kempoinfo.com

Seminar with Professor Kimo Moved

matt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:44:52 +0000

Due to excellent response, Cape Cod Martial Arts Academy has moved the seminar with Professor Kimo and Jesse Dwire. It’s a few minutes up the road at the Sheraton Eastham. I’m looking forward to seeing folks there.

kiai

Marlon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:40:43 +0000

So my genius put itself on display recently…About 20 years ago I was told that good core muscles would help my back pain. Naturally, i went to work with sit ups and what not to work my abs. However, it was not until recently that I learned (not even figured out) that I need to engage those muscles as I move in order to protect my back! Pure genius.
Well what does this have to do with a kiai? I never had problems with my back while training. I think the reason is that through the kiai we engage our core muscles and therefore protect our back. Almost as good as the magic of qi!!

knees

Marlon — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:20:03 +0000

The use of the knees in kicking holds a particular importance to my thinking and practice. In order to generate power in most kicks the movement of the knee is key. Without the knee exploding from a chambered postition towards the plexus most kicks will lack the force they could deliver. By using the center of your body you use your whole body, neglect this and you exponentially dimininsh what you want to do for almost every kick in the system. The non kicking leg maintains your root (especially with impact) and cannot be locked. the knee must bend and even sink with the kick and not striaghten out or lock. The return to the crane afterwards re indexes the spine and brings you back to center alignment and equilibrium…bring the knee back to your center. the further you move from these prinicples of the knee the less effective your kempo becomes.

Saratoga Martial Arts Festival

matt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:24:46 +0000

Since Mr. Dwire mentioned it, I thought it deserved its own plug. Every year he comes back raving about the Saratoga Martial Arts Festival, and I can see why. It’s a two day extravaganza of training, and done from a cool perspective. This year, they are trying to emphasize their concept of ‘100 styles flow into one’ by having teachers from disparate styles share seminar time on various topics.

Flexible Weapons, Combination 13

matt — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:08:54 +0000

Sometimes I think that combination 13 is a sort of silly ‘extra’ in the SK system. Why include one ‘belt’ technique along in a (bloated, but that’s another story) group with 107 other empty hand responses to a step through right hand punch? I just had a great conversation with Jesse Dwire of Dragon-Phoenix martial arts about how he’s improved how he did 13 lately, and it paralleled my experiences with it as well.

Some folks might remove it, as it’s a distracting detail, a one-off, almost a party trick. That would probably be a mistake. I know it seems strange given my penchant for blog posts that could essentially be replicated by a filter that just substituted ‘Trim!Simplify!’ over and over again for whatever I went on about that I’d want to keep this blip that doesn’t fit in with the rest, but here’s why.

It’s a doorway, and a hint at some roots. First, combination 13 appears virtually identically in the beautiful book Lua: Art of the Hawaiian Warrior. I’m not certain that’s the whole story, but it is nice to see. It’s a hard book to get your hands on, but it’s a real beauty.
More likely, and probably more indicative of the real roots in our system, it’s a doorway into the flexible weapons training of the Filipino martial arts. I trained in some kali at one point, and the instructor was well versed in the use of the sarong as a weapon. Weighted ropes, belts, and even t-shirts became tools of self-defense. After that, the seemingly useless combination 13 gained new life in my eyes, and the variations and expressions blossomed.

Now as one of 107, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Why do one technique? However, if you trim the redundant combinations, it becomes a significant part of the repertoire. One of 25 is 4%, small but significant. Think of it as a reminder to do variations of uses with flexible weapons. It’s a bookmark in the training syllabus that says, “Spend some time on flexible weapons”. Just get some knowledge of the principles and apply from there.

Here’s a trailer for a seminar in Italy, but it replicates many of the Kali / Silat techniques I learned. I have no idea about the person teaching the seminar, but if I were in Italy, I’d certainly check it out.

kempo hands

Marlon — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:40:10 +0000

Recently, I had a Krav Maga student ask me, in a statement like manner, “so you guys don’t hit with power, really?” My answer was, of course we hit with power. But for him it was hard to see.
It was explained to me, by my first kempo teacher, Elizabeth, that we use mostly two kinds of power in kempo: Percussive and penetrating. While that could be a great subject for debate on its own, I have come to realize that we hit very hard with all our strikes in kempo. This is why we need to moblie base, because we are built for multiple attackers and becuase we move people when we hit them…with all our strikes. It takes training to relax enough and use the proper body mechanics to pull such a thing off consistently and i use mainly the drill and the forms to train this skill. Of course, taking the hit and hitting in the end is the only way to tell if one is just full of crap or if you have it. A key feature in our multiple strike system is a rolling of the arms. Check out the beginning sequences of Master Brassard’s youtube clips and you will see how is hands roll into a very quick strike sequence. The last section of Sho Tung Kwa trains this specifically. What is important for me to focus on is teaching and training, is the use of the waist in these rapid fire sequences. In STK there is the sequence from a horse stance that starts with block 2 and a left (let’s say) dropping palm block and ends with the dbl immortal man strikes to the eyes. I knew one second degree BB who could nail the whole section in less that a breath. Amazing to see. The thing I work on is to constantly hit with the whole body through each weapon while moving as fast as I can go. So, I start off very very slowly and work my way up to speed, as it were, and whenver I find my mechanics deficient I re start at the very very slowly manner, again. What I need to feel satisfied with myself, in this, is the waist turning with the force of my leg pushing into the ground so as to direct my wieght and push the force produced through the weapon. There needs to be a slight up and down motion from my center as well as the rotation. And, of course central equillibrium. To move my hands around quickly, and even accurately without engaging the legs and waist is to demonstrate “tippy-tap” kempo and is an effectual and dangerous practice. We have all seen it around, and such demonstrations of kempo seem flashy and sic, and can draw students away from teachings with any real depth or worse draw students away to other sytems that re set between each ‘power’ strike because for them what we say we can do, is not possible. Statements such as ’speed kills’, often refers to kempo masters and students who move so blindingly fast that they leave the flies laughing. Some others want to take away the speed of our system, labeling it ineffectual. The reality is that kempo is about speed, but speed born of effective mechanics, training, good teaching, practice, honesty and principle in our learning, and much more practice. Kempo hands remains part of the core of SKK and training is the only truth that will preserve it.

Brotherhood of the traveling camera?

matt — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:12:00 +0000

I’ve had several folks offer to record things for the site, but were stymied by the fact that they didn’t have a camcorder. There are a couple solutions to this. Most digital cameras these days record video – my daughter’s camera even records HD. However there was a sale at the local job lot on video recorders so I purchased a cheap (crappy) video recorder for just a few bucks, and put in a 2GB SD card. Lo and behold, it has plenty of space for video. I think we could send this thing around the country (it’s cheap and light) and take turns recording whatever we think belongs up on here.

Here’s where you come in. What should we do? Who’s up for the challenge? If you want in, comment and fill out the ‘contact me’ form and we’ll make some plans. I’m going to leave this wide open, and see what our little community can do. Anyone game?

Professor Kimo Ferreira seminar at Cape Cod Martial Arts, March 12, 2010

matt — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:26:45 +0000

As has been mentioned in the forum, CCMAA is hosting Professor Kimo Ferreira for a seminar. The topic is weapon defense, from a Kempo Jutsu perspective. If that wasn’t good enough, our good friend Jesse Dwire IV (who you might know as RevIV) will be there as well presenting Kempo animal techniques. Go to the Cape Cod Martial Arts Academy Website for details. Paperwork should be up within 48 hours. Many folks you know from the comments and the forum will likely be there, so please come on down. I’ll definitely be there (and will certainly be taking a turn as Uke…) so you will at least get to see me take a pounding. Hope to see you there.

Legs

Marlon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:00:41 +0000

One of the forms that I have learned a great deal from is Sho Tung Kwa. It is the form the GM Villari claims contains all the ’secrets’ of his take on kempo. During my research I came across one of the alleged meanings of this form: hands and feet in harmony. This lead me to a particular practice in the way I do kempo. I actively feel to get close enough to take out the legs without much change in technique. Of course, to attempt to think about this in the middle of a fight (breath) would simply slow me down and end up being awkward to explain to the students when (if) I woke up in hospital. So, we add it to the practice of all our kempo, from simple buckles to all out sweeps, we practice every technique with an awareness of these poosiblities. The intention is that they will just ‘be there’ should we ever need them. So, now for the next two months we, in my dojo / kuen will focus on this and it is my intention to teach this as a permanent concept in all our techniques from now on…if it is there.

Site Maintenance – Might be off line.

matt — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:59:20 +0000

I’ll be upgrading the site, (behind the scenes) so it might be unavailable today. This won’t affect the forum, though. Thanks for your patience.

Edit: I think it’s done. Let me know if I’ve broken anything.

Thanks!