Kempohands

I tend to prefer open handed defensive movements, but when I do execute a true block, that is, an attempt to stop my opponent's energy, not redirect it, and to cause pain in the process, I like the closed hand blocks. I don't use the wrist bone as someone earlier mentioned though, but the forearm. Being a smaller person (5-9, 135), I tend to sidestep, redirect, and parry quite a bit, and for those situations I use open hands. In my particular system, we are trained with the mentality that a parry is not a block; they are not synonyms. There are two primary goals of a block in our training mentality: to stop an attack and to cause damage to the weapon which attacked you. Sometimes I'll use tiger palm blocking techniques which use an open hand and a snap of the wrist to cause pain with a hard block, but usually I find the closed hand block with the forearm better suited to accomplishing both tasks simultaneously. As for blocking kicks, I rarely use the open handed swat, even in light contact sparring with gear on. In a tournament two years ago I swatted a kick down and broke a finger doing so. I prefer to use my closed handed blocks now. That's assuming the kicks are coming to my mid section or of course. For low kicks I use my own legs as defense and for kicks to the head I have a similar mentality to tallgeese. If I have to block a head kick for some reason I will try to catch the shin with my elbow as I move in so that any impact my arm takes is not at the point of furthest extension of the kick.

Also, I stated that I wouldn't mind if a student under black candidate assisted class. When I'm teaching if I have an assistant lower than 3rd brown but I know that they know a certain few techniques very well I may have them teach a technique to a lower ranked student for a couple of minutes before I can come over and check it and explain it. That I don't have a problem with. I have a problem with students under 3rd brown teaching a class as "the instructor" for that class. A few minutes here and there is ok though.

Do you not feel that a 1st brown cannot teach a green belt what they need to know? I feel that a 1st brown knows exactly what to teach the green belt, but lacks the level of understanding to teach. I would not feel comfortable handing a green belt ovr to a brown belt so that the brown belt could teach him or her a brand new technique because if the grene belt questioned the technique I'm not confidnt that a 1st brown would have the conceptual and practical understanding to explain beyond "this is how you do it" and maybe "this is when you would do it." What about if the technique starts to fail halfway through? How about if that 2nd or the 3rd punch comes? What's stopping my opponent from counter here? these are questions that as students we answer as we go on. I don't know how it is in your system, but in mine we simply learn the required techniques at our rank and the basic 1 or 2 concepts that the techniques are trying to teach, and it is our responsibility to examine and question our techniques as we move up the ranks. Some students, however, have a naturally inquisitive mind, and leaving one of those above questions un-addressed (unless it's a true beginner w/o the knowledge of the concepts that one would need to be familiar with to understand the explanation) is a big no-no. So in short, I would not feel comfortable with a 1st brown teaching a green belt unless I've worked with that brown belt extensively and deem him or her well versed enough in the techniques to do so. I should have mentioned this: I tend to be an opponent of the "no exceptions" clause when it comes to rules about teaching, so I wouldn't make the black-belt candidate thing a set in stone requirement. My experience has driven me to form that general rule though.

In my own opinion, no student should run an entire class, even under "supervision" of an instructor, who is not at least a black belt candidate (whatever the color is in your school, in mine it's 3rd brown). I have no problem with lower ranks assisting or taking classes through warm-ups and basics, but when it comes to teaching and organizing an entire class I would prefer to leave that to students who are at least black belt candidates and have demonstrated sufficient ability to pass on knowledge effectively.

I'd have to say that as an individual, I fall on the side of experimentation and refinement. This goes hand in hand with my system, which at first emphasizes doing things the way that they are taught at under-ranks, and then as students move to Nidan and beyond they are encouraged to "make the system their own" by playing with techniques and finding what works well for them. So because of this, most students in my system make a transition from one side of the spectrum to the other as they advance in rank. That's one thing I've always been really very thankful about concerning the system of Kempo I practice. Although we hold on to aspects of traditional training, we also encourage open-mindedness and questioning.

In addition to what everyone else has said about pad drills and repetition, all of which I find to be very useful and very true, go back to the basics and go over how to breath properly and relax when getting hit. Start at a slow pace and low level of contact, and strike to their stomach with a light punch. Each time they feel contact, they should exhale. Many times, people who seem to not to be able to take a hit are simply too tense or not breathing properly, as basic as that sounds.

When at home on long island I train 5-7 days a week and try to teach 3 or 4 days a week. Here at college I train 2 or 3 times a week with the karate club. That's the biggest adjustment I've had to make in my freshman year so far...

I think these two explanations, when put together, answer the question quite sufficiently. I always thought of the difference as residing in the mindsets of the "participants." In a fight, both (or more) people understand that they are involved in a physical confrontation and practically, this usually means they start in a visibly neutral position. Conversely, in a self defense situation, the attacker initiates the altercation and the defender must react, thus the physical component begins at an uneven position.

I see this way too much. people don't understand that their black belt is an introduction, not a conclusion. I believe every other person that tested for black belt the same year that I did at my dojo except for maybe 2 other people have quit by now. Even if it's not the parents, many students, I find, get "bored" since they have to spend a lot of time at each rank of black belt and learn a small amount of "material." Really, to learn the formal curriculum (set techniques and forms) of 1st dan in my school could take about 6-9 months for someone training 3x/week, but they must stay at that rank for at least 2 years. Many students train with blinders on and don't realize how much they can learn not only from their instructors but also from themselves by dissecting the system and putting together concepts in new ways or by pulling apart forms and seeing new bunkai methodologies. I try to explain to lower ranked black belts that I rarely ever work on set material, and yet I always walk out of class learning something new, and I train 5 or 6 times a week. From an early age I've had a very conceptual mind, so when doors started opening to all of the intricacies of the system when I was a black belt, at only 13 years old (and not yet teaching adults ), I was hooked. Not everyone understands this though, and many leave without ever reaching beyond the basics... "Congratulations on earning your black belts. Now you can start really learning!" -My Grandmaster at the conclusion of my first dan test. Apparently not everyone heard him...

There's no formal rule at our school, and lack of changing space means most people wear their gis to come to class, but other than that most don't. Of course, in my own opinion the gi and belt probably shouldn't be worn outside of a martial arts context, but I don't push that on other people; like I said, we have no formal rule.

Black Sabbath has some great work-out songs. Look for Turn up the Night and Buried Alive. I love to listen to Iron Maiden or Queensryche's faster stuff as well as Sabbath, Dio, Metallica, Nevermore, and so much other stuff....mostly heavy metal. It's a great martial arts genre of music.

absolutly 100% agreed

Agreed, imagine that every movement you are making is in a real self defense situation. Force yourself to belive that if you hold back, you won't be able to regret it. It's a mental game that you have to play with yourself.

It took so long to get to Shodan because there are 9 under-ranks before black belt candidate (3rd brown). Then, we are required to be at Candidate for a year before we are eligible to even be considered for a Shodan testing. All that took me 7 years. Then, there is a minimum of time at each Dan grade, 2 years at first and 3 at second. I don't know how long after that, and it doesn't really matter to me. The reward is in the training, in the years, not in the rank.

If they get their hands up and ready, and yours are still down, you're going to have to be really fast to hit them first. Just a thought. I will not throw a strike, but my hands will be up and ready to do so

YES!!! BEST BAND EVER!!! You and I would get along very well

How long does it take to get that elusive black belt? Well, it all depends.....depends on the individual, the style, the instructor(s), and numerous other things. In my school, a black belt in under 4 years is unheard of. It used to be any time less than 6 was unheard of, but the training at my dojo has gotton a little bit softer/easier over the years as we get more popular and gain more students, mostly young ones whose parents would complain if they took to long to achive the next rank. So another factor in how long it would take to get a black belt is, even though it shouldn't be, how mainstream the school is. Anyway, it took me 7 yeas to get my first degree and then 2 more to advance to 2nd degree. However, I can tell you that after 10 years of training, I'm just starting to feel like a "black belt." The cloth dosen't mean much, the experiance does. So if you're looking for that elusive black belt, choose your school wisely and don't quit once you attain it, because that is when the training really begins, as my Sensei says, "Everything up to Shodan is just getting you ready for black belt, it's all really the beginner stuff."

I would persoanlly never be the first to ATTEMPT to hit someone. However, it is my goal to be the first to land a hit. Even if someone puts their hands up in a fighting position, I will not throw a strike. The only exceptions would be: -I see/or for some reason belive that my opponent has a weapon -Their are multiple aggressors -I am in a situation that I feel overly uncomfortable and threatened in

I believe that it would be fine to learn from a DVD for a temporary time, so long as you pay almost ridiculously close attention to EVERYTHING. As mentioned numerous times already, it's easy to practice something just slightly wrong and never notice if you are not neurotic enough with your own training.

You're friend is in my thought, and I wish him all the strength he needs to get through this.

Congratulations, excellant work!

Absolutely! I play so much stuff, I'm an old-school metalhead (not typical of ym age, too bad): DIO! Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Metal Church, Testament, Accept, Anthrax Ad for more "modern" music: NEVREMORE!, Disturbed, System of a Down (pre-Mezmorize), or Seether

I started training because my parents wanted me to occupy myself with an after-school activity when I was younger. (I was 6 when I started) They said that I could pick the activity, and for some reason I was drawn to the martial arts (although, it was all "karate" to me then). However, as the years went by I began to love the training more and more to the point where it's become such a big part of my life, it is my identity. I am a martial artist, and so I must continue to train, I just feel drawn to the training.

Good luck, and trust me, you won't notice the sickness. A week before my Shodan test a classmate of mine did not stop his trigger finger strike and I got a knuckle jammed into my eye. The vision out of my left eye was blurred for the entire test. You just have to, and probably will, reach a higher level of focus that comes with the pressure. Also, I know in my school, just before a test (usually within the month befoe) instructors will tend to be harder on the students that will be attempting to advance in rank. For all of the reasons described before plus the fact that they simply want you to to the best, and so they point out every detail of what you need to fix or improve, even if they know you already have what it takes to pass. Well, I see today's Friday, so do your best, everything else will fall into place, if you're ment to pass, you will.

I don't think anyone remembers me, I didn't really make much of an impact on the forums, but I joined and left a long while ago and haven't been here since. At first this was due to being busy between finding time to train and balancing basketball, but then I kind of forgot about this place. Well, my memory of how great the people on here are was jogged and I'm back again, hopefully to stay a bit longer. I'm now 16 and have been training in White Tiger Kempo for 10 years. I am a 2nd degree black belt in this system, which is an offshoot of Nick Cerio's Kenpo founded by one of his students. Our school has since been associated under the Kajukendo Self Defense Institue and are now considered to be under Sijo Adriano Emperado. Therefore, we are taught the Kajukenbo alphabet techniques and some of their principles that may be different from our own. I enjoy this, as it means more ways to look at things, and that's an important aspect of the martial arts (in my mind at least). Well, I'm sure I'll enjoy my time on here again, and I'll try to stick around this time.