’t necessarily difficult to use, they just have to be used correctly at the right time.

I feel that Elliott and Sifu spent a lot of time with me tonight and for that I am grateful. Hopefully we can let Sifu work his material a little more next time. Before we left tonight, he told the Purple belts that he wants to test them for Blue by the end of April. Very cool! Unfortunately, Phyl injured his foot this evening on the Ultraman Dummy and it may affect his work outs for the next several days. Hopefully it won’t keep him out of practice for long - get better, Phyl!

Looking forward to next time!