Empty Hand Training
 
- Article 5 From 09-28-01 -

There will be no disclaimer on this section due to the nature of the information covered revolving around American Kenpo Karate training.  Granted the concepts and principles will be broken down more than usual, however the tips described in this training page will be Kenpo training in it's basic form.  Some of the concepts discussed will come from SGM Ed Parker's books and reference materials, others will come from past and on-going Kenpo Karate training.  When the tips discussed are taken from SGM Parker's reference materials then the quote or concept where it can be found in the material will be placed for further study.  Now let's get to work.     So it’s been a while since I written anything at all in regards to Kenpo, let alone on this site.  However this particular topic has been one I’ve wanted to expand on for quite some time.  Today’s topic is going to be about collapsing as a method of motion, either defensively or offensively.  The reason being that in my 3 or so years on break from anything involved with external Kenpo (or teaching), training has shown this is a pretty big theme with certain weapons and motion.  And a pretty powerful one too if done correctly.      To start this tip were going to discuss the technique Shielding Hammer (one of my favorites) because of the ending.  Sure we could discuss Mace of Aggression or Deflecting Hammer, but I wanted to use this one to illustrate a point.  With Shielding Hammer you step back with an Extended Outward Block to the Left Roundhouse attack, shuffle in with an Inward Hammerfist (making sure to roll all of your knuckle through their face, don’t want any knuckles to feel left out;  sorry had to add another tip), then we get to the elbow.  Now one of the insights I was taught on this part to really make an impression is to move your elbow down and out like you are drawing an “L” with it before making contact from point of origin.  This is to ensure proper back up mass, alignment, and surface contact on the weapon.  And for those who haven’t covered this, boy does it work.  Being on both the receiving and giving end, it’s quite effective.  To ensure that this works though, as with most elbow strikes, you must collapse your strike, in this case the Hammerfist, to move through the elbow.  Sure it’s the same concept in many ways to the Yellow Belt techniques mentioned above as well as many others, but I wanted to use Shielding in the other tech. tips for Blunt and Edged Weapons.     With that out of the way, you can also use this in a defense manner, especially with your knees.  Without getting into the whole “what you do with your hands, you can do with your feet” conversation, we’ll just discuss a Front Kick.  Yes, we could discuss buckles and jams and all that, but from a defensive prospective the idea of collapsing settles in the Kick (all of them really) effectively.  The basic Front Kick is to raise you knee, extend your foot to kick, and then drop your foot if you want to be sloppy.  Just kidding, you retract your foot to a knee, then drop your foot.  So why do we do the collapse of the kick at the end instead of just dropping the foot, aside from the sloppy comment.  Well you might miss, your opponent might slip it, something may happen after you make contact with the kick;  the end result being the need for a check.  Just like you would with the hands, your defensive position can be enhanced simply by collapsing your strike or your position at the time.      Now that we’ve covered basic offensive and defensive concepts, I’m going to go between the two.  One thing I like to consider, and one of the reasons when I draw certain types of graphics I incorporate this a lot, is I like to think of my arms as having blades attached to the elbow regions.  To be precise blades of a curved nature with the sweep moving out the in towards your triceps.  Think about it, you have slicing motion, impaling motion, practically anything you do with a blade covers the motion you can do with an elbow strike.  Mace of Aggression you move through to the elbows you have and inward slice to an impale.  Same with the elbows on Flashing Wings.  Twisted Twig, Thrusting Wedge and it’s twin Heavenly Ascent, Hooking Wings, you get into the upward slashes.  Then with Crossing Talons, Circling Wing, you start getting into manipulation with variations on the idea of collapsing and how the blade idea could work on a more exaggerated level.      In the defensive aspect of the collapse idea you get a little more manipulative, from dropping the elbow after a punch to deter any potential retaliation like the check Mace of Aggression and Circling Wing after the initial strike, to more subtle ideas like “wiggling” your elbows at the beginning of bear hug pinned techniques like Captured Twigs and Crushing Hammer.  My personal favorite defensive collapse idea lies in the pushdown block.  Oh how I love using these.  From Locking Horns, Dance of Death and Bowing To Buddha (even though they are offensive),  to some of those dirty extensions like Lone Kimono, I find them really effective.  Then you get into checks that lead to pins like in Flashing Mace (Ram and Eagle), several of the in Blinding Sacrifice and Circling the Storm, and to a point concepts like Crossing Talon where you are taking what was a strike and condensing it to stop any potential extracurricular activity and, more often then not, moves them into your next strike.  Well, let’s not lie, as far as moving them to the next strike, that’s the idea.     There are two other things I wanted to cover in closing on this topic.  One being that you can find great examples of this topic in your sets.  And I do mean all of them.  From the center line aspect of Blocking Set 1, to the forward and retracting motion in Finger Set 2, all of them show great example that translate over to self-defense techniques, sparring, what have you.  So for those of you who don’t like Set and Forms, to you I say “nnnnaaaa.”  Sorry, had to be a twit for a moment.  The other and more important part I wanted to close on involves the Rearrangement Concept.  Now this is the bread and butter of.. really any art to be honest.  The ability to take a concept and bit and piece it to change it drastically or subtly to fit whatever you need it to.  It is the workshop of any art.  In this theme you can use the collapse idea we’ve discussed to work in a logical progression under the Rearrangement Concept.      And now in English, take any technique with a crossover leg buckle to your opponent like Gripping Talon and Broken Ram.  I love this move as well, and seen it done a lot of different ways too.  Now at the end you are in a Reverse Bow Buckle and Downward Outward Hammerfist, and I myself would like some “desert.”  I like to collapse the Hammerfist to an Obscure Elbow on the way out when they are going down or even a Spur Kick with the buckling leg.  Logical progression just means that if you are going to insert something at any point, that it makes sense from a point of origin standpoint.  Your self-defense techniques, forms, and sets already cover this a lot, which was why I wanted to mention it.  So no matter your level, this can add some spice when you throw down.  Whether its an elbowsmash with your lead at the end of Attacking Mace, or a few more dropping strikes in the middle and end of Twisted Rod, this is something that is already making your motion more ingrained and faster, and gives you more options to add things here and there.