Lights, Camera, Kata!

When you compete in tournaments, remember that you are being judged on your performance of the kata not only the technical execution. Kata are subjectively judged by Black Belts from other systems and styles. You can’t meet all their technical requirements if you tried. Some are diametrically opposed to each other.

The best thing to do is demonstrate crisp movements and smooth flow. These qualities develop from repetition and practice. Show solid stances without wavering. When you are on one leg, maintain your balance. Don’t wobble while kicking or in difficult stances. Don’t adjust your feet in a noticeable manner once you plant them on the floor.

Kiai shout on powerful strikes. Make it loud and crisp. Draw the power of the kiai from your belly. Always look before you move your feet. Watch and monitor the pacing of your form or kata. It should have a comfortable, exciting rhythm. There should also be variety in the speed of movements. Not everything is fast or the identical speed as everything else. Rhythm and speed should be natural, which means you need fast, medium and slow sections.

Display confidence in all your movements – including the time sitting waiting for your turn, the walk up and the walk back to your seat. Once the competition begins, you are performing. It doesn’t begin when you start your kata. It doesn’t end when you finish either. Maintain your demeanor and professional posture at all times.

It is best to imagine doing the kata for a movie or TV show. See the lights. See the camera. Put on your super-powered ninja costume and let loose with the confidence of an actor. It’s all about showmanship.

        

Musical Kata

“The irony of musical kata is that the kata were probably folk dances to start with. They lost their musical ties and have since been reborn with them, amusingly to widespread scorn by ‘traditionalists’. This is theory, of course, for the vast majority of kata, we don’t know what the name means, who invented them or what the hell they are all about. They might be one big practical joke started hundreds of years ago and passed down the ages. However, the ties between dancing and martial arts are very close in many cultures. This is because they both exert and develop similar physical qualities, and require that the body be moved in particular motions and to certain rhythms.” (Philip Richard Thomas, Panlane.com, 2004)

What I like about Mr. Thomas’ quote is the notion of dancing. Several terms for forms (kata, sayaw, set) have been translated as dance by at least one expert I know. Even in our own system, the core kata we practice are called Monkey Dances. So it’s natural to want to perform kata to music.

Black belt in stance

First, find a song that you like with a clear beat. Songs that are energetic and up-tempo work best as they excite both you and the audience. However, the song should be something you like and enjoy listening to. Like all kata, musical kata requires repetition through practice.

Next, select a kata that ‘feels’ like the song you selected. You can also do these two steps in reverse. The most important step to do is find two things that fit together. The pacing you practice in traditional kata doesn’t need to be the pacing with the song. What I mean by pacing is the rhythm of the beat should be similar to the rhythm of the strikes and movements of the kata.

Now practice the kata to the song a few times. Get a feel for how they mesh together. Adjust the timing of the moves to match the song’s beat. You can also add a move or two to the kata if it will make the song and kata work better together. Remember you are improvising and creating a work of art. Even merge two katas together if the song is long or inspires you to such debauchery.

As with any performance, you must ‘act’ the part. This means you should have your ‘game face’ on. Look mean or act surprised at moments. Provide elements in the kata so it looks like a fight scene from a movie. Even if the kata has a specific height for a kick, feel free to change it. High, fast kicks look better than low kicks. Articulate your movements. Make each punch and kick clear. Hold them for a brief second or two. Demonstrate your balance by staying in the Crane Stance longer than usual. Most of all explore the possibilities of the music and kata – don’t limit yourself.

Have fun working with the kata and the music. Any form of kata practice is good, especially creative practice.

        

Unbalanced Point

Have you ever tried to knock over a tripod? It isn’t easy. It’s far easier to knock over a two-legged table. Humans have two legs. We would naturally fall over if it weren’t for our joints, muscles and tendons. Still, we have the capacity to fall over and often we do.

In Kempo, we use stances and triangle footwork to create a temporary tripod, thereby creating stability. However, we have angles that are weak. These are unbalanced points.
a) The horse stance is stable from the sides but very tenuous from the front
b) The half moon stance is stable from the side, front and back, but weak from the inside 45° angle

Strike for the unbalanced point or moving to and controlling this point. Knowing the location of the points is half the battle. Kempo Z is a great example of unbalancing points. The final palm to the forehead takes advantage of attackers weak point, his unbalanced point.

Attacking the hara (center of gravity) or displacing the hip creates imbalances, allowing you to defeat the opponent quickly. Continue to explore your techniques with the purpose of discovering hidden unbalanced points in your uke.

        

The Elbow and Kenpo Joe

I stumbled upon this video of Kenpo Joe who demonstrates a few elbow sets from a few flavors of Kenpo and Kempo. See it here on YouTube.

What’s nice about these mini-sets is they focus on the most devastating weapon in our arsenal, the elbow. It is versatile and is great at close and really close range. My favorite part of Joe’s articles and videos is how he compares and contrasts the flavors of Kenpo. He doesn’t do it to discredit them, rather he does it to explore and understand. In my opinion, that’s the attitude you need in martial arts training.

Visit his web page at http://www.kenpojoe.com/

That’s all for today.

        

Flow like Water

One of Sijo Bruce Lee’s famous quotes, “Be like water, my friend” is appropriate for Kempo. These are some of the qualities of water we want to emulate in our art.

• Pent up action
• Path of least resistance
• Continuous flow
• Drown the opponent

Pent up action
The waist is akin to a Kempo capacitor. That is where striking power is stored and discharged from. Turn the waist to build up momentum and power. Then turn the waist back into the attack to generate a powerful assault. The Chinese arts call this Jing, we call it percussive striking.

One of the early techniques, DM3, demonstrates this waist power. The first move is a #4 block and a waist turn. Then you settle back into a dragon stance with a right thrust punch. The right hip drives this punch. It can be quite powerful when performed correctly.

Path of least resistance
During the assault when sensing strong resistance, we must flow to an alternate zone of attack. Just like the Germans of World War II, we don’t attack the fortified French line. Rather, we quickly move up and around to an exposed, defenseless area. It’s a classic military concept of flanking the enemy. Water has the natural abilities to find weakness and flow towards that area.

For example, the theory around escapes from wrist grabs. The human body can’t defend all fronts. You’ll often encounter a partner that knows what’s coming and resists the lock. The proper response is not to force it, but to move to another lock. This is flanking the muscle.

Continuous flow
Kempo players should never stop their assault until the opponent is incapacitated, immobilized, in a submission or you choose to disengage. Ocean currents continuously push swimmers in single direction. It is difficult to compensate without extra effort. That is how our techniques should work. Constant control and flow into another move of our choosing. Kempo karenza or jiwaza allow the advanced student to sense the attack and bring it to competition.

Drown the opponent
The relentless, continuous assault of the Kempo player serves to overwhelm the opponent. You want to blanket the opponent to instill a sense of smothering. Like the big wave that smashes into swimmers, the water overwhelms.

Drowning the oppenent can be performed on two levels, physcial and psychological. Practice it like a karenza, but include mental intent designed to demoralize and mentally break the opponent. Sometimes called a game face or mental game, verbally harassing the opponent is a vital aspect of encounters. The goal of overwhelming the opponent is to force them to give up, submit or flee. They must loose their belief in surviving the assault.

Sticky hands and partner drills are good essential for developing the water theory. All of these sub-principles are interrelated. You use all of them in your techniques to some degree. Kempo is rushing water.

        

Intent, the Leopard’s Game Face

Have you ever watched a nature show that follows a big cat as it stalks its prey? I love watching leopards creep slowly towards their prey. Look at their face. You see intent. Not normal intent, they have intense intent. By looking into their eyes, you know they will kill something if given the slightest opportunity. There is little doubt in their mind and your what will happen next…if the gazelle is slow.

You control the situation through your intent. When you encounter an aggressive person on the street, a bully, you must turn your attention to the situation and form a deep, intense intent. I’ve personally gotten out of many fights by turning on my intent to defend myself without restraint. It sends vibes or something out into the conflict area. Once the bully feels, sees, or smells your intent, he knows. And he usually backs down. Intent is a powerful deterrent.

It is also a powerful way to execute your strikes. In breaking, you must think, “break” to break a brick. You must have intent. If you have doubts about your abilities or you are distracted, unfocused, you won’t be able to break the brick. The focus of intent is like a laser-guided missile. You can accomplish anything if you have unwavering-intent.

Be firm in your commitment. Intent is a commitment that you will do what you are thinking. You are focused on your task and you will succeed. Intent, focus and commitment are three ingredients to a successful conflict. That is how you achieve great things. Establish a goal and commit to it. Focus on it. Have the intent to reach the goal. You will be unstoppable.

        

The Punch Transformation

Inspired by the discuss on Martial Talk

In class, the uke (attacker) steps in with the right foot (using the C step or half-moon) and punches with the right hand. This is the classic straight in punch. Why do we do it like that? It doesn’t seem like a realistic attack.

On guard position

Think back to Kindergarten class when you practiced making your letters. You needed lines on the paper to write straight. This is a very simplified attack so you can focus on the moves, not whether or not you’ll get hit. This is not a realistic attack. It is a “practice” attack. Just like the lines for writing letters, the “step in punch” is an easy attack for you to acclimate to an attack. When you get comfortable with the technique, move one to variations in the attack.

Transformation One
Slight variations to the attack include a street-fighter punch, hook punch and left-right combination. Start slow and progress until you can perform the technique well regardless of which attack they throw. Notice the slight changes you make to your stance and body position.

Don’t stick to arbitrary clock positions or cardinal directions when the live person is there. Those are simple orientation mechanics to help you move about three-dimensional space. Again, they are guidelines. Close is good enough with regards to footing placement. Get a feel for where the foot really needs to go for optimal leverage, attack-angle and balance.

Transformation Two
Most people don’t step in to punch you, rather they just swing from any position they are in. Change the step in to a boxer shuffle (akin to how CHA-3 and Kajukenbo students practice). The juicy right leg isn’t there for you to attack. It is now protected in the rear. What adjustments do you make to keep the technique working?

This transformation is more realistic than the initial one taught in class. Again, you need to work up to this situation, as it is more difficult to work against. By Green Belt, this should be the standard attack procedure after learning the technique in class. It makes Combination 11 difficult but not impossible. How do the other combinations and kempo techniques fair?

Transformation Three
This is my favorite. How about adding a weapon, the yawara, to the technique? The yawara is a pocket stick, an inch bigger than your hand. It is usually made of wood sanded down smooth. How does it change the moves? You’d be surprised how well the techniques all work with a yawara in your right hand.

I usually hold it like an ice pick for downward strikes. Hold it like a fork to punch. Remember to support the yawara with your thumb on top. It’s much like the Poison Thumb strike. Locks, traps and pinches become a factor in applying the technique. Pinch skin, joint or clothes between yawara and thumb. Seek pressure points when you strike too.

Also think of the possibilities with using other things like a pen, spoon or toothbrush. Don’t get stuck in Kindergarten when practicing your techniques — examine, experiment and explore.

        

The Waist Drives: Tai Chi Characteristics in Kempo

Don’t be fooled by the gentleness of Tai Chi Chuan, it is a devastating art. Its slow practice pace hides the real benefits of this art. For those who know the combat application of each posture, the art is ruthless.

The key element of Tai Chi is waist power. Of course, this is true with all martial arts. However, in Tai Chi, this is the foremost rule. The waist drives all the other limbs. Nothing moves unless the waist initiates movement.

Once you’ve internalized this keystone element, you can distill Tai Chi theory into six characteristics. All six must be maintained in order to execute the transitions between postures correctly. To violate any one of these characteristic-rules would decrease the effectiveness of Tai Chi.

Tai Chi’s Six Characteristics

1. Circular - All parts of the body, such as shoulders, waist, hips, knees and elbows, travel along circular paths. There are no locked out joints nor straight limbs. All movements travel in horizontal and vertical circles.
2. Relax - Maintain the concept of softness versus hardness. One must be relax at all times. Relax does not mean falling asleep, rather it means minimal effort, yet stay alert.
3. Calm - One must calm the mind and the body.
4. Continuous – There should be a clear and continuous interchanging, or transitions between Yin and Yang. One movement flows into the next, but each steps is executed fully.
5. Intent - One must have the mental intent to perform each step and transition.
6. Energy - There must be the manipulation of energy in each movement.

Circular
Each body part is held in along circular paths. This is a structurally sound and biomechanically correct method of maintaining power. In Kempo, you never lock out your joints. This creates circularity in your limbs. The blocks from the Palm Set are a great example of this characteristic.

Tai chi ward off position

Relax
Being relaxed allows the mind to operate. Breathing allows the body to relax. In Kempo, you utilize breathing to keep you relaxed and cool. A relaxed body can generate the power in one’s strikes. All Kempo tricks (waza) are done in a relaxed state.

Calm
By being in a state of calmness.

Continuous
Kempo attacks lead the opponent into the next volley of attacks. Continuity and flow are the hallmarks of Kempo. The volley of attacks to the opponent are best represented by many of the advanced combinations, waza and Hon Suki.

Intent
Without the intent to do it, nothing would get done. This is also true with executing Kempo techniques. The desire to hit provides the full body commitment to the attack. Do not confuse this with the over-commitment of defensive assets to the attack. This intent is the conscious decision to perform an action. A great example of this is breaking. Without the intent to break a board or brick, you wouldn’t put enough “umph” behind your strike to be successful.

Energy
There must be a spark of spunk in all your movements. This is similar to intent. Many would argue that this characteristic is dealing with chi specifically. Kempo utilizes chi in its attacks. Chi gung sets and breaking are all examples of the application of energy.

You may have noticed that these characteristics are interrelated. They are, in fact, dependent on each other. The goal is to maintain a harmony between all six characteristics in all your techniques and kata.

Slow down and understand how these characteristics will affect your Kempo. Waist power is the hidden power. It drives your attack. Arm power is wasted effort. Relying on your physical strength is a dangerous thing to do. Cover your openings by using these fundamental rules in your Kempo.

Bibliography
Bow Sim Mark’s Chinese Wushu Research Institute http://www.taichi-arts.com

        

The Right Ingredients

Adding the right ingredients to your cooking determines whether or not your meal is a success. The same is true for martial arts training. Do you add the right skills to your training? Do you focus to heavily on certain things?

Avoid practicing only the things you like to do or what you think you’re good at. Mix up these ingredients and blend all your material into a health, tasty workout. It’s important to work on those techniques you don’t like because they help the “taste” of other techniques.

The natural tendency is to practice the new material, until you get more new material. Once you get a “handle” on this new material, you let it sit. “Yeah, I know it. You taught that already. We did that last week.” With out practicing the “old” material, you’ll never develop the skills needed to defend yourself.

This is why intermediate level students workout with beginning and candidate level students. It reviews and polishes the foundation level material.

The early skills you learn at white belt allow you to build a “knowledge” foundation. This foundation allows you to learn more quickly, perform material correctly and maintain skills longer.

Stances and punches are the building blocks for later material. Black belt level kata have horse stances, half-moon stances and front punches. This is true in white belt kata.

When you perform a great horse stance to punch-block combination, you can build more techniques off of that. During kata instruction, the sifu can teach you the next part by say, “now, perform Combination 19 at this point to the northwest corner”. You can remember that more easily since you have a repertoire of foundation skills to draw from.

All the material taught is interrelated and interlocked. As you progress through the ranks, you’ll notice material appearing again and again. These new techniques explore the “other” possibilities that the foundation material alluded to.

And now for the analogies:

Soup - You can relate techniques to the ingredients of soup. As you add more and more ingredients, the first items you put into the pot settle to the bottom. If you don’t stir the soup occasionally, they will burn at the bottom. Soups are best if they simmer. They should be cooked over time, just like martial arts skills need to be developed over time.

House Building – Often, you hear martial arts described as building a house. The foundation materials (the basics) are the foundation and framework. Later material is analogous to the insulation, plumbing and electrical wiring. Finally, the dry wall is put up, and paint is added. Through out the process, your foundation needs to remain strong and steady or else the house will crumble. So to will you martial arts skills if you don’t maintain your basics.

Painting - Training can also be related to painting. When a master painter begins his piece, she’ll begin with large areas of light and dark paint. The painter will then build these dark and light areas up with dark and light color respectively. Eventually, the image will become clear. The artist will never begin a painting by detailing the eye of the subject, nor will they start with the bark of a tree. Each step builds upon the ones before. The foundation paint allows the details and beauty to come out. As with martial arts, the foundation skills are seen, however subtly, in the advanced techniques.

“If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” — Bryan Bagnas

You can take this quote in two ways. The first is an impetus to practice more. The second extends the first more fully. Practice all your material or it will get worse.

Teaching material is a great way to improve basic skills. The best class for a Black Belt to teach is brand new students. They need to know everything in crystal clear detail. As a teacher, the Black Belt needs to do each technique perfectly every time. Not just some times, or often, but each time. That is the goal for all techniques, do them perfect every time. This comes from repetition through practice.

Cycles and Cyclones
Always return to your foundation material. As you advance, you’ll return with a better understanding the information. The new material will allow you to grow and improve. You’ll gain insight and skill. Once you reach that point, circle back and return to your foundation material, this time with a better understanding. Continue this cycle over and over again. Each time, you’ll return with more insight, a little further than when you were there before. This spiral is like a cyclone, always moving up, yet always returning back.

Add the right ingredients and stir the soup of knowledge. Allow nothing to atrophy because you’ve worked to hard to get what you have.

        

Peaks, Plateaus and Valleys

In all mental and physical training regiments, a person moves through three stages of learning. These stages reflect the body and the mind’s synergy, or lack thereof. In a sense, these stages are the yin and yang of learning. Martial arts are no exception. Below are definitions to the three stages — peaks, plateaus and valleys.

Peak
When you experience a peak in training, your progress in the art is quite apparent. You often feel a sense of euphoria over the hard-earned gains. It is, in fact, a peak in the learning curve. This is a time when you learn quickly and easily.

This is a result of background information that can be leveraged to acquire new information. Rarely will you enter in the peak stage at the onset of martial arts training (white belt). Expect the peak to occur after you can internalize some of the fundamentals and basics. This internalization is also known as chunking information into manageable units.

In a perfect world, you want to maintain the peak stage for most of your martial arts career. A rough estimate is 60-70% of your entire career if possible. Beware, however, of creating a burnout condition.

Kempo students can expect to reach the peak stage in the latter part of the candidate level and throughout the beginning levels. It also occurs after plateaus.

Plateau
Have you ever experience a time when you forget techniques or merge two kata together? This is a sign of the plateau phenomena. This stage is a stalling in the learning curve. Your skill doesn’t improve as noticeably as in the peak stage. The brain needs to time to integrate your new skills and abilities to its program, if you will.

Equate the forgetfulness to this metaphor. When you clean out your desk, you pile everything in the middle of the room. From here you can go through each item, one at a time, and place it in its place. If someone asks for a phone number, you can look through the pile on the floor, but it will take awhile. This is the same thing that happens to the brain. It’s organizing the material for quicker access. You’ll have to wait until it’s done.

When does it end? This stage just ends abruptly. It’s a eureka phenomena. I’ve watched students struggling with techniques for many months. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, they’ll be able to do it right. Eureka! During this stage, it is very important to continue practicing until you emerge from the plateau and move into the peak.

Kempo students will experience plateaus at blue, green, brown and Black Belt due to the necessary quality improvement demands of rank advancement.

Valley
This stage is the most important and the most dangerous of the three. The valley is degradation of skill and time off. You’re mentally exhausted, thinking of ways to avoid training sessions. Often, valleys are results of burnout, occurring after heavy training for tournaments, testing or exhibitions.

When used properly, it’s a scheduled break from the arts. A time to give your mind a break. It’s a vacation of sorts where you avoid martial arts completely. Take this time to pursue other interests. It can also be used to prevent burnout, renewing your vigor and determination.

If a peak period last for long stretches of time, the increased learning can begin to wane. When this happens, allow yourself to slow down otherwise the peak will become a burnout or extended valley. This stage is only beneficial if you have control over it, scheduled it for a set time. The worst thing to do is let emotion rule. You may never return to the arts.

In Kempo, the valley occurs as needed. Some students need it every three months, others every three years. Most people lie in between. Sometimes, this can result from remaining too long in a plateau due to lack of practice and motivation. The valley is yin. The peak is yang. They need each other to create a better whole.
A Natural Cycle

This is a natural cycle. Don’t fight the urge to move from one stage to the next. Recognize it for what it is and work to move from plateau to valley to peak. Open your awareness; listen to your body and mind. Though seemingly contradictory, it actually helps speed progress in the martial arts if you move through this cycle.

The next time you’re feeling frustrated and stalled, remember you may be in a plateau stage. Don’t get angry and quit. Continue practice knowing everyone else has or will have the same experience. Also know it will end and you will encounter an explosion in your learning ability. Good luck and train well.