This fellow seems like he might be good, but I hate this technique. It’s taking a pretty good entry and inserting inefficient strikes. It makes me want to pull a Jon Stewart / Crossfire moment. Imagine that entry with a simple cross or overhand right. End of story. It makes kempo seem silly in a way.
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But he is practicing a crane technique? Even though there are always different options it is in the ability to have different options and use them that sets us apart. I like the fact that be is actually touching all fingers to thumb, that he is striking into the softer spots or nerve bundles and moves back out. Thats why some of us us have the Shaolin still in our Shaolin.. lol.
He is trying to illustrate something, which probably has very little practical application in the street. The more effective thing to do would be to make a fist and drive that into the the same targets. That would be easier and more effective. The next problem is never actually practicing this outside of a class like this. They use big boxing style gloves for sparring so it won;t be used in a sparring situation. If it is not used in sparring it probably, in my experience not be used in the street. While well intentioned they teach one way and fight another, which never made sense. I still have friends there so I need to curb my disdain.
I agree with Jesse’s points… It is part of what sets us apart…in a good way. We do not use big size boxing gloves and we do much more reaction drills and kempo sparring much much more than “point sparring” which I find detrimental do the development of any fighting skill set beyond timing.
In my opinion without developing functionality with these type of different movements and strikes it is difficult to grow much beyond a good kickboxing plus or minus a small jiujitsu set. Which is all one really needs to defend themselves in most situations. In all honesty most kempo students can stop at the end of purple belt and practice their knowledge and skill sets well and be able to defend themselves effectively in most situations. The reason to continue is passion and love for the extra, the challenges on the physical, personal and even spiritual level.
The different techniques (including the “shaolin” ones) add the the concept of being able to fight “from where you are” with SK..when extends that idea further than NOT re chambering. Also, the different fighting styles always one to adapt kempo to personality, body type and preferences. I have seen a great mantis stylist fight and I would never move that way, yet I cannot deny his effectiveness…
Yet, neither can I deny that to teach one way and fight another is a dangerous practice and can “hurt” us. That is a core problem that can be solved without throwing out functional and characteristic material.
It’s that second crane strike to temple that bothers me. To keep in the “Crane” theme, I would replace that with a circular Crane’s wrist strike. Hit the temple with the big bones rather than the finger tips. For practicality, I would go with a back fist. Never under estimate the value of a good back fist.
I simply stated what I know to be true about the company shown in the video. They pretty much only point spar, wear large gloves when they do and would never use anything like what is shown in the vid during sparring. They call it Shaolin Kempo, but after four years of investigating and picking a part portions of the system it find too many watered down techniques and a lot of kick box type sparring. I apologize to those offended by my comments.
That technique is essentially what is referred to as ‘driving knifehand’ at our school, but in our case, crane’s beak#1 is replaced with a shuto to the side of the neck (or palm in some cases to the jaw) and then a dropping shuto / oxjaw to the collarbone for the second strike. Perhaps a dropping willow palm to the face at that point. I somewhat agree with James (fists / hammers / punches) and also Mark in that the second crane strike takes an opportunity to strike with backup mass and replaces it with a whipping / massless strike instead. Again – I liked his entry, his strikes seemed clean, and he seemed precise enough – but I don’t know it it would stop a determined attacker.
No offense taken. We offend ourselves, about ourselves all the time with things we have done through the years. I agree with what everyone has said and we all have changed throughout our years on the mat.
Another point of learning these style of techniques is because not everyone wants to or would fight the same way. I myself would never actually throw a punch in any situation. I prefer palms, knife, and claws. I am sure there is someone out there who feels similar about finger tip style strikes.