Repetition is one of the best teachers around. So most of our kempo forms repeat concepts and move in an SK way. Many people simply don’t believe in the later creations of GM Villari for various reasons. I usually, take the approach that I know less than others and work hard to ‘get it’, and really enjoy fleshing out the lessons in the forms. At times half the battle is finding a lesson to work on…However, TSM is different. This forms opens up and in many ways starts to bring into balance much of the closing down power seen in most of the other forms. The outward motions are not ‘reaching’ although it could easily be misconstruded as reaching. the form works the power of body positioning and taking the space of the attacker like no other i have encountered yet. The big movements focus on using the whole body as a weapon and not only using the whole body to strike with a weapon; and, really opening up your attacker. I am still learning it, yet i can see how it can diversify my fighting immensely. It is a shift from small fighting to large fighting…my goal is to harmonize these two and bring more surprise to my fighting…walk before running, though.
Getting Around
Where I am after I ‘block’ not only depends on my footwork but also my attackers reaction to my response. So much of our kempo involves us getting to the side of an attacker or behind them , so the question becomes speed versus technique. A big criticism I heard of SK was that it was primarily built to be effective for young athletes only. Once again I re-examined my kempo and found something interesting, so see if this works for you as well. If my block sends a ‘stop’ signal to the attacker then I have to work harder to get where I want to go. However, should I change my blocking approach I can draw a serious attacker into a place where little or no effort is needed on my part to get around them. This, of course, at first, works less effectively against an uncommitted attack, yet in the end even with when dealing with those wary attacks you can win with much less work. Try it out and let me know.
marlon
Winter and Kempo
GM Villari is from the northern East coast and this could explain a big difference in our skk and other styles of kempo. Almost all of our techniques gets us in close and we start to manipulate the musculoskeletal system…why? Perhaps, because our west coast cousins do not need to deal with the clothing of winter when formulating and practicing their art. A big winter coat can provide a great deal of padding, snow and ice means that grounding and footwork must compensate for less traction. So take a look at your Shaolin Kempo compared to the West coast versions and see how the base techniques and concepts are perhaps built with the environment in mind and see what you find.
