K.C. revisited

In my post about kenpo combinations last week (see
What's a K.C. to you?), supergroup7 asked a couple of good questions that I wanted to expand on a little, so I will do it in this new post. The timing is even better because this will tie-in with my class of yesterday...

Regarding these kenpo combinations (aka K.C.), she said:

In Shotokan, we do not have structured combinations like that.. but we do something similar. It's called Ippon Kumite. The attacker comes at us with one attack, he/she names the target, then the defender deflects, and counters. Now, the beginner students will only send one counter attack (like a punch to the middle), but the higher belts are expected to apply more and more techniques in combination, and to change our stance, even doing take downs, etc. Our combinations become more and more complicated as we advance in knowledge, and experience. You never know what Sensei is going to throw in your direction, or what your body is going to invent as you do your counters.

Are all of your KC done in the same stance?

First of all, yes, all of our KC are done from the same stance. Actually they are not static. We always start from a forward stance (that we also call the half-moon stance but may not correspond to some other style's halfmoon stance, shotokan in particular I think) and they all involve a step forward, sometimes two steps with punches in between the two steps, or a kick that allows us to land forward. Here are segments of Andrew's Circle of the Tiger kata that will show you KC #17, #18, and #19.

KC #17 (block, kick, punch)
KC #18 (parry, grab leg and sweep, takedown and punch)
KC #19 (block, shuto to throat, grab ear to get head to knee, double shuto to collarbone)

While they were done without moving in that kata, when we learn them, it's always from the forward stance. KC#17 would be from forward stance to cat stance, then do the blocks, kick and punch.

What you describe sounds a lot like our self defense techniques or the freestyle self-defense we do at higher belts. You've probably seen the self-defense techniques named somewhere on the net, you know the ones with cool names like "checking the storm", "battering ram" or "sword of destruction". I'm not too sure if other styles name their techniques by americanized names like that or if that's typical of kempo/kenpo but the more I read, the more I think it's the latter. Anyway, we have 36 "choreografed" techniques that we have to learn. By choreografed, I mean that you know what the attack will be and you are expected to defend yourself in a certain way. There are techniques against straight punches, hook punches, lapel grabs, wrist grabs (with or without a punch). Sure, learning them all choreographed like that might not be very useful in a real case of need of self-defense, but doing so many of them, and learning to do them by instinct, you develop a physical memory, or at least it's the idea behind the whole thing.

What supergroup7 describe (unknown attack, freestyle self-defense) is what I'm getting at at my level. Stuff like you get attacked and then you mix and match some of the techniques learned with some extra, say the start of one technique, the ending of another with an extra wrist lock like sankyo or nikkyo to finish in control of the attacker.

We don't do much of that at the lower belt levels and I wished we'd done a bit more as I was coming up, but they seem to be recognizing that and we're doing more of it, with mixed classes, i.e. intermediate and advanced belts.

Yesterday wasn't even a "freestyle" self-defense class, but it was the kind of class that will sure help me get to be more natural with the techniques. Our instructor took us back to the most basic techniques, some of the first techniques that we learned, and he showed us how to stop doing them robotically, to add more feeling into them and with it, more speed. Some of the ways to do that were by using what Prof Cerio showed in that video I linked to the other day. Always follow a strike with another strike, keeping the movement continual. We also worked on the hips. The hips, the hips, the hips. I can have a hard time with my hips and by that I mean that I can sometimes get so concentrated on my hands and the strikes and blocks that I have to do, that I forget to put the strength of my hips into my punches. That turns me into a puppet with only the arms moving. :) Not very effective in front of an attacker bigger than me.

I felt good during that class though. I was able to work the hips and pull the moves faster without losing the effectiveness of the techniques. So much so that at one point our instructor was watching me exchange attacks with my training partner and he let out a semi-gasp, a woah. I asked him if he'd seen anything that I should work on, as I always like to hear stuff I need to work on and there's just so much of it, but he told me that, au contraire, I was doing better with every exchange, in other words, he liked what he was seeing. Didn't say it that way, but it fel that way to me and that was good enough. :)

FM