08.04.07 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

1. Forearm Striking

Reviewed Other Items:

1. Stance Work
2. ¼ Speed Sparring

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Warm Ups
Today was my first day back since May and I was feeling a little rusty as I stepped onto the mat. Rusty or not, it felt good to be back in the dojo. Our warm up was sort of light today, focusing on stretching and just getting loose. We didn’t do the usual leg raises and the like today.

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Forearm Striking
We did some work today that I don’t recall having done before. We talked about forearms and their use in Kenpo and fighting in general. Just working by ourselves, we visualized an opponent/attacker. During the first part of the drills, we utilized basic forearm strikes to the inside. Sifu discussed how the forearm is certainly used for blocking, but is also effective in striking. He described how the forearms can be utilized for the ‘margin of error’ – for example if the attacker moves out of position during a strike, the connection of the forearm to the target is still effective if, say, the fist is no longer viable. We worked both single strikes and combinations in the air to the inside for several minutes.

The next part of this segment was along the same lines but we moved to striking outside targets. Sifu came around and acted as the attacker to help us with our visualizations. In one particular instance, I parried a left hand strike and went high with roundhouse type right forearm to the head, then looped back for an upward strike to the groin, and then rose directly upward and did essentially an outward block to the throat. Although Sifu appreciated the movements, he showed me another option with the final strike that allowed for a more flowing motion. From the groin, I simply rose straight up and ‘popped’ my forearm under the chin while maintaining the form of a ridge-hand type strike. Along with better flow, I felt it gave me more options for following up as well since I felt like I was in a better position to do so.

I couldn’t help to notice while doing the forearm exercises that the ‘chopping drill’ that we have done in the past kept coming to mind. It seems that most, if not all of the strikes in the chopping set could also be used with the forearm strikes. It’s actually where I came up with the combination I described above that Sifu helped me to modify. When working and sparring I frequently consider knees and elbows but I think I will be more mindful of the possibilities with forearms now.

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Stance Work
It has been a while for me but we reviewed stance work in our techniques today. The method is simple but effective – just tuck your hands in your belt and practice your techniques. It sure sounds simple anyway. It’s actually not difficult so long as you don’t over-think it, and you actually know your techniques inside and out. Doing this is always a great refresher and I really need to remember to practice this way more at home. One thing that I was doing incorrectly was on Captured Wing – Sifu noted that I was stepping back with a stomp on the initial movement. There isn’t a stomp on the initial movement. Oops. I think I have been doing the technique like this for a while so I’m going to have to do it correctly from now on.

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¼ Speed Sparring
We did several rounds of ¼ speed sparring today. It really felt good to move like that again after taking time off. Phyl is still recovering from an injury and Sifu asked him to keep time…which he did, grudgingly. After our sparring, we all huddled on the mat and discussed the rounds we had from our individual perspectives, and Phyl was able to give a third person perspective on several of the matches as well. Following are my own remembrances of my matches:

• Walt: Walt has much more stamina than I do when it comes to sparring and he likes to press hard. Even at ¼ speed, he will just keep coming in – there isn’t much of a ‘reset’ with Walt. Generally speaking, we mix things up pretty good when we do this, trying different attacks and defenses, moving on different lines both circular and linear. On occasion I can lure Walt in close enough to get him off balance but more times than not he is ready for this and keeps outside of that range. I was able to try something this time that I credit to Master Vic LeRoux, as he demonstrated this several times during the last Kenpo in the Carolinas seminar. It was basically a sweep at the ankle level. I attempted it several times with Walt and was successful only once. Needs more work.
• Elliott: Whenever I spar with Elliott, I find myself looking at his back a lot. Like Sifu, he tends to fight in a cross stance and stays well protected. It can be difficult to get inside that defense and to do so successfully requires that he be led into something and Elliott rarely takes that bait. Another thing he does frequently is to sit back and wait, which is also the way I like to fight. I have noticed when Elliott does come forward with combinations, he tends to move very linear, but whenever I try to circle around he is ready. Always a challenge with Elliott.
• Sifu: As always, Sifu tends to spar at or just above our individual abilities. He will leave a strike hanging just a little bit too long to see what we will do with it. Then again, sometimes he will leave it out there as bait to draw us in! In our match today it was much the same. However we did deviate from that a little bit when he started getting inside my defenses. I don’t know what it is but when someone gets too close I just instinctively maneuver to put them on the ground. Sifu got close, I maneuvered, and he went down – launching a strike to my chin on the way. Unfortunately, he incurred a minor injury this time as it seems he bent his tow hard on the mat on the way down. Sorry, Sifu. He did expand my thought process a little bit in another arena too. Often times I will sort of roll a parried strike around the offending appendage into a sort of rolling back fist to the face. Sifu stifled this a couple of times before asking what other targets were available. It was then that I realized that I could simply roll that fist the other way and deliver a hammer-fist to the ribs. As long as I have been doing this, I don’t know what the brain block was that didn’t allow me to see that until now! Thanks for that one, Sifu.
• Khedron: It has been a good long while since I have sparred with Khedron. He fights very compact and likes to deliver solid straight strikes, particularly to the body. His compact stance and fighting style reminded me more than once that I could be a little more compact and keep my elbows down when sparring. He tagged me in the ribs at least once on either side. Because he was fighting so tight, I took to picking targets at a different distance. A couple of times he moved in and I delivered a thrusting type kick to the inside of his back leg, completely disrupting his balance and stopping a forward attack. I also was able to slide a thrust kick in through his defenses from the front to the lower abdomen – the only target I could get to. I could see that Khedron has been practicing and is picking up some new things. Nice work.
• Alfredo: Alfredo is bigger and stronger than I am and I keep that in mind whenever I spar with him. I try to be a little more slippery when I spar with him, keeping on the edge of his range and not letting him get a grip on me. His background in ground fighting runs much deeper than mine so I don’t like going to the ground with him. In the past he had a much more wide open stance that left his groin open as a choice target. I noticed today that he has adjusted his stance and lessened the availability of the groin as a target. Alfredo also has a straight punch to the body that comes in from an angle. When that blow lands it’s solid even at ¼ speed. To avoid that punch I try to circle more to make it harder for him to deliver it, especially when I circle to his left. It was a successful strategy today, but I did notice that he is angling off more than he used to. There was one time today that I gave him my back to see what he was going to do. He started to reach around for my neck but as soon as I grabbed for his arm and began the motion for an overhead throw, he let go and backed away, recognizing what I was doing.

Sifu mentioned to me that I need to keep my knees bent more to give me more freedom of movement and to allow me to better deliver kicks. When I am standing more upright, I have to bend the knees before I can kick. If I am in a proper stance to start with, I can deliver the kicks faster and without giving away the fact that I’m about to throw a kick.