Bonzai's Kenpo Session Journal

10.10.07 - Wednesday Practice

2007-10-10T23:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Blue Belt Techniques

Reviewed Other Items:

Purple Belt Kicking Drill

Warm Ups
Sifu asked Rich to warm us up yesterday and get things going. He took us through some exercises and stretches that were a little different from what we usually do. We started off with jumping jacks and then did a series of static leg stretches. After the stretching, he had us lay on our backs with our hands beneath our butt and raise our feet about 6 inches off the floor and hold it. From there, we did some scissors and then held the position again. Rich finished us with some leg raises from a neutral bow position.

Sifu took back over and we went through some additional stretching. I’m not sure what you call this but he had us start in something similar to a wide horse, then turn to our left and lean over the left knee. The back stays vertical and the trailing (right) foot sort of rolls to the side with the right leg straight. We do this stretch quite a bit in our normal warm ups. The next one was similar. You start out in that wide stance again facing forward. You then move your hips to the left and sort of “sit” on the left foot, keeping the left foot flat and planted on the ground. You face the right foot and, keeping the knees locked out and leg straight, you position your foot vertically with the right heel on the floor and your toes pointing straight up. This one always gets me. I tend to lose my balance and fall on my butt, which is what I did tonight.

After these static stretches, we all “grabbed a chunk of wall” and did our usual array of dynamic stretches. Sifu seemed to focus hard on the particulars of what we were doing and why, presumably for those who hadn’t heard it before. Starting off standing perpendicular to the wall with the left shoulder and holding the wall with the left hand for balance, we did some side leg raises. The particulars about this stretch are that the foot should be horizontal to the floor (or toes slightly pointing down), the leg should be locked out, and the torso should be upright (not leaning forward). Additionally, the foot that is planted on ground should have the toes pointing toward the wall at approximately a 45 degree angle. There is a little history to this last item. Sifu tells us that there is a difference in the stretching result when you have your planted foot parallel to the wall versus having your foot pointing 45 degrees toward the wall, and you can certainly feel the difference when you actually do this. The foot parallel to the wall is similar in kicking style to the Okinawa/Japanese styles where as the foot at the angle more closely represents the position of a Korean kicking style.

Several repetitions of leg stretches later, still at the wall, we turned and faced the wall for rear heel stretches. This stretch also has particular items to be mindful of in order take full advantage of the stretch. We start by looking over our shoulder to where we are kicking/stretching while bracing forward against the wall with our hands. Then we simply lift the back leg up with the toes pointed at the floor, keeping the back as straight as possible. The toes pointing down is very important as it is relative to doing a good back kick. After several repetitions of these stretches, we did some rear heel kicks. Starting from a similar position, the difference is that the kick starts with the kicking foot moved so that it is resting on the ball of that foot. When you fire the kick, you are coming straight up and back at a 45 degree angle to full extension and then quickly returning to the start position. The toes are pointing straight down to the floor and the kick leads with the heel of the foot. It is because of the form required in this kick that we do our stretching exercises with similar form.

Purple Belt Kicking Drills
After all of that leg stretching we did a drill that we do frequently – the Purple Belt Kicking Drill. Since we have been doing this I have seen Walt do it slightly different than me and I decided to try it his way this time. As you are going through the drill, you do the ball kick, roundhouse kick, back kick, rear heel kick, side kick to the knee, and cover. I usually advance in the direction I’m kicking after the back kick before I go into the rear heel kick. This time I just brought the foot straight back to position without advancing in preparation for the rear heel kick. I found this minor change to affect the drill in a couple of ways. The first thing I noticed was that it was easier for me to keep centered over my supporting leg. The other thing I noticed was that the line of pursuit was shortened or in other words the total distance traveled over the course of the drill was shorter. I guess the long and the short of it (pardon the pun) is that there are always options in how you train.

Blue Belt Techniques
After the Kicking Drill, we broke off into pairs/groups and worked on technique. I worked with Phyl this evening and he took me through some more Blue belt techniques. We started by reviewing Trapped Lightning because I had a question regarding the chop to the throat and the timing between that and the foot sweep. We did it a few times and I determined I’m just going to have to practice it until I can get comfortable with the positioning. We then moved on to the Universal Block, Gripping Talon, and Blinding Dagger.

Universal Block (defense against a right round kick): This one was different right off the bat because you don’t start in a natural stance but rather in a right neutral bow. As the kick comes in, you create a sort of a shield with three of your limbs for what seems like maximum protection. From the right neutral bow, you shift weight back to the left leg allowing you to draw your right leg straight up to vertical position, blocking low with your shin. At the same time you bring your right elbow toward your knee with a right inward block, with your arm ending vertical above the knee. Your left arm comes in perpendicular with the left fist meeting near the union of your elbow and knee. This one is tough to put into words but moving into this position creates blocking with both arms and one leg and at the same time protects your entire front torso and groin. When used in this technique you don’t camp out in this position but as soon as you receive the kick, you immediately shoot a right side kick to the attackers back (left) inside knee causing him to buckle and “dead-leg” his kick. Retract the kick and bring it back enough to plant on that same (right) leg and deliver a left rear heel kick. Returning to a quasi neutral bow, lead back into the assailant with an elbow that morphs into an vertical back-fist to the bridge of the nose. Cover to safety.
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Gripping Talon (escape from a cross hand wrist grab): This one strikes me as “short and sweet”. It starts with the adversary facing you, reaching across with their right hand and grabbing your right wrist. The first move is to step forward into a left neutral bow while delivering as left straight punch to the face (ideally to the filtrum). The left hand then guidelines down the arm delivering a chop to the top of the assailants forearm that is gripping your hand. The point of impact should be at the radial nerve above the wrist where the radial arm bone comes into the wrist (Note: Sifu teaches to strike to the small bones on the back of the hand coming up to the index finger in lieu of the forearm). The chopping motion should have torque on it in the same manner as if you delivering a downward block. As you are delivering this strike, you should be pulling your right arm back into ready position as the chop is coming down. The left hand then moves up to check and the right hand “shoots the loop” to deliver a straight punch to the face of the assailant. Cover out to safety.
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In speaking with Phyl about this in a little detail, we discussed checking low with the left hand in lieu of “shooting the loop” to avoid the possibility of being trapped.
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Blinding Dagger (defense against a right back-fist): This one was a little tricky for me for some reason, even though I felt like I had a good understanding of the technique. It starts in a right neutral bow and is in response to the attacker’s back-fist. As the attacker comes in with the right back-fist, you step from a right neutral bow into a right cross stance and launch an eye poke with the right hand. As the attacker reacts to this eye poke by bringing his back-fist back toward his injured eye, your right hand comes back and hooks that very wrist, with your left hand moving in to assist. From here you move your right leg into a forward bow to buckle the attacker’s left leg while simultaneously bringing the trapped hand from the area of your right shoulder to your left hip, effectively planting him on the ground. Cover out to safety.
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I had asked about the timing of the initial eye poke and how it seemed that I was having to evenly use my muscle against the attacker’s muscle as our two forearms clashed. Sifu’s comment was in recollection to something Master Vic had told him some time ago regarding the three options you have when confronted with an attack: “Meet it, beat it, or eat it”. In this technique, you definitely have to beat the attacker to the punch.
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There are a few other things to consider when executing this technique. When you move in to hook the attacker’s hand, you need to keep the elbow anchored and don’t allow it to go horizontal. Also, as you bring the trapped hand from the shoulder to the hip, it is important to keep your back straight and the feet should be flat on the floor for stability.

Toward the end of the evening, Phyl and I switched gears and we worked on some of his material. Special thanks to Phyl for all of his help this evening.

10.05.07 - Friday Practice

2007-10-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Blue Belt Techniques

Reviewed Other Items:

Mat Work
Yellow Belt Techniques

Warm Ups
I was a little late getting in today due to some nasty traffic snarls on the Beltline. When I arrived and dressed, Walt, Phil and Rich were moving around getting loosened up a little bit. Sifu and I went through some of the Yellow belt techniques that we learned on Wednesday. After just a few minutes a couple more students arrived, one with a visitor in tow. Sifu went over to address them and I worked with Rich for a few minutes until class started.

Once class was officially underway, Sifu asked Walt to lead the warm ups. He took us through a good amount of limbering and stretching as well as the usual leg stretches. We also did some lunge punches and ball kicks. I was pretty warmed up by the time we finished up.

Mat Work
Today’s mat work was fairly typical of our normal practice on the mats. The only difference really was that we had a visitor that was participating alongside us with some of our activities. He chose to just watch as we worked on the mat but Sifu had us do our normal regimen. We all did forward rolls both staying down and coming up. At that point Phyl, Walt and I did some belt rolls as Sifu explained what it was and why we do them. At the end of our mat work, Sifu had Walt do some air rolls. It’s always fun to watch the faces of people who see these things for the first time and today was no different. After the air rolls and explanations we put the mats aside and moved on.

Blue Belt Techniques
We split off into several groups to work technique. Walt and I were paired up and he took me through several Blue belt techniques: Bridging Claw (inside defense against a right hooking punch), Clashing Hammers (defense against a headlock), and Trapped Lightning (outside defense against a right straight punch). As with the previous belt levels, the Blue belt techniques follow a general theme: Simultaneous Movement.

Bridging Claw: This is the first Blue belt technique shown to me and the movements were a bit awkward at first. The more repetition, the more I got the hang of it. It starts out by dropping into a left neutral bow while the left hand shoots with a claw to the face. The arm placement is critical as your arm is inside the attackers right arm, elbow just above horizontal serving as a block as well as a strike. The next move is to transition into a left lunge stance as you deliver a right lunge punch to the solar plexus. The left elbow anchors to your side for protection with your left fist high. The last portion is the simultaneous part. Deliver a straight left to the head while at the same time executing a ball kick to the groin. This ends the base technique and you can cover out to safety.
Clashing Hammers: This one was also awkward for me to pick up at first just because the initial hand movements were so different from everything prior. As I’m thinking about how to put this into words, I’m struggling with that too! It starts out as an immediate response to a rear headlock. As the motion of the headlock takes you down, don’t fight it, but rather allow for that movement to bring your arms down in a natural arc. The right fist comes up under the groin while the left fist is a hammer fist to the left kidney. Following this series of movements, the left hand slides up the back and finds the back of the head. You then simply bring your right fist to your left hand, effectively punching the attacker in the face. The left hand then transitions to a claw and moves to the front of the face and bringing pushing the head backward in an arcing motion. As the head reaches just about vertical, your left foot comes forward and simultaneously sweeps the right leg, effectively taking the attacker to the ground. This ends the base technique and you can cover out to safety.
Trapped Lightning: This one was kind of cool because Walt showed me something so simple that I couldn’t believe that I didn’t learn on my own in the years that I’ve been on the planet. The technique starts similarly to Stopping the Storm but is on the outside of the initial punch. Walt starts out by bringing the right hand outward at a 45 degree angle with the palm up. Each time I was doing this initial movement I didn’t have my hand correct. Walt had me put my arm in the position but with my palm facing inward. He then applied lateral pressure to the arm and told me to take note of the force required to resist. He then repositioned my hand so that the palm was up and repeated the same test. To my amazement, my arm was much stronger with the palm up than turned in. It was one of those “duh” moments. Anyway, back to the technique. You start out with the same block-parry-grab motion as with Stopping the Storm but to the outside of the right straight punch, and deliver a left stop punch to the face. You are doing all of this while stepping forward into a left neutral bow. The next step has you shuffling forward checking the lead (right) knee while simultaneously checking the attacker’s right arm with a left looping heel-palm and delivering a right heel-palm to the attackers chin. Next the left hand transitions back to the face as a claw pushes the head back and your left foot comes forward to simultaneously sweep the attacker’s right foot, effectively putting him on the ground.

As Walt and I worked through these first three techniques, the Adult class started winding down and we transitioned into the “Intermediate/Advanced” class. Walt and I finished up and then I worked the rest of the night with him as his dummy so he could work his Brown belt techniques. There is some cool stuff in the later belts and I’m looking forward to getting into them. After an hour or so, we wrapped up and bowed out of class. It was a great night of training and I learned a ton tonight. Special thanks to Walt for all of his help.

10.03.07 - Wednesday Practice

2007-10-03T23:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Classes at Rejoice! Academy
Yellow Belt Techniques

Reviewed Other Items:

Mat Work
Orange Belt Techniques

First Night of Classes at Rejoice! Academy
This was the first night for TKI to be in the Rejoice! facility in Raleigh, NC. I left work a few minutes early anticipating heavy traffic on the way to North Raleigh but I was there much quicker than expected. While I waited for others to arrive, I was looking at some of the work on the walls posted by students of this private school that we are working out in. I was surprised to see a pretty cool article written by the daughter of another TKI student, Jeff.

Warm Ups
After Bill & Donna arrived, Phyl and Walt came in shortly after. We dressed out and started moving around a little bit, just getting used to the new place. A few minutes past 6:00pm Sifu asked me to warm up the class. I wasn’t expecting that! At that point it was just Walt, Phyl, and me on the floor. We just did some light warm-ups and then Sifu had us do some additional maneuvering drills: step-drags, step-throughs, and then a combination of the two in a single maneuver. After a few minutes we were warmed up okay and Sifu decided to get things rolling… so to speak.

Mat Work
Sifu has us get the mats out and do some forward rolls. The floors are a little different here than at Red Sun so we did some preliminary testing. The individual mats were sliding a bit. We wound up putting them end-to-end with one end against the wall. Problem solved. Alex had joined us by this time and we started out with some forward rolls staying down. I was fine on my right side but for some reason kept landing with my feet reversed on the left side. Out of practice I guess. After several repetitions we did the forward rolls coming up into a fighting stance, and then eventually switched to “belt rolls”. This is the first time I’ve done these and was a little awkward at it. The idea is that you start with your thumbs tucked in your belt so you don’t have the advantage (or disadvantage?) of using your arms. When you come out of the roll, the arms come out to their normal positions to help defend and break the fall. We finished up and set the mats aside.

Yellow Belt Techniques
The next thing we looked at was something that we haven’t done before: the IKCA Yellow belt techniques. After much consideration, Sifu has decided to add these techniques into our curriculum. We covered four of them tonight: Thrusting Salute (Defense against a front kick), Delayed Sword (escape from a right hand lapel grab), Lone Kimono (escape from a left hand lapel grab), and Obscure Wing (escape from a right flank shoulder grab). As Sifu described them, it seems that these techniques are pretty much taken directly out of the American Kenpo system created by Ed Parker. They seemed a little awkward at first, as with learning any new technique, but we warmed up to them as we kept working with them. I was working with Walt and as we became more comfortable with each technique, we started playing around with possible extensions and modifications. By far, my favorite was Obscure Wing as it just seemed to lend itself to so many possibilities. It quickly delivers three very hard strikes into three different areas of the body and leaves the would-be attacker vulnerable for so many possibilities for follow-up. Good stuff.

Orange Belt Techniques
As we were finishing up with Yellow belt techniques, a couple more students were getting dressed and warming up. We all reassembled into two groups and worked some more technique. Alex, Phyl, and Walt separated to one side of the room working their material. I was joined by Ces & Rich and reviewed Orange belt techniques. Sifu took us through several techniques by demonstrating and then having us practice. The first one we covered was Thunder and Lightning, followed by Returning Serpent and Deflecting Thunder. While we did spend a fair amount of time on all of these techniques, we spent the most time on Beheading the Dragon.

After Sifu went through the particulars of the Beheading the Dragon, he went over to spend some time with the Green belts and asked if I could continue practicing with the Ces & Richard. One of these gentlemen is a 2nd degree Black belt in American Kenpo and the other is starting our system from scratch after holding rank in American Kenpo several years ago. We worked through the gross movements first and then spent a fair amount fine tuning. By the time we wrapped up class it seemed that they both had a good understanding of the technique.

We wrapped up class and lined up. Sifu thanked us all for coming in and we bowed out.

09.29.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-09-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Other Items:

Drills: Focus Mit
Mat Work
Techniques

Warm Ups
I was only observing today as my knees were screwed up again. They have been aching for several weeks now as they do every so often. I haven’t been giving them the time they need to get back to health and I’m paying the price. As a result, I’m sitting out today but I am here observing and taking notes.

Walt started the class out by beginning the warm-ups. He had everyone stretching and moving to get warmed up, including arms, torso, and legs. Sifu took back over and had everyone doing deep leg stretches. He then moved into ball kicks, roundhouse kicks, and back kicks.

Drills: Focus Mit
The drills today started with just a single straight lunge punch and back. Sifu had everyone focus on form before power but commented that power will come through proper form. There was another new student in class today and as Sifu focused some time with him the rest of the class moved on to 3 and 4 hit combinations of their own individual choice.

I was interested to see the combinations that everyone chose. It was clear that some focused on speed, while others focused on power, and at least one person was maintaining a rhythm with the strikes. Regardless of what they chose for combinations, they were all focusing on accuracy in the strike.

Mat Work
The class first started the mat work by practicing forward rolls staying down. There is a usual progression when we practice with the mats and today was no different. Next was forward rolls coming up to fighting stance (neutral bow), then air rolls for those that know how and were able to do them. There is one other item that Sifu has added recently that looks as though it may become part of our usual work out and that is the belt roll. This is essentially just a forward roll starting with your hands tucked in your belt and not used until after you are into the roll. It’s an interesting one as you have this weird feeling that you are going to do a face plant if you don’t get your hands out in front of you as you are going into the roll. In reality you are only going to do a face plant if you don’t tuck your head! While the class was practicing, Sifu mentioned something I took note of pertaining to air rolls: He said to stay tucked and don’t reach.

Techniques
While Sifu worked with the White belts and those new to the class, The Green belts took turns with Alfredo and worked their own material with each other. Walt worked with Alfredo first and went over Captured Wing. They worked for some time with it and then Walt joined Phyl while Alex came over to work with Alfredo. Alex went over Clapping Tiger and Raking Hammer. I recalled applying the throw in Clapping Tiger when I was learning it for the first time. As I watched them work through some of the finer points it was interesting to see how each correction brought the throw in tighter and tighter. Ultimately he got it down and appeared to be comfortable with it. Toward the end of class, Sifu came around and took a look at the technique. He made note that it was originally taught as a side throw in the I.K.C.A. but he modified it to a full overhead throw for its effectiveness.

The class wrapped up and everyone lined up to bow out. Sifu reminded everyone that classes will be extended to two evenings during the week starting Wednesday, October 3rd at the Rejoice! Academy near Red Sun. I don’t know about the other guys but I’m looking forward to training during the week. With that, the class bowed out and was dismissed.

09.01.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-09-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Other Items:

Mat Work
Drills: Hubud
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm Ups
We did a good solid warm-up today with lots of kicking. After some stretching and loosening up, we did several ball kicks and roundhouse kicks.

Mat Work
The mat work we did today started out normally as we worked through forward rolls. At first we stayed down, slapping to dissipate force and avoid injury. We also did the forward roll coming up into a fighting position, which we also do frequently. But then Sifu changed things up on us a little bit. Then next set that we did was a forward roll staying down but kicking into an air shield from the ground. Practicing this gives you a realistic idea of the power and snap you can generate in a kick while on the ground. It was interesting to note that any effective power generation generally comes from being in an appropriate position to deliver the kick, just as if you were standing up. If you throw the kick while out of position, there may be some basic impact, but it seemed to increase exponentially when you apply one or more of the basic principles like back up mass or mass in motion.

The last part of our mat work today was also something relatively new to me: the “belt roll”. I’ve seen this before but had never attempted it. Essentially it is a forward roll without the initial use of your arms or hands. It sounds simple enough but when you go to actually do it, there is this urge inside you to get your hands out there for protection. You have to override his urge, tuck your head, and go into the roll with your hands on your belt! Once you go through the initial roll, you can either use your hands in combination with your body to break the fall or you can continue forward with the momentum and come right back up to your feet. If you wanted to you could actually just leave your hands in your belt the whole time if you are coming back up to your feet but you would probably want to assume a neutral bow or at least have your hands ready for action.

Drills: Hubud & Rolling Backfist
A couple of years ago a good friend of TKI came to visit and introduced us to a flow drill he simply called “hubud”. Today we revisited this drill again. It’s a cool little drill that trains in several things all at once like accuracy, speed, sensitivity, blocking, relative body position, and more. Apparently the origins of this drill are from the Filipino martial arts but the benefits can be applied across many arts. We worked it in class with a few different partners and the subtle changes and adaptations from person to person was interesting. Some were doing the drill with speed and flow in mind, others with more of a “conditioning” mindset by using hard strikes & blocks. It’s a great drill and I’m glad we worked it again today.

Following the hubud drill we did another one that we haven’t done in a long time. I’m not sure what this one is called but sort of a rolling backfist/block flow drill. It can be worked on the right or the left side and can be done slowly or quickly. Once you find your rhythm you can pretty much close your eyes and do it blind. Sifu introduced another element of this drill to us today. As your are rolling through the drill, one person will randomly grab the back-fist of the partner and pull it down and back at a 45 degree angle. This can cancel all three of their zones and it really takes them by surprise as they don’t have any idea when its coming. We did this for several minutes and then moved on.

¼ Speed Sparring
Although we have done this exercise several times in the past, it was a little different this time just because we had some new students in class with us that were sparring at ¼ speed for their first time. As we train together in class we sort of learn how the others tend to fight so it is always interesting and sometimes enlightening to spar with fresh new faces. Today was no different. One of the new students held rank previously in another flavor of Kenpo several years ago and is coming back to it. The other “student” is currently a 2nd degree in American Kenpo. We didn’t all get to spar with everyone but it was a good session as we worked this for almost an hour.

I was doing okay today but not great. I’ve been out of class for a while and am trying to get back into the groove. I didn’t quite find the groove today but I wasn’t far from it and it felt good to be back in class. I’m expecting a new baby soon and will have to take some time off again for that in the near future but I’m already re-engaged with class mentally and ready to move forward. Seeing how some of the other guys in class are moving up was really cool. I’ll be back soon, guys!

08.11.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-08-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Items:

Focus Mits
Mat Work
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Orange Belt Blocking Set
Master Form
Techniques

Warm Ups
The warm up today was solid. We started with basic stretching and stances. In addition we did several kicking reps, mostly roundhouse kicks. Sifu had us concentrating on form, turning the hips over to accomplish the horizontal trajectory required for the correct delivery of the roundhouse kick. Overall, I did okay, but I sure felt a little rusty. This was aggravating for me because this was one of the items that I worked while I was away from formal training these last couple of months. By the time we were done, I had a good light sweat going and was ready to get going.

Focus Mits
I worked with Walt for the focus mit drills today. We started with a 3-count combination of our choice. Walt started with a combo that favored his strong side and then switched to his weaker. Walt hits hard and fast and I was watching his focus and form. After a while, we switched to a 4-count combination with the same type of responses. When it was my turn, I basically followed suit with what Walt did. I found that I too had a harder time with my weaker side. I noticed that the mit was swiveling a lot, indicating that I was not hitting true to the center of the target. When we finished the drills, I looked at my hands and noted that my knuckles were red across all four knuckles – not necessarily to the first two as they should have been. Definitely something to review while practicing at home.

The next set of drills were yes-no-yes drills. I did okay with the 3-count version of this drill but for some reason was less responsive to the 4-count. Overall I did okay but it wasn’t perfect. Definitely still shaking off some rust.

Mat Work
We did some light mat work today utilizing some of the more basic skills of falling. I say that in full remembrance of Sifu telling us at first to “stay down” – indicating that he wanted us to do a forward roll and stay down on the mat. As I am doing the roll and coming out of it, I realized that I was starting to come up and it dawned on me what he said. I wound up landing in a quasi sitting position that didn’t go un-noticed by Sifu. After that I did much better and actually kept my focus. We basically did forward rolls staying down and then coming up into a neutral bow. Then we moved on to the next item on the agenda.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
I’m not sure how many down and back we did but it seemed like we did 1000 kicks today! My first trip down and back was shaky, off balance. The second trip down and back was better, perhaps my best of the day. The third trip down and back and I noticed that I was off balance a lot of the time, but I couldn’t quite figure out why. Sifu saw it and solved my problem. What he saw was me launching a kick without fully being in position to do so, which of course was causing me to lose balance. The other thing that I knew I was doing and noticed my self was that I was standing up more as I was getting tired. As soon as I realized this I made a conscious effort to get lower in my stance. A few more trips up and down the mat and we finished up the kicking drills.

Orange Belt Blocking Set
The entire group lined up and went through the Orange Belt Blocking set several times. It was interesting. I’ve done this a zillion times and yet, still hesitated the first time through. After that, I was fine, but was disappointed the first run through. Sifu had us go through this several times, focusing on intent and accuracy and not necessarily speed. After the 5th or 6th time through, we discussed as a group what makes a good block and also what makes a block “bad” or “ineffective”. Sifu was keen to use some new terminology in his descriptions today, namely the “line of action” and a “path of action”. The line of action is a linear motion from a single point and the example used was a straight punch. The path of action is still a liner motion but is two separate points traveling that projection, like a block.

Master Form
Immediately following the Orange Belt Blocking Set, we went into the Master Form. Sifu had us go up through what we knew on the first time through. I stopped after the Orange belt techniques because that’s all I know to this point. I watched Alex, who was at my right, continue on through the Purple belt techniques in an effort to pick up on the order and directions of the next set of techniques. The next several times through, Sifu had Jeff and I repeat the Orange belt portion several times until the rest of the group finished their portions. I had been practicing this too in my down time these last couple of months and felt pretty good doing these techniques. I feel like I’m ready to learn some new material and move forward with the master form.

Techniques
For the last part of class, Jeff and I worked on the Purple belt techniques. We pretty much went through them from start to finish and then worked on a couple of techniques that we wanted to go back and focus on.

Stopping the Storm: Sifu noted that both Jeff and I were not properly anchoring the elbow after the block-parry-grab. He stressed the importance of how this movement marries with the stop punch and increases its effectiveness exponentially.

Hidden Wing: When I did this the first couple of times, I was not delivering a true heel kick. Sifu noted this and stated “Nice Sidekick.” I got it right after that.

Circling Serpent: As we went through this one, Sifu stated that I wasn’t giving enough (any?) body reaction for Jeff to work off from. He stated flatly that he wanted more contact, particularly to the ribs. He also stated that it should still be controlled and that it should not inflict damage. He actually demonstrated on me to make the point that this can be done without injury.

Hooking Thunder: Jeff is very flexible. When you do this technique incorrectly on a flexible person it really stands out. In my case, I raised his leg up but did not pull it far enough in my direction so he wasn’t forced to dead-leg into the thrust punch. I knew what I did wrong immediately but it was a lesson well learned as far as executing proper technique.

Captured Wing: Jeff and I actually played around with this one just a little bit. Quite by accident, I stepped up too close to him when I brought his arm behind him and sort of blocked the back of his left leg with my right leg. He stepped back and felt the resistance and still tried to power through the technique. It worked, sort of, but it got me thinking. When the attackers leg is in that position it really sets him up nicely for a leg buckle. We tried this a few more times and Sifu came over and asked us what we were doing. As we described the scenario, he added a few of his own, namely reversing the elbow and groin strikes to accommodate a situation. The most interesting thing about all of these variations is that the technique still worked in all of these situations. Very cool.

Clapping Tiger: Sifu had us get the mats out for this one as he wants us to practice a full overhead throw in this technique. I like throwing, and this particular throw is one that I picked up relatively easily. Jeff had a little bit more difficulty with it, probably because I out-weigh him by several pounds (I should work on that, too). As Jeff threw me several times, I was using the experience to practice my falling and not reach out to try to break my fall. Jeff improved greatly in the short time that we practiced this technique today and I think my falling skills increased as well.

Raking Hammer: This is the one technique in Purple belt that gave me the biggest problem, and I really can’t say why. All I know is that I practiced it to death and am now much more comfortable with it. When practicing with a partner, I really have to be careful not to throw that elbow after the leg buckle. I really jam it when I’m practicing in the air but that would be really bad news on a partner.

Jeff and I didn’t really have a lot of time for “what ifs” at the end of our techniques today as class wrapped up at 9:00am. It was a really good workout today and I felt good after class. It has been a little while since I was thrown around and I was glad that I didn’t land wrong and hurt something. It was also great to see Alex again after such a long break.

08.04.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-08-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Forearm Striking

Reviewed Other Items:

Stance Work
¼ Speed Sparring

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.

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.

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.

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.

05.12.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-05-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Visitors in Class Today

Reviewed Other Items:

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Mat Work
¼ Speed Sparring
Techniques

Warm Ups
The warm up routine was relatively basic today with some additional focus on leg stretches. After that, we went through some basic maneuvers and moves, like ball kicks and lead leg roundhouse kicks. We also discussed the concept of the switch – a maneuver that allows you to change your stance without putting you any closer to your attacker.

Visitors
We had a couple of visitors today that came in to watch and participate. Jaime is a fellow employee with Sifu, Brandon, and I. He came in dressed and ready to work out and his son, Evan, watched closely from the side of the mat. They both seemed to enjoy themselves and Jaime says he’ll be back next week. Welcome aboard, Jaime!

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
After we warmed up, we lined up on the edge of the mat in preparation for working the Purple Belt Kicking Drill. We worked up and back several times. I did okay for the most part but noticed I was kicking across my center a couple of times and was losing my balance. Once I realized what I was doing the correction was easy but I was a little put off by the fact that I was doing that at all. I have been working this drill for a long time now and I don’t recall ever doing that before.

Mat Work
Next up was some mat work. We pulled out the mats and started with some forward rolls staying down. Nothing to special to report about this other than I’m still fighting the urge to come up every time instead of staying down. After several turns with this, we started doing the forward roll coming up into a neutral bow. It wasn’t very long and Sifu said that those of us that know how to do air rolls should go ahead and do them. Phyl and Alfredo did them no problem. I attempted to but still need work. Getting closer though. Sifu took some time with Jaime to describe why we do the rolls the way we do and to get him started with them. Jaime actually did very well with them, better than I did when I started doing them.

¼ Speed Sparring
It has been a while since I have done any ¼ speed sparring and it felt good today. I was first paired up with Sifu. We were reminded prior to pairing off that we should take this time to try new things and experiment a little bit. I didn’t get crazy or anything but I was attempting to work combinations a little more than usual, and be less defensive. However I found myself in the same place three different times with Sifu. Although it didn’t happen the same way each time, Sifu managed to tie me up by getting me to strike across my center. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what he did, even though he told me after class.

The next match I had was with Alfredo. Alfredo’s style is such that he likes to stand up straight when he punches and likes to grapple if he can get a grip on you. He had several strikes on me to the body, all solid hits but with varied effectiveness depending on targets. I found the best defense against him was to circle around him and counter punch from the inside, often with a back fist. I was also able to get inside his defenses a couple of times with a kick to the groin. Overall, Alfredo has a very stable base and it’s very tough to take him down unless you can catch him stepping in deep. I’ll have to work on avoiding those body blows with him.

I was taking my turn out when we had someone come in off the street asking for directions. Sifu dealt with her while I stepped back in with Alfredo. It wasn’t long after that and we finished our sparring session.

Techniques
Sifu worked with Phyl while I went over with Alfredo and Jamie. I was basically dummying for Alfredo while Jaime observed. We started with Thunder and Lightning and before each technique, Alfredo described what the technique was for – such as “Thunder and Lighting is an inside defense against a left hook.” Alfredo knows all of the Orange belt techniques. We went through Thunder and Lightning, Returning Serpent, and Deflecting Thunder before we broke for the end of class.

After Class
Phyl pulled me aside after class and asked if I would dummy for him with a couple of techniques that he has been working on extensions for. I think Phyl was mostly looking for body reactions and some feedback because he pretty much had the extensions worked out. There is one tweak he is considering but he is still working it out. We worked on them for another 15-20 minutes before Sifu called on us to pack up and get going.

05.10.07 - Practice Out Of Class

2007-05-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

Session with Bill during Lunch

Sifu and I were able to get together for a workout at lunch today. He opened with some expectations of me regarding training toward my Blue belt. He stated that he wants me to work on my intensity and speed, that they will go hand in hand. Next he told me that in watching me in my training up until now, it appears that I am holding back. The advice he gave is that I need to trust my training and my training partners, especially the Green belts as they have already been through this level of training. Further, he stated that it is okay to increase certain types of contact – but he didn’t elaborate on this point.

We then shifted focus to Blue belt techniques. The theme of the techniques for Blue belt are simultaneous movements.

The first technique we reviewed was Bridging Claw – an inside defense against a right roundhouse punch. The following points are what I understand of the technique so far:

Drop into a left neutral bow stance with the left arm extended to the face presenting a claw
o The left elbow should be raised to establish the block
o The left claw is also a palm heel strike to the face (nose)
o The shoulders should be brought up to protect the head/chin from attack.
o The left claw also obstructs the view of the attacker
While transitioning to a right lunge punch to the solar plexus, bring the left hand up vertical along the side of the face as a check.
Next, shoot the left hand forward to the face will simultaneously delivering a right ball kick to the groin. Be sure that the shoulders are square to the attacker when doing this or you will be moving across your center to punch or kick, thus throwing off your balance.

The next technique we discussed was Clashing Hammers – a defense against a left flank headlock. The following points are what I understand of the techniques so far:

As the attacker comes in from the left side to put you into a headlock, don’t fight him but rather go with the motion allowing your arms to swing naturally, guiding them into these strikes:
o The left hand forms a hammer fist and strikes to the kidney on the far side of the attacker (his left side). The strike is such the left arm bridges across the back and can either hit the right kidney with the forearm or at least the muscular area across that portion of his back.
o The right hand swings up to the groin in striking in an upward trajectory with the fist. The fist is aligned such that the top of the thumb is making contact first.
o The stance adjusts so that you are virtually 90 degrees to the left of where you started, essentially stepping forward with the right foot as you turn with the hammer lock.
Next, use the left hand to contour up to the back of the head – this becomes your target. Bring your tightly clenched right fist up to your left hand, effectively sandwiching the head. Do not push the head forward or down with the left hand.
Move your left hand into a claw onto your attacker’s face. Your arm should be between you and your attacker, clawing the near side of his face – not reaching around to the other side. Simultaneously, the left claw hand arcs backward (keeping the elbow tucked) while the left foot sweeps his right leg forward. This creates a pivot point somewhere about his waist, taking him off balance and ultimately to the ground behind you.

The last technique we had time to discuss today was called Trapped Lighting – an outside defense against a right straight punch. The following points are what I understand of the techniques so far:

Stepping in toward a right straight punch, guide your right arm up into a parry/block/grab similar to that used in Stopping the Storm except you are stepping outside of the punch. Your right hand winds up pulling the attacker’s right hand down and away at a 45 degree angle canceling his height, width and depth while simultaneously delivering a straight left to the head (temple is the optimum target). You should be in a left neutral bow.
While step-dragging forward into a lunge stance, the left hand comes down in a looping check to the top of the pectoral muscle and across his upper left arm, essentially neutralizing it. While this is happening, the right hand is contouring up the arm to deliver a palm heel strike to the face (nose).
The left hand will now contour up the chest for a chop to the throat while the left foot comes forward to sweep the attacker’s right leg for a takedown.

There was a ton to absorb in a short amount of time. We were working on a slippery floor surface which made stances tricky but was perhaps a bit more realistic to what you might encounter in the real world. In reviewing the notes I have taken, I’m sure they are incomplete. I’ll flesh them in more as I practice them and learn more about them.

We were forced to cut short the workout due to time constraints but the workout was informative and productive just the same.

04.28.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-04-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Working with Donal

Reviewed Other Items:

Cardinal Kicking Drill
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Mat Work

Warm Ups
We started the day as usual with some warm ups. They were relatively light today but we did focus on stretching, particularly the legs. It wasn’t long and we went into some drills.

Cardinal Directions Kicking Drill
I was having some trouble with my right knee this week and it was coming out pretty quickly as we went through the Cardinal Kicking drill. It was mostly good with the exception of the right front crossover before the left side kick. As I would transition my weight from the left foot to the right foot during that crossover, there was a question each time as to whether or not my knee was going to hold or if I was going to the mat. It was a little sore starting out today but I didn’t think too much of it. Immediately following this kicking drill though I went over and took some ibuprofen to get me through the class. Nothing makes you feel old faster than walking over to your bag in front of the whole class and reaching for pain reliever! Of course I found some solace in the fact that, as soon as the sound of clanging tablets resonated through the room, I was asked by another student if they might have some as well.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
The Purple Belt Kicking Drill followed next and although my knee was a little shaky for the previous drill, it seemed okay for this one. I find that it is easier to guard against any twisting at the knee with this particular drill which is a good thing for sore knees. We did several repetitions up and down the mat and I was feeling pretty good again by the time we finished up. Toward the end I found that I was starting to get a little tired and started standing up a bit – which clearly started affecting my balance. As soon as I noticed this, I got low again and all the stability came back. When in doubt, stick to the basics.

Mat Work
We didn’t spend a ton of time with rolls today but we did enough to shake off any rust that may have accumulated. We pretty much stuck to the usual drills starting with forward rolls staying down before transitioning to forward rolls coming up into a neutral bow. For those that are able, Sifu had them do some air rolls as well. Although my attempts at air rolls are getting better overall, they still resemble an air “crash” when I hit the mat, or at least that is what it still feels like. For some reason the timing of when to uncoil or how tight to coil to begin with is still eluding me. It’s not something I’m willing to practice without a mat so I guess it will just click one of these times as I experiment with it in class. I also find that I’m closer to an accurate air roll on my right side than I am on my left.

Working with Donal
For the last couple of months, we have been joined by a gentleman named Donal who is visiting from Ireland for training related to his career. He is a 2nd Dan Black belt from the AKKS system and it has been our good fortune to be able to work with him. He attended the Kenpo in the Carolinas 2007 seminar last weekend and fit right in with everyone else that was there. Today though, Sifu had Donal, Phyl, Elliott, and me work together in a sort of free-form discussion of techniques, specifically comparing items that were both similar and different in Donal’s system and our own.

We have never done this before and it was a great opportunity. As it turned out, I wound up dummying for both Phyl and Donal for most of the time which gave me a new level of exposure to different techniques in both systems. I’m not even going to try to remember the specific names of the techniques from Donal’s system, or even some of the ones that Phyl and Elliott were relating to higher up in our own system. I did recognize in every technique from both systems certain core principles and concepts.

We started off really easy with Thunder and Lightning, the very first technique I ever learned in Kenpo. Donal seemed to really like it and immediately recognized movements from a similar technique in his own system that he promptly executed for us. As soon as he was done with his technique, Phyl, Elliott, and I would comment on what we recognized and showed Donal another technique from the IKCA that was similar to what he showed us. And on it went like that for a good solid hour or so. We went back and forth sharing ideas and techniques, discussing what was the same and what made them different. It was eye opening to me to see that the two systems shared nearly identical movements when you view the systems as a whole. Some things are taught at different levels of training or combined with different movements but they are pretty much the same thing.

Another thing that I took note of, particularly since I was the primary dummy for the session, was that the extensions he shared with us on some of his techniques seemed to go on forever! I actually asked him about it at one point, inquiring as to how a person would possibly be on their feet (if they were being struck that way) for the duration of the counter attack as called for in the extension. Donal just got a smile on his face and, in sort of an ‘aw, shucks’ kind of voice said: “Well, that’s Kenpo.” We discussed this a bit further and he acknowledged that in many cases the would-be assailant would likely be down for the count at the end of the base technique. However, it isn’t uncommon, even in the IKCA, for the extensions to go on for several strikes beyond what might be necessary to subdue an attacker.

At the end of class, everyone joined in for a few minutes and we all sort of reviewed what we had been discussing. It was cool to learn about Kenpo in this way as it felt very exploratory and new. Thanks to Donal for being willing to share his art as he learned it with us. I hope we were able to share some new ideas with him as well.

04.21.07 - Kenpo in the Carolinas 2007 Seminar

2007-04-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

Areas covered in the Seminar:

Larry Lauer – Relative Body Position
Jerry Brooksher – Spontaneity Drills
Bill Parsons – Joint Locks 101
Vic LeRoux – Kenpo Takedowns
Vic LeRoux – Parker Knife Technique

Before the seminar…

The seminar date is April 21st, 2007 and it is being held at the Open Door Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. This is the second year the event has been hosted here as it worked out great last year. This is the church that both Sifu and Jeff (a fellow student) attend.

On the Thursday afternoon before the seminar, Sifu asked if I would be willing to swing by Walt’s house to pick up his training dummy and then bring both Walt’s dummy and my own to the seminar. We did this last year as well and though they didn’t seem to get used a whole lot, there were several comments by attendees that were interested in the dummies but had never seen one until that seminar. So I stopped over to Walt’s house an picked up his Ultraman and on Saturday morning Maria and I headed out a few minutes early so we could catch some breakfast at IHOP – with both dummies heads sticking out by the tailgate.

Per Sifu’s request, we arrived a few minutes early at about 8:00am. The seminar was slated to begin at 9:00am and we wanted to be set up and ready as the attendees started to arrive. Everyone was asked to be there at 8:30am to get checked in and dressed so they were ready to go at 9:00am. As with most planned events, something is always bound to go not quite according to plan. As Maria and I finished unloading the car, we learned that two helpers that were going to be there to help Donna out with the registration and check-in were going to be “no-shows”. Maria jumped in at the table with Donna and Walt and I had the job of arm banding all who entered. Problem solved and nobody was overwhelmed.

Around 9:00am when things were supposed to be getting kicked off, Sifu received a phone call. Vic was lost somewhere in downtown Raleigh. Not only was Vic not there yet, Jerry Brooksher was with him in the car. After several minutes of trying to determine their location based on the landmarks that Vic was calling out to Bill, we figured out that they were heading in the right general direction and would eventually make to us – but they were going to be late. They did finally arrive at the church parking lot around 9:10am to an eager crowd.

We got started around 9:20am or so with introductions. Bill started with introductions and ground rules for behavior in the church and on church grounds. Vic had the floor for a few brief minutes at that point thanking everyone for attending and then we got started. First on the agenda were some promotions.

Sifu called up Alex Hinkle-Risher and Phyl Parsons – fellow students from TKI – and proceeded on with the promotions. Both Alex and Phyl were advancing from Blue belts to Green belts. Walt had tested a couple of weeks ago and sent in his test for review, which allowed Sifu his certification as an instructor to Green belt. After the belt ceremony itself, Sifu asked if they would like to be kicked in, which they did of course, and he did so.

Following Alex and Phyl, another gentleman was promoted by the name of Mark Williams. I know Mark, which surprised me because I don’t know a lot of people in the IKCA, but Mark is the one I sent copies of the photos to last year. He was very grateful for them but I never really heard from him again until I saw him at the door for this event. I noticed that he was wearing a Brown belt when he first entered and I was struggling to think what he was ranked last year when he attended. I think he was Blue belt. Anyway, Jerry Brooksher and Vic LeRoux were up front and up strode Mark. Vic explained that Mark was a video-only student and corresponded regularly with Jerry. He recently tested for Black belt and was being promoted today! It was cool to see him go through the ceremony and get his Black belt. It was also cool to see that he got kicked in by not only Jerry, but he was also kicked in by Vic as well. With the promotions now over, Vic turned things over to the instructor for the first segment – Larry Lauer.

Larry Lauer’s topic was “Relative Body Positioning” which is a topic that Sifu discusses in nearly every class we have. Larry chose to illustrate the topic with several techniques from the IKCA system, although he was quick to mention that the American Kenpo systems have very similar techniques. The first one was Beheading the Dragon. He requested that we pair up with someone we didn’t know, and further requested that if at all possible for the IKCA people to pair up with someone with the American Kenpo system. I had the opportunity to do this – sort of. The first person I paired up with was Rob Ray.

Rob Ray, who goes by “The Celtic Crippler” on his MySpace page, originally ran a school in Georgia that featured instruction in American Kenpo. He attended the first Kenpo in the Carolinas last year and hit it off well with Master Vic, so much so that he went back home and applied for a school license to the IKCA. He has been an affiliate school ever since.

So, although he has experience in American Kenpo, Rob also has experience with the IKCA system as well. His take on Beheading the Dragon was interesting. When we do it at TKI, the waiter check is close to ‘zero sensitivity’ and is meant to control that lead arm in such a way as to keep it from coming back up on you – that’s it. After we rake the ribs, the arm comes up high as if drawing a sword, and we deliver a hand chop to the base of the skull. When Rob moves, he reminds me of Larry Lauer in the sense that he is very forceful and ‘bullish’. In this case, the waiter check comes down into a looping sort of pinning check, which orients the body such that the attacker sort of caves in at that point, dropping the lead shoulder. The hand sword is then executed to the base of the neck or the seam at the neck and shoulder in a crushing downward blow.

I have to admit, this was interesting at first and after I tried it, I found that it was still very effective. Upon further analysis, I realized that it was still loyal to technique as far as using principles and concepts of Kenpo. Ultimately, it worked, and it was cool to see another take on one of the techniques that I was familiar with.

The next technique Larry had us do was Circling Serpent. In describing this to us as he came around, Larry referred to the initial step as a “triangle step” because of the shape the path of your foot takes. This has also been referred to as a “K step” or a “C step” for the same reasons. Larry describes his triangle step as moving in 45 degree angles. All of this is pretty much the same as the way I learned it, up until the entry. Rob and Larry had a brief discussion about the initial punch used in this technique and Larry stated that he really likes the thrust punch to the whipping back-knuckle, and promptly demonstrated why. When he comes into you off the ‘triangle step’, he is using his body mass to not only take your space but to deliver a thrust punch utilizing all the power of his forward momentum in a thrusting punch that is perfectly in line with his line of movement. The punch has the potential to be much more devastating than the whipping back knuckle and would really take the fight out of the attacker. After this first punch, Rob and I started having fun with it because we realized that when you come in that hard, you really move your attacker away from you, and when you grab his shoulder for the lunge punch to the ribs, there is some additional travel time that you can use to really pull them into that punch and bury it deep in the ribs. Following this second brutal assault, Rob would do the foot replacement and take down but would basically just take him to the ground. He commented that an extension to this is to retain control of the arm. I showed him how we do it at TKI, where the ‘bad guy’ is essentially planted on the point of your knee and we retain control of him. There was one key thing that Rob pointed out and it made a lot of sense, regardless of how you do the technique. When the final takedown is down, I noticed that he brought his left hand up high near his head as a checking hand. I don’t do that. It got me thinking and I wondered: “Why don’t I do that?” Rob stated simply that there are no idle hands in Kenpo and that if your hand isn’t attacking or busy doing something it should be checking. Yeah, I know that too. So why wasn’t I doing it? I don’t recall ever doing it, and I don’t recall being corrected for it. I’ll have to ask Sifu for his take on this one.

Before we got started on the next technique, Larry had us switch partners again. I again looked for someone outside of our school and partnered up with John, one of Rob Ray’s students. John is a very well mannered guy wearing a Blue belt and had an American Kenpo patch on his gi. He stated that since the school had converted to the IKCA system, he had learned techniques up and through the Purple belt curriculum. The next technique that Larry had us doing was Hooking Thunder.

John had stated that he knew the technique but that he was having some trouble with it. We went through it a couple of times, both of us taking turns, and he could see that I was doing something differently but couldn’t put his finger on it. He asked what I thought. I looked carefully and I suggested that he start with the stance. I told him that I was taught to step almost straight back into a cat stance, which puts me just outside of the normal range of the kick, allowing me to crane hand in and ‘hook’ the kicking leg. This turned out to be the first difference as he was stepping more to the side and trying to catch the kick. It was both difficult to catch this way, and it was difficult to control as he was attempting to hold it out away from his body. So far, so good. The next part of how I was taught had to do with how I control the leg. Sifu teaches to lift and anchor the elbow in to affect the attacker’s height and depth zones. I shared this and John tried it. He said it felt better, that he had more control. The last part had to do with the final punch. Each time I did it, John was ‘forced’ to come into my thrusting punch. When he was doing the technique, I was moving slightly away from him and didn’t always come forward into him. I explained that this was because of the control of the foot. I showed him how you can pull the leg a bit as you release it and force the attacker to ‘dead leg’ into the punch. We continued to practice and discuss these concepts until Larry introduced the next technique: Raking Hammer.

I knew already that Sifu teaches Raking Hammer a little differently than the IKCA tapes, and with Vic’s blessing. As Larry went through this one, he described stepping back into a neutral bow for the initial block, and transitioning into a horse stance for the rake across the nose and hammer fist to the groin. Then, as Larry likes to do, he shuffles in hard with a leg buckle and rising elbow. This is exactly how we practiced it at first and we were both having problems shuffling in for the leg buckle. We were not getting in deep enough for an effective buckle. Jerry Brooksher was walking around checking on everyone and we asked him about it. He suggested that we change the angle slightly on the leg and buckle against the lower part of the leg as opposed to the upper thigh area. He demonstrated and it did seem to work, although it seemed more difficult to actually get the buckle. Jerry moved on and I asked John if he was interested in seeing how I had learned it with our modification. I showed him how we drop in place for the initial block, which puts us closer to the action and lines us up better for the leg buckle. John felt it was a good modification and we practiced it a couple of times. Jerry was nearby and stopped back over to us. I simply mentioned that it was how I was taught by Bill Parsons and he was familiar with it. He didn’t really critique the move, per se, but rather he said something that I found interesting. He said that if we study the techniques the way Chuck and Vic designed them, by the time we work our way through the system we will have a greater understanding for the original system and intent of Ed Parker, as the IKCA system has all of the key elements of the original American Kenpo system. He went on to say that the way we do the technique is definitely effective and works well, but to consider learning the system the way it was intended.

The next segment was led by Jerry Brooksher and the topic was “Developing Spontaneity in Kenpo”. The tool of focus for this topic was a spontaneity drill called the Semi Circle. As Jerry described the drill, he stated that because of the way that some people train, this drill is sometimes referred to as the “Circle of Shame”. Why? Because there is nothing that can really help you develop true spontaneity except actually working it and practicing with it. There are those that by purpose or circumstance that have never trained for spontaneity before and are surprised at how they are unable to respond in a way that allows them to defend themselves when they take part in the Semi Circle drill.

There is a build up to getting to the full drill but when you get to that level it will look something like this. You will be in the middle facing forward. There will be 5 people around you spaced evenly from your immediate left to your immediate right. There will be a drill coordinator that is standing behind you that you cannot see. That coordinator will silently point at random to any given person in the circle and that person will respond with a strike. Depending on what direction that strike is coming from, the defender in the middle of the circle will respond with an appropriate block or technique.

As you are learning this drill, you normally do not just jump right into it the way it is described above but rather you will build up to that level incrementally. For instance, the physical layout is the same but instead of a coordinator pointing silently to the attackers, the attackers will simply go in order of their line, say from left to right. The attack would likely be the same from each attacker and the defender may start by simply blocking each attack as it comes in. This type of arrangement allows for everyone participating to get used to the general concepts of the drill. As the drill progresses forward, you the attackers will eventually be pointed to at random and the defender may work up from blocks to techniques – or whatever the drill may call for.

Overall, this drill is awesome. I can certainly see where it helps with the spontaneity but there was one other thing I noticed too. As I work with different people in a technique line or one on one, I tend to sort of get used to them. It’s much harder to do that when you don’t know who is going to b e attacking and from where. Also, Jerry showed how there is a technique in the IKCA system for every angle of attack once you learn the whole system. There aren’t too many other drills that allow you to practice such a full range of techniques. It’s also a little humbling. There are times when the attack comes in and flat out gets through. Although this isn’t an actual fight, it does force you to adapt to the direction and angle of a given attack in order to make your defense work.

All of this said, I didn’t really do much of this in today’s seminar. I was in a group comprised mostly of Orange belts or equivalent training and the techniques that were chosen to be used were not known by all of us. We spent a majority of the time in the circle learning the techniques as opposed to actually doing the drill. For anyone reading this, I am not complaining, but rather just stating a fact. I did get a ton out of this time working with Greg Payne and the other guys in the circle as I was exposed to techniques that I haven’t yet been taught.

I did talk with some of the other guys in class and it seems they got more out of the actual drill that I did. In speaking with Phyl specifically, he was very impressed with his group, particularly the American Kenpo practitioner that was visiting from Peru. He said that the drill was new to him but was working a different technique with each attack, just as Jerry Brooksher had described, but using techniques from his own system.
We broke for lunch after Jerry’s segment and when we came back there were some brief demonstrations. First up was Jerry’s son, who appeared to be roughly 10 or 11 years old and was wearing a Brown belt. He did several techniques with his father dummying for him. It must be awkward doing some of these techniques with such a difference in height. He seemed to do pretty well though and he and his father wrapped up their demo pretty quickly.

Next up was the TKI group. They ugly mugs composing this group were Brandon, me, Walt, Alex, Phyl, and Sifu. We formed a large circle on the mat and, starting with an attack on Brandon, we took turns first attacking and then defending as we worked our way around the circle. The last to be attacked was Sifu and was attacked with an overhead club strike by Phyl. As I was told in practice, I did my best to wear my mean face full of intent and make a lot of noise. At one point, Walt went down on a knee but was facing out of the circle. More than one of us was wondering if we should offer help or wait but the incident turned out to be minor and Walt rejoined the circle momentarily. All in all our little demo went pretty well and was over very quickly.

Sifu Bill Parsons was next up with his segment: Joint Manipulations 101. He started with a relatively lengthy oration and demonstration with Phyl. He didn’t appear to be taking it easy on Phyl at all as Phyl was repeatedly taken down or brought to tap. The points that Sifu was making were all too clear to us in the TKI group but as I looked around to the others in the group, the looks I saw seemed to be a mixture of curiosity and disbelief. It dawned on me at that point that some of these people were seeing this type of manipulation for the first time.

After Sifu finished his demonstration and lecture, he showed us what he wanted us to practice first. It was a defense against a wrist grab where the hand is bent in at the wrist toward the body and pressure is applied to the back of the hand. We all broke off and paired up. I wound up working with Mike, an American Kenpo practitioner that had recently made the switch with his school to the IKCA system. In talking with him a little bit, he stated that he had never worked anything like this before and inquired if I was one of Bill’s students. We continued the conversation as we worked the drill. At one point he stated that I seemed comfortable with this drill and asked if I was able to use these joint manipulations in an actual fight or altercation. My response was that the only person that I was aware of in our school that was at a comfort level high enough to use these joint locks in a fight was Sifu. Although we have been practicing joint locks and manipulations on and off since I have started with TKI, there was no way I felt comfortable manipulating someone into position expressly to point them into a joint manipulation. If the situation presented itself, that was one thing, but to consciously enter a fray with that intention? Nope. Just Sifu.

Mike and I got a little ahead of the group as we did some additional joint locks. He asked about a lock that was intended for control instead of submission and I showed him the basic come-along. He had seen this before but had not been in a situation where he was shown how to get to that position. There were a few other manipulations and locks we did as the class around us worked on the assigned moves. We both obeyed the rules for tapping and all went really well. Overall I really enjoyed working with Mike and I hope to see him again at another function.

We had a brief break to do the second raffle before the final segments were started by Grand Master Vic LeRoux of the International Karate Connection Association. The segments that Master Vic spoke about were Kenpo Takedowns and Parker Knife Technique.

Master Vic started with a brief discussion and a demonstration utilizing Jerry Brooksher as his dummy. Although humorous in his delivery, Master Vic made a very good point right away about his version of ‘ground fighting’. Utilizing a punching combination as a method of entry for a leg buckle take down, and continued pumping a series of 10 punches or more into Jerry as he followed him down to the floor. Once on the floor, Master Vic maintained control and continued to pump even more punches into Jerry. He paused long enough to look up and say: “That’s my version of ground fighting.” As dramatic and even humorous as this was, the point was clear that if you are a striker, you shouldn’t stop doing what you do best just because you are on the ground or fighting someone versed in jujitsu.

Master Vic spoke about relative positioning for take downs, about how it was important to utilize the concepts of Kenpo to get in and take your attacker’s space. He demonstrated several times how easy it is to disrupt their balance and ultimately take them off their feet; at a bare minimum affect their center in a way that allows you to control their core movements. Leg buckles are incredibly useful to this end and lend themselves very well to working inside. He also showed how to use leg buckles in conjunction with short leg sweeps – not the type of sweeps to take the legs completely out from under someone but rather sweeping the foot to further affect one or more height, width, or depth zones.

One of the most interesting versions of these leg buckles and sweeps is the one delivered to the front of the leg. To watch this done it seemed like the person dummying for Master Vic was simply complying with the move but when he came around and applied the move to me, I was stunned. I asked him to do it again. This time I thought I was well rooted. Again, with a simple front leg sweep just above the ankle, he took my leg out like it was barely in his way. No keep something in mind here; I was in a neutral bow facing him when he began this ‘basic’ maneuver. The next thing I knew I was catching my balance thinking I was going to hit the floor.

The next item he covered was the logical progression from the disruption and takedowns. Master Vic showed that the initial takedown is just the beginning of a series of moves. As your assailant is moving in the direction that you have created, you should utilize that movement to follow-up with whatever series of strikes makes sense. If they are falling, into you, you might rise a knee up to the face. If they are falling into you and down from behind, a series of strikes started off by a rising elbow may be in order. The whole point is that this is still Kenpo. Every move has a purpose and should be followed up with additional purpose. It is Master Vic’s opinion that each of your counter attacks should be a minimum of three strikes.

We split off into groups several times and practiced what Master Vic was showing us. We also practiced another item where a takedown is combined with an interesting arm break. During the course of the takedown, the would-be attacker’s arm is drawn out and trapped between your legs. As you turn your torso and twist your legs, the arm is broken. The whole thing is very fast and obviously effective. In practicing this, we had to use restraint to be sure not to injure our partners. So far as I know, there were no broken arms today.

There were some additional items that Master Vic discussed regarding take downs. He showed us how effective a Thai kick to the back of the knee can be. There was a simple combination that included a Thai kick to the back of the knee which typically brings the assailant to a kneeling position. In most cases, the foot is positioned vertically with the toes bent backward. This also presents the Achilles tendon at the back of the heel – a prime target for a solid foot stomp, resulting in disabling the mobility of the attacker. Gruesome if you think about it, but you can hardly argue its effectiveness.

We ended the segment on takedowns with some big leg sweeps like you might see in the movies. Master Vic noted that these were difficult to do and took a lot of time to execute, but the sure look pretty when done well. There was a move in particular that he asked Jerry Brooksher to demonstrate. I think he said it was called “Dragon sweeps tail and clears path” or some other flowery thing. It is from one of the traditional schools of Chinese Kung Fu and might be called a double leg sweep. It was a big long circular path on the ground with one leg that comes up from behind and takes both legs out at once, causing the person being swept to essentially fall to the mat either on his butt or his back. I’m sure it looks spectacular when done properly but I just can’t imagine trying to execute something like this on the street. I guess if you are Master Vic LeRoux and have mastered the ability to keep your assailant standing semi paralyzed in a vertical position, it would work great. For me? I think I’ll stick to the leg buckles.

The next segment with Master Vic was on Parker Knife Technique. He started out with a demonstration using Phyl as a partner. We were using cut lengths of PVC pipe in lieu of training knives. Master Vic did some maneuvers where he moved in to slash and stick, then the partner did the same thing. He commented on where the strikes should be directed, where as the major blood vessels are exposed at major joints such as the wrist, inside the elbow, the groin, the neck, etc. He also mentioned that generally speaking, cuts to major arteries will bleed out faster the closer you get to the heart.

Vic also showed us how the knife could be used in other ways than just to cut. He demonstrated how the butt of the knife can be used in a pulling type motion to control a hand or open up defenses for a follow-up slash or stab. He also said that you could use the butt of the knife to strike with, particularly to pressure points, but qualified the statement saying that he didn’t know why you would want to strike someone with a tool that was designed to cut. Hey, it’s a knife, not a hammer!

Another item that Vic covered was how a ‘real’ knife fighter holds position. He commented on how experienced knife fighters will protect the knife by holding it close to the body using the other hand in a sort of guard position. The knife comes forward for striking and slashing and then is returned to its protective position. This is the complete opposite of what you see in the movies where a knife fighter will be waving around the blade in any number of ways, flashing glints of light off the blade to the camera from several angles.

After this we paired up and attempted to do the same exercise that Master Vic had demonstrated before everyone. I paired up with Clayton, a Brown belt in the IKCA system from South Carolina. Although not nearly as graceful as Master Vic, I think we got the basic movements down as we did this maneuver in slow motion. It was interesting to see – and Clayton and I both noted – that if you can slip a stabbing maneuver and gain the back of your assailant, your target selection and time to strike goes up dramatically. We also realized as we spoke about this that we were moving very slowly, and that it would take a lot of training to be able to move and react appropriately to do such a maneuver. It was interesting to do this exercise, especially when we take a close look at how many times the PVC ‘knives’ grazed a surface that wasn’t intended. When we considered this closely, these may well have been minor wounds, sometimes to yourself if you aren’t careful.

I think Master Vic said it the best when he said that if you wind up in a knife fight, you should expect to be cut. Hopefully you will not be mortally wounded, but you will most assuredly be cut.

There was one other item to note about the Parker Knife Technique segment. Master Vic stated that the IKCA doesn’t have a knife form but there were several students of the system that had created their own. He noted that although it doesn’t apply to all of the IKCA techniques, several of them do lend themselves well to knife technique. With that he turned the floor over to Jerry Brooksher, who is one of those he had mentioned that had put a form together. Jerry did his form and it was interesting to watch. Jerry is quite graceful and watching him was pretty cool, although I’m not sure that it is anything that our school would adopt.

After the knife segment we closed the day with a few maneuvers that are somewhat of a ritual in IKCA gatherings. Everyone stands in a circle sorted by rank and then proceed with something that is known as “Passing the Pain”. Master Vic starts by delivering a back-fist to the solar plexus of the next highest ranking Black belt in the room, and then it repeats on down the line until it reaches the first White belt in line – and then it comes all the way back around ending with Master Vic.

We also go through a line and salute every other attendee. Again, this starts with Master Vic and the lines up according to rank. The highest ranking Black belt is first after Master Vic and then falls in line behind him. This continues until everyone has gone through the line.

Photographs were the last thing on the agenda. We all came in for a group shot and then we did some shots of just the Black belts. Following this, Master Vic was gracious enough to pose with any individuals that wished to have their photos taken with him. As you can imagine, this takes a little while to get through the line of people looking for pictures.

Everyone that was able to got together at a Chinese buffet restaurant. The food was good, the company was great, and it was a great close to the day’s activities. My wife and I finished up with dinner and visited for a while before we all broke up and headed on out. Overall the seminar was great and I’m looking forward the next one.

04.14.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-04-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Items:

Cardinal Directions Kicking Drill
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Cross Stance Drills
American Kenpo Blocking Set
Techniques

Warm Ups
We spent a good solid chunk of the morning warming up with the usual items as well as about every leg stretch I think we have ever done. Sifu also took care to run us through some other exercises that focused on areas such as the lower back, which I personally appreciated. By the time we finished our basic warm ups and moved into the drills, I had a pretty good sweat going on.

Cardinal Kicking Drill
Immediately following the warm ups we went right into some drills. We were doing drills right up through the first hour or more of class today. The first one was the Cardinal Directions kicking drill. We’ve done this one before but it has been a while. The concept behind the drill is that your execute a kick in each of the cardinal directions (North, South, East, West) from a relatively stationary position. Starting from left neutral bow, the first kick is a right ball kick coming down in front into a cross stance to the left, then delivering a left side kick coming down in front into a cross stance to the right, next delivering a right side kick. Following the right side kick, the right foot comes down beside the left before the execution of a left rear heel kick. The first part of the maneuver ends in a right neutral bow where the same drill is duplicated on the other side.

This drill will really work your balance. The key is to keep your knees bent and your core centered over the supporting leg. Sounds simple enough. The first time I did this I was wind milling all over the place trying to keep my balance. Even now I will lose balance if my attention drifts while I’m doing the drill.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Right out of the Cardinal drill we went into the Purple Belt Kicking drill. We did this the way we usually do where the class lines up at one end of the matt and we do the sequence twice one way before switching and coming back. Each time down and back is about 20 kicks. We did this drill at least 5 or 6 times so we threw more than 200 kicks during the drill. Obviously it was critical to keep focused through the drill or your technique suffers terribly. It was a good strong kicking work out.

Cross Stance Drills
The next item on the agenda was something that we haven’t done in class for a long time. Sifu covered the cross stance in detail and we drilled it several ways. We started out simple by alternating front and back cross stance as we went back and forth across the mat. After than we combined it with some other footwork and eventually with some additional maneuvers. We finished off the cross stance drills by combining an advancing back fist with the cross stance. I’ve always liked the cross stance but tend to use it to uncoil to reverse direction, which is one thing that it lends itself to very well. It’s just a great tool to use for maintaining your choices for footwork and mobility.

American Kenpo Blocking Set
I think pretty much everyone that was in class today was familiar with the AK blocking set. It’s another one of those exercises that we don’t do a whole lot in class but I tend to do it at home when I’m working out as a warm up. We didn’t spend a ton of time on it today but we spent enough time to go through the drill 5 or 6 times or so.

Techniques
The last part of class was spent working out some details for the seminar. We all picked a technique we wanted to do and then lined up according to rank in a large circle. We took turns first attacking and then defending as we went around the circle. To start things off, Sifu attacked Brandon, then Brandon attacked Jeff, Jeff attacked me, I attacked Walt, Walt attacked Alex, Alex attacked Phyl, and Phyl attacked Sifu for the final technique. The last attack had Phyl utilizing an escrima stick and Sifu defended, disarmed, and counter attacked with the stick. We practiced this several times individually and then together in the circle.

Of course, I was told to focus on intent. I don’t look mean enough. It sort of turned into a joke as Sifu told me to envision Jeff not returning one of my loaner cars with gas in it (a reference to my job). I promised to work on my intent. After we went around the circle several times, we bowed out and closed class for the day.

03.24.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-03-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Items:

Focus Mit Drills
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Mat Work
Technique Line
Techniques

Warm Ups and Drills
We had a good warm up today with some additional focus on leg stretching. My lower back was feeling pretty good today and I was moving relatively well overall. Upon conclusion of the warm ups, we did some yes-no drills with the focus mitts. I was paired up with Percheryl today and it was the first time I have worked with her. She hits fast and it seems that she works well with speed. When it was my turn to hit, I was surprised that I was off a bit when we went to a 4-count after our 3-count drills. Before I could really settle in, the drill was over and we moved on.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
The class lined up and we got in position for the Purple belt Kicking Drill. We worked our way up the mat repeating the drill twice before turning around and coming back utilizing the drill on the other side. As usual, Sifu called out the kicking order at first and eventually just said “go” and we did the full set of moves on our own up and back. I lost count of how many times I heard “one more time…” but I’m guessing we did at least a couple of hundred kicks. I had a good sweat going by the time we finished the kicking drill.

Mat Work
We did some light mat work today. I have been a little leery of the mat work since my dizziness a while ago but it hasn’t seemed to come back, at least not in class. We did some forward rolls staying down, and then coming up. After everyone got comfortable, we did some push-drills. For those that are able, they did air rolls – something that I still haven’t been able to do yet. When I attempt it, it’s more like an air crash. At least that’s what it feels like. After 20 minutes or so, we put the mats up and moved on to the next item for the day.

Technique Line
We did a technique line next and the way we did it was interesting. Instead of one person doing the same technique all the way through the line and then moving to the end, we did a technique against a given attack. Since we have a variety of experience in the class, it was interesting to see the different techniques, particularly from Percheryl who is from another system altogether. We did defenses against straight and round punches from the left and the right. Good stuff. After concluding the technique line, we discussed some of the principles and concepts before finishing up class and bowing out for the day.

03.17.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-03-22T19:52:00.001-05:00

New Items Today:

Testing!

Reviewed Other Items:

Ball Kicks
Stances & Footwork
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Mat Work
Forms

Ball Kicks
When I arrived this morning at about 6:50am or so, Walt had already finished his pre-test for Green belt. He must have just finishes as he was still sweating pretty freely at the time. I got dressed and we started class with some basics – ball kicks. After several repetitions, we lined up and did some stance work and maneuvers up and down the mat. We did step drags, step throughs, and covers. This led nicely into our next set of drills.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
We again lined up on one end of the mat and practiced the Purple belt kicking drill. We went up twice and then back. I was pretty relaxed doing this drill today because I have been practicing it every night this week as I prepare for my Purple belt test. I did get a little too relaxed at one point and lost my balance, which was just a reminder to keep focused. Sifu was largely focusing on teaching the drill to those in class that were learning it so I just hunkered down and focused on technique and flow.

Mat Work
Next up was some mat work to practice break falls. We started out with the normal routine, just a forward roll and staying down at the end of the roll – alternating sides each turn. After that we started doing the forward roll coming up into a fighting stance. I started feeling a little dizzy at this point but just tried to shake it off. I often get a little vertigo when we do the mat work so I didn’t think much of it. After a couple of turns Sifu had us come up out of the roll and do a combination of strikes.

I don’t know what happened but I really started to lose focus as I came out of the roll. After the 2nd or 3rd one like this, I came up out of the roll and literally couldn’t see – I just about blacked out. It was near instantaneous and seemed to clear. I got back in line and tried it again. It seemed to get worse the more I pushed. Eventually I just left the mat and sat down. I couldn’t get my focus back and I felt like I was in a fog, my eyes just wouldn’t focus clearly. Sifu asked if I hit my head, and I told him truthfully “no”. He checked me over a little bit and just let me recover there for a few minutes.

Forms
Phyl took Jeff and I and went through the Orange belt portion of the Master Form. This was the first time that Jeff had been formally shown this form and it was also the first time (that I can recall) that Phyl lead the instruction for this. I thought they both did a great job! Jeff was recently promoted to Orange belt (Woo Hoo! Congrats, Jeff!!) but had the basic directions down by about the fourth time or so through it, which I felt was a testament to both Jeff’s ability to pick up the form and Phyl’s ability to teach it. Very cool. I know this part of the Master Form but I was still a little unsteady and was grateful for the practice as I tried to clear the fog out of my head. Sifu stepped in a couple of times and had first Jeff do the form on his own, and then I did it solo. We took critique from everyone else there. My critiques were to focus on the flow of motion in the form – I seemed a bit tight. Also, be mindful of angles and targets. Finally, Sifu mentioned that the location of the final target for Thunder and Lighting (Ha Gwan) is likely to be lower than where I was striking.

Purple Belt Test
At some point while we were practicing, Sifu asked me if I felt like I wanted to pre-test today at the end of class. I told him that I wanted to. We had discussed this briefly earlier in the week and I had been looking forward to it. I still had a head full of fog and was doing my level best to stay focused. I was a little surprised when he pulled us together and asked everyone if it was okay with them that we used some class time to do my pre-test. I really have to thank the guys because everyone was okay with this. While Sifu was setting up the camera, I worked with Jeff a little bit as he agreed to dummy for me. Jeff was originally set to do this but I had changed one of my extensions and it was something that I had to warn him about so he knew to expect it. It was a rising elbow following a hammer-fist to the groin, which means it is largely a ‘hidden’ strike. If I surprised him with this, I could potentially clock him pretty good. As it turned out, we wound up going over all of my extensions briefly just to refresh. Then we got started.

Thinking back now, I recall my Orange belt test – when I ‘forgot’ how to salute! I blame the camera… I just froze. Nothing doing this time as I managed to get through the Formal Salute just fine. I do recall missing one of the first techniques, perhaps it was Beheading the Dragon, but I remember thinking “Ok, there’s your ‘oops’, now it’s out of the way”. I was focusing on the instructions and just trying to keep whatever my problem was at bay. I honestly don’t remember some of the test. As I got toward the end of my techniques, I started to fade again. I did get through it though.

I finished up and when it was clear, I came over to the edge of the mat with the guys and just took a knee for a minute. Sifu gave me a couple of minutes and the guys all had words of encouragement. I have to say I was more than a little shocked when Sifu called me over to the center of the mat – for my new Purple Belt!! Internally, I was thinking I would clear my head and do better on my final test but Sifu says I did better than I think.

We did the ceremonial belt tying and I was so excited that I almost tied the final knot, and would have if Sifu hadn’t stopped me. He finished the knot and asked if I wanted to be kicked in. Of course I did! I was thinking: “OK, this time I’m not moving!” Inhale… Exhale... Kiai... and... I moved!! I couldn’t help it!! A penetrating thrust kick to your center. Rooted or not, I was moving and I could either land on my butt or adjust my feet - I made the adjustment.

My thanks to Sifu and the guys in class. I’ve learned so much from all of you. Also, special thanks to Jeff for being my dummy on the test – great job!

03.10.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-03-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Ground Fighting: Chokes & Submissions

Reviewed other items:

Warm-Ups
Crescent Kicks
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Techniques

Warm Ups
Our warm up routine today consisted of a fair amount of leg stretching as well as some additional stretching at the wrists and shoulders. I was happy about this as my shoulder is giving me fits again lately, but I made it through class without dislocating it today.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Once we were good and loose, we worked up and down the mat several times with the Purple belt kicking drill. The mat is a large enough area that we can do the complete drill twice in a row before coming back. I don’t know how many kicks that amounts to but it sure seemed like a lot! I have been doing this kicking drill as part of my daily workout routine so I was feeling pretty comfortable with it. The most challenging thing for me while doing this drill is to stay low. It’s really easy to get straight legged when you start to get tired and usually what happens to me is that my balance starts to go. So… if I start to lose my balance, I just check my form and it usually comes down to bending the knees.

Groundwork – Chokes & Submissions
Marty has us working chokes today as part of our groundwork training. The primary choke we worked with was the guillotine choke but we applied it a couple of ways. The first method was to use the arm around the attacker’s neck to pinch or squeeze off the carotid artery, thus restricting blood flow and eventually causing a black out. The second method we dealt with was applying pressure directly to the larynx using the ‘blade’ of your arm, which is very painful and can cause a lot of damage. Obviously both of these types of chokes can be dangerous to practice and both Marty and Sifu stated several times to be alert and honor the tap!

We went through several partners as we practiced the moves. We started out in a position where we applied the choke while standing, with one partner essentially volunteering to be choked. We did this to get the feeling of the choke. One thing I picked up right away is the position of the arm can make a big difference. As the ‘attacker’ manages to get his head in the V of your arm, you use your other arm to grab your own hand and pull, creating the leverage for the choke. However, at first my choking arm was basically palm-side up, and when I pulled for leverage, it took more than I expected to get the tap. I varied this a little bit by rotating my fist to a position where the thumb was pointing upwards, which rotated the bone in my arm toward the choke point. The strength required to get the desired effect was probably 50% or less than my original attempt. Definitely worth noting.

After we were comfortable with the position of the choke, we did some other items related to getting in position for the choke. We brought the attacker to the ground and into various positions. We also discussed briefly some defenses against the choke, one of which was more effective than I would have imagined. I think it is instinctive, at least for me, to buy your chin when someone attempts to choke you. It’s also pretty instinctive to pull down on the arm of the person choking you. If you are able to do these things, you have a few more choices at hand than you might have thought. I happened to be paired up with Brandon at this point in the class and we tested this. I had my chin tucked and one arm pulling his choke arm away, nullifying the choke. He was at my back and had his hooks in (his feet were wrapped around me and tucked in near my groin). What we discovered is that I was able to avoid the choke, but it was very difficult, if not impossible, to escape. I take into account that we were not striking and that may make the difference as I did have one arm free. However, the strikes would hardly be optimal as they would be largely elbow strikes and hammer fists to whatever targets I could get to. Ultimately, it was a stalemate.

The other item to note here was that it takes a lot of energy to try to work yourself out of a ground attack, especially fending off a choke. Although I am feeling more comfortable on the ground and can probably escape some of the typical ground fighters attacks, I think my game is still stand up. I have found stability and rooting on my feet that I haven’t been able to ‘feel’ on the ground yet and I would rather put the energy into a flurry of strikes than rolling around on the ground. However, I can definitely see the benefit of learning the ground game, if for no other reason than to know what to expect and how to get out of it.

Techniques
Sifu took part of the class and I joined Phyl, Marty and Elliot to work technique. For the most part we just did a technique line with Phyl and I rotating out at the head of the line working our own stuff. I worked through my Orange belt techniques and then went through and worked my Orange belt extensions. I’m not sure which techniques Phyl was doing but I assume he was doing something similar to what I was doing. Thanks to Marty and Elliot to lending their bodies for Phyl and I to work with.

As always, there were a couple of techniques that we wound up in conversation about as we worked through them. There was one in particular that Elliot and Phyl do slightly different involving a leg sweep. Apparently the biggest difference is the attacker – does he step through with the punch or is it more of a lunge punch? As we worked through it, we could definitely see the differences in the technique as adjustments have to be made for it to work properly.

I got to my Returning Serpent technique and extension and had another good discussion regarding body reaction and position. My extension is an addition to the base technique where I move up the circle and deliver a hammer fist to the groin, then a rear scoop kick and finally a rear heal kick. I think Phyl and Elliot were both looking at this and thinking the same thing – add an additional rising elbow to the chin after the hammer fist to the groin. I was resistant at first, mainly because I have been practicing for the last two weeks the other way!! Phyl took on the roll of attacker and I went through the technique slowly as Phyl provided appropriate body reactions to each strike. After watching carefully, I think he and Elliot are exactly right. The initial hammer fist to the groin will likely drop his body or bring it slightly forward, which lines up the rising elbow perfectly, which in turn sends his head back and presents the groin again for the scoop kick. Once again, the body will either drop slightly or come forward slightly which lends perfectly to the final rear heel kick to the solar plexus. In watching Phyl as I worked through the strikes, there was a sort of ‘see-saw’ motion of the body that I was working with. Even though I was resistant to adding the additional strike at first, I can see now that it just fits nicely and probably should have been there from the beginning.

Another item that Phyl and I discussed was timing for body reaction. It came up on my extension for Deflecting Thunder where I have a downward palm heel followed by an eye rake. I was sort of blurring the two motions together, not pausing for the appropriate body reaction for the strikes. Phyl stated that Larry Lauer had taken he, Walt and Alex aside at the last Kenpo in the Carolinas Seminar and had mentioned this to them as he watched them work through their techniques. In my extension, Phyl suggested that I put the appropriate ‘pause’ for the body reaction of the downward palm heel to the bridge of the nose (in don) before a fully committed eye rake (more on the eye rake in a minute). He also mentioned that I should utilize marriage of gravity when coming down for the palm heel strike – it’s not all arm.

Phyl also took the time to explain the eye rake a bit more in detail. The way I was doing it, the rake was more or a less a flat vertical rake that was essentially ‘all arm’ in movement and power. We stepped over to the B.O.B.s and he showed me how to do the eye rake with more power. When coming down with the eye rake, the elbow moves to an anchored position at the ribs, which allows for a downward arcing motion of the claw hand. This change is dramatic in comparison when you think about it. Instead of just raking the surface of the attacker’s face in a vertical plane, by anchoring the elbow and “digging in”, so to speak, the effectiveness of the rake goes up exponentially.

I learned much today and I thank everyone in class that I worked with. You guys make the difference and I appreciate your help very much. Thanks.

A Special Invitation

2007-03-05T18:59:00.000-05:00

Don't miss out on

KENPO in the CAROLINAS 2007

Sponsored by:

Triangle Kenpo Institute

and

Health Dynamics Integrated Wellness

Featured Instructor:

International Karate Connection Association

KENPO GRANDMASTER VIC LEROUX

Kenpo Takedowns and Parker Knife Technique

Additional Instructors:

LARRY LAUER - Lauer's Kenpo Karate

Relative Body Positioning

JERRY BROOKSHER - Brooksher's Kenpo Karate

Developing Spontaneity in Kenpo

BILL PARSONS - Triangle Kenpo Institute

Joint Manipulation 101

Saturday - April 21, 2007

Open Door Baptist Church

9801 Durant Road - Raleigh, North Carolina

For a registration packet or for more information,

contact Bill Parsons at:

bill.parsons@trianglekenpo.com

03.03.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-03-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Guest and New Student
BKF Punching DrillCountering a Throw

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm-Ups
Focus Mitts
Lunge Punches
Mat Work
Technique Line¼ Speed Sparring

Guest and New Student to TKI
A gentleman from Ireland by the name of Donal has decided to work out with us while he is here working on assignment in Raleigh. He is a second degree Black belt in the Ed Parker American Kenpo system. He seems sharp and attentive and it was great to have him in class today.

BKF Punching Drill
Sifu had us doing a drill that I vaguely remember doing in California during the West Coast Kenpo Confederation. I’m not sure what to call it but it came from Steve Mohammed and the BKF so I’m just going to call it the BKF Punching Drill. It’s interesting in how it opens up the attacker. It starts by stepping forward with the right foot while punching with the left, then is immediately followed by stepping forward with the left and punching with the right. It sounds simple but seems to run contrary to the way we have been wired.

When I first saw this, the drill was identical, but the targets were specific; the first punch with the left hand went to the patch on the gi which turned the body slightly, allowing for the perfect follow-up with the right straight in on his center. I’m not sure if the instructions Sifu gave us today were that specific, but that is the way Walt and I did the drill just the same. After getting past the feeling of “crossing yourself up”, it seems like this could work really well utilized correctly in the appropriate application.

Focus Mitt Drills
We worked a bit with the pads again today, first with a combination that was really awkward for me, and then some “Yes-No-Yes” drills. The combination we did was reminiscent of the BKF drill but with a twist. The series started with the left foot forward and you throw a right straight punch to the left pad, then a right back knuckle to the right pad, then step forward with the right foot while throwing a left straight punch, and finishing with an elbow to the left pad. This felt so unnatural. With sincere focus, I could do the combination as described, but as soon as I ‘let go’ and tried to flow with it, my body just didn’t want to do this! I felt all crossed up and my timing felt way off, especially with that last elbow. We didn’t do this drill long and then moved on.
The other focus mitt drills we did were the “yes-no” drills. We did combinations of 3 and 4 with Sifu calling them out. I was partnered with Walt for this and he never holds back. When it was my turn, Walt reminded me to get more body torque involved in the punch, which improved the power of the strike. My accuracy was fine but my form needed that tweak from Walt. I did notice something today that I need to watch though, and I wonder if it comes from the heavy bag work I have been doing. The last thing I need is to be picking up bad habits there. What I noticed was that my punches seem to have increased their “hang time” a bit. One of the things I focused on very intently when I first started drilling Kenpo is the principle that the strike should return as fast as it goes out (or faster!). This holds true with both kicks and punches. It seemed today that my punching was hanging out there longer than I remember. I’ll have to watch and work on that.

Lunge Punches
After the focus mitt drills, we did some quick lunge punching. We did 10 on each side at a moderate speed, and then did 10 more on each side at a faster pace as dictated by Sifu. The first set I focused primarily on form, making sure that I was turning the hips/torso correctly and bringing the foot up as close to 90 degrees as possible – and just as importantly, returning to the neutral bow position between punches. It’s really easy to let yourself cheat on this one and just keep the feet in place after the 3rd or 4th punch. When we sped up the form is supposed to be the same, of course, but things can get away from you a little bit if you try to rush too fast.

Mat Work
We spent a fair amount of time on the mats today. We started out with just a regular forward roll staying down and breaking the fall. It seems like it had been a while since I had done this and the first couple were a little weak. After that, I was fine. Next was the forward roll coming up into a fighting stance or neutral bow. By this time I was warmed up and did fine on both the left and right sides. Then came the biggy. Sifu said: “For those who can, go ahead and do air rolls.” I know the technical items involved in an air roll, and have come really close to doing them, but today I seemed to just be crashing to the mat. I got to the point that it was beating me up worse than sparring and I decided to go back to forward rolls for a few turns. One of these days I’ll get that one down.

After a good warm up on the mats, we lined up facing away from the mirrors and did some push drills. At first it was just the idea of being pushed forward unexpectedly. I think everyone in class was familiar with this except possibly Brandon, and of course, Donal, who just joined us today. After a couple of turns, Sifu stepped in and started pushing us, except he didn’t push the way we typically do. Generally when we push the guy ahead of us we push from the shoulders or area of the upper back. Sifu was pushing us forward from our hips. Obviously, along with being unexpected, this forces you to adjust and get your body aligned properly for the fall, if indeed you are going to roll forward. It was an interesting twist but he used this as a pre-curser to another item…

Countering A Throw
The push drills we did where Sifu pushed us from the hips led into defense against a throw. He first used me to demonstrate how if I was going to do a seoi-nage (overhead throw) that it can be quickly neutralized by pushing forward on my hips or small of the back from behind. This does a couple of things – it forces me to correct for balance, but it also takes away one of the three points necessary for executing the throw: the “hip bump” to initiate the movement. Sifu also used Phyl to demonstrate another throw by doing the same thing. For something so simple, this is incredibly effective.

Technique Line
We did a technique line today that allowed everyone to practice their own techniques for a few different strikes. It also allowed us to watch Donal as he executed his American Kenpo techniques for the same strikes. The first one we did was defense against a straight left. I was able to do Beheading the Dragon based on the techniques I have learned so far. It was cool to go through the line today because there were so many different ‘body types’ and levels of experience to adapt to. It was also interesting to see the American Kenpo moves that Donal was doing.

The next strike was a defense against a straight right. For this one, I had three techniques I could draw from: Returning Serpent, Stopping the Storm, and Circling Serpent. It was interesting for me to note that I had tendencies to do different techniques with different people depending on how they moved in. For instance, I found it easier to do Returning Serpent on those with longer reach. Of course, only going through the line once hardly gives me enough to get a really good idea, but it did stick out in my mind.

The last strike we did in the technique line was a defense against a left hooking punch. For this one I executed Thunder and Lightning as well as Raking Hammer. I was fine with Thunder and Lighting but was hit and miss with Raking Hammer. I found myself trying to go too fast with it and I would try to move everything at once. For instance, I dropped into the initial block okay, but for some reason I was moving in on the downward hammer fist instead of finishing that move an then doing the appropriate foot replacement and leg buckle. Of course, I was corrected by Sifu because I didn’t execute the technique correctly, but after we broke off for a water break I did the exact same technique in the air like I have practiced a million times and did it fine. It shows how much I need to practice this on a body to really pull it into my mental arsenal.

¼ Speed Sparring
We had plenty of time so each of us was able to spar everyone else in turn today. I started off with Sifu and was promptly tagged about 3 times before I got into the right frame of mind. After that I still got tagged but at least it wasn’t for being sloppy. I think if there was a theme to my sparring today, it was that I kept opening myself up for straight in shots. Sifu wasn’t the only one to capitalize on this. I didn’t realize what the reason was until I had gotten through most of the guys in class. By the time I got to Walt and he charged in square with arms high a couple of times I realized what I was doing and attempted to angle off more. Sparring with Donal was fun of course because we are still new to each other. He made an observation that we all have a tendency to use orbits and did a lot of flowing with the hands and arms. He sort of seemed to be more of linear puncher, or at least that is what he was showing me. As a second degree, I’m sure he has a much greater arsenal than that. Anyway, it was a good workout today and it pretty much wiped me out.

02.24.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-02-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm-Ups
Footwork & Stances
Focus Mitt Drills
Basics Drills
BlocksTechniques

Warm-ups
The warm up today was somewhat short and direct but we went into more “extended warm ups” later on in class.

Footwork & Stances
Immediately following the initial warm-ups, we lined up and went into some footwork and stance drills. From a left neutral bow, we went down the width of the dojo with step drags, then covered, and came back on the other side. We then switched to a cross stance and did the same thing, but this time we did front cross stances down and back. Lastly we did rear cross stances down and back.

Focus Mitt Drills
Sifu kept the blood pumping next with some focus mitt drills, doing 3 count and 4 count combos. We alternated from 3 strikes to a set with 2 strikes and a final elbow. After we got the rhythm down a bit, we did the same thing advancing and retreating up and down the mat. I did pretty well. I was working with Marty. Sifu came around and wanted me to really focus on the stance changed and marrying the movement of everything together upon the strike.

Basics Drills
Next was some practice in basics. Did 20 repetitions of each of the following moves: ball kicks (right & left), lead leg roundhouse kicks (right & left), rear heal kicks (right & left), inward blocks (right & left), extended outward blocks (right & left). By the time we finished this set up, we were all breathing hard and sweating freely.

Techniques
Sifu paired Jeff and I up to work together on techniques. We started out working on Orange belt techniques and Jeff really did great. We started off with Thunder and Lighting and worked through all the Orange belt techniques, ending with Beheading the Dragon. Jeff had a very useful observation for me as I was doing Returning Serpent; he stated that I wasn’t stepping back into a true neutral bow, but more of an in-line stance. I corrected the issue and the technique did indeed flow better for me.

After we finished up with the Orange belt material, we started in with the Purple belt extensions. Sifu checked in on us a couple of times and helped to fine tune some of the techniques but for the most part they were pretty good. After completing the Purple belt material, we went through and Jeff dummied for me as I practiced the Orange belt extensions that I came up with.

Among the several useful things that I took away from class today, there are two things that Sifu helped me with that really stand out in my mind. The first is in regards to a problem I have been dealing with on Circling Serpent, where as the final move is to do the leg buckle and bring the bad guy down on your left knee. This happens because of the motion created by moving your right hand from a high position at the attacker’s shoulder across your body to your left hip. The problem I had was in regards to my right shoulder. It was dislocated at one point some time ago and it isn’t usually a problem, but this particular motion puts force on the shoulder joint in just such a way that it feels like it is pulling out of joint again. It never does, and I doubt it would actually pop out, but if feels like it. I asked Sifu about it and after carefully listening to my complaint, he said simply to get lower in my stance. It seemed to easy of an answer. I tried it and sure enough, little to no pressure. My comfort in doing the technique just went up by a factor of 10. I also had that “duh” feeling in my head too.

The other item I had was in regards to an extension that Sifu helped me come up with for Returning Serpent. The base technique is still intact but at the end I move up the circle with my left foot as I arch a hammer fist down to the groin, and then finish with a rear scoop kick and rear heel kick. My problem was timing and range on that downward hammer fist. After seeing it just once, Sifu told me to simply tighten up the circle on the arc, to basically pivot around the elbow while keeping the elbow stationary. Again, after doing it that way the first time I had that “duh” feeling again. The technique flows so much better and everything stays very compact. After practicing it this way just a couple times, it was clear that this technique could be done very quickly while easily maintaining a great deal of control. Awesome!

02.10.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-02-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Ground Fighting – Triangle Choke

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm-Ups
Focus Mitts
Mat Work
Techniques
Ground Work
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm-ups & Focus Mitt Drills
Warm ups today included some additional leg work and stances. We did our usual leg stretches and then lined up for some step-drags and stance changes. After several times up and down that mat, we were good to go.

Immediately following the warm-ups, we broke out the focus mitts for some “yes-no” drills. I was a little scatter-brained today but eventually I was able to zero in and get focused. Toward the end of the drills, Sifu started calling out some four-count strikes to break up the rhythm and I did fine.

Mat Work
We broke out the big mats and formed two lines today. We started off with some basic backward break-fall drills. It was the first time some people in class had done these and was review for others. After we did the backward break-falls, we did side falls, alternating from left to right. I don’t know what it is about these but they can really be tricky if your timing is off just a little bit. I have a tendency sometimes to let my feet hit first and it sort of causes a “flop” motion when my body lands, sort of causing my head to whip. I hate that. It gives me the most awful headache when I do that and I strive to get it right to avoid the headache if nothing else! Fortunately, I landed correctly more than not today. We finished up the mat work by doing some forward rolls staying down.

Techniques
I worked with the Blue belts today on technique. Along with the regular Orange and Purple belt techniques, I worked my new extensions with them today. This is the first time I have had a good solid practice working extensions with them and they had a lot of great advice. I had worked with Sifu during the week as I developed the basic techniques and he had helped me dial in the core of the extension. The guys helped me fine tune them a little bit. I actually wound up changing several of them, just adding some simple little moves and strikes here and there that probably should have been there in the first place. Most of them were in the exit of the technique where the most common comment I received from all of them went something like: “…well if you are going that direction already, you might as well take [something] with you when you go”. You gotta love Kenpo when it comes to this stuff. I did indeed take their advice in most cases and made the tweaks and additions, to the betterment of my techniques, I might add. Thanks for all of your help, guys!

Ground Work
Marty had us doing some new things this week, but like in weeks past, we are still building on the things we have learned in the past. This week we worked something called a “Triangle Choke”. I have seen this applied several times watching the UFC on television but I have never even tried to apply one until today. I have to say, I didn’t see why it was so effective based on what I was watching on television but I have a whole new opinion now. We started out in a sort of spider mount but he showed us this little move that is really just annoying as all get out. From the bottom, you move a knee (I used my left knee) up into the bend of the arm of the guy on top while pulling his (right) arm with your left. This basically just neutralizes his movement but what happens is that as you pull his arm, your knee puts pressure directly onto his bicep. This hurts, but it’s endurable. It’s mostly just really annoying! However, you use this annoyance to your advantage because when you let go of that arm, his natural tendency is to pull it back and away from the action, perhaps to try to come over or around that annoying knee. This is when you spring into action, taking your left leg up and around his neck, hooking your right leg over the top of your left foot. This puts the bad guy in a precarious position as his head and left arm are trapped in a loop created by your left leg. The beauty of this is that as you bend your right leg at the knee, it sort of “tightens the noose” and applies enormous pressure against the neck of the guy on top. If they don’t tap, they will eventually pass out if you don’t let go.

I have to describe why this move now has my respect. I was working this with Walt the first time and as I slowly applied pressure, I immediately noticed his eyes. The whites of his eyes were quickly becoming a grayish red hue and his face was turning a reddish purple. As I saw this I released and asked if he was okay and assured me that he was, and that he would tap when I had him locked in. I reapplied pressure and shortly after I saw the same indications of asphyxiation again he did indeed tap. Then it was my turn. He put me in the same configuration and applied pressure. My eye balls literally felt like they were bulging out of my head. I struggled for a second but it was clear that if I didn’t quickly tap that I wouldn’t be able to. Way cool! This is the first choke hold that we have gone over in class and it felt so much different than getting your larynx crushed. It was the first time I have been on the verge of being choked out and without any pain. Nifty.

¼ Speed Sparring
We finished up class with some sparring. We were an odd number so we rotated out and one person kept time. I was doing okay for the most part until I went up against Walt. For the most part, I was doing okay but I am no where near the physical condition that Walt is in. He kept pressing and for some reason, I wound up sparring with him for some 10 minutes or more without a break. I was totally gassed, but tried to keep going. Whew! I was totally wasted after class!

I did make an announcement at the end of class. I’m going to be a dad again! My wife and I are expecting a new baby sometime around the end of September. I’ll keep you posted.

01.27.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-01-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Ground Fighting - Escapes

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm-Ups
Ball Kicks
Focus Pad Drills
Mat work
Small Joint Manipulation
Techniques

Warm-ups
We did a pretty typical warm up today but did some additional focus work with ball kicks and replacement roundhouse kicks. After doing them stationary, we did some in a forward advance as well.

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Focus Pad Drills
There were two areas that we concentrated on today with the focus pads: combination striking and “Yes-No” control drills. We started with the combinations, utilizing a three count combo alternating right and lefts. My first combo was a right straight punch, a right back knuckle and a left lunge punch. After several repetitions, I did the opposite with a left straight punch, left back knuckle, and a right lunge punch. As we go through these drills, the point isn’t so much to try to tear through the pads with the power of your punches, but rather to make sure the technique is sound and the punches are on target. When the pad is hit correctly, it simply rocks backward with the force of the strike. If you are off target, the pad sort of ‘twists’ and the strike reacts as a glancing blow, with the focus pad staying mostly in place. Although you can gain some (sometimes significant) power utilizing strength of the arms, the real power of these strikes comes from proper technique. For instance, with the lunge punch coming off from the back knuckle, the power comes from the stance change combined with proper body alignment and torque from rotating the fist. When you can ‘marry’ all of these elements together into a single fluid motion, you have achieved the greatest level of striking power. Personally, my challenge is maintaining proper form after several strikes. I don’t have a partner to work out with at home but I do bang on the heavy bag pretty regularly. It’s not the same feedback but it works in a pinch.

The other half of the focus drills we did were “yes-no” drills. I did okay with these today. My control issue with this drill is not so much hitting the pads on a ‘no’ but rather controlling the depth of the strike on the ‘no’. As Sifu says regularly, the punch thrown on a ‘no’ isn’t a “miss” but rather a controlled strike that where the depth is just short of the surface of the pad. With this mindset, if you lightly touch the pad on the ‘no’ then you are not fully controlling the strike. I’m working on it. Just like anything else, my strong side is more controlled than my ‘weak’ side, but they are both developing just fine.

Mat Work
We didn’t spend a lot of time on the mats today. We just started off with some forward rolls staying down with a break fall, alternating from right to left sides. Sifu stated that if we felt comfortable to go ahead do air rolls. I think Walt and Phyl are the only ones doing full air rolls at this point – everyone else just sort of crash lands in a semi controlled fashion. But we are all getting better!! We did just a couple of turns doing the forward rolls coming up on our feet an d then we put the mats up.

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Small Joint Manipulation
Sifu had us practice some basic joint manipulations at the wrist and elbow. I was working With Walt for this. I’m starting to feel more comfortable with joint manipulations, but I still haven’t quite made the transition to where I feel real comfortable using them in a sparring situation. We always practice in a very controlled environment paying close attention to the tap of our training partners. I’m looking forward to learning more.

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Ground Fighting
Marty led us through some things today that were pretty cool. We used some of what we have used in the past but built on the knowledge, expanding to include escapes. We started basically on the bottom and our partner was going for an arm lock. Our job was to escape the arm lock and reverse positions, winding up on top in the mount position.

I worked alternately with Alfredo, Alex, and Phyl with these, which was a good mix of body types. It was pretty easy to see that technique is vital. In some cases you can muscle your way out of or into position but if you use leverage through technique, you expend much less energy. The less energy you expend at once, the more you have to work with when you need it. I was also keen to note that subtle shifts in body position (like sprawling) can make a big difference when defending against an escape or reversal.

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Techniques
The latter part of the class was spent working technique. I was working with Brandon and Alfredo this class covering largely the Orange belt techniques, but also squeezing in my Purple belt as well. We sort of bounced back and forth between doing the techniques in the air and doing a mini line. It was really good to review the Orange belt material again with a body as I haven’t been working technique with a partner for a while now except in class. Brandon and Alfredo are coming along good and I think they are going to be great.

My Purple belt techniques are getting better. The more I am able to work on a live body, the more I can see some of the subtle parts of the technique that are hard to envision when you are working in the air. Of the things I am struggling with a little bit are really basics – timing of when to begin the technique in some cases and in other cases where to intercept so as to allow the appropriate space to operate in when doing the technique. I have this knack for moving way in and getting all jammed up. Brandon and Alfredo are both different in height and weight so working with them today really helped to work out some of these issues.

01.13.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-01-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Crescent Kicks

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm-Ups
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Freestyle Kicking Drill
Master Form
Techniques

Warm-ups
Solid warm-ups today with lots of leg stretching – for good reason.

Kicking Drills
Following our basic stretches, we did some foot maneuvers to get the blood flowing and then we lined up along one side of the mat and went back and forth across the mat doing the Purple belt kicking drill. The first time up and back was a little rusty for me but after that I was okay. After several trips, Sifu had us pair up and we continued the Purple belt kicking drill with a partner, the partner backing up with the kicks so as to provide a frame of reference for the kicks in the drill. I was paired up with Walt for this exercise and was constantly adjusting range to accommodate his long legs!

After several minutes of the Purple belt kicking drill, Sifu had us continue the same exercise but instead of using a pre-determined set of moves, he wanted us to just use freestyle kicks, adjusting to our partner as they retreated. Again, we weren’t making contact with the kicks but rather just using our training partner as a frame of reference for targeting, etc. We probably threw 150 kicks or more during the course of the kicking drills.

Crescent Kicks
Sifu had us line up and formally taught us the inside and outside crescent kick today. This is something I have done in Taekwondo, and Jeff has been using these pretty effectively for sparring, but we haven’t covered them in class before (so far as I know). We started out with the inside crescent. This kick uses a straight leg rotating in a circular movement with the inside edge of the foot used as the striking surface. Describing a right inside crescent kick from a neutral bow, I move the right leg across my center with the foot traveling in a continuous arc, first heading to the outside left of my circle of protection, continuing on to the apex of the circle and back down again to the mat into a neutral bow position. Optimally, I have seen this strike used as a kick to the head, but Sifu also described this as a clearing kick able to remove an attacker’s defenses allowing you to move in and take care of business.

There are several things that are important about the crescent kick. The circular motion is critical. It works with the rotation in your hips/core to create torque and power for the kick. It is also important to keep the foot fully flexed and rigid as this is your weapon being delivered by the kick. Failure to keep the foot flexed will diminish the effectiveness of the kick and could actually cause you injury depending on what you strike. One of the primary differences between the crescent kick and many of the kicks in Kenpo is the fact that the knee is locked with the leg straight.

After we practiced the inside crescent, we switched up to the outside crescent kick. This is almost identical with just a couple of minor differences. One difference is obvious – you are now kicking in the opposite direction of circular movement. The other is the striking surface of the weapon, the foot. With an outside crescent kick, you are kicking with the outside of the foot. Again, it is critical that the foot is fully flexed for this. We practiced this for several minutes before we took a quick water break and moved on to the next item of the day.

Master Form
Sifu had Marty working with the Blue belts today on their techniques and the Master form while he took some time to do the same with me. He started by having me do the Master form from the beginning – salutes and all. Right off the bat, he mentioned that when I roll into the second hand gesture in the salute, I had a sort of double claw instead of the claw and the fist. Oops. Another item that he mentioned to me later that was in the same vain was that when I close, the right foot comes to the left. I had been doing it the other way around and realized that I do the opposite for Taekwondo. Oops again.

The critiques Sifu gave for my portion of the Master form were mostly accuracy. Starting with Beheading the Dragon, my waiter check tends to trail on around my shoulder instead of maintaining it in front of me. The next item of note was on Escaping Ram, where he stated I am not fully extending my rear kick. He went onto surmise that this is probably from working with a live body as we don’t try to kick through our training partners. However, it is something that we should be doing when practicing in the air.

The next item of note was in Thrusting Release, as I was not properly executing the thrust kick. From his description, I am doing a sort of quasi snap kick with an extension at the end. The knee is coming up but there are two distinct movements between the rise of the knee and the extension of the kick. They should be married together with the power of the kick coming from the movement of the hips. He worked with me on this with one of the B.O.B.s and I understand what he is talking about. After a couple more times, he said the kick looked better.

Retuning Serpent was pretty good but he reminded me to make sure I get good rotational torque on the lunge punch. I have a tendency to punch flat because my hand is facing palm in instead of palm up.

When transitioning to Deflecting Thunder, I have the tendency to just sort of sweep the blocking arm in a circular motion into a check instead of doing a close fisted block. There should be a clear block there and then move into the hand check.

And finally, on Thunder and Lighting, my block was a little low. I was doing the movement of an outward block but it was lower than it should be. Get the block up to the correct location and remember the basic “gable” theory of the blocks. We went through the Master form several times before we moved on to the Purple belt techniques.

Purple Belt Techniques
We started from the beginning and went through each technique in detail. Stopping the Storm is the first one we did and I had some questions for Sifu. I felt I was having problems getting the correct range when working with a person. He basically showed me that my range was okay, it was the body reaction that was jamming me up. That first punch is going to really bend them back, which provides the room I need to do the rest of the technique. Also, Sifu noticed that I am bringing my fist upwards and then in for the stop punch. This is a point of origin punch all the way from a natural position. If the motion begins by turning the palm up during this path of travel, you can get the torque you want at the delivery of the punch. The only other thing that he mentioned was to be sure to anchor the left hand back after the initial block/parry/grab.

As we did Hidden Wing, Sifu made a correction on target acquisition that solved another problem that I was having – range for my kick. I was taking my adjustment step out at an angle away from the attack as opposed to stepping directly forward. Making this small change cleared up all of the problems I was having.

There is a lot to think about in Circling Serpent. First is the check in the beginning. It is a pinning check at the elbow; there is no downward pressure or movement. While doing this in the air, it seems that I was pushing down. The next point of focus is the grab at the shoulder. When this happens, it is vital that my elbow is anchored at my side, outside of his arm, providing a check for that arm. It also puts him in position for the upcoming leg buckle/sweep. Finally, when doing the leg buckle/sweep, step straight back into a firm rear bow while bringing the right hand from the right shoulder down to the left hip. This creates the correct path of motion for the bad guy to travel in order to plant him on the point of your knee.

I was having some issues with Hooking Thunder. The hooking part was fine but for some reason I keep getting the left hand check too high, often right in my own face. It should be centered and vertical. The other thing I was doing had to do with the foot placement as I step back into a cat stance; my rear foot is more at a 45 degree angle as opposed to the 90 degrees it should be. This is upsetting my balance a bit and causing some problems.

Captured Wing was another one that has a lot of stuff going on. First of all, when practicing in the air, I was picturing my would-be assailant too far to my left. He will likely be more directly behind me. Correcting this initial posture actually corrected some other problems I was having further on down the line. I was having an issue getting rotated around enough to get a good arm break. I had 180 turn in my head but was actually having to travel further than that. By changing the initiation point of the technique, everything came into place where it needed to be. Regarding the arm break, I seem to want to come around with a more circular motion with the left arm. Instead, I need to bring the arm in and shoot a good solid ‘block’ for the break. Finally, there should be a circular motion with the right arm as it begins it’s decent for the vertical elbow to the spine. I tend to want to go up and then drive downward. Sifu says to utilize a circular motion with the right hand and follow the orbit down for the elbow strike. In doing it that way a couple of times, it feels much tighter and compact as opposed to that vertical rise.

We discussed some of the finer points of the throw in Clapping Tiger. For the most part, I’m doing the technique properly but there were some things about the throw itself that we discussed like the importance of the ‘butt bunk’ and getting below the attacker’s center. Sifu said there is a very site on the internet at judoinfo.com. This site is perhaps one of the most comprehensive sites on the topic of Judo available on the internet today. On the site is information for a throw called Seoi-nage which is in essence the throw that Sifu has us doing for Clapping Tiger. We discussed that, in fact, the I.K.C.A. Purple Belt videos show a side throw and even that is a variation on the Seoi-nage throw but the version we do is more true to the Judo move. Sifu briefly discussed with me the starting position for Judo players and how the throw is done from that position. The overhead throw seems to be more effective than the side throw. It can be more disorienting and you can certainly do more damage. Sifu explained that at the end of the throw, you can actually ‘shorten the circle’ by pulling in on the arm, thus increasing the force of impact upon landing.

We sort of ran out of time today and didn’t get to Raking Hammer. I know from practicing it that I need to work on dropping into place with the initial block. Also, I’m dropping into a horse stance – not a neutral bow or a lunge stance. I have been working with these and I’m getting better with them but I’m still fighting bad habits.

One final thought regarding today’s session with the techniques. Sifu says I am starting to drop my head again when I’m moving through the techniques and the Master form. I’ll try to be alert to this as I practice.

01.06.07 - Saturday Practice

2007-01-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Other Items:

Warming up with Basics
Techniques
Sparring

Warm-ups
We did some additional foot maneuvers today along with our usual warm-up routine. After our normal stretching, we lined up along the mat and went down and back with several foot maneuvers, such as step-drags, step-throughs, covers, switches, and forward planting roundhouse kicks. Sifu also switched things up a little bit by calling out several different maneuvers in no particular order and we all progressed down the mat with them.

After the initial warm ups, we broke out the focus mitts and did some lunge punches. I was working with Walt for these. Next up we did some “Yes/No” drills. It has been a while since I have done these but seemed to do okay. There was only one time that I got tripped up and punched on a “no”. Overall my control seemed to be good.

Technique
Next we worked technique. We had some visitors in class today and one of them, Brandon, came dressed and was participating in some of the exercises. Sifu took Brandon and the White belts off the mat and worked with them on some techniques. I worked with the Blue belts on the mats, starting with the Orange belt techniques and working our way up through their material. I was mostly comfortable working the Orange belt material but I haven’t had much time working the Purple belt techniques on a body. Phyl, Alex, Walt and I all rotated around and worked with each other on the different techniques. They all gave me some great advice on tweaking my Purple belt techniques.

When we got to Clapping Tiger, I happened to be with Walt and we stepped onto the padded mats for the throw. Walt seemed to think I had the throw down pretty good and asked me to throw him a couple of times. The next thing I know, Phyl and Alex are lining up for me to throw them too! Apparently this caught the attention of Sifu and he came over to give me some additional pointers. I wasn’t having any problems doing the throw with Walt or Phyl, but for some reason Alex kept coming around my side instead of going over the top. I asked Sifu why this was happening and he said “…because that’s where you are putting him.” Sifu showed me the trajectory I was using and then showed me an adjustment. On the next throw, Alex went over the top like he was supposed to. The adjustment was in the grip and in the height of my stance. One of the critical factors in this throw is to get my center below his center. One of the easiest ways to think of this is to get my belt below his belt. Another pointer he gave me was to be sure to use the ‘butt bunk’ to get the motion started in the throw. That helped a bunch. Putting all of this together really made this a nice, tight, controlled throw.

Another pointer that Alex gave me for this was the position of the shoulder. He showed me that if I planted my shoulder right in his armpit as I was coming into position, it dramatically increases control of that leverage point. I tried it a couple of times and it really did help. In fact, it seemed to help so much, I did it one time without actually holding that shoulder with my right hand and the throw still worked. Great tip, Alex – thanks! Reflecting back, I believe there was a gentleman from Milwaukee that was giving Phyl the same or similar advise on the mats when we were at the Kenpo in the Carolinas 2006 seminar. I looked back at the pictures and I think they were actually doing the same technique.

Sparring
After we worked through our techniques, Sifu had us pad up for some full speed sparring. I was surprised to see that everyone had recently purchased head gear! Up until now, nobody was wearing it. Sifu stated before we got started that the head gear didn’t negate the need for control and warned us to maintain control and accuracy while sparring. Walt and Alex paired up on one side of the mat while Phyl and I paired up on the other side. Sifu said “go” and we started in. It was all of maybe 15 seconds and we all stopped due to injury! Walt caught Alex with a hooking punch to the nose and Phyl caught me with a fore-knuckle rake to the nose. Sifu just sort of looked at us in disbelief for a second as this is not the norm.

He came over to me and told me to come with him to the bathroom. I figured I must be bleeding if he wanted me off the mat. I looked in the mirror and saw that I had a small cut on the bridge of my nose, which didn’t really surprise me based on the force of the blow. I immediately felt for separation of the cartilage and didn’t feel any so I didn’t think it was broken. The blood was minimal and I went back out to the mat and waited for my next turn.

My next sparring partner was Alex. He was a little off his game now too so it was sort of a slow match. My nose was swelling from the inside and I couldn’t breath so I was getting winded way too fast. I almost ditched the mouth-piece so I could get some air but I realized Alex was probably having the same problem so I just pushed on. It looked like he took a direct hit and was probably worse off than I was as he had a small trickle of blood coming from the nostrils. Sifu called for a break and we both spit out our mouth pieces for some air.

My last sparring partner for the day was Alfredo. Alfredo has some big guns so I tend to angle off when he lines up. I’ve watched him connect with Walt and I would rather avoid that. When we started, I noticed that he has a tendency to come straight in but throw round punches. Cool. I can deal with that. I started angling off as he came in and was able to tag him with either straight punches or back-fists to the head in some cases and in others I was able to come up with a pseudo roundhouse kick to the ribs. He tends to be well protected from the front so I was forced to attack from the sides. It wasn’t long and I was sucking wind again because of my restricted breathing. I had to slow it down and go more on the defensive which had an interesting effect on Alfredo. I got the feeling that he thought I was setting a trap for him or something because he slowed down as well – and I know he wasn’t tired! He did get a couple great shots in on me, particularly a left hook to the ribs that caused me to step back. When he starts putting combinations together, he is going to be a real force to reckon with.

After the class, Phyl and I figured out what happened. We both angled off in the same direction and he changed his strike from a punch to a rake, coming in from my left side. I never even saw it. He apologized and I told him there was no need. I walked right into it.

12.30.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-12-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Parry Drill
All Direction Throw

Reviewed Other Items:

Warming up with Basics
Mat Work
Techniques

Warm-ups
Our warm-ups today had some additional stretching added on to the usual regimen. We took extra time to stretch the wrists, as well as some time stretching our legs. Other than these areas of focus, the warm up was pretty typical.

Parry Drill
Sifu split us up into pairs for a new drill today, or at least new for me. I have missed a couple of weeks and Jeff states that we did this drill in class while I was gone. I was paired up with Alfredo and this was the first time he had seen this as well. Facing each other, one person was throwing straight punches and the other was using a parry movement to parry the strike off to the side. We were not blocking – the parry redirects the force of the punch along an imaginary line that takes the strike off the line of attack, in this case across our own center line. As his straight right came in, I was using a double-factoring parry to intercept and deflect. The first movement was to parry across with my left hand with sort of a ‘wiping’ motion. My right hand comes in behind and continues the motion of the parry and allows the left hand to return to a checking position.

As when GM Vic LeRoux was here last year at the seminar, he described a sort of wedge that starts with the point or edge directly in front of you and angles off past either side moving past your shoulders. This imaginary line is the same line of motion that the parries in this exercise follow. The movements described above are mirrored and repeated for the right side. This parry exercise ultimately led to another exercise later this morning.

Mat Work
We pulled the mats out and practiced some rolling. We connected the two mats together for a 10’ x 10’ surface and we rolled from corner to corner. For the most part, we just got comfortable rolling and sort of got warmed back up after the parry exercise. Sifu took up position at the opposite corner of the mat and simulated the presence of an attacker as we rolled forward. We practiced coming out of the roll directly into a defensive posture, bringing our arm up into a quasi blocking position while drawing the legs in for protection. We also maneuvered in this ‘guard’ position while Sifu simulated an attacker trying to get around these defenses.

Next, we split up the mats and broke into pairs so we could learn the “All Direction Throw”. This was broken down into 3 phases. I started out working with Jeff on this one and since he had worked with this the week before, he was very helpful in teaching me how to do it. I’m not sure I can put this into words very effectively but here it goes. We started out facing each other I grabbed Jeff’s right wrist with my left hand while at the same time deploying a “distraction technique” (claw to the face). I then brought his right wrist to my right hand while stepping between us with my left foot to my right side. While all of this is going on I am continuing an arc or “circle” with Jeff’s wrist up and over our heads. The space between us is minimal. I then step back in the direction that I just came from but now facing that direction as I continue the arc of the circle with his wrist. The result is a collapsing of Jeff’s body to his back. I am still in control of his wrist and plant it on the matt beside his head. I can then use his elbow that is now pointing up as a lever point and change my own body position to take advantage of Jeff’s mostly helpless state.

I can see the motion clearly in my head but this sounds very unclear on paper. The key points to this throw are to maintain a close distance between you and the attacker while going through the motions and maintain a circular motion with a straight arm. The more we practiced this, the more evident these points became. If you allow too much space between you and the attacker, you lose your leverage and are in trouble. If you bend the elbow or allow for the circle to collapse, you also lose your leverage and are in trouble. When proper form is maintained, it seems almost impossible to beat this throw.

The next step of this throw was to skip that first step and simply pivot around instead. Doing so makes the movement much faster and reduces the chances of escape by your attacker. All of the same principles and rules still apply though as it is still the same throw. I practiced this with Walt and we both found a comfort level in our practice and he asked me to take it up a notch by “doing it as fast as I can without losing control” so I did. I was surprised at the force that Walt landed with, and I think he was too as he had the breath knocked out of him a little bit. There is something about the circular motions that I can just see in my head as we go through these. I wish I could pick up some of the Kenpo principles as easily as I seem to be able to do some of these Hapkido moves.

The final phase of learning this throw was to combine the parry drill that we learned earlier in class today with the ‘all direction throw’. This is actually very cool. As the attacker comes in with a punch, you can parry the blow and direct it right into the movements of the all direction throw and plant them nicely on their back while maintaining control. Very cool. I need to practice this set of moves together more as I wasn’t quite as comfortable with them combined as I was individually but I can certainly see how effective they are when combined.

Techniques
We finished up the day reviewing technique. It was a quick review and really just gave us a chance to work through them a bit. I need all the time I can get practicing my Purple belt techniques on body as I have very little time in with them so far.

12.09.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-12-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Other Items:

Warming up with Basics
Techniques

Warm-ups
We started with a solid warm-up today. Aside from our usual routine, we did some additional stretching, especially with the legs. We also did some additional joint stretching, particularly the wrists, which usually means we are going to be doing some Hapkido or joint manipulations but as it turns out we didn’t go in that direction today. Today was solidly rooted in basics starting right from the warm-ups.

Techniques
The day was spent pretty much on technique today. There was much I was given to work on in order to tune up my form. Following was the feedback I was given regarding corrections or items to consider when doing my techniques:

Returning Serpent

The trajectory on my whipping back-fist was a bit flat; be sure that the back-fist is on a rising trajectory to the attacker’s right temple.
Maintain proper stance and be mindful of the stance changes.
Be sure to torque the punch. I have a tendency to hold my rear fist flat against my body which robs the punch of torque when it is thrown. Focus on holding the fist in a “palm up” type position allowing for the torque in the lunge punch to the ribs.

Beheading the Dragon

Keep the checking hand vertical. My tendency is to allow that check to match the angle of my arm, creating a complementary angle of entry for my attacker. Not good. Keep the checking hand vertical.

Stopping the Storm

Keep the elbows tight (anchored) closer to my sides.
Punch accurately to the targets and be mindful of where the targets are going to be. When working with a partner, you obviously can’t punch through them with the stop punch, but it is important to remember what their body position will be if you do.

Hidden Wing

Keep the knees bent. I have a tendency to straighten them which will rob balance and perhaps some mobility.

Circling Serpent

Anchor the elbow! Doing so aids in marrying his core to your own as well as controlling his movements, basically a sort of check.

Clapping Tiger

Get a good grab on the wrist. Optimally, grab the garment at the shoulder as well.
Get close to the attacker when moving in for the throw. If you allow a gap between you and the attacker, there is a chance he will be able to pull you off balance and disrupt the technique. It is also a vital point in establishing the base for the throw.
Be mindful of three points: The wrist, the shoulder, and the butt bunk. These are the three control points.

Hooking Thunder

Get into a solid cat stance! My tendency is to have the back foot angled more at a 45 than at 90 degrees.
You are disrupting 2 points of the attackers balance: Height and Depth. Don’t forget to not only capture the kick at it’s apex, but to also pull it in slightly past you as well.

Captured Wing

Throw the initial elbow straight back. It is not an upward elbow but rather goes straight back.
The final elbow strike to the spine should be a circular motion originating from an orbit at the release of the hand. It should be a smooth circular motion.

Raking Hammer

Drop into position at the first block! I should be dropping into a neutral bow. This will correct a range problem I am having with this technique.
Transition low into a horse stance when delivering the hammer fist to the groin. The feet should be flat.
The final elbow is a point of origin strike directly to the chin. This can contour up the body. It is also possible to get a ‘bonus’ strike to the sternum depending on the body reaction to the to hammer fist to the groin.

I ultimately have the gross movements down for the techniques but need to work on refinement. There are some issues I am having with these techniques when I work them in the air versus on a body. Visualizing the targets seems to be my weakness when I’m doing them in the air.

11.18.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-11-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Drills (Attacking Warrior)
Ground Fighting – Kimura Defense & Reversal

Reviewed Other Items:

Warming up with Basics
Mat Work
Techniques

Warm-ups
We began with our normal warm up and stretching today with some additional drills and exercises targeting the basics, such as kicks, blocks and foot maneuvers. It was rather aerobic today and we worked up a nice light sweat right away.

Immediately following the warm-up drills, we started in with a series of moves that essentially became the Blue belt technique Attacking Warrior. I worked with Marty for this portion of the class. We squared off facing each other in a right neutral bow. Taking turns, we first started by exchanging a simple right handed back fist intended for the right temple of our training partner. We took turns, making sure we had good control and proper range. The next step in the sequence was to have the defensive partner intercept the back fist with a right outward block. Adding to this sequence, the ‘attacker’ follows the back fist with a right replacement roundhouse kick to the lower abdomen. Still adding to this series, the next movement was a lunge punch to the ribs and then a final variation took this lunge punch to the head. For the most part, we focused as a class on the gross movements of this technique. Toward the end of the exercise, Sifu went through some additional fine points with the Blue belts in class.

Mat Work
The work we did on the mats today was largely review and practice of previous items. Starting out we did forward rolls, first staying down after the roll and then coming back up in a neutral bow to face our would-be assailant. I did relatively well today on the mats but am still a little weak on my left side. I feel that I am improving but it is taking longer than I would like, probably because this one is difficult to practice at home. We wrapped up the mat work with some ‘push drills’, for lack of a better term. We’ve done this before; basically we line up and Sifu attempts to distract us with some sort of engaging conversation while the person behind us pushes us forward at some random interval of timing. Of course, this is only a marginal surprise at best since we all know what is coming but it still allows for a little bit of practice at being pushed while off guard. Besides that, it’s fun.

Ground Fighting
Marty took us through some exercises in ground fighting today that were a bit different from what we have done in the past. Reflecting back in my mind on what we did, I’m having a hard time thinking of a good way to put it into words. We started off by very quickly reviewing the Kimura as the focus today was to learn a Kimura defense and a counter defense. There were a couple of things that I kept thinking about as we were doing these exercises. Everything on the ground is about leverage but sometimes you can cheat the leverage with strength if you find it impossible to get the correct position. Of course, with your opponent on the ground fighting you every step of the way, this can be quite strenuous and if you come to rely on strength instead of technique, I can see where you would quickly tire and be injured or submitted. Angles and positioning seem to be everything in this game.

The other item we covered today with Marty was reversal using a sort of “scissor kick”. This takes you from your back on the bottom to a better position on top. This one is particularly hard for me to describe, and quite honestly, I don’t know if I could remember how to do it. As with the other items, it is all about leverage and position. As we were practicing, I wasn’t getting it right and Marty offered some corrections. When I finally pulled it off, I realized that it was the subtle moves that I was missing that made the difference. That doesn’t mean that the other movements required weren’t important, just that without everything working together it is very difficult to make it work at all. When all of the pieces come together correctly, it’s like a key turning smoothly in a lock. Otherwise, it’s like using the wrong key – and that is where the experience comes in.

11.11.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-11-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Focus Pad Drills

Reviewed Other Items:

Warming up with Basics
Techniques
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm-ups
We did a lot of stretching as part of our warm ups today, particularly the arms, shoulders and wrists. Sifu reminded us of the importance of staying limber and properly stretching, especially when practicing some of the Hapkido joint manipulations that we do. If, say, the wrist joints weren’t properly prepared for the strain, the result may be injury to you or your training partner. This was more a reminder than anything as he has gone through this before, but he made sure we were clear on the topic before we got started.

Focus Pad Drills
Sifu had us all pair up and work some drills with the focus pads today. I was paired up with Phyl. The first thing we did was to do a basic 1-2-3 combination starting with a right cross punch, then coming back across center with a right back-fist, finishing with a left lunge punch. We have done this before and I was relatively comfortable with the drill itself but Phyl and I had an additional challenge today. The focus pads we were using were about 8” square and were a bit unstable if you didn’t hit them right in the middle of the pad where the other’s hand was backing up the pad. A little to the right or the left and there was literally no resistance as the pad twisted and the striker’s fist just rolled off. The first time it happened I was a little surprised but decided it was a good thing because it really forced me to focus on nailing that pad dead center. When Phyl and I switched pads, I know he was dealing with the same thing.

After the basic combination was established, we added to the drill by stepping into range of the targets in order to strike. We were given some wide leeway on how to accomplish this so I used several different methods of closing the gap. First it was just a simple step-drag. Then I was working with a push-drag to see how well that worked. I also did a step-through to advance into the pads. All worked well for the exercise but I’m sure it would depend on the situation as to which would be the best avenue in a real altercation. We worked this a bit more before we moved on to techniques.

Techniques
Jeff and I worked together on techniques again, basically picking up where we left off last week with Purple belt techniques. I went through Captured Wing, Clapping Tiger and Raking Hammer, which were the only techniques I didn’t get to last week. I had a question with Raking Hammer and borrowed Phyl for advice. The final leg buckle that occurs simultaneously with the rising elbow was the area of my question – I wasn't sure what direction I should be shooting my leg for that buckle. As I did the technique with Jeff, I tried it several ways and it seemed to work with each one. When I asked Phyl we determined that my right leg should be going out to about 3:00 o’clock when I do that leg buckle to the inside of his leg. This opens him up the best and the angle is good for the accompanying elbow. (Thanks, Phyl!)

After we finished up with that, Jeff and I started going through his techniques again from the beginning. Just as we were getting started, Sifu came over and instructed us to take Alfredo through some techniques that Sifu had just taught him: Thunder and Lightning, Escaping Ram, and Thrusting Release. We started with Thunder and Lighting and just did the technique in the air several times. After that we did sort of a ‘mini technique line’ with the three of us doing just Thunder and Lighting. It worked out pretty good because we all went through the line twice and then we lined up and started the process over with the next technique.

It was interesting to watch Alfredo as he was going through the techniques after just learning them 10 minutes prior. First off, he has a lot of positive energy about him and seems genuinely excited to be learning what we do at TKI. That in itself makes working with him fun but perhaps the more interesting thing was that in watching him and his interpretations of what he had been taught just moments ago it brought back so many memories of myself when I was going though that at White belt and again when I was learning the techniques at Orange belt. I can only assume this will continue as I progress but it was still interesting watching him assimilate everything. I can’t say how much working with Walt, Alex, & Phyl also helped me to develop understanding as they all approach things from slightly different perspectives. I only hope that I’ll be able to assist Alfredo as much as they have helped me.

¼ Speed Sparring
The last thing we did today was to get in some sparring. We all paired up and rotated out every few minutes. I think we all were able to spar with everyone else, although we were running a little late and the rounds started getting short toward the end of class.

It was a good sparring session for me today. I purposely left my hands open and loose as instructed by Sifu a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to help me from tightening up. I moved a bit more freely and that always helps. I don’t know why but I was a little more loose today anyway so it just felt good to move around. I did try one thing in particular that I have been thinking about for some time. Lately when I spar with Alex he has been working to get to my back. Although I didn’t let him get there today, he still managed to get my back but this time I did something a little different. As soon as I realized our relative positions, I maneuvered such that his head was basically over my right shoulder. I reached up and laced my fingers around his head at his neck and then went down to a knee. The effect was a little bit unexpected but part of that was me being timid about the takedown. I wasn’t sure what it was going to do so I hesitated a little bit in the beginning. Ultimately I went to my knee and Alex essentially rolled over me to the mat. He was looking to take a piece of me with him the whole way but I managed to stay clear of him. He was up as fast as he went down, smoothly rolling up to his feet. I didn’t follow up with anything but it was good to experiment with something new and get some sort of positive result.

Another interesting round was with Alfredo. His background seems to be strong with wrestling and grappling and I tried to take that into account when we got started. Alfredo has a heavier build that me and can probably muscle me around pretty good if he wants too. I think he was a little surprised though the first time he attempted to do that. I’m not sure what it was he was attempting to do but he pretty much just reached straight out to me and pulled me into him. His guard was such that I couldn’t lead with a punch so I just folded my arm and let the point of my elbow drive into his chest. As soon as my elbow made contact I unhinged my arm for a back-fist to the nose (no contact of course) and then retreated back out with a scoop kick on departure. He seemed stunned. I thought I might have accidentally caught him with something and asked if he was ok. He just got a big smile on his face and said that nobody had ever countered like that before. I don’t know if my maneuver was strictly Kenpo or not but I do know that the concepts and principles I used were straight up knowledge passed down from Sifu. I can’t remember how many times I have sparred with him and he has told me (shown me) to use the borrowed force of the attacker against them. After mentally reviewing that little maneuver, I’m glad to see that some of his training is sinking in!!

My round with Sifu was also interesting today. He actually took me down to the mat today! I maintained control of his right arm as we went down and after we hit the mat, and basically was able to stalemate him long enough to stand up but when I turned around to face him again he was already up too. Some times I feel like an escape artist instead of a martial artist when it comes to take downs and ground fighting. I’m feeling more comfortable if I go to the ground but I don’t have much of an arsenal there yet so as a rule I just escape and get to my feet as soon as possible. I definitely need to work on this a little more.

Unfortunately my rounds with Phyl and Walt were short. Hopefully I’ll be able to make that up another time. Jeff, as always, has those long range kicks. At ¼ speed it’s hard to throw a high kick and it’s also pretty easy to catch one. The thing is, I know that Jeff can kick hard and fast and at full speed, I don’t know that I would be as willing or tempted to step into one of his kicks. That thought always goes through my mind when we are doing slower speed sparring because I’m wondering “okay, if I wouldn’t really do this in a fight, why am I rushing in now?” and I usually try to alter my movements. This usually looks and feels awkward and very unsmooth because of the hesitation. I’ll have to think about how to overcome that little hurdle for next time.

11.04.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-11-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Pursuit Drills

Reviewed Other Items:

Warming up with Basics
Foot Maneuvers
Techniques

Warm-ups
Our warm up today focused on the basics. We did the usual stretches and then went into stances, specifically the neutral bow. Sifu told us to focus intently on form and not necessarily speed today as we were warming up. From the neutral bow we did step drags, step throughs, switches & covers, and more. We eventually went into some other foot maneuvers…

We did a crossover drill that reminded me of something from football practice, except specific to crossovers. We did crossovers up and down the mat several times. We also did some kick advances with the crossovers and just sort of mixed things up a bit. I think the point today was to be able to move correctly into and out of these different maneuvers and stances. Correctly? Yes, as in sticking to the basics like staying over your supporting leg, keeping your knees bent properly, not bobbing up and down, keeping control of your center of gravity, and no dead legging. Sifu also quizzed us as we were doing these things asking why we do them this way. It has been a while since we have done this type of drilling so it was kind of fun to do it again.

Pursuit Drills
After we were good and warmed up, Sifu paired us up and we did something new, or at least new for me. I started out with Phyl and we went back and forth up the mat. The first exercise we did had Phyl advancing toward me with a series of kicks as defined by Sifu. I did a rear step-through to retreat as he advanced, simply supplying a frame of reference for targeting. Once we reached the end of the mat, it was my turn and Phyl retreated for me as we traversed back to the original starting point.

The next part of the drill involved a little more spontaneity. Instead of set movements, the ‘aggressor’ used whatever kicks he wanted and the other ‘defender’ retreated in the same fashion. Again, we took turns going up and down the mat.

The next part was fun. The ‘aggressor’ did the same thing but the ‘defender’ (really the guy getting kicked, because we weren’t defending at all) would give a body reaction for the given kick. In other words, if the kick was to the groin, then the dummy would react as though he were kicked in the groin, and so on. There was no contact (well, not really) and it turned out to be as much of an exercise for me to figure out what my particular body reaction should be to a given strike as it was for the kicker to kick at available targets. It was also interesting to see what Phyl considered a target versus the targets I was pursuing. Great exercise.

There was a completely different pursuit drill following this one. This time Sifu essentially divided the mat in half and assigned one half to each pair of people. This time I was paired up with Walt. Sifu put the ‘defender’ in about the middle of the mat and told the ‘attacker’ to try to get past the defender to the back panel of the mat. If the defender kicked you in a viable target, you were to reset and try again. The main purpose of this was to use footwork and maneuvers to move around and control the movement of the ‘attacker’ with kicks alone.

We started. I don’t remember who was attacking and defending first but I remember defending against Walt. As he would move in, he would fake and try to juke in the opposite direction, like in football. For the most part, I would maintain an appropriate distance and when he would try to get by I would kick to a vital target. At first this didn’t seem terribly difficult but we were just sort of testing the waters. Then Walt picked it up a notch. At one point he just flat sprinted past me. Point for Walt. On another attempt, he dove into a roll low to one side and almost got by me. Still another time he did the same thing but dove high to the opposite side, and probably got by me on that one as well. Then we switched sides.

As Walt defended, he took a different approach. He was much more aggressive and tried to box me into a corner to prevent me from moving freely. This was relatively effective. He was right up on me and I just so badly wanted to bring a knee up to the groin and then bolt for the point! Alas, that was against the rules so I just went back to maneuvers. The only way I had any luck with Walt was to get him to commit to a kick on the edge of his range and then go around him as he was trying to adjust. This was only marginally successful but I did manage to make it work at least once. This was an interesting exercise and one of the things that makes it interesting is that I don’t know yet what I would do next time to be more successful at getting past the defender. Need to ponder that.

Techniques
The last thing we did today was work technique. This time, Jeff and I were teamed up and we started with the Orange belt techniques. Led by Sifu, we started off doing the technique slowly and then faster. We went through them in the order of the Master form beginning with Beheading the Dragon. We focused largely on accuracy of the technique but we also went over covering out – both single and double cross out.

Upon completion of the Orange belt techniques we went right into the Purple. I was working the techniques on Jeff and, quite honestly, I haven’t worked technique much on a body and it was showing. It was good to work them as I was having some issues. On Circling Serpent, I was stepping forward on the initial movement, sort of at a 10:30 angle. Upon seeing how crowded I was coming back in, Sifu corrected me and had me step out more to 9:00 on the first step. What a difference! Air Kenpo is great for practice but it is just different working on a body. Another item that Sifu went over with me on this technique was the grab at the shoulder. He didn’t feel that I had a firm enough grasp of the gi. He showed how the grasp needs to be tight in order to maintain control during and after the take down.

We worked through several more techniques as Sifu worked with the Blue belts. It was great to work technique again… it seemed like it has been a while. I certainly need the practice!

10.21.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-10-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Elbow Strikes

Reviewed Other Items:

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Ball Kicks
Lunge Punches
Back Kicks
Mat Work: Forward Rolls

Warm-ups
We did a good solid warm up today incorporating some solid basics along with the usual stretching and moving. On the agenda were lunge punches & ball kicks among other items. We focused on technical accuracy today on all of our movements.

After warming up we went into practicing the Purple belt kicking drill with a partner. As the person kicking advanced, the partner retreated, simply providing a frame of reference for the kicker to target. Sifu stated that several of us were off on our back kicks. I’m pretty sure I was one of those and started focusing on it as we kept drilling. After a couple more times up and back, Sifu approached and told my partner and I that to be sure to look over our shoulder and not around it – which pretty much sums up what I was doing. When you look past your shoulder, it causes your back and hips to turn and thus throwing your kick off-angle. Seems logical when someone points it out. Sifu also gave the class some clarification on the spinning rear heel kick; it is a vertical rising kick launched at a 45 degree angle from the point of origin. The heel leads and makes contact first – not the ball of the foot.

Mat Work
Next was some forward rolls on the mats. We started off with some basic forward rolls, focusing on the basics like landing in the correct position with everything slapping at once and at the correct time. Then Sifu started turning it up just a notch. He had us still doing the same thing but rolling into a tighter ball. This had at least a couple of effects on me, the first being vertigo. The tighter ball made me feel like I was spinning faster and I felt a little like a cat in the dryer. I kept losing my focus and it was throwing my landings way off. Sifu noticed me, and perhaps some of the others, working through my difficulties and gave us some additional advice. He told use the arm as a guide but to guide the movement of the arm in a sweeping arc when going to the mat. Avoid landing on the shoulder and smooth out the roll even though it is a tighter roll. He went on to describe that he was working us through a progression that will eventually lead to ‘air rolls’, where the ‘rolling’ part is done in the air and you basically make contact to the ground for the first time at the landing. I think I need to work on this one some more.

Elbows: Discussion and Drills
Although we have been using elbow strikes for a while in class and sparring, we haven’t really focused on them individually. Today we did just that, defining and discussing what types of elbow strikes we use along with how to execute and use them.

We started off defining some different elbow strikes. The upward elbow (like in Stopping the Storm), the forward elbow (like in Deflecting Thunder), the downward elbow (like in Captured Wing) and the rear elbow (like in Hidden Wing). There was another strike we touched on briefly called the ‘flapping’ elbow that is apparently used more in the American Kenpo system.

After a discussion on the uses and striking surfaces of each elbow strike, we broke into pairs and started practicing with some drills. I started off with Jeff and we worked on stepping in and throwing a horizontal (trailing) elbow to the head. The beginning position is both are in a matched stance and the partner has his arm up and bent horizontally with the point of the elbow directed at you. Your lead hand checks their lead elbow and your trailing elbow comes up horizontally for a head strike.

The next variant that we practiced was simply adding on to this succession and throwing a second elbow (other arm) to the partners ribs. This doesn’t seem like a whole bunch but you have to shuffle in to do this and Jeff and I discovered something in the process – those knees keep getting in the way, kinda like knee checks! We paid some attention to this and realized that not only are the knee checks present, they are almost a catalyst for throwing that lead elbow because it’s like an automatic range finder. (Note: After class, Alex and Sifu had a much more in-depth discussion regarding this topic and went into greater detail than our ‘discovery’.)

For the third variant, we switched partners and I was now working with Alfredo. The drill was to step-drag in to deliver a right horizontal (trailing) elbow to the head, followed by a left crane hand to the back of the neck pulling him down onto a right knee. It’s important to move in and take the opponent’s center on this one – you must dominate his space. Of course we don’t make hard contact when we practice with each other but his one will make you wince just the same. Imagine slamming the bad guy’s face into your rising knee. Yeah.
Then we add to it. Hehee…

For the fourth exercise, we added one more strike to the sequence – a downward bladder punch. After the rising right knee, the bad guy’s head should be moving in an upward trajectory that will usually cause the back to arch slightly and the abdomen to be exposed – which is a perfect target for a downward right handed punch to the bladder. This is a pretty wicked combination and it flows very nicely.

We paused at this point to discuss some of the principles and concepts we use in with other strikes and techniques to see how they apply to elbows. Among the items we discussed were: Marriage of Gravity, Mass in Motion, Opposing Forces, Borrowed Force, and Point of Origin.

The last thing we did before finishing up today was to go wail on the B.O.B.s a little bit. From a right neutral bow, we step dragged in and delivered a right elbow to the solar plexus. The focus of this drill was to marry the entire movement of your body into the strike; utilize torque from your ankles up and allow your elbow to become an extension of your core. This not only maximizes the effectiveness of the strike but is usually the most efficient movement for power as well. The second part of the drill added a second elbow strike to the ribs. The third part of the drill was to deliver that second elbow to the head. Again, the key focus of these drills was to combine body torque and Mass in Motion to the elbow strike for power.

I must say, the B.O.B.s flew around a little bit when we hit them, even though they were properly weighted, but it is nice to have some realistic targets to hit for reference. When I practice at home on the Ultra Man dummy or on the heavy bag, the feed back is coming from a flat surface. With the B.O.B.s, even though the rubber outer shell quickly conforms to the strike, there is still a different feeling about it and it is easier to tell when you miss your intended target. These are sort of growing on me as a training aid.

10.14.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-10-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Alfredo receives his Gi
Chopping Set

Reviewed Other Items:

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
American Kenpo Blocking Set
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm-ups
As we were coming into class today, Sifu gave Alfredo his Gi. As he went over the particulars of washing & drying and sewing on the patch, you could just see the energy rising in Alfredo. I’ve never seen anyone so excited to put on a gi before! It was fun to watch and I think we were all happy for Alfredo.

We did our warm-ups today covering the usual items with a couple of extra leg stretches thrown in. It wasn’t much more than a basic warm up today and we got started.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
We spent a fair amount of time today doing the Purple belt kicking drill. It must have appeared to Sifu that we were ‘racing’ up and down the mat, putting focus on speed instead of accuracy. He made it clear that he wanted to see us focusing on accuracy; all kicks were to be on target and under full control. I was having a balance issue today and I had to really slow it down some to get it back under control. Toward the end I was going okay again but I really felt off balance at first. I noticed on my first trip down that my roundhouse kick was a bit sloppy as well so I tightened that up and put it on target. It was interesting to me just how much energy I was expending on this drill. It really isn’t that difficult of a drill but I sure was huffing all of a sudden. Because of this I started to examine my breathing a bit more carefully as I went up and down the mat. I think I was holding my breath to some extent during the actual kicks and it was catching up to me fast. I started breathing properly and I felt much better.

American Kenpo Blocking Set
Sifu lined us up again for the American Kenpo Blocking Set. He had us go into a horse stance and then we slowly went through the set. After we had gone through the set several times, he began speaking on some of the particulars of the set. Some of us straightened out our legs and essentially came out of the stance, which drew rebuke from Sifu, and then we went back to the set again. He stated specifically that he wanted us to focus on the accuracy of the movements of the set while we are doing them. We need to be sure we are placing the blocks properly and with snap, just like we normally would. After going through the set several more times, he spoke on the differences of the horse stance from different systems. He mentioned that some of the Chinese systems have the feet pointing forward while some Korean systems have the feet at more of an angle. Some of the Japanese/Okinawan stances have the feet pointing completely outward. The more forward the feet are pointing, the more stress that is on the ankle when done properly. In all cases, it is important that you sit in the stance with the knees pushed outward. After this information we did the blocking set a couple more times before we stood up and shook out our legs.

Chopping Set
Sifu introduced some of the class to a new drill today he referred to as the chopping set. It is basically just what it sounds like – a series of hand chops. The current Blue belts had been exposed to this set sometime in the past but it was new to everyone else. There are basically 5 moves to the basic set: a right hand chop to your partner’s left side of the neck, pivoting at the elbow to deliver a right hand chop to the opposite (opponent’s right) side of the neck, pivoting once again at the elbow to deliver a chop low to the groin, then coming back up to the opponent’s right side temple with a ridge hand chop and finishing with a ‘looping’ ridge hand chop to the opponent’s left side temple. While all of this chopping is going on with your right hand, your left hand is checking.

We spent a lot of time on this today. There are several nuances to the set that require you to consider things like timing and range. Sifu had us working in rotating pairs which was good because it really made us adapt to the different targets and their changing locations. One of the things that I was having trouble with was the last ridge hand to the temple. Phyl was working with me on this to some extent showing me that a subtle shift of the body position allows the circling movement to occur as necessary and can aid in adding a slight whipping effect to the strike. In order for this to have maximum benefit, you need to start with the appropriate range and I was starting way to close. On his advise, I backed off some and tried it again with better results. With practice, I could feel the whipping sensation developing that he was speaking of. As I have been known to do, I think I was too rigid in my movements in the beginning and wasn’t really getting out of my own way for that last strike.

After we all sort of got comfortable with the basic moves of the set, Sifu had us use this in a drill that offered up more of an application for these moves. It started by stepping into a right neutral bow to deliver a chop to the neck (which could in reality be nearly any incoming blow). Our partner blocked with the rear arm which set up the next move – we simply pivot at the elbow and go to the next chop in the series, a chop to the partners right side of the neck, and then the rest. As we practiced with this series of moves, the partners started blocking more and more of the chops. Sifu noted that if this were used in a live situation, they may get one or as many as a few of the chops but the likelihood of them getting all of them diminished greatly with each additional chop.

The last addition to this drill was to add forward pressure to the same drill we were doing. In other words, step drag or shuffle in as you deliver each chop. This gives the would be assailant an awful lot to think about as he now has to not only block what seems to be an onslaught of strikes but he also has to worry about retreating as well. We didn’t really drill this part so much as watch as Sifu demonstrated the point with Alex. As Sifu pursued, it was clear that even though Alex was able to block several of the shops, the continuous advance caused him to eventually miss one or more of the blocks.

There is truly a lot to think about with this particular set. There have been several times when Sifu has used this technique or something similar when we are sparring but this was the first time he has every really explained the concepts and principles of the particular movements, at least to part of the class.

¼ Speed Sparring
We had about 15 minutes left in the class and we split up and did some ¼ speed sparring. I started off with Alex. My focus, as Sifu had instructed me the last time we were sparring, was to keep my hands open and stay relaxed in my upper body. The other thing I really tried to do was to stay low, bending my knees. So Alex and I started up, slow at first, and then we started experimenting a bit. I think I was too relaxed a couple of times but Alex helped me to get out of that real quick. There was one time in particular that he was coming in with a ball kick and I opened up to advance with punch. He connected first - very well, I might add - and all I can say is thank God for groin protection!! Had this happened on the street there is no doubt in my mind I would have been finished. Nice shot Alex. We continued on and it was rather interesting trying to stay ‘relaxed’ after that kick. I really wasn’t hurt so I kept on. Alex certainly had more shots in on me from several angles but I think I’m starting to get a little better about his straight in advances. I’ve also noticed that he likes to use orbits but often times allows me to use them off him as well. I’ll have to analyze this a little more.

Phyl was my other sparring partner today. I was experimenting with him a little bit today, sometimes for the better but not usually. I think he was doing the same thing. There were a couple of times that he came in close for a take down and I beat him to position first. I generally don’t pursue if the fight goes to the mat and I’m still on my feet. Phyl tries to take you down with him and I have learned to be wary of this. The first time he went down I was able to stay clear of him as he reached out for me. The second time he got hold of my gi and I had to make a choice: do I want to take this fight to the ground or do I want to break his grip and stay on my feet? I chose to break his grip and retreat. The right move? I’m truly not sure as it would be the situation that dictates this decision in the street. Having been down on some pretty hard surfaces in the past, I have found it better to stay on my feet if at all possible but then again I didn’t have the choices I have now should the fight go to ground. I guess time and experience will tell. In any event, Phyl and I continued on after that and pretty much stayed vertical. For the second time today, I got kicked in the groin! I thought I had the block; using a low block I delivered what I thought was a well placed block to his low roundhouse kick. I must have had a confused look on my face because even though I made contact with his leg, he made contact too. I told him “that one got in!” and he just smiled at me. I’ll have to reexamine my low blocks to see if I’m too tight or just out position again or what.

We wrapped up sparring, lined up and bowed out.

Additional note: Walt will be married today at 12:00 noon.

Congratulations
Walt and Sarah!

10.07.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-10-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Items:

Cardinal Kicking Drill
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Master Form – Orange Belt
Mat work
¼ Speed Sparring
Techniques

Kicking Drills
After our usual basic warm ups, we continued on with some kicking drills starting with the Cardinal direction drill. This one is named because you are basically kicking in the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, West). I was doing terrible. I have been battling a cold all week and thought I was past it but it caught up with me. The heart was pumping, I had cold sweats, and I was generally feeling miserable. I just tried to focus and got through the first drill. Then we started the Purple belt kicking drill and I thought I was going to flat out die. I was lagging behind pretty badly but kept on going. I know I was all over the place and was off balance. We broke from the drills for a water break and I just went over and got my breath. Once I got my heart rate back down again I actually felt pretty good. I think I burned out whatever bugs were left in my system and was ready to go.

Master Form
We lined up in a sort of staggered line and went through the form together. I stopped at the Orange belt material that I know and started again. When I finished I waited for the Blue belts to finish and then we all bowed together. After a couple of practice runs, Sifu had me rotate forward and I did my portion of the Master form again. This time when I finished, the guys each critiqued me. Then I stepped off the mat and the other guys did the same thing. I always feel a little funny critiquing the Blue belts. I have learned so much from them and they are always taking the time to answer my questions when I ask. I just sort of see them several levels ahead of me so to try to critique them always seems a little weird. Anyway, I just tell them what I see and hope it is helpful.

Mat Work
We didn’t do anything new on the mats today but I couldn’t seem to get the things down that I should have already known. I kept getting dizzy coming out of the forward rolls and I couldn’t stick the landing on my weak side to save my life. I would start to focus on the landing and forget to roll properly. One time I actually crossed up right in the middle of the roll and landed flat on my back. I was not having a good day. We did it over and over and I did improve a little but I wasn’t happy with my performance. Short from coving my living room floor with a mat, I’m not sure how I’m going to practice this.

Next we were thrown around a bit by Sifu. He did several throws where we rolled up out of a forward roll. After several times we put the mats up and moved on to some sparring.

¼ Speed Sparring
There were only three of us plus Sifu dressed today: Alex, Phyl & me. Walt was present but is suffering a foot injury so he was observing and taking notes. As a result, we all were able to spar each other and our ‘rounds’ were a little longer than usual, or perhaps they just seemed that way today.

Sifu told us to pair up and Phyl and Alex both came after me! I wound up sparring with Phyl first and we started out just trading some strikes. Phyl was putting some good combinations together and I missed several strikes that would have (or did) come right on through and connect. I was largely straight legged and was moving stiffly but started loosening up a little toward the end of our session. Then Phyl started to move in with some take down attempts. We locked up once and he started to leverage my leg out from under me, but I recognized it before he got me all the way and was able to muscle out of it. He came at me again with almost the same thing and this time I just dumped him. When he got up I showed him what I try to do when I do a take down, a simultaneous sweep or buckle low while pushing or striking at a complimentary angle up high – usually while married at the hip. About then Sifu called an end to the round and rotated.

Next was Alex. I think it is safe to say he mostly had his way with me. His “¼ speed” is a little faster than mine but he is very good at staying in a tight ball of defense. I noticed he has been working more ground stuff lately and has been working to get my back when he can. We went to the mat one particular time where we were essentially facing each other and sprawled as we went down but he wound up on top. He tried to snake a guillotine around my neck but got my chin. There wasn’t a heck of a lot I felt I could do so I just started some speed bag practice to his groin. Sifu called for us to break and we stood, which also was the end of our match. Sifu then gave some instruction to Alex that made a lot of sense for our particular situation: if/when we he finds himself in that position, push the legs back in sort of a ‘semi sprawl’ in order to clear the groin as a target. This also puts additional pressure (weight) on the guy on the bottom that will have to be dealt with.

Next was Sifu. The first thing he did was sort of an exaggerated example of what he witnessed watching me spar. First item of note was that I was standing with straight legs and no bend in the knees. Second was that I was all tensed up in the shoulders and held my hands too high. Third was an exaggerated mockery of a typical takedown when someone steps in to close to me. He was quick to point out that getting inside and doing the takedown was fine, but that ability will only be enhanced when correcting the other issues he was seeing. He told me from this point forward, unless he says otherwise, he wants me to have my hands open and relaxed for ¼ speed sparring. I did this during our session today and I could feel my shoulders relaxing some but I still had a tendency of tightening up and going rigid. Something to work on.

Techniques
Although not actively participating, Walt was present today in an observational mode because of an injured foot. Sifu asked if he was willing to go over the Purple belt techniques with me and he quickly accepted. Sifu told him explicitly that he was to instruct only and not participate. Of course with a shrug and a smile, Walt accepted and Sifu went to work with the Blue belts.

We started off with Stopping the Storm and Walt just had me do the technique several times while he observed. After a while he asked me to do the technique as powerfully as I possibly could without sacrificing the accuracy and integrity of the technique itself. I did as instructed and he had me repeat this process several times. After the fourth of fifth time he seemed to notice something and after a couple of times more he had me stop and explained. He was trying to help me with the flow of the technique and when I started to do it with as much force as possible, I was apparently rather ‘choppy’. However, after several times doing it like that I began to become somewhat fatigued and it started to smooth out. I sort of mentally reflected back in my mind and reviewed the techniques as I had been doing them. Then I did them a couple of more times and I could see what Walt was talking about.

I also discussed the range in which I come in when I start the technique and the cover out at the end. Doing the technique in the air, I have a tendency to slide way in for the stop punch that starts the technique. Walt stepped in and we did the technique slowly and that really helped to make the point. I don’t have to slide way in. In fact when I do, I tend to be too close and get all jammed up. Walt recommended that instead of sliding in, I simply consider stepping into a right neutral bow, and then slide in as necessary for the ensuing elbow strike. I was leery of Walt’s foot so I didn’t do much with him as a dummy but we did enough to illustrate his point.

Next was Hidden Wing and we didn’t spend a whole bunch of time on this one. I did ask him again about the cover out for this one and he showed me how to do it. The only real critique he had for this one was with the rear kick and he stated I was deploying my balance stabilizing devices (wind milling my arms for balance) during the kick. I hadn’t noticed it but of course the next time I did the technique I did. I did it a couple more times correctly before we moved on.

Circling Serpent was next up and we went over this one pretty good. Among the things we discussed were targets and correct body position. Doing air Kenpo is good but he wanted to make sure I was visualizing the correct targets for the strikes, particularly the kicks. He also made sure that I finished in a rear bow and that my arm came around essentially from my right shoulder to my left hip so that my adversary would be planted appropriately where I wanted him.

We jumped around a little bit from here and did Clapping Tiger next. When I did this the first time he wanted to see it again. The main thing we talked about is closing the distance for the shoulder throw. He stated how it was vitally important that my back be as close to the opponents body as possible and that my center was lower than his before working the throw. He mentioned that during his last test, he had too much distance between him and his partner and wound up having to muscle over the throw. In a real situation, this is very dangerous as all the attacker really has to do to mess you up is lean backwards or just pull you back and off your center. We carefully practiced with me taking the technique to the point just short of the throw. I feel a lot better about knowing where I need to be prior to the throw now.

We were just beginning another technique when Sifu called an end to class. Walt and I joined the others and bowed out to bring this session to a close.

09.23.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-09-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Blocking Drill – American Kenpo
Blocking Drill – IKCA Version
Throws – Elbow lock

Reviewed Other Items:

Mat work
Master Form

Warm-ups
We did some pretty good stretching today as part of our warm ups. We can usually tell when we are going to get a dose of Hapkido as part of the lesson when we start stretching our wrists and hands. We generally got good an limber all over as well as doing our usual basic warm up drills for kicking.

New Blocking Drills
Sifu ran us through a blocking drill that I hadn’t seen before. To my knowledge, none of us had seen it before but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, the drills were essentially the same but we tasted two different flavors: the original American Kenpo version and then a version Sifu referred to as the “IKCA” version.

We started the American Kenpo version in a basic horse stance with arms at our sides in a ‘ready’ position. We then did a series of blocks: upward, inward, outward, and downward, then returned the hand to ready before bringing it down in front of the body in a sort of downward pushing motion with an open hand. Finally the hand returns to the ready at the side and you do the same series of motions with the other (left) hand. Upon the end of the motions with the left hand, you begin a similar set of movements using both hands/arms at once. The initial move brings both arms up and crossed in a high block with the wrists facing out, followed by a lowering of the arms but, still crossed, blocking directly in front of you with the wrists facing in. Both arms then move to the respective sides to do an outward block, followed by a similar motion for a low block, then returning to ready before a double downward ‘push’ with open hands. The final move is to return to the ready position.

After running through this awkward new set of movements a few times, Sifu shook it up a little bit on us. I don’t know if he did this himself or if this next drill already existed somewhere in the system but the end result is a drill that uses the same principles but in the context more appropriate to what we train in IKCA Kenpo.

Starting from the right neutral bow, the first move is an upward block, to an inward, then extended outward, downward. We then do a blocking move that essentially blocks with the interior of the forearm as we bring it back across our center before doing the downward ‘push’ with the other hand covering. Then do a switch and do the same thing on the other side. As I stated above, it is very similar to the American Kenpo version but it better incorporates the moves of the IKCA.

Mat Work
Next we broke out the mats. First up was side falls. It stills seems funny to me that I have to ‘learn how to fall’ but week after week, I still struggle with different aspects of ‘falling’. The side falls aren’t too bad and I’m ok at them. Where I struggle with this maneuver is in getting everything to hit or ‘slap’ at once, the goal being to dissipate as much force as possible by spreading the impact across greater contact surface area all at once. Sounds good. Seems simple. But you can just hear it when you do it wrong. Instead of a single ‘thud’, it sounds more like you were just poured out of a can or something.

Next up was forward rolls. These I am a little better at then the side falls but I have a hard time with my left side. When I roll to my left side and stop, I should land more on my right side with my right leg straight, my right arm straight, and the should both slap or impact at the same time to dissipate force. My left leg should be bent and my foot should be roughly behind my right knee planted on the ground. My left hand should be up in a guard position. This sounds like a lot of stuff to remember, but the funny thing is that is only a lot to remember when I roll to my weak side! For some reason it is almost instinctual to do these motions correctly on my strong side but I get discombobulated going to my weak side. All I can do is practice.

Next we did something that I thought was a lot of fun – we got to throw each other around a little bit! Sifu taught us two maneuvers in which we basically trap the arm of an incoming punch and then maneuver ourselves into a place of leverage and execute a throw in which the attacker is allowed to roll out of. The first one put us inside the aggressor’s strike. The second one utilized an elbow lock. I really liked the elbow lock. Sifu ran us through a line and did each technique on us individually before he unleashed us on the class. Of course, he has much more experience at these things and makes it look so easy and also makes it easy on us as well. A poorly executed maneuver, especially a throw, can be really… uncomfortable. I was the first one to do execute the elbow lock in the line so I was being really careful at first because I didn’t know what I was looking for. The cool thing is that I managed to get the basic move down pretty quickly and it didn’t take many repetitions and I could really start feeling the flow. It got to the point where I could almost pick the spot that they were going to land in before I actually did the throw. I was a little anxious about the elbow though – I couldn’t really tell if I was applying too much pressure or not. Nobody complained and they seemed to be landing okay, but I really wasn’t sure. Before I knew it, my time was up and I rotated out as it was my turn to be thrown. I was really surprised that when my elbow was locked out and the leverage was applied, it really didn’t hurt. Pretty cool.

Master Form
I finished out the day by doing the Orange belt portion of the Master form over and over again. It really is sort of funny how worn out you can get doing ‘air Kenpo’. I keep telling myself to imagine if I was in a real fight and had to deal with actual impact and the forces related to it. The key to the form as we have all been told over and over, is the correct pace and most importantly, correct breathing. I have the major moves down, I just need to pull the rest of the package together.

09.16.06 - Visitors from Vass, NC

2006-09-16T17:00:00.000-05:00

New items today:

Work out with Lynn Lane’s students
Joel received his Purple Belt

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm ups
Yes-No-Yes Drills
Orange Belt Techniques
Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Technique Line
Ground Fighting
¼ Speed Sparring
Full Speed Sparring
Fellowship

Welcome to Lynn Lane and his Students
In the past when we have gotten together with Lynn and his students, the TKI crew all headed on down to Vass, NC and met up with them at their place. This time Lynn and his guys came up to Raleigh and paid us a visit at Red Sun Acadamy where we train. It was great to see Lynn and his students again: Steve, Joel, and Danny.

We started off the day with something special. Lynn awarded Joel his Purple belt at the head of the class. I found out later that Joel had traveled from parts north of Raleigh and it had been a while since he and Lynn had seen each other. It was great to be present for Joel as he received his belt.

Warm Ups
Sifu asked Marty to get us started with some warm ups today and as always, Marty had some interesting things in mind for us. We started off with “Jumping Jacks”, about 50 of them or so I think, and then did some basic stretching and arm circles. Next up was some footwork drills like we used to do in football. Then we did the interesting stuff. We paired up and started with doing the wheelbarrow from one end of the mat and back again before switching off so the other guy could do it. I was partnered with Steve, who seems to have abundant energy and didn’t seem to have any problems with these drills. Next we had the partner jump on our back and we simply carried them across the mat and back, and then switched off. I personally found this to be much easier than the wheelbarrow but Steve is a bit lighter than I am so I’m sure he might have had a different perspective.

Sifu took back over the class and finished up the warm ups. We started with just a simple stance transition from the neutral bow into our choice of either a lunge stance or a forward bow, and then back again. This is a quick pivoting action and is used in several techniques. After the stance changes, we did some simple leg stretches before pairing up and trading foot replacement roundhouse kicks.

Next up was a drill that I haven’t done much with in a while. We donned focus mitts and practiced some “yes-no-yes” punching drills. Sifu walked around us calling out ‘random’ three-count combinations of “yes” and “no”. We punch the focus mitts on the ‘yes’ calls and punch but don’t strike the mitts on the ‘no’ calls. Sifu made it clear that the non-hits were not “misses” but rather were controlled strikes to a target that exists just shy of the surface of the mitt. Control is one of the items practiced and learned while doing this drill.

Orange Belt Techniques
After we were all warmed up, Sifu lined us back up and we practiced techniques, specifically we practiced the Orange belt techniques. Starting with Thunder and Lightning, we worked are way through the six techniques ending with Beheading the Dragon. My knee was a little shaky but was holding up okay so I just went after it on these techniques. It felt good doing them in class again. It has been a while since I have practiced the Orange belt techniques in class and it sort of just felt comfortable. Sifu drilled us on some more than others, hitting on key points that he has emphasized in regular class with us.

Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Upon finishing the Orange belt techniques, Sifu had the class line up along the edge of the mat and we practiced the Purple belt Kicking Drill. This drill consists of a forward ball kick, foot replacement roundhouse kick, crossover heel kick, rear heel kick, and a low foot replacement side kick. It was good to practice this one. I found myself having to catch my balance a couple of times and it made me take a closer look at what I was doing. In the end, I think it was just a mental issue as I was favoring my knee. In reality, I think my knee is fine but in my head, I’m just afraid to test it. I did my best to get past the issue and continued on.

Technique Line
After a quick water break, we formed a technique line and practiced techniques we knew at our own levels for a given strike. For instance, the first strike was inside a right punch. When it was my turn in line, I did Returning Serpent and Stopping the Storm. The Blue belts had additional techniques to draw upon and we have an American Kenpo stylist that has been training with us that has a whole different array of techniques that she uses. In fact, I think she really surprised the guys from Lynn’s school based on a couple of reactions. Steve said something that had me laughing pretty good after she struck him several chopping blows across the mid section, chest and neck: “Wow! That’s like getting a massage!” We worked inside a right, inside a left and inside a right front kick before moving on.

Ground Fighting Basics
Sifu turned the floor back over to Marty again as Marty took us through some of the basic moves he has gone over with the TKI group. We started with some terminology, discussing the difference between the ‘mount’ and the ‘guard’ positions. We then partnered up and went through three different types of submissions, breaking between each one for instruction from Marty. We covered the Americana, a Kimura, and a typical Arm Bar. I was partnered with Joel for these different items and he seemed to really find them interesting, stating that he had never worked with any ground fighting techniques before. He seemed to take to the instruction well and caught on pretty quickly.

¼ Speed Sparring
After a quick water break, we all paired off and spread out across the mat for some ¼ speed sparring. We just did 2 minute rounds with hardly a break in between. If you stick to the ¼ speed rule, you really shouldn’t need a lot of recovery time. I started off with Joel and eventually worked my way around to everyone. It is always fun to do this with other people. When you work with the same people all of the time, you begin to learn each other’s habits and rhythms so working with new people sort of brings your mind back to focus again and forces you to be a little more creative.

When it came to be my turn to spar with Steve, he made a comment about the last time we sparred like this and I was able to take him down to the mat. I was really not going to do that today, but when he asked me about, there was a twinkle of a challenge in his eye. I told him that I wouldn’t do it unless he gave it to me. He promptly stepped right into me so I slid my lead leg behind his and shifted into a rear bow while slowly bringing my forearm across his chest – all at ¼ speed – and affected a take down. He smiled and said “It’s all good!” as he hopped back to his feet and we just kept going. I wish I could harness his energy!

Full Speed Sparring
Sifu told us to “Gear Up!” and we got ready for some full speed sparring. I was a little disappointed to see that only one of Lynn’s guys, Steve, had brought his gear. As it turned out, Steve and I were the first match on the mat. Sifu set the clock at 3 minutes and we were off. I started throwing some kicks and threw a few combinations but I immediately started fatiguing. I wasn’t so much out of breath but I just couldn’t get the limbs moving! Based on comments from this morning’s matches, I tried to continue to press the attack. It didn’t take long and I figured out that Steve likes to circle to his left, and if I circle into him he will launch at me pretty quickly instead of circling back. The other thing I noticed pretty quickly is that he likes to throw a spinning back fist. I don't think he actually managed to get me with any but the first one was close! He did land a couple of good shots on me, one to the body and caught me clean with one to the head. He tried to feint into me several times but I wasn’t going for it. Before we knew it the three minutes were up.

I sat down and Sifu and Phyl took their turn. It was just the four of us that were geared up. Sifu followed his round with Phyl by taking a round with Steve. It was fun to watch as they are both long legged and Steve likes to throw high round kicks. Sifu was fighting at Steve’s level and was just tagging him here and there. Steve landed a couple of good shots himself.

Phyl and I finished up the full contact portion of the day with another round. I was dead tired. I think Phyl was getting tired too because he wasn’t advancing like he did earlier this morning. We had an odd clash at one point where we both moved in; I was throwing a kick and I think Phyl was too. I’m not sure what happened but Phyl just sort of stopped at the point of contact and then after just a slight pause he sort of fell straight down, like his leg went out from under him. It was and odd response and I thought I might have clipped his knee or something. I didn’t pursue and he just popped back up again. We finished out the round without too much in the way of amazing moves and then I went over to the sidelines to crash. Five hours of Kenpo today. I loved it!

Fellowship
After class, most of us went on over to a restaurant off from Six Forks road called Grand Asia Buffet. Nice place! It is an Asian buffet but they also had some other items available that aren’t typical, like sushi – and it was good! We all discussed the days events and talked some more Kenpo. The American Kenpo student that has been attending some of the TKI classes was there and described some similarities and differences between her system and ours. She brought a friend that I later learned is one of her students as well.

One of the things we discussed was the upcoming Kenpo in the Carolinas event in April of 2007. Sifu and Marty are organizing this again and said that it would be great if we could all get together one more time before the event. Everyone agreed that we should get together again but I don’t know if we ever pinned down a date! Oh well, I guess we’ll let Lynn and Sifu figure that one out.

09.16.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-09-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Hapkido Scoop Kick
Green Belt Technique: Stinging Butterfly

Reviewed Other Items:

Mat work: Forward Rolls
Mat work: Outside Throws
¼ Speed Sparring
Full Speed Sparring

Scoop Kick
We cruised through our usual warm ups today and got started with some new material, at least it was new to me. We covered something Sifu referred to as a “Scoop Kick”. As we began to practice it, I realized this wasn’t the same scoop kick we have used before, such as it is used in Stopping the Storm. I asked for clarification and Sifu explained that this is a move used a lot in Hapkido and is named from that system.

The movement itself is pretty cool and as soon as I saw him do it I realized that I had seen it before but never thought much about it. Starting from the left neutral bow, you simply bring your rear (right) foot forward, past your center and low to the ground, and intercept a kick or advance from a forward facing opponent. The toes are pointing up and the foot is flexed, identical to the position the foot would be in for a side kick, however, the part of the foot that makes contact is the inside (arch) of the foot as opposed to the outer ‘edge’ of the foot.

One of the keys to this maneuver is the movement of your core. As the rear foot comes forward and travels across your centerline, your core shifts forward and stabilizes over the other leg that remains bent at the knee. Failure to do this tends to make the head go backward to compensate for the travel of the kicking foot and throwing you balance off. As a result, the power of the kick itself is diminished and you are now off balance – a well timed strike or push from an alert attacker may send you sprawling backwards as you attempt to retain your balance. Of course, being centered over the supporting leg allows you the choice of movement should you need to adjust course in the middle of a maneuver.

Where do you use this? Well, you could use it in several places depending on the situation. I have seen this used in stopping a forward kick from an opponent and advancing in. Sifu showed how it can also be brought up a little higher to the knee and come down in more of a ‘stomping’ type motion to collapse a knee, either from the front side or the back. In practicing this, I also realized that you can come forward with this into the same cross stance that we use when crossing out of a technique. It’s subtle for a kick but definitely has it’s place.

Technique: STinging Butterfly
We continued on from the Scoop Kick directly into a very quick foot replacement roundhouse kick, basically using the scoop kick as the foot replacement. I was paired up and working with Jeff at this point and Alex was paired up with Phyl. Sifu was guiding us along and after we had the basic movement of the scoop kick to the roundhouse, he came over and showed Jeff and I some additional hand strikes. Following the roundhouse kick, pivot into a lunge stance and deliver a right hand sword, then a left hand sword, and then coming back with the right hand, execute a right ridge hand to the filtrum as you are returning to a right neutral bow. After we did this a few times he simply said “There. That’s Stinging Butterfly – a Green belt technique.” Jeff and I just looked at each other and said “Cool”.

Mat Work
The work we did on the mat today was designed for one major thing: getting comfortable going into and coming out of a roll. We started out by simply doing forward rolls and then coming up. Then we put the two mats end to end and Sifu told us to walk casually onto the mat, do a forward roll, and when we come up just continue walking forward casually. Ideally this is to be done in all one smooth fluid motion. I focused mostly in rolling to my right side as I was favoring my knee. I got it down to where it was feeling pretty smooth. Then Sifu casually strolls over to the rack and grabs a kicking shield and places it on the mat, instructing us to continue on with the exercise but rolling over the object. The single kicking shield was relatively easy and it wasn’t long before there were two kicking shields. At this point I’m way past smooth and pretty much crashing on my shoulder as I’m forgetting to tuck my head or I’m just too flat and not rolling. I’m just starting to find that sweet spot where I was crashing out each time and there are two more objects added – vertically.

My first approach was cut short. As was my second. And third. I finally decided that I was going over this thing one way or another and just leaped forward with my head tucked. My landing was less than smooth but I made if over without killing myself and I didn’t even knock any of the shields over. I don’t know why this is so difficult. Relatively speaking, this isn’t a big pile of “stuff” and it’s foam to boot! It’s not like I’m diving over a shark cage or something but for some reason, it was just very difficult for me to get over those obstacles. All of the stuff we go over with the regular rolls still applies but it’s like it goes right out of my head. Somehow I need to figure out a way to practice this more at home.

The other item we covered on the mats today was the outside throw. I had observed this last week so it wasn’t completely new to me but it was the first time I had actually done the fall. Sifu stayed on the mat. We approached and threw a straight right, which he intercepted and then, using a wrist lock, threw us in such a fashion that we rolled to the outside, slapping as we land to break the fall. He took it easy on is the first few times and then took it up a notch. Thankfully, he never did get to the point that he was throwing us will full force. After several falls, we put the mats up.

¼ Speed Sparring
We paired up for some ¼ speed sparring and Phyl called me out immediately. He and I haven’t had the opportunity to spar much lately and it was fun to go at it again. I felt terrible today. I have been away from sparring for too long and it was showing. I had my elbows up too high and shoulders all bunched up tight – basically all of the things that I have been trying to unlearn for the last year and a half. Phyl capitalized on some of them but it was just ¼ speed so it wasn’t too bad. It was just Sifu, Phyl, Alex, Jeff and me today so we all got a chance to spar with each other.

Full Speed Sparring
Immediately following the ¼ speed sparring, we geared up and did some full speed. Since only two of us are on the mat at a time, Sifu gave instructions that those watching should be focusing on the third party perspective and the benefits it offers. He gave a very good example of the importance of the third party perspective by pointing out that a boxing manager uses this tool almost exclusively – after all, he doesn’t get in the ring or train with the boxer but during the fight he is right there with information on what is happening during the fight and why it is happening based on what he sees.

I don’t recall the actual order that I was sparring because I was just dog tired from being out of shape. In sparring with Phyl, I recall him pretty much coming straight in on me. When I wasn’t just blocking, I was circling out and around. When sparring Alex, he likes to kick to the legs. For the most part, I just lifted my leg to check the kicks and did pursue a few times. Alex covers well and tends to fight tight, but I did notice that he made several efforts to get my back, and succeeded well at one point, delivering a (light) double hammer fist to the tops of the muscles in my shoulders/collar bones. Sparring Jeff is always different than the others because of his Taekwondo background. He likes to kick, and that is okay. He has a kicking range that he is comfortable with and if you stay inside that range it greatly reduces the number of kicks he throws. Too close and he will try to grapple with you. And with Sifu – he always goes to your level or just above. He does have a stance that I haven’t fully figured out what to do with yet. He fights in a cross stance and leans back to the rear leg, sometimes fighting while looking at you over his shoulder. This gives him a launching base for some of his favorite kicks, as well as keeping his core fairly well protected.

Ultimately, I determined I am way out of shape for sparring and have been away for too long. I know that when I get fatigued that my legs straighten, my hands tend to come up, and I switch to almost a purely defensive posture just taking quick shots of opportunity when presented and not creating any opportunity to speak of. More than once I tried to settle into a stance but the muscles in my legs just didn’t want to listen. It was the same with my arms; I would see an opportunity and start the movement but nothing would move like I wanted it to. I wasn’t out of breath, just dead on my feet. There was a couple of times that my calves locked up on me with cramps and I can’t even remember the last time that happened. All in all it was a poor showing on my part and I know I can do better.

09.09.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-09-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Outside Rolls

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm-Ups
Mat Work
Techniques (Blue Belts)
Short Salute (White Belts)
Neutral Bow (White Belts)
Blocks (White Belts)
¼ Speed Sparring

On the Sidelines
Unfortunately, my right knee was acting up this morning when I got up and to go to class. I made the decision to go in and observe the class instead of trying to participate and further hurting my knee. The result? Lots of notes! Since I wasn’t actually participating and attempting to recall what I did after the class to make notes, I was able to take notes in “real time” throughout the class.

Warm-Ups
Sifu did something different today in that he had the Blue belts lead the class in warm-ups. First up was Alex and he had the class go through several exercises including: neck & shoulder rolls, arm circles, hip/torso rotations, and some knee & ankle rotations. He then had the class do a warm-up drill that I first saw done by Vic LeRoux during the Kenpo in the Carolinas Seminar 2006. It starts from the horse stance with a double front punch, followed by double elbows to the rear, then sweeping the arms forward and arcing over the shoulders before finally reversing that motion and driving double elbows back – which sets you up for repeating the whole exercise. After several repetitions, Alex moved onto some leg raises from the neutral bow and then closed out with some stretches using the wall for stability.

Sifu called on Phyl to lead everyone for the next round of exercises. He started out with doing the basic blocks: inward, extended outward, upward, and downward. From there the class lined up along the edge of the mat and Phyl led everyone through some foot maneuvers, including: step drags, step throughs, step through with step drag, and step drag with step throughs. Phyl finished with some ball kicks advancing forward.

Walt was asked to explain the “cover” maneuver. He requested that Sifu assist by holding a fist straight out and he utilized it as a visual aid. Walt visually showed how a properly executed cover does not move you any closer to your attacker but rather holds your core in the same relative position to your attacker.

Sifu then took the class back over and started running through some more drills. He started with the rear foot roundhouse kick, advancing. He went into some detail regarding the position of your core relative to power and reach. He demonstrated how overextending does not increase your power at all, and usually weakens it. He went on to show how leaning back during the execution of the roundhouse kick does nothing to increase the power of the kick but will, however, increase the height of the kick. Ultimately it is important to keep the core in control and centered, not overextending. Doing so will maintain power in the kick without sacrificing choices by dead-legging.

The next item Sifu had everyone doing was the foot replacement roundhouse, advancing. Following was a combination of a ball kick and foot replacement roundhouse kick, advancing. Again, Sifu stressed the importance of keeping the core vertical and not leaning backwards during the roundhouse kick. Finally the class was led through the Purple Belt Kicking Drill. Looking at the class as a whole, including the newest members, everyone seemed to be doing very well. I found myself wanting to get up and do the drills too!

Mat Work
Sifu started everyone with side falls. He was demonstrating the falls himself and described how the core falls to the mat vertically and demonstrated how you will have a hard time controlling your landing if you don’t stay vertical. When done properly, the arm and leg is ‘swept’ off to the side so as to allow the body to come straight down to the mat.

The next item was the forward roll, staying down. After a couple of turns each, Sifu stopped the class and quizzed about incorrect landings. The guys were coming up with several points, including:

Landing flat on your back
Planting a limb (usually an arm)
Hitting head/shoulders from not tucking the head
Incorrectly bent at the waist at landing (from unfurling to soon or too late)
Legs switched (limits absorption and creates stress on the joints)
Tripodding (planting opposite arm)

Each of these items were discussed fully so that all appeared to understand.

Next were forward rolls, coming up into a neutral bow facing the direction they came from. As we have done before, the class lined up into a single file line and they did pushes from behind. The person standing in the front of the line was pushed by the second one in line. The person being pushed goes into a forward roll and then comes up into a neutral bow. The idea is that the push happens unexpectedly but by now we all generally know what’s coming. Another twist to this exercise is to be pushed while ‘distracted’. Sifu stands near the front of the line and strikes up conversation with the person that is about to be pushed, adding some distraction. Everyone seems fairly comfortable with the forward rolls – until Sifu recognized something and told everyone to roll to the opposite side that they had been rolling. The first couple of guys seemed a little tripped up by this but they all quickly recovered.

The last item covered on the mats today was new to me but it may have been covered during my absence in August. Sifu called it an outside roll. One at a time, he had the guys approach him on the mat and utilized a wrist lock/manipulation that caused them to roll out and away from the grip (as opposed to tucking the head and rolling forward as we have done up until now). As Sifu grabs the wrist, you start by bending the knees and then follow the force rolling outside, using the other arm to help dissipate the force of the fall in the same manor that we do with the other break falls that we practice. Of course observing I couldn’t be sure but it appeared that they landed on their sides and upper backs before unfurling out.

Sifu went on to explain the throw itself. He described how the motion of the throw was a circle. He went on to show that the smaller the circle utilized in the motion, the greater likelihood of the opponent’s feet leaving the ground. Of course, this was demonstrated several times to show what he was talking about. He also noted the final position of the person doing the throw and noted that it was a typical ending position for many Hapkido stylists.

Orange Belt Basics
While the Blue belts worked on their Green belt techniques, Sifu worked with the White belts on some of the Orange belt basics. He started with the Short Salute and described the symbolism between the tiger and the dragon, as well as the fist and the claw.

Next was a review of the Neutral Bow. Sifu had them assume the Neutral Bow one at a time and critique the other. They both looked pretty good, and both had good input to the other regarding the stance.

Sifu next covered the Switch maneuver with them and explained that it was much like the Cover maneuver that they had done earlier in that it is implemented such that the core doesn’t move toward the attacker as it is done. After a few repetitions, they moved on to the next item, blocking.

The four basic blocks were covered starting with the Inward, then Extended Outward, Upward, and Downward. The 45 degree angle that is used in all of the blocks was highlighted as the “maximum angle of deflection”. Also noted was how the blocks should not chase the strike but rather protects the core; to that end, if a strike does not enter your circle of protection it is not necessary to attempt to block it.

¼ Speed Sparring
The whole class participated in the sparring. There were 3 pairs that rotated out. I was particularly watching the Blue belts and noted many changes from the last time I sparred with them. Sifu matched the level of sparring that each of his “opponents” presented. It is always interesting to watch as everyone tries and experiments with different things and today was no different with the exception that I was able to watch from the sidelines and see everything – not just the person in front of me. Alex seems to like to strike inside and use orbits. Walt likes to kick from the outside and appeared to be trying some more circular/angular entries today. I didn’t see a lot of variance in what Phyl was doing today but he seemed to be pretty solid. Jeff likes to do a lot of different things but has two general methods of operation: When he’s outside he likes to throw long and high kicks but when he is inside he has a tendency to go to grappling. Today was the first time I’ve seen Alfredo spar and he appeared to be concentrating on the blocks that he is currently learning. All in all it was entertaining and informative to watch.

09.02.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-09-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

New Students
Flow Drills

Reviewed Other Items:

Basic Warm-ups
Joint Locks & Manipulations

Warm-Ups
I have been out of class for about a month due to vacations, anniversary travel, and other stuff. For whatever reason August seems to be a busy month for me as I missed most of the month of August in 2005 as well. It felt good to come back to class – I missed it!!

There were three new faces in class today – one of which was visiting for the first time, and two who have been there several times in my absence. I didn’t have a chance to work with two of these new people but I did work with one of them in some group drills that I will detail a little later.

The warm-ups were mostly simple review this week. We started out with some leg stretches – both dynamic and static. From there we did the four basic blocks – 20 of each. Then we did some roundhouse kicks, both rear leg and lead leg. Finally we did some ball kicks and discussed briefly the difference between horizontal and vertical targets on the body.

Flow Drills
After the warm-ups, we broke off into two groups. Sifu took two of the new students aside and worked exclusively with them. The Blue belts and I worked with the other new face in the school. She is a 2nd degree Black belt from the Paul Mills school of American Kenpo and agreed to show us some flow drills from her system.

We did several different flow drills utilizing strikes such as overhead hammer-fist, straight punch, back-fist, roundhouse/upper-cut, and elbows. She instructed us to focus on rhythm and timing in the drills and less on other aspects of a would-be attack or defense. I was working with Phyl and Walt was paired up with Alex. We worked these flow drills for quite a while, working on speed & timing for both right and left sides. Eventually we moved to a different sort of drill that more closely resembled a technique or forward advancing strike.

Joint Locks & Manipulations
Although this was review for most of us, the 3 new people in class had not been exposed to these particular maneuvers – at least not the way Sifu instructs it. We started out with the Downward Elbow Lock and again, I was paired up with Phyl. We both knew the mechanics of function but Phyl has much more experience with the maneuver. I think we were both a little rusty but before long we had it down again.

The other lock we did today was the Downward Wrist Lock. Although this one was much more fresh in my mind, I had more trouble with it. Phyl is very good at this on and he pointed out something that I was doing that was minimizing the effectiveness of the lock – basically, I was going too slow so as not to hurt him. Unfortunately, in doing this it allows for all of the tissues to sort of “stretch” into position, thus taking away the immediate response that we are looking for in doing this lock. Phyl instructed to move the hand in a decisive but controlled manor so as to get the effect we were looking for without twisting his hand off his arm. We were able to practice this a couple more times before class was brought to an end.

07.29.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-07-29T11:00:00.001-05:00

New Items Today:

Marty Lead Entire Class
Stretching & Warm-ups
Technique Line (by strike)
Chokes
Takedowns
Semi-Circle Drills

Reviewed Other Items:

Kicks: Ball & Roundhouse
Ground Fighting

Warm-ups
Warming up today was definitely different than our normal. We did some interesting “partner assisted” stretching but it wasn’t the type that I have been warned to avoid. This employed isometric resistance techniques that really seamed to work well. For example, I partnered with Alex and started on my back. I lifted one leg and placed it on his shoulder as he kneeled in front of me. He lifted my leg toward the ceiling until there was sufficient resistance that I told him to stop. At this point, he simply stopped moving my leg upward and I used my own leg strength to press down onto his shoulder. After several seconds of this, I relaxed my leg muscles and then allowed Alex to slowly lift my leg again. To my surprise, my leg actually moved up again several inches before I felt the similar tension in which I stopped him before. The exercise is repeated a total of three times and then we switched legs. Then it was Alex’s turn and he had similar results.

Another interesting thing we did today reminded me of a picnic in the park… sort of. We paired up and did the wheel borrow to the end of the mat and back. Interesting. I do plenty of push-ups but this works all of the muscles in the upper body differently. I was surprised at how much this challenged me. After the wheel borrow exercise we kept the same pairs and did ‘piggy-back’ drills, where we carried our partner to the other end of the mat and back on our backs. In both cases I had paired up with Walt and he is in pretty good shape. I’m pretty sure I was taxed much more than he was.

We did some kicking exercises that were different than what we have done before. We did some front roundhouse kicks without the foot replacement. Most of us were off balance at first until we got our footing. Using the focus mitts, we did some ball kicks , and then did some ball kicks that transitioned into roundhouse kicks, again with the pads.

Technique Line
Marty had us line up for a technique line next. I have run technique lines several times before but we did a variant this time that was different for me. Instead of running the same technique over and over again, the ‘attackers’ threw the same strikes and we defended based on the techniques we have learned for that given strike. Obviously the 3 Musketeers knew more than the rest of us but it was still an eye opener as I hadn’t really thought about my Kenpo skills in this way before. Up until now it has been more repetition in order to get the moves right as opposed to spontaneity for a given strike. By the way, the two defenses we did were “inside a right” and “outside a right”.

Ground Fighting
Next was some ground fighting, an area that Marty really enjoys. We discussed and learned various types of chokes: front choke standing, front choke from the guard position, and the rear naked choke. We also talked about ‘closing the gap’ using some new techniques as well as some techniques from IKCA Kenpo.

Takedowns were another topic we worked on today. We covered several takedowns from a clinched position including the hip toss, a “sit out” type from the side/rear (for when an opponent resists the hip toss), and a ‘leg sweep’ for when the opponent has a wide, solid base. Following the takedowns, we went over some drills starting from a stand up position transitioning into a takedown where we then went through the movements of “ground and pound” utilizing focus mitts on the ground as targets before maneuvering into a choke. Finally we discussed and practiced moving into a front choke when your opponent blocks a Kimura.

Semi-Circle Drills
The last thing we did in class was a sort of semi-circle drill. I had seen this done out in California when we went to the West Coast Kenpo Confederation last year but I had never participated in one. The drill is designed to increase spontaneity of response as well as giving the defender the option of response based on angle of attack. It is really an interesting drill.

The set up is simple; the person defending winds up in the ‘center’ of the semi-circle and 5 people position themselves around him to create the semi-circle itself. One person, in this case, Marty, stands behind the defending person and points silently to one of the people in the circle. Since the defender can’t see who is being pointed to, he doesn’t know where the next attack will come from.

In our case, we started out by simply blocking right punches from the attackers as they came in. After everyone had a chance, Marty had us follow up the block with a strike or short combination of our choice.

This proved to be a very interesting exercise for me. I just let things happen without giving too much thought to them just to see what would flow. I found that frontal attackers were blocked and then followed up with a ball kick and/or a lunge punch. In one case, it seemed prudent to basically do Returning Serpent, and I did. It was the side attacks that surprised me a little bit. From the right side, I just did a right inward block and contoured back up the arm with a straight elbow. Where the heck did that come from?! From the left I did a left inward block, followed immediately with a left back-fist and right lunge punch.

I think what I sort of discovered here is that I am on the cusp of beginning to realize spontaneity with my Kenpo… and I like it. I am looking forward to bringing these new skills into my own personal arsenal for use when best suited. At this point I haven’t really felt this in my sparring yet and I would have expected it to come out there first. Interesting. I think I just need to stop analyzing and start practicing more and hopefully it will come of its own accord.

07.22.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-07-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

Reviewed Items:

Stretching & Warm-ups
Lunge Punches
Mat work
Purple Belt Techniques
Master Form

Warm-Ups
After some warm ups, we started in with some basic Lunge Punches utilizing the focus mitts. I was feeling pretty good today and when it was my turn I just let ‘er rip, focusing on snap and power. I noticed a couple of times that my chin seemed to want to tuck on its own accord so I had to correct that. Otherwise, I was moving and feeling pretty good.

Matt Work
We sort of cut short our normal routine on the mats but we did get some work in. First on the agenda was forward rolls coming up into a neutral bow facing the way we had just come from, alternating from side to side. Next up was some side falls, left and right. Finally we did some forward break-falls, staying down on the mat when finished. I am definitely stronger on one side than the other but I’m getting better on my weak side. Good stuff. I’m starting to get a little more comfortable on the mat but I’m not quite “at home” on them yet. .

Techniques
Marty and I worked on the Purple belt techniques again today. This time we started at the beginning and worked our way through to the end. I’m getting more comfortable in them. Raking Hammer is still bugging me but I can do the gross movements at this point. Marty sort of gave me some insight on refining my movements in all of the techniques. As Sifu has been telling me of late, I need to start focusing on flow. I also need to make sure I understand relative positioning at all times, including the end of the technique as I will soon be developing extensions. We finished the day with the Master Form, all of us going to the point at which we knew and then bowing out. A good workout today.

07.15.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-07-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Bonzi Run Combination

Reviewed Other Items:

Stretching & Warm-ups
Orange Belt Blocking Set (Form)
Mat work
Master Form
Orange Belt Techniques

Warm-Ups
After we did the basic portion of warming up and stretching out, we started in with some other basic movements put together in different combinations. First we just did some lead back-fist strikes to the head in the air. This sort of got us moving. Then the combinations; the first being: Ball Kick, Back-Fist, Lunge Punch. This is an interesting combination of moves because you are striking “low-high-center” and it sort of struck me (punny) that my son, Duncan, uses similar striking combinations with his Taekwondo all of the time. Up until now, we haven’t drilled too many of this type of combination outside of the techniques. Anyway, it was cool to drill these ‘new’ combos.

The second combination set is part of the Bonzi Run technique, which appears to be a sort of pursuit technique. The combination we did was a Right Lunge Punch, Right Knee & Left Lunge Punch, Right Lunge Punch. I felt totally discombobulated when we did this the first time. I had the timing and rhythm in my head but couldn’t get my body to follow. Eventually I started to get the hang of it but I never did do it very well.

Mat Work
After warm ups we got right into the mat work. We started with side falls, alternating from the left to right sides. Sifu instructed that as much of our body as possible should be making contact with the mat at the same time in order to help dissipate the force of the fall. Of course we have all heard this before but we haven’t quite mastered it yet.

It wasn’t long before Sifu placed some objects on the edges of the mats and instructed us to do a forward roll over the object. As we all got more used to going over the object, he started to move the objects and then he used bigger objects. Although we also changed the way we came up out of the rolls, the main thing that he was trying to show us was the proper position of the roll or the break-fall. He stressed that we go directly over the object and stay on that straight line. He also remarked on tucking the lead shoulder as you roll so as not to take a jarring impact on the elbow or shoulder. When done correctly, it actually “feels” good and you just know it.

Techniques
Marty led us through a few items at this point. First we did the Orange Belt Form (blocking drill). It had been a while since I practiced this and I actually felt a little ‘rusty’ the first time through, but quickly shook it off and got solid again. After we went through it a couple of times, Marty lead me and the 3 Musketeers through the Master Form up to Purple. I had been practicing this but my transitions are still shaky. I did okay but still need work. The rest of the class went on through to their portion after we did mine a couple of times and I tried to keep up as best as I could. I know the Purple belt techniques but I’m having a heck of a time getting them down in the form! Practice, practice, practice.

Eventually Sifu had Marty work directly with me on the Purple belt techniques. We went through them all starting with the ones I was having the most trouble with. After we went through the technique enough that he was sure I understood the basic elements, he would come in and do something backwards or introduce some other “what if…?” factor to see how I would respond. I responded better in some instances than others but I started to just relax and go with it and things tended to flow much better. I actually surprised myself at one point as I began to do a technique “backwards”. He attacked with the opposite hand that I was expecting and I just went into the technique from the opposite side. It seemed to flow just fine until I realized that I was backwards and then I just sort of froze. Marty encouraged me to continue as he recognized what I had done. I finished the technique and pondered it a little. I hadn’t given it too much thought but maybe I should be practicing both sides on occasion.

We finished up class and bowed out. Good class. I stayed warmed up the whole time and learned a bunch.

07.08.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-07-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Discussion: Concepts & Principles
Ground Fighting: Kimura Variant

Reviewed Other Items:

Stretching & Warm-ups
Mat work
Master Form
Orange Belt Blocking Set (Form)

Mat Work
Our warm up was straight forward today with no real additional focus on any particular area of the body. Immediately following the warm up we pulled the mats out and practiced some different break falls and rolls.

We started with a forward roll into a break fall. While I’m still not a pro at this, I’m getting better – at least on one side. When I roll to the left shoulder, I still have a tendency of getting my legs backwards at the very end; in other words, the wrong leg is straightened to assist in lessening the impact. The next maneuver is a little easier for me and that is to go into a forward roll and then back up again into a neutral bow stance facing the ‘attacker’ (the direction you came from).Sifu noted that we should be solid in the stance and not leaning away from the action due to the momentum of the roll. I have found that when this happens to me that I can either make a small adjustment step or a slight hop to get solid again.

There was a dash of flavor on the mat today as Sifu had us throwing any combination of our choice following the forward roll to the neutral bow. This was interesting. I found myself hesitating a lot which tells me that I’m not at a level of spontaneity yet. If I think ahead before I do the roll, then no problem. But without a threat to consider I just hesitated. The more we did it the more comfortable it became but it still bothered me just a bit.

Finally we were told that instead of doing a combination of our choice, Sifu wanted us all to do Returning Serpent when we came out of the roll. This was certainly easier because I didn’t have to think about what I was going to be doing. However, when we came up into a left neutral bow, we had to make an adjustment to do the technique. I considered this the first time through and just did Returning Serpent from the left side, but Sifu was looking for the transition.

Before we finished up with the mats today, we did some side falls. These look simple but when it comes to doing them, it feels so unnatural somehow. We swing our left (or right) leg and arm to about horizontal and then bend the opposite leg, allowing the body to come down on it’s side. The arm and leg are supposed to slap down to dissipate the force of the fall in the exact same way that we practiced the forward roll. For some reason, I kept slapping with the back of my hand instead of the palm. I knew it wasn’t right, and even made a mental note before stepping on the mat for my next turn, but more times than not I still slapped incorrectly.

Master Form
Next up was the Master Form. Jeff was kind enough to step off the mat while the rest of us went through the form, or at least in my case, went through as much of the form as I could. The first time through I just stopped after the Orange belt techniques. Sifu told me on the second time through to stick with the rest of them as much as I could. Well, I got into the next two techniques (Purple belt) and then lost the transition. I picked up again when I could and then lost it again. I never did the entire Purple belt portion of the form today in a single pass, but I think I got it all in pieces. I did just stop when it got to the Blue belt techniques as I haven’t even seen them much yet.

It was sort of funny as we were going through them. Phyl was closest to me and I was watching him when I could as a guide. The points in which I was getting lost in the Purple belt techniques was when the transition had me turning away from the group. Each time Phyl would whisper to me which way to go and which technique was next. Thanks for the help, Phyl.

Concepts & Principles
We slowed the pace of the class down just a little bit today and examined closely some of the principles and concepts that we have learned and are learning in Kenpo. The format we utilized was that of Sifu playing the roll of ‘attacker’ as we individually went up in front of the class and chose one of the Orange belt techniques to dissect. (Note: Instead of writing all of the individual items down here in the session journal, I think I am going to update the pages of the technical journal instead so there is a better point of reference for the future.) The techniques that we discussed were as follows:

The actual concepts and principles that were discussed as they applied to each of the above mentioned techniques are as follows:

Opposing Forces
Borrowed Force
Mass in Motion
Back-up Mass
Body Alignment
Penetration vs. Dissipation
Marriage of Gravity
Zone of Sanctuary
Double Factor
Contouring (with subcategory: Fitting)
Point of Origin
“Meet it, Beat it, or Eat it” principle

Ground Fighting: Kimura (Variant)
We very quickly covered a move today that is a variant of the Kimura. After a brief description by Marty, I partnered up with Jeff and we practiced the move. Describing from my point of view starting from a guard position on my back, I grip the attacker’s left wrist with my right hand as he has his weight on it (tripodding). I then sit up, reaching across my body and over his left shoulder with my left arm, coming under his arm to grab hold of my own wrist. From this position I have some leverage on his arm and can pull him back to the mat with me as I return to my back. Slightly re-adjusting my hips and using my right leg for leverage, I simply pin his elbow to my chest with my left arm will cranking his arm up with my right hand. This puts undue stress on the shoulder and will render a submission, or in cases of personal defense, a dislocation or break.

Jeff and I were playing around with this a bit and determined that you really have to shoot this fast in order to be effective. If you see it coming, it can be avoided. Also, I noticed that when I was on top and he grabbed my hand, all I had to do to thwart the move was to grab something with that hand. Since there is no leverage to break my grip, it is pure strength that would be required to get me to let go. I’m sure there are technical escapes and counter measures to this but Marty simply didn’t have time to go in-depth with it today.

07.01.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-07-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Ground Fighting: Americana
Ground Fighting: Straight Armbar

Reviewed Other Items:

Stretching & Warm-ups
Punches: Lunge Punches
Kicks: Purple Belt Kicking Drill
Kicks: Cardinal Direction Kicking Drill
Techniques: Purple Belt

Stretchng and Warm-Ups
We did a pretty basic warm-up set today with some additional focus on stretching the legs. My lower back was fairly relaxed today and I got a good stretch in before we got started so I felt pretty good getting started. The class moved quickly into doing drills.

Punches: Lunge Punch
Sifu grabbed some target mitts and we paired up to do lunge punches. I paired up with Sifu and we took turns. I have been working my weak (left) side in the evenings and I think it is starting to show some positive effect. I don’t have the power to match my strong side but the technique and snap are solid so hopefully the power will come with more practice. Sifu pointed out something to me again today that I don’t realize I’m doing. As I make contact with my target, I blink. “Don’t do that.” Got it.

Kicks: Purple Belt Kicking Drill
We worked on kicks today and started off with the Purple belt Kicking Drill. This drill focuses on a linear kicking pattern that can be utilized as a pursuit maneuver. There are several kicks involved, including ball kick, lead leg roundhouse, 2 types of rear kicks, and a low side kick (knife edge kick). At the end of the pattern, you cover to face the other direction and can do the same pattern back again utilizing the opposite side you started with. It’s a great drill and I practice it occasionally at home. What we focused on today is accuracy and intent of the kicks; no dead fish and no dead legging. Balance is achieved and maintained by keeping the knees bent and your weight centered over your supporting leg.

Kicks: Cardinal Directions
I suppose this drill could be used in a real situation but the circumstances would have to be ideal. The drill itself is awesome for practicing several kicks in a relatively small area and gives you practice not only with the kicks involved, but also front crossovers and general balance skills. The kicks included are a front ball kick, left side kick, right side kick, rear heel kick and then you reset into the opposite neutral bow that you started from, enabling you to do the same drill with the opposite side. As with the other drill, the focus on this was the accuracy and intent. It is real easy to just throw out those side kicks with ‘dead fish’ on the ends of your legs. It becomes apparent quickly if you are not centered over your supporting leg as loss of balance will have you stumbling or deploying your arms straight out in any direction.

Ground Fighting
The class was handed over to Marty for another segment in ground fighting today. Our focus today was an arm lock he referred to as the “Americana” and a straight arm bar. The Americana (also known as the Ude Garami or key lock) was the first item covered and is a type of joint lock that affects the shoulder joint primarily but also puts some exertion on the elbow as well. Working with Sifu again, we started this maneuver with Sifu assuming a mount position on the mat. Working my left arm, he first basically pinned it down to the matt flat, and then held it there with his left arm position such that his elbow was near my head. He then moved his right hand under my arm, up between and grabbing his own arm. At this point, my arm was locked up and I couldn’t move it but I wasn’t in pain. The submission or break comes when Sifu lifts his right elbow off the floor levering the shoulder joint. This is hard to visualize from a text description – see the following illustration:

The other maneuver we did today was a straight arm bar. The tricky part was in getting to the bar itself from the mount position. We basically push down on the chest of the opponent to get our feet under us and from there we swung the left leg around and over the head, essentially laying across his upper chest with his arm between our legs. We then use the leverage point of our own pelvis by cranking the arm toward us while raising the hips.

Obviously, with these techniques and maneuvers the possibility of physical injury runs high if the person practicing just cranks the arm hard or ignores a tap. Sifu made it crystal clear that he wouldn’t hesitate to throw anyone out of class that ignores a tap.

I am still amazed at just how effective a joint manipulation can be. As Sifu and I worked our way through these moves, we experimented a little bit with position to see what exactly was the most effective in isolating the joint. Once we were in proper position, the slightest movement – as little as ¼ to ½ of an inch – was enough to have the other tapping franticly.

Another interesting caveat to what we learned today was small joint manipulations. Sifu noted that these type of manipulations are forbidden in certain competitive arenas such as the UFC. However, for what we do, everything is fair game. One item of example was rotating the arm of the opponent in the arm bar. Instead of the “thumb up” position which is what you would be looking for typically, you can add another level of effectiveness to this by continuing this rotation to the point of tension in the arm. I’m not exactly sure why but this increased the pain of the arm bar dramatically and reduced the amount of physical travel that was required to get to the stage of submittal or breakage. Good stuff! Thanks again to Marty for sharing his knowledge with us.

Techniques
The last segment of the day was spent going over techniques. We paired up again to work with a partner and this time I was working with Marty. I basically picked the techniques I am currently having the most problem with and worked them, starting with Stopping the Storm. We worked this one quite a bit and I think I figured out my issues – with Sifu’s help. Following the parry-block-grab, I pull the elbow in and anchor it but I am pulling the attacker’s arm down to far. Sifu says to anchor the elbow back more, not down. In practicing this I could see the greater effectiveness, especially in pulling the attacker’s face into your fist for the stop punch.

The next one was Circling Serpent. I didn’t really have any problems with this one, I just need to smooth it out and get it less choppy. I’m still working on the whipping back-fist too.

Raking Hammer is going to be the one I work the most, I can see it already. I still seem to be having some difficulty dropping into the initial horse stance and starting the technique. Sifu reprimanded my poor initial block today as well, which I quickly remedied. He noticed something that I hadn’t realized I was doing. I have a tendency to lean away from the action slightly, especially with the initial block. “Trust your training” is what Sifu said. Again. And finally, he also noticed… a lot of head movement as I executed the rake and hammer-fist. He jokingly said that he had better not hear any “whaaataaaaa” noises coming from my corner. Of course this is a Bruce Lee movie reference and I think he probably nailed it right on the head – too many movies! I’ll try to be more careful and precise in my movements.

06.28.06 - Practice Out of Class

2006-06-28T11:00:00.000-05:00

Session with Bill during lunch at work

Sifu and I were able get a brief Kenpo workout in at lunch today. In reality, it was more of a discussion than a work out. He opened the session with “I want to talk about the way you move…”.

Using the ‘alphabet’ analogy that Ed Parker popularized, Sifu stated that I “…know the words, now need to properly form a sentence”. As I’m sure I gave him a nice big blank stare, he went on to explain that he sees a lot of tension in my movements, particularly from the waist up. Although I can root very effectively, I need to be able to move quickly and lightly as well. This is nearly impossible to do with a rigid frame.

He had me drop my arms and let them hang at my sides while I went into a neutral bow stance and moved around the floor with some basic maneuvers. Almost immediately I was bringing my hands up and creating tension. He further described that the ‘flow’ that we are looking for in our forms and movements comes from being relaxed while keeping the ability to explode with power at will – and then immediately relax again.

Sifu asked me to do a few techniques, and to try to relax between the strikes. At first I asked him to define what he deemed as a strike; in my mind, the blocks are strikes as well and I wanted to clarify the point. He sort of loosely determined that a strike was defined as an “intended point of contact”, but stopped short of defining what points of contact in the Thunder and Lightning technique were strikes. My feeling on this is that the blocks are strikes if you choose for them to be so and to ultimately define any movement will itself hinder your choices. I didn’t pursue the point and executed several techniques. He stopped me after a few and told me to continue to practice but to focus on the parts of the techniques that reside between the points of contact. Uh huh. I’m thinking about this. I’m trying to figure out how I’m supposed to concentrate on something that isn’t a move or a strike or a parry? How are you going to fade into a cat stance while parrying and executing a block – and don’t think about the cat stance, the parry or the block?

Well, just before all of this mental hyperbole dribbled out of my mouth, I had a flashback to the Kenpo in the Carolinas seminar in April. I remember watching Vic LeRoux move and remember thinking how “light” he was in motion. I related to Bill that there was one point in which Vic came up to my partner and me in the class and demonstrated one of the pak sau/lap sau drills we were doing. I remember watching him move so freely and without effort – and then being amazed when he pinned my arm securely just as effortlessly! It was just cool to watch his foot maneuvers. He did the same things we were doing but he was not forced or jerky in motion at all. This is the smoothness, the relaxation, the ‘spaces between the points of contact’ that Sifu wants me to focus on. What I witnessed in watching Vic is an example of what I should ultimately be striving for.

With that, our time was pretty much over. He did ask me to do the Master Form a couple of times and noted something that I was doing incorrectly. When I transition from Deflecting Thunder and go into Thunder and Lightning, I was executing the parry on the outside of the block. I was asked to explain why we don’t do it that way and I knew that it was possible for the attacker to pin the parry arm into the blocking arm and defeat the movement. I’ll correct this and practice it properly.

06.24.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-06-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Kicks: Rising Heel Kick
Kicks: Rear Scoop Kick
Kicking Combinations
Extensions

Reviewed Other Items:

Kicks: Thrust Kicks
Kicks: Side Kicks
Techniques: Orange & Purple belt
Master FormBelt Tying

Kicking Combinations
When we warmed up today we did a lot of leg stretching, which flowed right into the first area of coverage for the morning. Sifu covered some kicks that I have seen but have not been trained in at all up until today. These “new” kicks were presented as part of a combination set of kicks that tend to lend themselves well as extensions to a leading technique or kick.

We paired off with one person holding a target (pad). In my case, I was working with Marty and started off with a right ball kick immediately transitioning into a right neutral bow, where I then pivoted into a lunge stance. From this stance, you simply raise the rear (right) heal straight up to the target (groin) and then quickly retract it back to the ground. The maneuver is finished up by taking an adjustment step forward as necessary to execute a right rear heel kick, presumably to one of the vertical targets presented (bladder, solar plexus, etc.). We spent a fair amount of time getting this combination kick down to where it was comfortable to execute and was reasonably fluid. I was really surprised at how well these kicks came together, even though it was the first time I had put this combination to practice.

After we were relatively comfortable with this, Sifu went through a few places that we might use this in conjunction with a technique. Thunder and Lightning was a good example as you are ending in a neutral bow right between the attacker’s legs. Just pivot, execute the heel rising heel kick and the rear heel kick. Another example that was discussed was Deflecting Thunder. Again, because of the position you generally end the base technique in, the kicks are just a natural extension. Good stuff! When shown like this, the extensions seem obvious – I am just hoping through practice and analysis that these concepts start to root in my own mind and flow easily should the time come to use them.

Kicking the “Bobs”
Although we have practiced both the thrust kick and the side kick on numerous occasions, today we practiced these kicks on the “Bobs”. Bobs are kinda cool. They are basically an anatomically correct weighted rubber head and torso that can be adjusted to various heights. I don’t know if they are really called “Bobs” or not, but that is what I have always referred to them as. Anyway, they provide some reasonable feedback when struck but most importantly (for me anyway) is that you can clearly see the target you are striking, For instance, when we were doing the front thrust kicks, Sifu pointed out that the solar plexus is approximately two finger widths below the point of the sternum. I’ve known this for some time, yet when I kick to the solar plexus, I have been kicking too high! I have been kicking to the base of the sternum. When kicking the Bobs, it is real easy to get your targeting in line with a life size dummy that can take a pretty good beating.

Alex did point something out to me today that I didn’t even realize I was doing. When acquiring the target and striking, the focus should be – depending on actual target – up to several inches beyond the surface of the target. This increases the power and effectiveness of the strike. I knew this, and yet wasn’t applying the principle. When Alex picked up on it and told me, I changed up and saw an immediate improvement. Thanks, Alex! Aside from that, the other thing I realized was how much weaker my left side kicks are compared to my right. I’ll need to work on that.

Techniques
We all paired up with “like ranked” partners to practice techniques. This sort of leaves me as the odd man out because I’m the only Orange belt at the moment. I paired up with Sifu and we worked on some of the techniques that I’m finding the most challenging, starting with Raking Hammer.

As we went through Raking Hammer, I realized that my initial positioning has been wrong as I practice it. I have been stepping back into a neutral bow and sort of transitioning into a horse stance to get the hammer-fist to the groin. Sifu showed me that I should just drop straight into that horse stance. In doing so, it corrected my range problem and brought everything together nicely. He also pointed out that I need to get lower in that horse stance so I can really get under the groin for effectiveness.

The next technique we worked was Circling Serpent. The area I was having trouble with on this one was the back knuckle strike. Sifu says it is more of a whipping back fist and in practicing it this way I was better able to get my arm into position for the shoulder grab that immediately follows. Since I started my training, I have always been taught that the return after a strike should be as fast or faster than the strike itself. I was practicing it with more of a rigid back knuckle and fully retracting the strike, which meant I had to move my hand back forward again for the grab. With this subtle change, the retraction is still there, but it is more in the wrist than in the entire arm, keeping the location of the hand in better proximity for the shoulder grab.

My issues with Stopping the Storm lie in the initial block-parry-grab. My tendency is to try to just grab the arm. I am still developing my sensitivity related to relative body positioning and the more I practice this with a live person, the better it gets. Another area that Sifu commented on was the anchoring of the left elbow immediately following the grab. This really cancels the height and depth zones of the attacker and brings them right into the stop punch that awaits using the torque of the body as opposed to trying to muscle them into place.

I have the gross movements of Hooking Thunder down but had a question on targets for the final punch. As we went through it the first time, I had unwittingly pulled Sifu right into me after I hooked his leg. I basically asked him why he did that and he informed me that he was simply following the directed path that I put him on. This got me thinking and we did it again, this time I didn’t just drop the foot when I moved in for the thrust punch, but rather gave it a sideways shove to my right, trying to determine what control I had over his movement. Based on his response, I realized that I had actually given him more choices to escape or evade and had reduced my ability to follow up with the punch. By pushing him in a given direction like that, I essentially produced an orbit that he could follow that took him off my line of attack. By bringing the attacker’s foot directly past me I am controlling where he is going and capitalizing on the forced “dead leg” by placing my fist to his head.

I got to thinking about being on the receiving end of this…It would kinda suck because you are more or less falling into a punch to the face and your arm is pinned so you can’t even protect yourself – you likely will see the fist as it comes directly into your face and can’t do a thing about it. Hehee… sucks to be the bad guy!

Master Form
Sifu worked with the others for a few minutes while I went through the Orange belt portion of the Master Form. I have been working on this through the week and I’m starting to finally smooth out a little bit. I’m still a bit choppy as I make the transitions but it’s coming together. I have been purposely practicing from several different starting positions so that I don’t get use to any ‘landmarks’ that I can use as reference. I still need more practice but it’s getting better.

Belt Tying
Just as we were set to finish up class, Sifu had us take off our belts. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on but very quickly Sifu ran us all through the process of tying our belts, stating it was for the purpose of continuity in the class. We all managed to get our belts re-tied and Sifu mentioned that I had worked on some instructions for belt tying on my blog site, and that he was going to go through and check the verbal descriptions to see if they were accurate to the way we should be tying our belts.

The directions I created are a combination of both pictorial drawings and text based descriptions. Hopefully they will be to Sifu’s liking. If not, I’ll need his help in rewording them to his satisfaction. ;-)

06.17.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-06-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Kicking Shields
Ground Fighting

Reviewed Other Items:

Target Striking
Mat Work: Break Falls & Forward Rolls
Forms

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

06.10.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-06-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Full Speed Sparring

Reviewed Other Items:

Stretching & Warm ups
Techniques (Orange & Purple belt)
Master Form (Through Orange belt)
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm Ups & Stretching
Warm-ups were typical today – ball kicks, foot replacement roundhouse kicks, lunge punches - and then we did some stretching. In the old place we would ‘grab a chunk of wall’ and stretch with leg lifts. Because of the way the dojo is set up now, it appears that we are going to be a little more confined to the mat so our warm up stretching has adapted. The stretching we are doing now seems to tilt more toward static stretching as opposed to the dynamic leg lifts we were doing before. We still do front stretch kicks but the mat stretching was definitely more static.

Techniques
We paired off and worked with partners on the techniques, starting with the Orange belt. I was working with Walt today and we definitely worked up a sweat. Doing the technique once slow, then fast, we alternated back and forth with any given technique until Sifu told us to go to the next one. I always seem to pick out some little refinement when we do techniques and Walt was willing to answer questions for me – though I tried to keep them to a minimum. After the Orange belt techniques, we went right on into Purple belt. I haven’t had much time going back and forth with anyone on the Purple belt techniques so I learned a lot today. It was solid practice and I felt better about the techniques by the time we finished. Thanks for the help, Walt!

Master Form
In practicing the Master form today, I was with the Purple belts on the mat and simply went through my portion of the form and then bowed out while they continued on with theirs. I was getting stuck in the transition between Deflecting Thunder and Thunder and Lightning. I was going off to the wrong angle and it was screwing me up. Phyl saw my issues gave me some pointers between sets. I got it after that – thanks, Phyl!

Sifu called me out to the center of the mat after we had finished practicing as a group. He wanted to show me an adjustment that I need to make in the form when going into Deflecting Thunder. When moving back into the lunge stance, it is a quick transitional stance that “spring-boards” you into the ensuing ball kick. I wasn’t “spring-boarding” at all. We went through it a couple of times and I did better.

¼ Speed Sparring
We paired up and did some 2 minute rounds of ¼ speed sparring. We just rotated out 4 times so we didn’t all get to spar each other this time. I purposely tried to stay away from the take-downs and be more technical in my movements. As Phyl and I bowed in and got ready, he said (with a smile) something about “owing” me for some take-downs. We kept it cool and we both tried to stay at true ¼ speed. It was a good workout and nobody went to the mat. I did find that myself quite reserved and withdrawn today and I’m not sure why. I guess I just didn’t feel very aggressive.

I went a round with Jeff next and we did the usual stuff. He had his long kicks and I moved inside to try to stop him. In my attempts to try something new, I started moving around him when he came straight in with a kick. This is easier to do when moving at ¼ speed and kept that in mind. As with times before, when I get inside on Jeff things moved to grappling, but I didn’t engage much and worked for a stalemate to reset.

Walt and I sparred next. Like Phyl, he mentioned take downs before we even got started and I told him that I had been trying to stay away from them today, but if he gave me something, I would take it. I was doing the same as I had been with the other guys and generally just holding back a bit. Then Walt came in with a straight kick and let me get inside and behind his leg. Since he gave it to me, I took it, and just brought a forearm up to his chest – at ¼ speed – and down he went. He landed kind of funny so I didn’t pursue him on the mat. Later he told me that he also had tried something different, and that was to try to roll out of the leg buckle but it didn’t work well and in fact, he thinks it actually added to the force of the take down because he hit and just kept rolling. Sorry Walt.

Full Speed Sparring
Sifu told us to “gear up” after we finished our ¼ speed sparring. I didn’t have my mouth piece with me so I was a little apprehensive at first, everyone was made aware and we proceeded. Walt and I paired up first and got to work. This is the first time I have sparred with these guys at full speed and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Walt came right in swinging, more or less charging in. I went largely into defensive mode and simply blocked and ducked his strikes. He came in with a few to the body but he did me the favor of avoiding head shots. I returned a few shots of my own but they were highly selective single shots, no real combinations. The 2 minutes were over in a flash.

Next up was Sifu. He lined up with me and waited for me to make the first move. In sparring with Sifu in the past, he typically hangs back and capitalizes on me when I commit myself to a strike. This time I hung back. Sifu did a little “Bruce Lee” move as we lined up, lead arm to lead arm. He came over the top with a quick strike, like Bruce did in “Enter the Dragon”. He told me to be more aggressive so I lead with a low kick to the knee. Still holding back, he told me to use more combinations so I lead with that same low kick and then double kicked to the solar plexus, which surprised him simply because he wasn’t expecting an immediate reaction like that. Although I was relatively well covered up, I did expose my core to him once and he came straight in with a thrust kick and connected well. Two minutes went by quickly again.

I kept time for a couple more rounds for the other guys. When we were finished sparring and started packing up for the day, Sifu approached and told me straight up that he wanted me to be more aggressive in sparring. I reminded him that I didn’t have my mouth piece today and was holding back. He acknowledged the mouth piece issue but stated I have a tendency of sparring less aggressively than he wants to see. What could I say?

06.03.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-06-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

First Day at Red Sun Academy

Reviewed Other Items:

Warm ups
Orange Belt Techniques
Orange Belt Form
¼ Speed Sparring

First Day at Red Sun Academy
Today was the first day at the new location. We are now officially meeting at the Red Sun Academy in Raleigh for our Saturday morning sessions. It is a very nice facility with all that you would expect in a good martial arts school including mats, mirrors on the walls, “Bobs”, pads and more. It was great working out there – we had so much space to move around in!

Orange Belt Techniques & Orange Belt Form
Warm Ups were a crusher for me today. I haven’t worked out this week and I could really feel it. It was less difficult working on the mats though as they are similar to those used at White Tiger. I think they are 1” foam mats and they were fairly rigid. Good stuff. We did the usual ball & roundhouse kicks, as well as step throughs and step drags. After some good stretches and punches, we got to work.

I worked a lot with Jeff today. We started out working Beheading the Dragon and Returning Serpent. Jeff is in the process of refining his techniques and did a good job honing in on the items that needed work. He listens well and has a good ‘feel’ for the techniques. He’s doing great. I on the other hand was very sloppy today. Sifu corrected me several times on minor nuances today, but they were things that I should have down cold by now. I tightened them up and focused mainly on Jeff today.

After working our second Orange Belt technique, Sifu had us work on the Orange belt form. We went through it a couple of times and Sifu made comments and corrections for some items that he saw. He then left our mat and had me count off for Jeff and I while he worked with the Purple belts. We must have worked that form for a solid 15-20 minutes straight and I was wringing with sweat by the time we finished. It was great practice and I needed it.

Following the forms practice, Jeff and I went through the rest of the Orange Belt techniques. As before, Jeff quickly adopted some of the fine tuning that I was throwing his way and did great. At one point, Sifu grabbed a couple of big blocking pads off the shelf and came over to work with us on our blocks. It wasn’t long before he determined that those pads looked to have more protection than they really did and we abandoned that exercise to continue working on techniques.

¼ Speed Sparring
I started off partnering with Phyl. I felt out of shape and out of focus. Phil was landing somewhat freely on me and I started to take advantage when he was on the inside. I don’t recall, but afterward he says I put him to the mat 4 times. He may have gone down but I don’t remember them being very “clean”. I’m pretty sure that in each case he countered on me either as he was going down or just before. I really need to get back to work and get some practice in.

Next up was Alex. I was warmed up from sparring with Phyl but I could have done better. Alex had some excellent shots to the body on me on several occasions. I also noticed that he was kicking quite a bit to my legs, using what appeared to be a Thai kick. Granted he wasn’t throwing them at full speed but I really didn’t find the kicks to be much more than annoyance. I got to the point that I actually would raise my knee to intercept the kick and then shoot straight in with a side kick to his opposite leg. I know he can kick hard and if we were going full speed, I likely wouldn’t attempt such a maneuver without pads. I’ll work on things a bit for next time.

The last person I sparred today was Jeff. He loves to kick. Of course, in order to get through those long range weapons, I have to move in past those kicks and that is what I started doing. At this point, we pretty much started wrestling instead of sparring. I would come in close and he would grab my gi to tie me up. I tried switching things up and coming in with knees and elbows but he largely was doing the same thing. I got so tired muscling him around that I felt completely gassed by the time Sifu called time. I was truly shot today by the time we left.

Final Thoughts
To commemorate our new digs, Sifu had one of the two observers that were here today take a picture of all of us. We wrapped up and got out of there on time and without incident. On the way out I realized that Walt had driven his father’s truck and he had both my mat and his new mat with him. I helped to carry them out to the truck where we determined that we probably will just leave them at Walt’s place as the mats at Red Sun were adequate.

Another note of mention: Marty was there today! We hadn’t seen him since the seminar but he has been out of commission with some ailments. He is getting over a cold and didn’t want to push it today, but he’s looking forward to getting back in the groove with us next week. It was great to see him again.

05.27.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-05-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Mat Work: Pushes/Rolls

Reviewed Other Items:

Kicking Drills
Side Kicks
Orange Belt Techniques
Orange Belt Blocking drill
Purple Belt Techniques
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm Ups
Along with the normal warm-ups this week, we also did a couple of kicking drills. First we did the stationary kicking drill to the cardinal directions. Then we did the Purple belt kicking drill. I have done these drills from time to time as I practice at home but it’s funny how small habits can creep up on you when you don’t stay on top of things. I found that I wasn’t bending my knees well and was loosing balance as a result. I also recognized that I was kicking slightly across my center on the Purple belt drills, which also affected my balance. It was a good refresher and by the time we were done, we had a good sweat going.

As part of the warm ups, we started with the techniques for Orange belt. As we reached the Purple belt techniques, the White belts dropped out, and likewise when we reached the Blue belt techniques, I dropped out. I did ok on the first several techniques but had problems with the last two. I have not been practicing as much out of class lately and it is showing.

Before we moved forward, we did forms. I lined up with the White belts and we did the Orange belt form. Afterwards, the Purple belts did their portion of the Master form. In a departure from the norm, Sifu had the Purple belts go through the form again with their hands tucked in their belts – using footwork only. I have a feeling I would be tripped up doing this because I have a tendency to think of the techniques as a whole and not from their individual parts. They went through it a couple of times and all were doing well. Interesting.

Mat Work
After warm ups, we unfolded the mat. The first thing we did was some basic backward break falls from a squat position. We quickly moved into some forward rolls, stopping flat on the mat. Then things started to get fun as Sifu had us rolling forward and popping up to our feet and assuming a proper neutral bow. First we were facing the direction we were rolling in, and then we were to pop up facing the direction we rolled from. The real twist came when he had the person behind us push us forward like what might happen in a confrontation on the street. At first, we just sort of lightly pushing the guy in front of us forward, like a cue that it was time to do the roll. Sifu stepped in and started shoving us with some realistic force, something closer to real world but not at 100% thrust. Just as we are getting used to being shoved forward and recovering with a roll, he instructs us to shove the guy in line ahead of us at a random time while he is having idle small talk with Sifu, who was standing aside in an unassuming pose. This was fun. Sometimes the shove came quickly, other times not so much. Obviously we all knew that the shove was coming so the element of surprise was limited but the effect was still much different than just doing forward rolls. By the time we were done with the mat, we were all having some fun with the exercise.

¼ Speed Sparring
After putting the mat away, we engaged in some ¼ speed sparring. Or, I should say, mostly ¼ speed. I started out with Jeff, who loves to kick and has the legs for it. Since we are moving at ¼ speed, and it’s real tough to throw some of those high kicks that slowly, I found myself responding to more than I was forcing him to respond to. I decided to change things up a bit and moved in closer on him. In so doing, I also decided to purposely step on his feet as I moved in to keep those things on the ground. For the most part, this worked, but by the time the end of our round was up Jeff was already adapting. He’s going to be fun to spar with in the future.

Next was Walt. Walt and I seem to always clash in unexpected ways. He most always has the upper hand with me but I can usually surprise him a couple of times too, often with a take down. Unfortunately for me, I think he had the best shot as I pretty much moved directly into a straight forward fist. In the nose. Crunch. It wasn’t bad but it sure got my attention. It was a great punch at actual ¼ speed and I walked right into it. Right about that time I decided I had better focus a bit more on what I was doing.

Sifu was next. We did much of the usual where he manages to draw me out of position and takes advantage. I need to stop attacking him. He stands still and waits for me to attack, waits for me to give him something, and then moves. Perhaps I’ll just wait for him next time? Hmm. I’ll think on that one.

Sparring with Phyl was fun as usual. I was trying to move off his direct line attacks by moving in a more circular direction, which seemed to be somewhat effective. There was one solid blow that landed but it wasn’t so much me as it was him. Much like what happened to Walt and me, he walked into one of my strikes. I don’t know that there was much else remarkable about our little round – just solid jousting.

I squared off with Alex with a goal in mind this time. I have a heck of a time with Alex because he fights so tight, but he also tends to fight in a linear “straight in” fashion. I started moving up the circle on him and in some cases, just pivoting away from him. Major difference. While he still had some excellent combinations on me, I was able to take advantage of his position once, which is what I was trying to achieve. As he stepped directly in toward me, leading with his right foot, I stepped around him out side of that leg with my left leg. I immediately brought my right knee in high, which set his weight back and then put my right foot into a rear bow position while arcing my right elbow around front. The result was a clean take down and a very surprised look on Alex’s face. It happened at ¼ speed and it was clean – Alex did not grab hold of me and pull me down with him as I had his arms properly checked. It was a small mental victory but it was an interesting lesson in body placement. I hope to expand on it more in the future.

Final Notes at the End of Class:

This was likely the last class that will be held in the clubhouse. Amy with Red Sun Academy has come to an agreement with Sifu and we will be working out at the Red Sun Academy on Saturday mornings from this point forward.
Sifu also mentioned that some Saturday afternoons will be available to us for purposes such as testing.

05.13.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-05-13T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Warm Ups with Elliott
Variation to Hidden Wing

Reviewed Other Items:

Orange Belt Techniques
Purple Belt Techniques

Warm Ups
We started out with Elliot doing the warm up exercises today. For the most part we did the same things that Bill usually leads us off with but we did a few other items as well, such as arm circles and the like. After a pretty good warm up, Bill took the class through a few more stretches and the Orange belt techniques and then we got started with class.

Purple Belt Techniques
Bill worked with me on the Purple belt techniques while the other guys worked their techniques on the mat. We started out with Stopping the Storm. Immediately, I noticed I was having problems with range and the initial block/parry/grab. We worked on this quite a bit until I felt I was getting the hang of it. Done properly, I need to raise my hand with the palm facing up, which I wasn’t doing. I think my tendency was to simply reach up and try to grab the attacker’s arm, never making the initial contact with my own arm. Of course, there are numerous ramifications to doing it this way but the bottom line is that it’s the wrong way to do it! After I started to better get the hang of the block/parry/grab, the next challenge was in anchoring the elbow.

When I grab the arm and pull it toward me, my elbow has a tendency to come out and away from my body. Done properly, the elbow should come straight back and be anchored right next to my ribs. Sifu described that in doing this, I am marrying the forward momentum of my attacker with my own body torque to pull him forward. Doing it with the elbow out forces me to largely ‘muscle’ my attacker’s arm and sacrifices much of my leverage. Practicing it correctly, I certainly see what he is talking about – needs more work.

Next up was Hidden Wing. This technique is a defense (escape) from a right rear shoulder grab. As for difficulty, this one isn’t too bad and I think I have most of the gross movements down now. I did have some questions about unstable footing though as I am coming off from the hammer fist and stepping forward. At issue was the placement of my right foot as I am stepping forward with my left. The initial moves involves a stomp to the top of the attacker’s left foot – and my foot pretty much stays there, so when I move forward to kick, I’m basically standing on his foot. Sifu acknowledged that my general foot placement is correct but demonstrated how my concerns were largely unwarranted. The move happens very quickly and is more of an adjustment forward than a situation where I am literally standing there on the guy’s foot.

As we were working with this technique, Sifu grabbed my left shoulder with his right hand, which is different from how the technique is practiced as ‘ideal’. We worked through how the same basic technique could be applied by utilizing a spinning left elbow, followed by a left hammer fist to the groin and topped off with a left heel kick to the solar plexus. It was interesting to see how easily the same technique could flow with just subtle changes.

Circling Serpent was next. The first thing Sifu said after I went through this in the air a couple of times was that I needed to work on the hand checks. “All Kenpo hands should be intentionally placed.” This is a one of the maxims that is repeated throughout training. He also commented on the actual position of my hand. I need to keep the thumbs in (or suffer getting them ripped off) and I need to slightly bend the fingers instead of doing a fully rigid flat hand. Both of these items will better protect my hands and make them stronger at the same time.

There are some things I need to work on for the next technique as well - Hooking Thunder. I asked about the crane hand. This is the first time I have ever used it and wanted to make sure I was positioning my hand properly. Basically, just bring all of your fingers in to a 'point' and then bend your wrist inward, keeping everything rigid. Using this in the technique is a little tricky at first but not bad.

As we worked this one slowly, Sifu stated I was angling off instead of moving straight back. Part of the effectiveness of this maneuver is to move out of the way of the kick so that the energy of the kick is dissipated just before you hook it with your crane hand. Angling off to the side changes the dynamics such that you lose much of your leverage and the position you want for the follow up moves. Additionally, if you pull the attacker’s foot to the side instead of bringing it straight in, you run the risk of creating an orbit for the attacker. Another item that he noted was my under punch. It is not an uppercut. The arm and hand need to stay rigid and work as one unit through the entire thrust punch.

Just before wrapping up class, the White belts demonstrated the Orange belt form, followed by the Purple belts demonstrating their portion of the Master form. It was a pretty solid work out and my gi was soaked pretty good by the time we finished – always a good sign.

05.06.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-05-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Purple Belt Techniques: Clapping Tiger & Raking Hammer

Reviewed Other Items:

Orange Belt Techniques
Orange Belt Form
¼ Speed Sparring

Warm Ups
Pretty much the normal warm ups today – nothing new as far as exercises go. I did have some problems with my lower back again and took some extra time to get it stretched out. When I’m working out, I have noticed an improvement in my back when I keep my knees bent and ‘sit’ into my stance with my head up. My lower back usually bothers me first thing in the morning though… perhaps it’s a problem with my mattress?!?

Part of the warm up exercises consisted of the Orange belt techniques and the blocking set. Everyone participated as we went through the techniques slow, then fast. I still get a kick out of seeing everyone scattering across the room when they cover out, and then quickly returning to formation. After the techniques, we all did the blocking set together before getting started for the day. About half way through the blocking set, I realized I was falling back into the habit of holding my trailing fist palm in (toward my stomach) instead of palm up as it should be. After all these times and I’m still working on the blocking set!!

¼ Speed Sparring
We all participated in the sparring and rotated around so that everyone sparred against everyone else. When I was sparring Sifu, he had reached in at one point and poked me in the neck with a rigid hand. I asked what that was and he just smiled and continued. When we had completed the sparring, Sifu announced that he was intentionally targeting pressure points and the appropriate methods of using them during this sparring session. My exposure to the pressure points to this point has been minimal as I have been instructed simply to know what certain points are and know what points I am targeting when we practice techniques. The Purple belts have several more pressure points to memorize and need to know which method of deployment is best used for each point.

Purple Belt Techniques
After a brief explanation from Sifu, Elliott and I stepped to our corner of the room and practiced both Clapping Tiger and Raking Hammer. Elliott was taught Clapping Tiger the same way it is taught on the tapes – with a side throw. Sifu, with Vic’s blessing, teaches the technique with an overhead throw. Aside from the throw, the rest was pretty much the same. As for Raking Hammer, for some reason I think I’m going to be working on this one for a while. I have a tendency to keeping “cocking” my elbow before throwing it, and I am having a heck of a time getting my range. This is one of the techniques I’m having a hard time practicing in the air for some reason. I’ll continue to practice it though and I’m sure it will get better eventually.

04.16.06 - Practice Out of Class

2006-04-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-04-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

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

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

2006-04-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-04-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

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!

03.27.06 - Practice out of Class

2006-03-27T23:00:00.000-05:00

Met at Walt’s house in Raleigh

Walt, Alex, Phyl, Elliott and I met at Walt’s place to work out this week. I arrived a little after 7:00pm and the others were already warming up. I got stretched out a little bit and then joined in with the warm ups.

We did most of the usual stuff (ball kicks, roundhouse kicks, blocks, lunge punches, etc.) and then started with some other drills that we haven’t done in a while. Walt and I paired off and we did a “right-left-duck” drill alternating from side to side, similar to boxing warm ups. We then did some “yes-no-yes” drills and some back knuckle-lunge punches.

Then came the techniques. We started off with the Orange belt techniques and work up through Purple. Starting with Beheading the Dragon, we worked through them in order and ended with Thunder and Lightning before moving on to the Purple belt techniques. The only caveat to this workout that was different from workouts past was that the guys were sure that I covered out after each technique. A little awkward, but I need the practice.

Stopping the Storm was the first Purple belt technique that I learned tonight. Phyl stated that the primary difference between the techniques I learned at Orange belt and the ones I’ll be learning for Purple is that I will now be stepping into my attacker instead of moving away. This was immediately apparent with Stopping the Storm as the first series of moves consists of stepping to about 1:00 on your opponent during a parry/grab that ultimately pulls the attacker into your fist, before moving on with the rest of the technique. I’ll save the descriptions for the Technique Journal but it was cool to be learning new moves.

The guys proceeded to take me through the rest of the techniques as well. In order, they were Hidden Wing, Circling Serpent, Hooking Thunder, Captured Wing, Clapping Tiger, and Raking Hammer. As they showed me the basic moves, I felt like I did when I first started Kenpo; it sort of felt like I was starting all over again. But it was a good feeling. The biggest difference between learning the first set and this set is that I was surprised at how quickly I was able to start doing the core movements of the techniques this time around. For some reason the moves just made more sense and I felt like I could pick them up quicker. I don’t know if it is because I have been dummying for these guys from nearly the beginning or if it is because I’m building on a comfortable base. I realize that it is probably both and more but it was a little strange to ponder.

03.25.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-03-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

Preempted!
Sifu met Walt and I at the door this morning as I arrived and informed us that our work out space had been set aside by the complex manager for a meeting. Unfortunately at this time, this means that our work out was cancelled. However, we did salvage the time by going up to Bill’s place and we all discussed the Kenpo in the Carolinas seminar from just the weekend before.

Bill started us off by describing what Vic LeRoux is kicking around for next year. He is considering a two-part format: The first part being an open competition for self-defense and the second part consisting of a seminar and instruction. Of course, this is still way early in the planning stages so we just sort of discussed what good or bad would come out of a different format.

One thought was to get together on the Friday night prior for sort of a general workout. When Sifu, Walt, and I went to California for the West Coast Kenpo Confederation, the night we arrived was much like this in that everyone just got together and ran a technique line, talked, and just generally got to know one another. It was a nice warm up to the seminar the next day.

Less talk, more action. That seemed to be something that was universally acknowledged with everyone in the room. We all love to hear Vic’s stories, and we know that he is fully capable of everything he tells us but I think pretty much everyone wanted to actually do the different items that Vic was describing.

We had some brief talk about some of the equipment that may need to be available for the next seminar. Items such as the Ultraman Dummies, kicking shields and mats were high on the list. Apparently there were at least a couple of people that commented on their desire to work the dummies at this seminar and we never did.

Merchandising is another big area that will be more fully exploited next time. An official seminar shirt is being planned, as well as having other shirts, posters, videos, etc. available to anyone who wants them. This could seriously help offset costs next year as we may have to move to a different venue.

After getting these ‘hard’ items out of the way, we all just had a general discussion about Vic and the time he spent here. Based on the general mood of most everyone there, I think this seminar was not only a success, but it seemed to open the eyes of several people as to what Kenpo is, what is attainable, and who is steering the ship of the I.K.C.A. – and we weren’t the only ones impressed. There were two new school charters that came from this seminar in the week that followed, including some jumping ship from American Kenpo.

All in all, a great seminar and I’m looking forward to the next one.

03.18.06 - Kenpo in the Carolinas 2006 Seminar

2006-03-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

The seminar was held in the main room of the Open Door Baptist Church located on Durant Road in Raleigh, North Carolina. This was the first time an event such as this has been organized and solicited on the “East Coast” and the turnout was better than originally anticipated.

Maria and I arrived at about 8:25am. Sifu had asked us to come early as we had a few things we needed to do prior to the seminar. For one thing, I had my Kenpo dummy (Ed Gruberman) in the back of the truck and he needed to be brought in and set up. Maria had agreed to take pictures for us throughout the seminar so we wanted to get some test shots off before hand to see if lighting was going to be a factor.

I think everyone from TKI that attended was already there so I got dressed and warmed up with them for a few minutes before I started mingling and talking to some of the other folks. Some puzzle mats were setup over in the corner for demonstrations later on in the seminar and of course, Phyl, Walt, and Alex had to go ‘test them out’ and get comfortable. These guys crack me up! They have been throwing each other around on concrete and hard floors for so long, as they rotated off the mat and came over to me, I think each one of them commented on it was like “landing on a pillow”. After a few minutes, they broke up and stepped off the mat.

As Phyl was stepping off the mat, Keith Drankiewicz from Wisconsin approached him and started talking about takedowns. I wasn’t close enough to hear them conversing but I did hear a comment from Keith about how guys of “similar build” need to stick together. It wasn’t long and they were both on the mat. It appeared that Keith was explaining to Phyl a position of arm placement just prior to a take down. It appeared that when the technique was done properly, there was very little ‘muscle’ needed to get the job done – it was more in the technique. Phyl worked the technique out for a few more minutes with him and soon had Keith flipping over to the mat. Keith got up and said “Whoo! That was fun!” They soon wrapped up the lesson and stepped off the mat.

It wasn’t long after that and Vic arrived. He was standing at the door when I noticed him and was working his way into the room. I pointed him out to Maria and then we both went over to say hello. As always, Vic was very genuine and full of positive energy – and already telling stories as he came through the door. After introducing Maria, we backed away and let others have their turn in welcoming him to Raleigh.

We all lined up. Bill Parsons, along with Marty Josey and Vic LeRoux, welcomed everyone to the Kenpo in the Carolinas seminar. After a few words about the itinerary for the day, there was no time wasted as the blue puzzle mats were brought to the center of the action and the day was started with some demonstrations. First up was Larry Lauer with Phyl Parsons dummying for him. After that, Lynn Lane had one of his students, Steve, dummy for him as he did several techniques. They all looked good out there on the mat as it’s always great to see experienced Kenpo guys doing their thing.

Vic started us off with some warm up exercises. After meditating from a horse stance, we started out with some simple leg raises, working our way into some exercises from the horse stance and eventually into some ball kicks and blocking from the neutral bow stance. While doing these basic warm-up drills, Vic focused heavily on maintaining weight over the supporting leg – which is something that Sifu is constantly drilling us on in class. There was one kicking exercise in particular that started with a front ball kick, then went to a rear kick before the foot was placed back in the original position touching the floor. It was surprising to see how many people almost immediately lost their balance during the transition from front to rear kick. As Bill is always telling us, Vic repeated how it was vitally important to be properly aligned over that support leg in order to maintain control of where you want to go. You want to choose where you are going to go next, not be forced to move in a given direction because of dead-legging.

We moved into blocks after a few minutes and Vic discussed how all blocks in Kenpo were actually strikes. He demonstrated the proper angles and went into what he called the “Advanced Blocking Set”. Vic demonstrated how important it was to place the block where it needs to be. Using Lynn Lane for visual reference, he showed how an effective block can quickly become ineffective if the angles and position are off by just a few inches.

After some blocking practice, Vic pulled Marty Josey up to the front of the class to assist as he demonstrated some trapping and checking maneuvers. I will admit, it was awesome to watch Vic as he went through several scenarios, but it just showed me how far I have to go on my Kenpo journey to obtain some of his knowledge and skill.

He then moved on to the topic of trapping. Vic mentioned Bruce Lee and stated that the “Bruce Lee guys” refer to the exercises we were about to do as “pok sau” and “lop sau”. Vic makes this stuff look so easy! The essence of this drill boiled down to trapping and pinning both of your adversary’s hands while tying up only one of your hands, leaving your free hand to strike. Once the adversary is in this position, Vic was able to very easily transition again to maintain control. As we paired off and worked with each other on the floor, Vic approached and used me to demonstrate the drill to me and my training partner. I was amazed at how simply and quickly I was tied into a knot.

Vic discussed how most adversaries are finished after three strikes. He tied this into the exercise we were doing as we had been doing just this. This somehow segued into one of his many stories, but one that sort of surprised me. Somehow he got onto the topic of how Ed Parker always carried a 5-shot Derringer pistol with him everywhere he went. This was very interesting to me as it seemed to illustrate that even though Ed Parker was a highly skilled and powerful individual, he still had a back up plan!

We broke for lunch somewhere around 11:30 am I think and resumed activities again around 1:00 pm. There were some more demonstrations again and this time it was the Purple belts from TKI that got us started off with the Master form up through Blue. I know I’m partial and all but they really did look great out there. As the guys did their thing, I sort of checked out some of the others as they looked on and saw everything from intense scrutiny to admiration on the faces of those gathered around. They finished to a nice warm round of applause before stepping out of the circle. Vic sort of surprised me a little bit, and I’m sure he surprised a couple of Lynn Lane’s students as well when he asked Steve and Randy to come on out and demonstrate some techniques! They came out to the floor without hesitation and proceeded to do several techniques.

Following Lynn’s guys, Vic pulled a couple more guys out of the crowd. It was Carl Britt and Greg Payne who had never met prior to this very moment. Vic said “just go ahead and show us a couple of techniques”. Greg started doing some techniques fast and hard, but with awesome control. At one point, it was apparent that Carl wasn’t wearing a cup and stepped off the mat. Phyl Parsons quickly volunteered and went out on the mat for Greg and they did some more techniques.

Bill Parsons stepped out on the mat next with his Purple belts in tow. He rotated through several techniques with Phyl, Alex, & Walt. I don’t often get to see Bill move at fast speeds as he usually has to slow things down for us as he instructs us in class. This time, he was moving well and it was cool to see him in action. The Purple belts did a great job out there too making Bill look good.

After we concluded with the demonstrations, Vic started to talk about parrying and checking. He borrowed Steve again and went through a series of movements that allowed basically either frustrated an aggressor’s strike or checked him in such a way as to take them out of striking position. He related a tale of Armando Deloa in Los Angeles. Armando is a security guard at a school and found him self in the unfortunate position of being wrestled down and sat on by some gang banger that was trying to punch him from this position. Vic told how Armando was able to parry these blows as they rained down and caused his assailant to strike the pavement instead of Armando’s head! After he turned his knuckles to hamburger, Armando was able to get out from under this guy and take care of business. This story really got me thinking about how effective something like a parry can be. At this point in my training, the parrying that I have used has been part of double factoring and seemed to be secondary to the technique. In reality, I can see now that it could become a much more important feature determining the effective outcome of an altercation. Just one more tool in the tool box.

Vic briefly spoke about the Thai kick and how it can be a devastating kick if used in the right way. He demonstrated how he might use it to take an assailant down to his knees by delivering a Thai kick hard and down to the back of the thigh. Once the opponent is down to his knees, Vic pointed out that most people go down with the foot bent beneath them in such a way that the toes are flexed and the heel is pointing up. A crippling blow can be delivered with a stomp to the Achilles tendon at the back of the heel. If at all possible, remember to flatten your foot out if you find yourself in this vulnerable position.

Larry Lauer was the nest lucky one to be picked for Vic’s demonstrations. Vic went through several maneuvers with Larry that could be described as trapping and hitting. When he was finished, we all paired off and worked out these concepts with a partner. The drill was “trap and punch” with the goal following the “3 strike rule” that Vic had mentioned earlier. As before, Vic made this look so easy! I paired off with a gentleman from the Charlotte area and we began working through the drill. From a matched stance (we were in a right neutral bow), the first move was to pin with the lead arm of the opponent with the trailing left hand while delivering a straight right to the face. When the opponent came in with the unchecked hand, your striking hand came down and trapped that hand over the top of his other hand while at the same time the your left hand comes up for the second strike to the head. This was the cool part because it effectively put you in a position where you were trapping and controlling both of your opponent’s hands with one of yours, leaving one of your hands to take care of business. The final move to the drill was to switch hands again, where the left hand comes down to check and the right hand comes back up for the third strike to the face. This was so cool on so many levels… it is incredibly efficient in motion and the strikes are all point of origin. The attacker is wrapped up and made to feel helpless as he is being drilled repeatedly even though he is trying to escape. You are also using the attacker’s own energy to launch your attacks against him! A very cool drill overall… I just wish we had more time to play with it.

After we all worked on this drill, Vic chose another person from the group to demonstrate on, Ron Ray, an American Kenpo practitioner. He went through the same trapping drill we had been working on but included some extensions and showed us some other things you could do from a control position. It just didn’t seem to matter what Ron did, Vic would just flow into a strike using Ron’s own movements and energy against him. There were several times during the demo that it didn’t even appear that Vic was watching what he was doing so much as he was feeling the movement of Ron. It was awesome to see how fluid Vic was with his movements.

Vic spoke briefly about the benefits of working out with an Ultraman Dummy. He talked about how you could do full leg sweeps and things that you couldn’t do with a training partner without having to worry about injury.

The seminar wrapped up shortly after this and everyone lined up again for dismissal. Before we left, Bill and Marty joined Vic on the main stage and presented a gift. There is a gentleman in Florida that is particularly good with an airbrush. He made a special shirt for Vic that read “Kenpo in the Carolinas 2006” and featured a dragon prominently in the design. It looked great and Vic really appeared to like it.

Before leaving, we did some things that are traditional to Kenpo gatherings. First we lined up according to rank, with the Black belts first and on down to White. We shook hands in the Kenpo fashion and created a single line. When this we done, we did a traditional close known as “Passing the Pain”. Starting with Vic, he delivered a back-fist to the stomach of the person standing next to him and that person continued to the next and so on. When it reached the end of the chain, it came back and Vic was the last one to be hit.

Passing the Pain officially concluded the seminar, however, everyone stuck around for a group photo. It turned out great! The next photo was also a group shot, but it was of the Black belts only. After that, Vic agreed to kick some people in that had recently been promoted. Among those being kicked in was Larry Lauer, recently promoted to 5th Dan. There were several from TKI that were kicked in as well, including Marty, Elliott, Alex, Phyl, and me. After getting through the kick ins, Vic was gracious enough to pose with anyone that wanted a picture. He took dozens of photos in any number of poses. He was great.

Following the seminar most of us went out to a Chinese buffet restaurant (of course), called the Crystal Palace. It’s hard to beat good times and Kenpo fellowship at a decent Chinese restaurant! Following dinner, several of the guys went back to Bill’s place with Vic where he told stories well into the night. Unfortunately I was unable to go with them but I’m sure I’ll here more of Vic’s stories in the future.

It has been a fantastic week for me and Kenpo. It kicked off with a promotion to Orange belt on Monday and finished out with solid Kenpo fellowship with Vic and the others at the seminar. What a blast! I am already looking forward to the next Kenpo in the Carolinas seminar.

This has been a long post and I toyed around with the idea of breaking it up into smaller posts but ultimately decided against that. I know there are at least a few of you out there that read this journal and are familar with TKI, the IKCA, or Kenpo in general. In my mind, this site is a sort of archive of Kenpo as I have been exposed to it I would love to broaden it out a little bit. Go ahead and leave comments and share experiences - we would all love to hear about it. Thanks!

03.13.06 - Practice Out of Class

2006-03-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

Met at Walt’s house in Raleigh

Sifu, Alex, Phyl and I met at Walt’s house for practice. Sifu had told me just today at work that he was going to test me this evening! I felt bad for taking up so much of their time when they really wanted to practice for the upcoming seminar. Bill seemed adamant about doing it and to tell the truth, I have been working on it every night this last week and felt pretty good about it mentally. Physically, I was tired from working all day but was determined not to allow for any excuses.

When I arrived, Sifu was getting the tripod and camera set up in Walt’s garage. We did a quick warm up and then the Purple belts stepped outside of camera range while Sifu and I proceeded with the test. I got past the initial salute just fine this time, thank you very much. I was having issues with my legs though; they felt like tree trunks and were about as flexible. They really started to hurt but I kept pressing forward trying to get through the test. About half way through, they started shaking from fatigue. I was bummed. I did my best to focus on the task at hand and just kept going. I don’t feel the test went as well as the pre-test in that I felt terrible by the time I finished. I was sweating like crazy and had a time trying to keep my legs underneath me. I was pretty sure that I was going to have to do this again and at that point was thankful to something that Sifu had told me during the day at work. He had said he would test me this evening and wasn’t going to tell me if I passed or not until the morning of the seminar. At least I wouldn’t have to take the bad news in front of the guys tonight.

We wrapped up the test and took down the camera. I was starting to feel a little better and began working out with the guys a little bit while Sifu finished packing up his camcorder. About the time he had finished, Sifu asked Walt if he had some ice. He was flexing his hand and said he didn’t know what he did but he wanted to ice it quickly. Walt verbalized the exact thought that went through my head: “How did you hurt yourself video taping?!” He and Walt went into the house and I started dummying for the other guys on their techniques. Bill and Walt came out a few minutes later and I inquired about his hand. He said he would be fine and started watching us do some techniques.

After a couple of minutes, Sifu asked the guys to come over and asked me to stand in front of him. He told me to kneel opposite him and I did so. He reached into his gi and took out a folded Orange belt. I don’t know if the shockwave that I felt actually registered on my face or not but Sifu proceeded with all seriousness. He had me remove my white belt and fold it in half before handing it to him. He tied a knot in the belt and presented it back to me. I then bowed low and touched my forehead to the Orange belt before me. As instructed, I picked it up and put it on, tying half of the knot. Sifu then tied the rest of the knot and congratulated me on passing the Orange belt test! He asked me if I wanted to be “kicked in” and I answered “Yes, sir” without hesitation. As is the custom, he had me assume a horse stance and then proceeded to deliver a thrust kick to the high stomach, sending me back several feet.

I couldn’t believe it. I passed! I was sure I was going to do this one over again. After saluting Sifu, I turned to Walt, Alex and Phyl and told them that I couldn’t have done it without their help too. They have invested an enormous amount of time in me and I feel grateful to have them as friends and training partners. I hope I can be there for them should they need me in the future. Thank you, Sifu, and thank you to Walt, Alex & Phyl for all of your help.

After I was awarded the belt, Sifu mentioned that the belt belonged to Walt, and that it was temporary until my own belt arrived. At this point, Walt stated that I could keep the belt, that it would be nice if it stayed in the group. I rather like that idea, actually. We joked around about how he had already broken it in so that the “antenna factor” was no longer an issue.

I had to leave early tonight because of a prior arrangement at home. I bowed out and left the group around 8:15 pm or so and headed home – still wearing my gi and new Orange belt. I wasn’t sure how or if Maria and Duncan would react when I got home. As it turned out, Duncan, my 6-year old son, was just inside the door and noticed the belt as soon as he realized it was me coming through the door. “Congratulations, Daddy! I’m so proud of you!” For some reason this just struck me humble for a moment and I gave him a great big hug. I put him down and went to show my wife, Maria.

She was upstairs and I approached her with my work out bag slung over my shoulder but hanging in front of me, blocking her view of the belt. “So, how did you do?” she said simply. I just moved the bag to the side and showed her the belt. “Congratulations!” she said quickly and then said “I thought you weren’t going to know if you passed until Saturday?”. I told her about how Bill faked hurting his hand to draw Walt into the house and the rest of the story as it was.

I wish I would have been able to stay and work out with the guys longer than I did. I feel like I took up most of their workout time, and with Vic LeRoux coming in on Saturday, I’m sure they wanted to practice. I’m sure they will be great on Saturday.

03.11.06 - Saturday Practice

2006-03-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Items Today:

Leg Stretches & Warm Ups

Reviewed other items:

¼ Speed Sparring
Orange Belt Techniques
Orange Belt Form

Leg Stretches and Warm Ups
Our normal routine in the morning generally starts off with some sort of dynamic stretching and some warm up drills. This morning was different only because we did some additional leg stretching. I guess the best way to describe them is that we were going deep lunges with the rear foot planted for maximum stretch with several variations. It’s pretty obvious to me that I need to be working on my flexibility. Hopefully my knees will strengthen some as I stretch and they will give me fewer problems in the future.

¼ Speed Sparring
We jumped right into ¼ speed sparring after warm ups which is a little different than usual. I felt much more energetic sparring in the beginning of class as opposed to waiting until the latter part of class. I got tagged a few times, especially from Bill, as I would move in and block one of his strikes with my nose. I tried moving up the circle on him as he showed me a while back but I either moved to slow or he anticipated me because I was never able to get into a good position. My only saving grace sparring Sifu was when he came in with a sweep or leg trap of some sort and I was rooted a bit better than he thought, which caused him to go off balance. I wish I could claim some technical savvy there but I really had nothing to do with it.

Sparring the other guys was fun too. Alex has obviously been working on some grappling techniques and I found that interesting as he employed some new moves. Marty likes to get inside and take a piece of you with him so I did my best to hold my ground and keep him on my perimeter, with some success. Phyl still charges straight in so I was doing more to move around him and tried to get him to commit to a movement that put him out of balance, again with slight success. I also moved up the circle with him and did much better than I did with Bill. Then there was Walt. I was tired by the time I got to him and launched a consistent attack against me without letting up. It wasn’t particularly fast or anything, just one thing after another. I kept up with defenses and counters for as long as I could and then I was just gassed out and had to stop. I let him push me past my comfort zone to see how far I could go. It was a good thing, and I should do that more often. Jeff, our Taekwondo Black belt, was fun to spar with too. He likes to kick of course so I did my best to move inside of him and up the circle. The busier I could keep his hands, the better off I was. And I can’t forget Alexandra – she charges straight in and displaces me every time. She has a mean thrust kick and when it connects I usually wind up several feet backwards. Sparring was a lot of fun today and I hope we do some more soon.

Orange Belt Techniques
Sifu led us through the Orange belt techniques. I have been working on these all week since the critique of my pre-test and looked forward to some feedback to see if I was on the right track. Generally speaking, I think I did okay but I am still having some trouble with the thrust kick in Thrusting Release. I asked Sifu to watch me and give me some feedback as to what I am doing incorrectly. After watching the thrust kick several times, he asked me where in my foot the weight was balanced; specifically, was the weight transferring to the outside edge of my foot? After thinking about it and trying it a couple of times, I agreed that it was likely just that. With some further analysis, we determined that I was not kicking directly forward but rather at a slight angle across my body, which explained the balance issues. Combined with keeping my foot flat on the floor for the kick (not rising up on my toes), the kick felt much better. I didn’t have much time to practice right then but I will practice more during the week.

Orange Belt Form
The last thing we did was to go through the Orange belt form with Marty. Jeff had not been exposed to this yet so we started as a group from scratch. It was cool to see how quickly Jeff picked up the primary movements of the form and by the time we had finished, he could perform those movements by himself.

As before, Marty broke this form down several ways. After describing the basic moves, we tucked our hands in our belts and did the footwork only. We have done this before in class so it wasn’t particularly new to me but it was good to do it again. The next mode was to keep our hands tucked in our belts and close our eyes while going through the form. This was interesting. I used the sound of Marty’s voice as an anchor for my “12 O’Clock” and used the noise coming from the back of the room where the others were working out as an anchor for my “6 O’Clock”. Doing this helped me keep my lines straight and, in a weird sort of way, helped me keep my balance. I kept my eyes shut tightly for the entire drill and then opened them, not sure if I would be facing forward or not. As it turned out, I was indeed facing forward. The final mode of practice was to do the entire set of movements – blocks and footwork – with eyes closed. Again, using my audible anchors, I did fine. Great review.

We wrapped up class by observing the Purple belts as they did the Master Form up through Blue. They looked great. Sifu had them do the form several times and, aside from a minor glitch here and there, they did very well. It will be cool to watch them at the seminar next weekend.

03.06.06 - Practice Out of Class

2006-03-06T23:00:00.000-05:00

Met at my house in Raleigh

Sifu joined us in our out of class training session this week so that he could practice the techniques he will be doing for everyone at the seminar. He worked primarily with Alex, Phyl & Walt while Alexandra and I went through the Orange belt techniques as well as the Orange belt form.

We didn’t do anything earth shattering this session but we did cover the basics. As a group, we started out by coming together in a circle and each person chose a drill that we did as a group. It was completely up to the person choosing the drill to call out the drill and determine the repetitions as well as the speed. We were warmed up pretty good by the time we finished going around the circle. After the warm ups, Alexandra and I split off and the Purple belts worked with Sifu.

Alexandra and I started with Thunder & Lightning and worked our way through all 6 techniques for Orange belt. It was all review for both of us but neither of us has mastered the techniques to perfection yet. I had just reviewed my Orange belt pre-test and was cognizant of the items that I wanted to work on. Specifically, I focused on range and target location for both Beheading the Dragon and Deflecting Thunder. One of the items Sifu mentioned on my critique was that I was out too far on these two techniques, that my assailant was much closer than I was taking into account. Also, on both of these techniques, I have a tendency to more laterally instead of at a real 45 degree angle. I was careful to move in the right directions for the technique.

Another thing that I was mentally focusing on was foot placement. It bothered me to see myself on tape during the forward and backward step-drags. My trailing foot was closer to 90 degrees than 45. The thing is that I picture my feet in the proper position when I’m doing the step drags so when I actually saw my feet at the incorrect angles, it was a little bit surprising. I was careful to pay closer attention and frequently checked their position as I was going through the techniques tonight.

Sifu broke from practicing with the Purple belts for a few minutes and came over to help us. He had us go through each technique twice – once slow and once fast – and then advised us with what he saw. He mentioned the thrust kick in Thrusting Release and walked me through the motions of the thrust kick yet again. I don’t know what it is about this kick but I am having a time getting it correct. Tonight I was raising up on my toes again during the kick. I know better than to do this but I have a feeling that I’m probably correcting for balance. I’m definitely doing something wrong but I can’t pin it down. I’ll keep working on it.

We broke sometime just before 9:00 pm and bowed out. We chatted for just a couple of minutes and then everyone left for home. Another good workout and I’m glad Sifu decided to join us.