American Kenpo techniques - lost?

[TheDevilAside]

I was looking through my American Kenpo folder today because I couldn't remember the name of a techique I wanted to describe in a thread that talked about how to block a push.

 

It's a white belt (or yellow, my school has a white belt as sort of an introductory to the basic motions of most American Kenpo techniques) technique. The list goes as follows (the one I was looking for is in Bold):

 

- Sword in Return

 

- Parting the Sea

 

- Kick in Return

 

- Circling Serpent

 

- Passing the Horizon

 

Now.. since I'm lazy and horrible at describing and visualizing techniques, I figured I'd look online for the technique Parting the Sea so I could copy and paste a link of how it works, and then describe the modifications I would make as best as I could.

 

...Turns out, I couldn't find the techniques Parting the Sea on any online lists of techniques. It's a great technique, but I remember my instructors talking about having modified and watered down complicated techniques to their basic principals and added them to the "White Belt" curriculum and then saved the more complex versions of the techniques for the advanced belts. This was done because beginners were having a really hard time grasping the Yellow Belt techniques as they are, and they thought making simpler versions and adding them to an introductory belt would help. Sounded like a good idea to me.

 

........Back to my question. Any of you American Kenpo guys heard of this technique? Parting the Sea? I'll describe how it works if nobody has, so we can find what more advanced technique it correlates with and was possibly derived from.

 

Oh, and I can't ask my instructors, I'm taking a 6 month break from martial arts.

[doubletwist]

Interesting. Can't say I've heard of any of those techniques. Not that I'm an expert on the subject

 

As far as simplifying the techniques, my instructor was talking about this the other day. We have "Clutching Feather's" as the first technique for Orange Belt. It is a short, three beat move. The first technique for 2nd Black is the extension for Clutching Feathers. According to our instructor, in the 50's and 60's, Ed Parker taught the entire thing as the VERY first technique you learn.

 

I assume that enough people were having trouble with it that Parker decided to add the simplified techniques for Yellow, and reduce some of the others to a more basic form.

 

DT

 

PS. Mr Piper likes to occasionaly give us a taste of the more advanced stuff. Kind of like a carrot to show us what we're working towards. He taught a couple of us the full Clutching Feathers extension this week. I have to say that it turned a rather "so-so" technique to a "kick-@ss" technique [no pun intended ].

 

He asked me, as a bit of homework, to write out every step & every motion of the technique. I guess as a way of showing how much I can already do in a short period of time, even as a Yellow belt. It turned out to be 10 beats, 29 total motions, which I can already do in under 6 seconds.

 

I'm sure that I probably missed a couple motions, so no guarantee of accuracy, but here is what I came up with for the full Clutching Feathers . For those who are not familiar with Kenpo, only the first 3 beats are taught for Orange belt now. The rest of it is taught for 2nd Black.

Edited November 4, 2004 by doubletwist

[ncole_91]

Havent heard of the techniques either...

[Shorin Ryuu]

I have no basis for knowing if this is even remotely the case in your situation, but oftentimes, names for techniques are pretty random/arbitrary. Sometimes there is a good reason for the name, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes the name is only used within a specific dojo (not really part of a broader, established shared vocabulary).

 

You may not be finding anything simply because it is "made up." This has no bearing on the effectiveness of the technique, just the name.

[delta1]

- Sword in Return

 

- Parting the Sea

 

- Kick in Return

 

- Circling Serpent

 

- Passing the Horizon

 

Never heard of any of these. Sounds like names for techniques used only in your school or subsystem. Be interesting to see the written description(s) of some of them.

[TheDevilAside]

Weird... I really have no idea. Once I get back to the school I'll have to ask.

 

Let me describe them as best I can...

 

Sword in Return

 

Attack: Grab defender's sleeve with left arm. (Like you're ready to hold them in place for a punch to the face with your right fist)

 

Defense: Step back with left foot and settle into neutral bow while simultaneously striking/deflecting/loosening the attacker's arm with an inward block. This exposes the neck of the attacker, opening it up for a chop. The rest is up to you...

 

 

 

Ah, here we go. It's exactly like Delayed Sword

 

( http://www.bakerfamily4.net/kenpo/Images/dsword.gif ) minus the kick. Makes sense, because I learned Delayed Sword as soon as I went up a belt.

 

Parting the Sea

 

Attack: Commited push to the chest/shoulders.

 

Defense: Step back with left foot and settle into neutral bow while bringing your arms up in between the arms of the attacker who is about to connect with the push. Does that make sense? After your arms are in between his, launch them out (controlled, though.. don't fling your arms out, keep them boxed) with an outward block. This should make it so your attacker is kind of "spread-eagle" with his arms and makes him look more like he's about to embrace you, rather than push you. Then do a front-snapping kick to his groin or another available target.

 

The first part of this technique works great. However, I don't think a front-snapping kick would be very effective in stopping the attacker dead in his tracks. So, I've made my own little personal modification where instead of going into a neutral bow, I go into a frontal bow (okay.. I forgot that AK name for that, but it's the one where you're keeping your weight on your front leg) and prepare to clinch him and launch in with knees. Theoretically, anyway... I had a friend of mine push me as hard as I could, and it worked like a dream (I didn't actually knee him, though) but that was only once.

 

Kick in Return

 

Attack: Right step-through straight-punch to the face.

 

Defense: Same as Sword in Return, except your block is aiming the right hand instead of the left, and it's a punch not a grip. Also, instead of doing a chop to finish off the technique, do it with a front-snapping kick. I think a kick is put there in place because of the distance of the attacker.

 

Essentially, Delayed Sword is the combination of Kick in Return and Sword in Return. K&R and S&R being the simplified versions.

 

And the last two are way too complicated to describe.

 

...Man I really miss doing American Kenpo :/

[delta1]

TDA, just noticed the yellow stripe. Congrats!

 

But, does this mean that I have to behave now?

 

Thanks for the descriptions. These share common moves with several techniques, and they sound like simple techniques made up for your school or system.

[Shorin Ryuu]

Yes, after reading the description of the moves, it sounds like the names were just sort of given to those specific techniques by your school, rather than being a general term used for them.

[Pacificshore]

For a moment there, i was thinking it was a mixture of American and Tracy Kenpo systems

[TheDevilAside]

Yeah, I noticed Tracy Kenpo had some techniques with those names (like Circling Serpent, I think) but the techniques itself were completely different.

 

So, going off on a tangent here, what do you guys think of simplifying and breaking down more complex techniques to its basic movements and adding them to an introductory belt level? Good or bad? Btw. Just because my school does it this way, don't worry about me taking any criticism personally