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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.

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.

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?