Nonverbal Communication and Self Defense

Julius Fast's 1970 work Body Language was one of the first books written for the common public on the then burgeoning science of Kinesics, the study of human nonverbal communication. While admittedly dated both in its content and approach, at the time it was an innovative look into a new field; based on pioneering studies like those of anthropologists and sociologists Ray Birdwhistell, Erving Goffman, and Paul Ekman.

One of the more interesting passages for our purposes is the discussion on the possibility of a human instinctual imperative towards territorial behavior.

The Territorial Imperative

Page 15

“One of the things that is inherited genetically is the sense of territory. Robert Ardrey has written a fascinating book, The Territorial Imperative, in which he traces this territorial sense through the animal kingdom and into the human,. In this book he discusses the staking out and guarding of territory by animals, birds, deer, fish, and primates. For some species the territories are temporary, shifting with each season. For other animal species they are permanent. Ardrey makes an interesting case for the fact that, in his belief, “the territorial nature of man is genetic and ineradicable.”

From his extensive animal studies he describes an innate code of behavior in the animal world. The key to the code, he believes, is territory, and the territorial imperative is the drive in animals and humans to take, hold, and defend a given area.

There may be a drive in all humans to have and defend a territory, and it may well be that a good part of that drive is inborn. However, we cannot always interpolate from humans to animals and from animals to humans.

The territorial imperative may exist in all animals and in some men. It may be strengthened by culture in some of these humans and weakened in still others.

But there is little doubt that there is some territorial need in humans.”

Understanding the territorial needs of other humans is an important part of practicing self defense. Especially when you consider that in many cases, the humans in question are unaware of those needs themselves. When you are unaware of your needs and the needs of those around you, it is easy to accidentally violate the boundaries of others and cause an unconscious defensive or aggressive reaction in their behavior. Anyone who has ever said the wrong thing at the wrong time, or had a joke fall flat with good intentions understands how quickly a minor miscommunication can escalate into an argument. Or a fight.

Fast goes on to relate a simple anecdote to demonstrate how these reactions can be subconsciously manipulated.

Page 16

“I had lunch not too long ago with a psychiatrist friend. We sat in a pleasant restaurant at a stylishly small table. At one point he took out a pack of cigarettes, lit one and put the pack down three-quarters of the way across the table in front of my plate.

He kept talking and I kept listening, but I was troubled in some way that I couldn't quite define, and more troubled as he moved his tableware about, lining it up with his cigarettes, closer and closer to my side of the table. Then leaning across the table himself he attempted to make a point. It was a point I could hardly appreciate because of my growing uneasiness.

Finally he took pity on me and said, “I just favored you with a demonstration of a very basic step in body language, in nonverbal communication.”

Puzzled, I asked, “What was that?”

“I aggressively threatened you and challenged you. I put you in a position of having to assert yourself, and that bothered you.”

Still uncomprehending, I asked, “But how? What did you do?”

“I moved my cigarettes to start with,” he explained, “By unspoken rule we have divided the table in half, half for you and half for me.”

“I wasn't conscious of any such division.”

“Of course not. The rule remains though. We both staked out a territory in our minds. Ordinarily we would have shared the table by some unspoken and civilized command. However, I deliberately moved my cigarettes into your area in a breach of taste. Unaware of what I had done, you still felt yourself threatened, felt uneasy, and when I aggressively followed up my first breach of your territory with another, moving my plate and silverware and then intruding myself, you became more and more uneasy and still were not aware of why.”

It was my first demonstration of the fact that we each possess zones of territory.”

In kenpo, we speak of zones. Zone coverage, zone cancellation. We have white zones, black zones, natural zones, and neutral zones. And in combat, understanding these zones and how to manipulate them makes the practitioner more effective. But understanding the zones of territory that each human surrounds himself with can help prevent those combat encounters from occurring.

Page 18

“No matter how crowded the area in which we humans live, each of us maintains a zone or territory around us – an inviolate area we try to keep for our own. How we defend this area and how we react to invasion of it, as well as how we encroach into other territories, can all be observed and charted and in many cases used constructively. These are all the elements of nonverbal communication. This guarding of zones is one of the first basic principles.

How we guard our zones and how we aggress to other zones is an integral part of how we relate to other people.”

Indeed it is. It is also important to remember that these rules are not universal to all people at all times. A checker at the grocery store will have a different territorial need than a police officer in a bad neighborhood, or a mother with her children in a park. Each encounter requires the student to observe the situation objectively and act deliberately.

Learn to guard your zones, and learn also how others guard theirs. This is the beginning of nonverbal communication. This is the first basic principle.

Drills -

Beginner: Practice the 3 Zone Blocking Drill with a partner. Return your hands every time to the neutral position. Practice moving your hands through the entire natural zone as you defend against your opponent's strikes. Actively practice speaking to people at different ranges. Stand back at a distance and see if they come to you, then slowly and carefully advance into the opponent's personal space until they back away. See if you can practice this without being noticed and observe the subject's reactions.

Intermediate: Practice the 3 Hit Kenpo Drill with a partner. End each of your turns with a pressing check which cancels either your opponent's height, width, or depth zones. Practice the exercise described in the anecdote above. When sitting at a table with others, begin to slowly encroach on the table space unconsciously designated to the other people there. Practice with slow, casual motions. Watch for their reactions.

Advanced: Practice defending against attacks from 3 Perceptual Zones. The White Zone is the area you can see. The Black Zone is the area you can not. The Grey Zone is the area which lies at the edge of vision. Color and shape are difficult to perceive and objects waver between the White and Black Zones. Practice defending from 8 directions by category of attack. Begin slowly and gradually increase intensity. Observe the actions of those around you when in a crowded area. Watch how even as the number of individuals in an area increases, each tries to maintain his own separate space. Observe the methods people use unconsciously to evade and avoid contact with others, even in tight quarters.

The Next Two Considerations of Combat

We began discussing the Ten Considerations of Combat in an earlier post. Each of these considerations is of unique importance in fully understanding, and by extension properly responding to, any combat encounter. Today we will continue with considerations three and four. Positions and Maneuvers.

3. Positions
The positions of the combatants is a key determing factor in identifying the targets and weapons appropriate to the engagement. Understanding the concepts of Constant and Relative Centerline will allow the student to disect the opponent's position relative to the position of the student.

The opponent's position needs to be identified with regards to height, width, and depth zones, as well as the specific positions of the opponent's natural weapons.

Determing the height of the opponent is more than a mere determination of his stature. The student must determine whether he is standing, kneeling, crouching, slouching, etc. If the opponent appears to be slouching in his stance, it could be because he has pre loaded his legs to spring forward. It could also affect the power of the opponent's strikes.

Determing the width of the opponent's stance can help the student to understand which weapons are closest to his own targets, as well as what defensive maneuvers he may need to execute in order to defend against those weapons.

Determing the depth of the opponent's stance can help the student to understand whether the opponent intends fight or flight. An opponent with his legs spread far apart may be less prepared to flee, and by extension, more likely to stay in an escalating situation. An opponent who has drawn his stance in tighter may be preparing to flee, however, he may also be preparing to execute an offensive foot maneuver.

The position of the opponent's natural weapons is also important in determining what aggressive action to anticipate. Is the opponent prepared to execute a hand or foot strike? Has he raised his arms aggressively or defensively? Are his hands and feet within their natural range of motion?

Similarly, instinctual responses can affect the opponent's position. Ducking the chin and blading the body are both instinctual responses to aggression, as is raising the arms to protect the head. Identifying these changes in the opponent's position can help the student determine the escalating threat level. Finally the student must take into account the position of the opponent relative to the environment. Is he blocking a door the student could have escaped through? Is he near anything which could be used as a weapon? Is his position vulnerable in a way that could be exploited by the student, for instance near an obstruction or dangerous area? These are all important factors to be considered.

Just as range may determine whether or not to engage in conflict, positions are a determining factor in exactly how to do so.


4. Maneuvers
Foot maneuvers are often overlooked, but are one of the most important aspects of any violent confrontation.

Just as stances are the basis of all effective technique, foot maneuvers are the basis of all effective technique execution. Being able to turn a static fighting stance into a mobile weapon is the key to efficacy.

Foot maneuvers can be used to advance, retreat, or reposition the key actors within the combat arena. Knowledge of the correct and appropriate application of foot maneuvers not only allows the student to move safely and effectively, it also allows the student to identify the opponent's maneuvers within the environment, and allows for the incorporation of sweeps, trips, and throws into the repositioning of those actors.

In identifying the opponent's foot maneuvers the student can attempt to find flaws within the opponent's technique, as well as opportunities for entry techniques. Does the opponent lift his feet and step through the environment, or does he shuffle or glide? If he lifts his feet, then perhaps he can be directed into an area littered with small obstructions which he may step on. Does he shift his weight more than is necessary? Does he bounce in his stance or stay low and solid? An understanding of weight distribution can assist the student in delivering throws and other off balancing techniques.

Foot maneuvers are more than just moving through the environment. They are also a way to sense the environment. A skilled practitioner can detect obstructions as he moves through the environment, and avoid them or incorporate them into his defense.

Drills -
Beginner: Practice each of your first five foot maneuvers from a neutral bow. Incorporate hand and foot technique. Once you've practiced strikes with foot maneuvers in the air begin again with a focus shield.

Intermediate: Student A assumes a fighting stance. Student B circles Student A, striking available targets. Change positions. Alternate.

Advanced: Students A and B close in any standing grapple. Without breaking contact, Students compete using foot maneuvers and body positioning for a single pre-selected goal such as stomps, rear position, sweeps, throws, etc. Practice with increasing intensity, paying special attention to control and joint safety, especially around the knees.

Ground Fighting: Practice escaping and standing from mount, guard, side mount, north/south, scarf, reverse scarf, knee on stomach, and rear mount positions, using stand-up technique, box drill, and rolls. Practice defending while prone against a standing attacker. Student A lays on back. Student B circles in standing position. Student A maneuvers on ground to keep legs between their torso and Student B, while Student B attempts to move into kicking range of Student A's head. Alternate.

This is Self Defense

“Among the arts of self defense in which weapons are not used, no other can surpass the art of Kenpo.”

Honorable Great Grand Master James M. Mitose
What is Self Defense? (Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu)

This month in the Intermediate class we are discussing themes of Street Self Defense. We are exploring ranges, scenarios, and techniques which apply to Self Defense; and practicing drills which can help us to develop the skills necessary to survive a violent assault.

The first most important skill to develop is recognizing when to use violence.

“The times for violence are few and far between. They seldom if ever involve strong emotion on your part. If you're feeling extremely angry or upset, odds are that isn't the right time. It's probably better to back off and get some distance from the situation until you cool down.

When someone commits physical violence against you, it is NOT the time for half-measures or debate. Most people are victimized by attackers because they're still thinking about being reasonable and negotiating while the guy is attacking. Once a situation turns physical, the time for talk is over. It has been taken to the next level.”

Marc “Animal” MacYoung
Taking it to the Street

The vast majority of violent confrontations can be avoided by paying attention to your environment, avoiding potentially dangerous situations, and being willing to use reason before your fists. If you stay away from violent people and situations, and you are willing to walk away from them if you encounter them, you will have learned the better part of self defense already.

But when violence occurs and we can't talk or escape, we have to be ready to defend ourselves. In those extreme circumstances we need to have a set of guidelines which inform our behavior, and then a set of techniques and approaches we can use depending on the specific context.

“If you make these rules the cornerstone of your mindsetting to survive and escape violence, they will sound in your brain and help trigger an immediate reaction toward escape – as though you're on autopilot.

React Immediately – your best chance to escape violence and minimize injury is in the first few seconds.
Resist – your only alternative is to submit; both choices are lousy, but resisting gives you the best chance.
Crime Scene #2 – always more isolated than the initial point of contact, and always worse for you.
Never, never give up – your attitude can keep you alive when you're badly injured.”

Sanford Strong
Strong on Defense

Approaches for surviving self defense situations include Ambush Survival, Stances as Weapons, Defensive Stratagems, Stand Up Grappling, Striking and Escaping, and Changing Ranges and Levels. Striking, grappling, strong stances, and deceptive use of timing and angles are what make effective self defense. You're only as good as your basics.

In each class, we practice our techniques and drills against our opponent's with increasing intensity. At first, each punch and kick is delivered slowly to develop technique. But as we each grow in ability, we must ask our training partners to strike faster and harder in order for us to continue to learn.

“We should rehearse all the movements we expected to make in the actual match, and we should come as near as we could to the reality.”

Plato
Collected Dialogues

As we continue to improve, we practice more complex and difficult techniques. Beginning with simple punches and kicks, we soon begin to incorporate angle stepping, insertion strikes, and Poison Hands techniques. But even as the paths of motion and methods of execution we use become more and more sophisticated, it is still the simple movements which are the foundation of our style which determine our effectiveness. You're only as good as your basics.

“The trick in gouge fighting, just as in any other type of combat, is to expose the enemy's weakness first, to beat him to the punch, and to hit hard.”

Lieutenant Jack Dempsey, USCG
How to Fight Tough

In the end, the goal is not to learn how to fight like your instructors. It is not to go out and practice Dunham's Martial Arts as it is taught in the school. The ultimate goal is for you to internalize the lessons and teachings of the system and then to express them spontaneously in a dynamic situation. We teach self defense. As such, we are results driven. Not every technique will work for you the same way it works for your teachers. Size and strength and speed do matter. But if you continue to train, you will find what works for you. And that is the key. If you are attacked, and you survive, you performed the technique correctly. You won. Nothing else matters.

“As you begin developing skills from a variety of doctrines, you must learn to integrate them into an effective personal arsenal.”

Forrest E. Morgan
Living the Martial Way

That is self defense. It is not bullying. It is not coercion. It is survival. It is avoiding dangerous situations, and escaping them if you must. It is seeing your family one more time. It is not a game. It is not a matter of pride. It is six guys attacking you from behind with a weapon.

Kenpo is Self Defense. It is intended to be the weapon of the Just. It is a sword to be wielded only in the defense of yourself and others. Practice your techniques with utmost seriousness. They may save your life someday.

“Because you have such knowledge and power, and could easily hurt someone with it, you are obligated never to use more force than is necessary to stop aggression. Justice is a tightrope. It takes someone of great skill, humility, self-awareness, sensitivity, and moral restraint to walk it.”

Teruyuki Okazaki
Perfection of Character

Drills -
Beginner: Practice moving in both your Natural Stance and your Fighting Stances. Practice kicking and punching in 360 degrees. Practice your environmental awareness by paying attention to the number of people around you as you go through your day at work, at the gas station, at the cinema. This practice will help to awaken you to the presence of threatening and non-threatening actors in your environment.

Intermediate: Practice long range evasion. Have a training partner attack you with kicks and punches and use stance transitions, foot maneuvers, angle stepping, and body movement to avoid contact. Slowly increase speed and intensity. Practice de-escalating dialogue with a training partner. Use soothing hand gestures and a calm, even tone of voice as you back away. Occasionally suddenly escalate to violence so that both students can practice transitioning between reason and violence.

Advanced: Practice Poison Hands and defending against multiple partners. Pinching, biting, finger strikes, and attacks on the opponent's air can all be used to increase your combat effectiveness. Practice holding one opponent in a headlock or choke hold as a human shield while you strike out against another. Gradually increase intensity. Practice identifying and employing environmental weapons in self defense situations. Keep your eyes open for objects in your environment which could be used offensively as a weapon or defensively as cover and concealment.

New School! New Location! Next Monday!

Hey guys! This is it! Starting this coming Monday, 4-18-2011, we'll be having classes at our new location on South National. The address is,

3524 s national springfield mo 65807


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It's on the East side of the road, just South of the Bradford Park Apartments, in the same shopping center as Shultz and Dooley's Too, Jimmy Johns, and Picklemans, across the street from the hospital.

Make sure and be there! Classes start at the same time, and I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody there! If you go to the old school, we won't be there, so be sure you mark your calendars.

You might also want to give yourself a little extra time to get to class. Google says it's roughly five miles and fifteen minutes from the old school if that helps at all.


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I know you'll all be coming from different routes, but it's really fairly easy to find.

If you're coming in from James River, head north past Primrose. If you're coming south on National it's just past Walnut Lawn. The school itself is on the north end of the shopping center.

I hope you guys are all able to make it. I've got an exciting class planned, and I know Mr. Dunham is looking forward to breaking ground on the new school. I know I can't wait to have a little more room to maneuver during class!

Monday! 3524 S National Springfield Mo 65807! Don't miss it! And if you get lost or can't find the school, call us at (417)766-2682.

Wherever we go, we take our training with us. Old school, new school, the real training takes place within. We've got big plans for the new school, and we're always looking for new ways to help you, the students. Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time and effort to help get the new school ready! This is going to be a very exciting year at Dunham's Martial Arts!

"One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train."

-Morihei Ueshiba

See you there.

The Long and Difficult Path

In the book Martial Arts Teaching Tales of Power and Paradox, Pascal Fauliot collects myths, legends, and parables about masters of zen, tea ceremony, and the sword. He uses these stories to convey a series of lessons on confronting ourselves and the challenges of living the Way of martial arts.

At the beginning of Chapter 3, he describes for the reader the path of self improvement.

Confronting the Mountain

As long as you are incapable of
going beyond the mountain, it is
impossible to attain the Way

Wei Kuan

"Tradition tells us that following the Way is akin to scaling a steep mountain. The person who has chosen to undertake that ascent will select the slope he wishes to attempt and set off in search of a guide who can show him the path. These choices are deciding factors. If the slope is too steep, or the guide too inexperienced, the results can be disastrous. But nothing is guaranteed, even with the best possible guide. There are numerous obstacles ahead and many painful efforts will have to be undertaken. A great struggle that involves going one-on-one with the mountain is necessary. One's muscles are straining, one's fingers are tightly clinging to the rock. Each movement must be precise and measured. Nothing can be left to chance. One false step will lead to a long fall.

But what is the point of this challenge that does not let up for a second, poised halfway between the summit and the abyss, between life and death?

The person who dares the mountain knows, or at least something within him or her knows, that the great struggle takes place inside. The mountain is only a pretext. It permits a man or woman to come face-to-face with him, or herself, it provides one with an opportunity to go beyond oneself. It is by coming to grips with these kinds of difficulties that the student will develop the discipline, the will, and the energy necessary to his continued evolution. In reality every ordeal is a help in getting to the way. "If Heaven is about to entrust an important mission to a man, it begins by filling his heart with bitterness and by confusing his powers of perception and overturning his plans. It forces him to exert his bone and muscle. It forces him to endure hunger and all manner of sufferings. When the man emerges triumphantly over all these trials and tribulations, he is then capable of accomplishing what would have been impossible for him to do before." This quote from Mencius is a very precise answer to the question: "What is the true meaning of life?"

What is truly at stake in this inner battle? For the masters, the real obstacles that prevent the student from making any progress are those erected by his or her artificial personality. The ordinary individual, choking under a yoke of mental and physical habits, his vision of the world distorted by a screen of illusions, is an invalid cut off from the depths of his being, depths whose potential remains untouched. The necesary work to be done consists in exploding these physical and psychological blocks so that the individual's latent forces can blossom freely. The goal of budo, the way of combat, like any authentic path, is the regeneration of the individual. But this self-realization can only be attained through a merciless struggle against one's own defects, weaknesses, and illusions. Vanquishing one's inner obstacles requires the patience to be relentless in tracking them down and the courage to confront them when that search bears fruit. Pride, cowardice, impatience, and doubt, all fed by illusion, are so many dreadful traps in which a great many people have fallen. The path through them twists like a snake; it is long, difficult, and taxing. Not allowing oneself to become discouraged, persevering no matter what and in spite of oneself, is one of the keys to the Way."

The inner battle. It is the one we truly face. Self defense is a valuable skill to develop; humans are an intra-species predator. But when we step onto the training floor we do not face an enemy. There is no mugger, or murderer, or villian between us and our goal. We face only ourselves.

The battle against our own illusions, our fears and self imposed limitations, against the Six Invisible Enemies, is a long one. It will take all of your life to walk the path of self improvement. But each time the karateka steps foot inside the school he moves further down that path. Each decision we make to move forward, in karate, in life, embodies what Fauliot called, "the regeneration of the individual."

Drills -
Beginner: Set a goal to practice each of your techniques twice when you get up in the morning and twice before bed. Even if you are really tired. Even if you don't want to. If you forget, forgive yourself and try again next time. Identify something you are afraid to do.

Intermediate: Next time you're working out, keep count of how many pushups and situps you can do comfortably during your physical training. Then attempt to add two repetitions of each every time you train. If you get tired or fail to meet your new goals, take a break and return to the exercise later. Make it a point to do an extra set of each at the end of your workout. Make plans to confront your fears.

Advanced: Perform each of your forms from beginning to end. When you run out of forms to do, begin again with your earliest forms and run through the lists again and again. When you get too tired to continue, perform the forms each one more time. Lower yourself into your stances. Hold each position and breath deeply as you experience the fatigue and weariness of your body. Focus on completing the task. Overcome your anxieties and have new experiences.

Even the Masters Have Masters

At Dunham's Martial Arts, we practice a unique style of American Kenpo. Many of the Self Defense Techniques come from a tradition handed down from Grandmasters of the art's past. Our lineage can be traced back to the practices of the Shaolin temple monks of China themselves. It is an ancient battle art, thousands of years old, reflected through many cultures on its way to our school.

It began as a simple method of physical training and self defense. Our legends tell us that a Buddhist monk came to the Shaolin temple from India and requested entrance, but was denied. So he went in to the mountain caves and stared at the stone walls for nine years seeking enlightenment, until his image was burned into the stone. It was only then that he was allowed to enter the temple. Upon entry however, he found that his fellow monks were out of shape, sometimes falling asleep during mediation and unable to perform the physical demands of their order. Combat practices had existed in China since the semi-mythical Yellow Emperor first taught violence to man more than 4000 years ago, and the monk, whose name was Bodhidarma, incorporated those martial practices with a series of physical exercises which would come to be known as The Eighteen Hands of Shaolin.

While most likely apocryphal, there is no doubt that the rigid, stylized practices which the monks of Shaolin would later develop would revolutionize martial practices in China, and later, in the many parts of the world that their culture would influence. The Ming General Qi Jiguang included description of Shaolin Chuan-Fa, (少林拳法 "fist principles"; pronounced “shorin kempo” in Japanese) and staff techniques in his book, Ji Xiao Xin Shu (紀效新書), which can be translated as "New Book Recording Effective Techniques." When this book spread to East Asia, it had a great influence on the development of martial arts in regions such as Okinawa, Japan, and Korea.

It is sometime during this period that our oldest known martial arts ancestor can be somewhat confidently identified. He is a man named Peichin Takahara who taught Chuan-Fa in the Shuri region of Okinawa. He was a monk who was revered as a great warrior and taught compassion and love while emphasizing dedication both to knowledge of the techniques and to physical practice and hard training. Beyond Takahara, we have only semi-legendary martial arts masters and warriors from China and Japan. His student, Kanga Sakukawa became such an expert that people simply called him “china hand” and taught Te; which would later be know as Shuri-Te after the region it was practiced in. His student Matsumura Sokon practiced Shuri-Te and was never known to have lost a duel. He taught Anko Itosu who taught in his Ten Precepts that his own Shorin-Ryu was, “not intended to be used against a single assailant but instead as a way of avoiding a fight should one be confronted by a villain or ruffian.” His student Choki Motobu studied with other future Masters such as Gichin Funakoshi and would go on to found Motobu-Ryu.

Now, here things get a little more difficult to pin down. During the 1930s a Hawaiian born man of Japanese descent named James Mitose began teaching kenpo and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he taught the art to American civilians on the island to prepare them for a possible Japanese invasion. Where he received his martial arts training is a matter of some debate. He called his art Koshoryu (old pine tree school) Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu. He seemed to attribute his art to the teachings of Choki Motobu, although there isn't any record of him training under Motobu, and some people also claim he was taught Yoshida Kenpo from his grandfather. The art he taught appears to be based on the practices of Japanese and Okinawan martial arts descended from the earlier Chinese Chaun-Fa. He would go on to teach William Kwai Sun Chow, known as Thunderbolt for his hard hitting techniques, who would call the art he would pass on to his students Kara-Ho Kenpo which is still practiced by more than 10,000 students, most in the United States. One of those students was Ed Parker, who brought the art to the mainland, where he attempted to incorporate more of the traditional chinese movements of its earlier roots with modern self defense applications drawn from common street encounters into an art he would eventually call Ed Parker's American Kenpo.

Ed Parker taught a number of students, many of whom have gone on to found their own systems of martial arts. Two of those students were brothers, Al and Jim Tracy, whose Tracy's Kenpo is now a worldwide organization that emphasizes the earlier teachings of Mr. Parker. One of their students, Jim Mitchell, would also train under Mr. Parker himself, and would then go on to teach Mitchell System Kenpo Karate as his own style of what he learned from his teachers.  A student of his, Theron Sturgess, now teaches his own systematic approach to learning martial arts at Dynamic Edge Martial Arts.  Today, Chris Dunham, who has studied over the past 20 years under Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Sturgess, and many others, has opened up his own school to teach Dunham's Art of American Kenpo with an emphasis on empowering each student with serious self-defense and personal development.

And that brings us to you. Many of you are learning Dunham's Art of American Kenpo. But like the many Masters before you, it is your challenge to make it your own. To internalize the lessons passed down to you by your instructors and to express your knowledge of the arts in your own unique way. This practice is handed down, instructor to student, and has been for thousands of years since the legendary Yellow Emperor. Each generation, each culture, leaves its own unique mark on what they inherit and passes something new on to the next generation.

Shaolin Chuan-Fa, Te, Shuri-Te, Shorin-Ryu, Motobu-Ryu, Yoshida Kenpo, Koshoryu Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu, Kara-Ho Kenpo, Ed Parker's American Kenpo, Tracy's Kenpo Karate, Mitchell System Kenpo Karate, Dynamic Edge Martial Arts, Dunham's Art of American Kenpo. What will the next art be? What will you bring to the art? What will your students call it someday?

It is important to know the lineage of your art, because it is the path by which the knowledge you hold came into your hands. We owe much to our martial ancestors for devoting themselves to preserving the traditions and practices we engage in today. But we owe an equal debt to our descendants, to be more than a kenpo practitioner. We must be martial artists, and like all artists, we must create.

Create a great day. Create a new art. Create a tradition and history worth remembering. Become a legend of your own. Kenpo will continue on in to the future, and the students of tomorrow will speak of the practitioners that came before them. It is a chain unbroken that leads directly to every student.

You are the next great Master of Kenpo.

Drills -

Beginner: Practice each of your techniques with seriousness and commitment. You are only as good as your basics. Practice each hand and foot technique ten times, each side, on the bag and B.O.B. Look to your senior students for advice on execution and training methods.

Intermediate: Learn the principles and theories behind the techniques. Understand why the stances are structured the way they are and how to use those stances in combat. Practice upper and lower body blocks and strikes with a partner from each of the stances in your sets. Look for opportunities to work with lower rank students and set a positive example for them by your knowledge and diligence.

Advanced: Learn how to transmit knowledge to younger students. Learn how to do, but also how to teach. Begin with your first techniques and practice teaching them by the numbers, in the air and on the body. Identify key principles and movements important to each technique and practice demonstrating these to students. Come up with three drills each for teaching kicking, punching, and blocking.

Benefits of Training in the Ways

Wayne C. McKinney's 1966 book Archery is still used as a reference text on the art and sport of Archery, and is considered a seminal textbook on the subject of modern Western Archery. It's comprehensive approach to Archery, including the equipment, history, cultural value, techniques, and training for sport, hunting, and art gives the student a valuable introduction the study as it is approached in the West. In the chapter Potential Benefits of Archery he describes ways that the practice of Archery can benefit the student, the family, and society as a whole. As martial artists, we can read our own practices into his words and see where we experience these benefits for ourselves.

3rd Edition, Page 90
"Archery provides the participant with a sport which can be used throughout life. Some sport activities learned early in life do not have this potential. A man in his thirites does not engage in American Football during his leisure time as an active particpant. The opportunities are not available to do this, and the human body will not withstand the stresses and strain. In contrast, many excellent archers do not reach their performance peak until they are in their thirties. Archery is a sport for people of all ages.

One major biophysical value of muscular activity is the abilty to release emotional tension. Emotional tension seems to be cumulative in nature. The reader has probably experienced at least one day in which everything seemed to go wrong! At the conclursion of such a day, one tends to be rather tired and tense. This type of tension is psychologic in nature. Psychiatrists indicate that it is a good idea to "blow off steam" on these occasions in a socially accceptable way. This contriubutes to one's mental health. Shooting the bow and arrow for an hour after a "bad day" has the potential to relax the archer. Physical work of any type has the potential to relax a human being. The concept of work being a relaxant is so abstract that it is not too well understood by most people.

The challanges which archery presents in its various sport forms have value for many people. Archery is not an easy sport to master, since there are many opportunities for the occurence of human errors. This facet of archery has the greatest appeal to many sportsmen and individuals who seek perfection in things they attempt. Mastery of archery is a motivating factor for many archers.

The serious student of the humanities may derive enjoyment by reading and studying about the use of archery as portrayed by many authors and scholars throughout history. The mythological literature abounds with stories about archery, and art museums throughout the world contain many famous works. This liberal arts approach to studying a sport is often overlooked by students and physical educators.

The individual who enjoys social activities will find that archery is a good medium for this purpose. Most cities of any size throughout the country have archery clubs which provide opportunities for the archer to share his interests with fellow archers. Clubs are locally operated by a system of self-government, and funded by modest dues. Rounds are shot periodically for practice. There are also intraclub and interclub tournaments. Members also compete in large professional and amateur tournaments conducted within the state, region, and nationally.

In contrast to the the social aspect of archery, the archer who likes to be alone can practice and compete on a highly individualized basis. No partner or team is absolutely necessary to enjoy archery. It has been said that the greatest form of comepetition is with one's self. An archer can compete without contact with other people if so desired.

Archery is and has been many things to many people. In contemporary society, archery is a sport for the competitor. Archery is also for the individual who enjoys handling fine tackle; it is for the man or woman who enjoys being in the out-of-doors during a hunting season, a field archery tournament, or bow fishing; it is for the person who enjoys the spirit of competition with other people and with himself against the elements. Archery can be a partial means of making the participant's leisure time more rewarding and meaningful."

Martial arts is also many things to many people. Self Defense. Fitness. Competition. Way. We choose our own level of involvement. Find opportunities to explore each of these aspects of your training in a healthy way. Certainly, your study of the arts can be a means of making your leisure time more rewarding and meaningful. You may be content to relegate your training to avocation, and that is perfectly fine. It should be a thing which brings you joy. But remember that beyond being a hobby, the practice of martial arts has much more to offer. One need but seek to find the many rewards awaiting the diligent student of the martial Ways. The positive societal, communal, and individual benefits of such training can not be overstated.

Drills -
Beginner: Practice "Drawing the Bow" technique for deception when punching. Practice flicking out jabs and using off hand motions to distract. Think about what your training means to you and what benefits you look forward to gaining from your involvement in martial arts. Identify those positive goals specifically.

Intermediate: Practice "Lockout" style punching techniques to joints, limbs, and the head and neck for anatomical control. Practice thrusting through the opponent's position and staying present, forcing him to change position in response. Take consistent action on accomplishing the goals you've set and actively seek out the positive benefits of your martial arts training in your daily life. Is it making you stronger? More confident? Less stressed in your day to day affairs?

Advanced: Practice "Drawing the Bow" technique as excision, seperating the rear elbow of the chambering motion from the lead hand jab to 12 o'clock. Identify movements which can be used when fighting multiple opponents which can be effective both as physical maneuvers and psychological attacks. Explore "Seperating the Opponents" with strikes. Review the progress you've made since you've begun your training in the arts. Compare the person you have become to the person you began your journey as. Set new goals for yourself, both in your future training, and as a person and practitioner moving forward.

Ten Considerations of Combat

Ten Considerations of Combat

Environment
Range
Positions
Maneuvers
Targets
Natural Weapons
Natural Defenses
Cover & Concealment
Intent
Circumstances

The Ten Considerations of Combat are designed to give the student parameters with which they can begin to define the combat arena. Today we will begin with the first two.


1. Environment
Environment refers to the shape and layout of the combat arena, as well as any obstructions it contains. It also incorporates things like lighting, footing, surface textures, and climate.

But more importantly environment includes the emotional atmosphere of the engagement. An objective observer will come to understand that different emotional environments have different energy levels and effects on the people within them.

For instance, next time you are in a crowded movie theater, remove yourself from the movie going experience and feel the atmosphere of the room. If it is a comedy you will feel a different energy level than if it is a tragedy, or a horror, or an action movie, or a drama. Extrapolate this experience to your surroundings in life.

Next time you are at work, try to feel the emotional atmosphere you work in. Then do an experiment. Go from person to person, and try to change their attitude. If the room is happy, depress people. If the room is depressed, encourage people. You will notice a definite change in the atmosphere of the room.

It is important to understand these changes in the human environment in order to understand best where a confrontation takes place. The same argument will escalate differently in a crowded bar than it will in a library. Understanding this can aid the student in better deciding when and how to use force.


2. Range
Range is one of the most important determining factors in deciding both the necessity of, and the applications of force.

During the escalation phase of any combative situation, the student should be paying close attention to the range at which the encounter is occuring. It is important for the student to be determining ranges not only between himself and his opponent, but also between himself and his routes of escape, himself and obstructions in the field, his opponent and his opponent's allies, and the confrontation and any deterring factors such as security cameras or officers, and crowded or well lit areas.

Upon determining the necessity of the use of force, the student must use his knowledge of range to determine the applications of force most appropriate to the engagement. If the opponent is outside contact range, then engaging the opponent may require projectile weaponry or techniques.

Foot maneuvers can be used to either increase range for the purposes of evasion or escape, or to decrease range for the purpose of engaging the enemy.

If the opponent is within contact range the student can select techniques which are appropriate to the situation.

Drills -
Beginner: Every time you walk into a room count to five and then close your eyes. As quickly as possible identify ten things you saw in the room, paying special attention to anything which would either impede your movement or could be used as a weapon.

Intermediate: Facing a heavy bag, stand with your toes even with the base of the bag and work as many strikes as you can remembering FASP. Then move back six inches and repeat the process. Then move back six more inches and repeat. Continue, using lunging and skipping strikes when you move outside of striking range until it takes more than two foot maneuvers to reach the bag. At that point, you are out of your opponent's effective range. Turn away and escape.

Advanced: Practice strikes against heavy bag with a weapon in one or both hands. Pay special attention to how different grips effect reach. Practice striking around corners and around and over obstacles.

Ground Fighting: Practice spontaneous ground fighting in the corner of the room, in doorways, and under and around tables and chairs. Watch for environmental dangers and look for opportunities to escape.

12 Primary Love Needs

In our training center students study the physical requirements of becoming a warrior while simultaneously learning to harness the mental abilities of a scholar.  The ability to control both the physical and mental side on oneself shows true mastery and in order to master victory over any opponent, one must truly learn to "know thyself" first.

When several students commented on last month's theme, and asked us to share it, I thought it might be appropriate to share here.  Perhaps you'll find some use from this; perhaps with a spouse, a friend, a relative, or even a student of your own.  These lessons can work universally, however they are just guidelines.  They are primarily intended for loving, respectful relationships, and should always be used with common sense.  While these are generally guidelines for working with the opposite sex, some people may need the opposite of what you'd expect.  We all share some form of masculine and feminine qualities, however large or small.  This is the Yin and Yang of life.  The key is to seek first to understand the needs of one another and then you can begin unlocking the mystery of a synergetic relationship.   

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

Men and women are often unaware that they have different emotional needs.  As a result, they do not instinctively know how to support each other.  Both typically give in a relationship, what they would want.  Each mistakenly assumes that the other has the same needs and desires.

12 Primary Love Needs

1.      She needs Caring- Show interest in her feelings.

He needs Trust- Trust in his abilities and his intentions.

2.      She- Understanding- Listen without judgment and with empathy.

He- Acceptance- Love him without trying to change him.

3.      She- Respect- Acknowledge her rights, wishes, and needs.

He- Appreciation- Acknowledge his efforts, behavior, and its value to you.

4.      She- Devotion- Give priority to supporting and fulfilling her.

He- Admiration- Admire him with wonder, delight, and appreciation.

5.      She- Validation- Validate her feelings and point of view.

He- Approval- Recognize the good reasons behind his actions.

6.      She- Reassurance- Let her know she is loved… continually.

He- Encouragement- Give him courage by expressing confidence in his abilities and character.

These ideas were adapted from “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.” By John Gray, Ph.D

A recommended read for learning to communicate better.

Block. Lead Side Counter.

I like to think of Fallen Sword as the first "real" kenpo technique you learn. Now, don't hear this as me in any way denigrating the techniques before it. Entrapping Circle, Entrapping Elbow, and Concealing Strikes are all solid, important techniques that begin your study of motion. But when I learned Fallen Sword I felt like I was really doing karate. And in part that's because Fallen Sword teaches you a fundamental series of movements that make up a huge chunk of what you will practice in kenpo.

Block. Lead Side Counter.

This basic combination of movements encompasses core principles about The Ten Considerations of Combat which are elemental to self defense. Environment. Range. Positions. Maneuvers. It's all contained within Fallen Sword, and everything you learn after this will be built on this structure. That's why it's taught so early in the system. Not because of it's simplicity, but because of it's ever deeper complexities.

Block. Lead Side Counter.

This pattern repeats itself again and again. Destructive Twins? Sword of Destruction? Snapping Elbow? Ghost of the Dragon? Again and again. Block. Lead Side Counter.

It's as fundamental as the forward and reverse arm motions taught in Entrapping Circle and Entrapping Elbow. Each technique has lessons to teach, beyond merely defending against a Right Step Thru Punch. That's the least important part of what you're learning. That's just the template for the purpose of facilitating instruction. It's the lessons you should be learning, not just the movements.

Take a basic sparring scenario. Closed faced. Student A executes a Lead Hand Jab. Student B defends with an inward block and counters with an Outward Backknuckle Strike. That's Fallen Sword.

Or a knife scenario. Attacker lunges with a Forward Thrusting Knife Strike. Defender takes a Half Step Back and Up the Circle (in reverse) with a Slapping Check to the attacker's weapon arm, and follows with a Lead Leg Side Snap Kick to the inside of the attacker's Lead Knee. That's Fallen Sword.

How about a grappling scenario? The opponent grabs you from the front with a Two Handed Lapel Grab (Pulling) and you respond by grabbing their hands and then striking the opponent with a Lead Hand Inward Downward Raking Hammerfist Strike followed by an Inward Elbow Strike. Altered Momentum? If it's a Single Lapel Grab the technique is Conquering Shield. But Conquering Shield is just Fallen Sword to the outside of the arm followed by Entrapping Elbow. It's the same pattern again and again.

Block. Lead Side Counter.

But don't mistake this repetition for busy work. There's a reason you learn Lead Side Counter against a push, a punch, a choke, a grab, weapons, throws, holds and more. There's a reason you practice this Right forward and Left forward, striking and grappling. You're learning the letters. You're learning the words. And the more fluent in kenpo you become, the more capable you are of talking the talk, and walking the walk.

Fallen Sword is a key technique. It's simple. It's basic. And you could spend a lifetime learning it's lessons. But for now, practice the Lead Side Counter. Practice Fallen Sword. And see what lessons it holds for you.

Drills -
Beginner: While practicing Fallen Sword pay special attention to body mechanics. Step back WITH the Inward Block. Land from the Front Kick WITH the Handsword. Every movement, every strike, is with the entire body.

Intermediate: While sparring use only lead hand weapons against your opponent. Use stance transitions to change your position and continue striking with the opposite side forward. Pay attention to combinations and re-orbiting strikes.

Advanced: Practice the basic pattern of Fallen Sword, but alter the weapons and targets. Instead of a Handsword, work a Jab, Backknuckle Strike, or Outward Claw or Outward Backhand Strike. Instead of a Front Snap Kick, try Side Snap Kick, Wheel Kick, or In Place Pulling Sweep. Choose targets appropriate to your weapons.

Sumimasen. Daijobu desu ka?

From Wikipedia:

"Dave Lowry is an American writer best known for his articles, manuals and novels based on Japanese martial arts.

A student of Japanese martial arts since 1968, when he began studying Yagyū Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu [the same art taught by Yagyū Munenori, see Hit, Hit, and Hit Again] under Ryokichi Kotaro of the Nara Prefecture of Japan, he has also studied Shintō Musō-ryū, as well as karate, aikido, and Kodokan judo.

He has a degree in English, and has written about a variety of topics related to budō, the Japanese concept of the "martial way." He has written training manuals on use of weapons such as the bokken and jo, a few novels centered on the lifestyle of the budōka (one who follows the martial way), and countless articles on martial practices and traditional Japanese philosophy. He has been a regular columnist for Black Belt magazine since 1986, where he writes on the traditional arts."

In his 2002 book, Traditions, Lowry tells us a story about training with a friend of his instructor and an important lesson he learned from the experience.

"...He was short and thick and powerful. At my sensei's suggestion, after dinner our visitor took me into our dojo to work with me on basics. Against my oi-zuki (stepping-in punch), he shifted like he was on ball bearings and countered with various techniques. We'd been at this for about an hour, gradually increasing our pace. I was still not posing any great threat to him, but Yanagi-san was having to move just a bit faster to avoid my attack. That is when he miscalculated, just fractionally. He pivoted and snapped out his fist as I moved in-and caught me squarely on my nose with the back of his knuckles. There was no kime, no focus, to the blow. If there had been, my head would have come off. The strike was more just a kind of slap. But Mr. Yanagi's timing was perfect, even if there was no force behind it.

Even though he barely grazed my nose, tears squirted into my eyes. My feet and legs, still driving forward, were way ahead of the rest of me. I went down like I'd been sledghammered. The back of my head smacked against the wooden floor. I laid there a second. I knew nothing was seriously hurt, and that I should be leaping back up quickly so as not to put myself at risk of a follow-up attack. But I wasn't sure where "up" was. All I could see were starbursts.

"Sumimasen," Yanagi-san said, "Daijobu desu ka?" "My fault. You okay?"

I'm not sure how I expected Mr. Yanagi to react to the accident. Over the years of my training that have followed, however, I have heard that phrase many more times. I have, due to my own clumsiness and ineptitude, had occasion to use it myself. Ask anyone has who practiced with me much at all. And I have come to realize since that afternoon in the dojo, that what Yanagi-san said to me is really all one can say in a situation like that. More importantly, it is all one should say.

It is quite an awful feeling to hurt someone under almost any circumstances, obviously. This is especially so in the dojo where one's accidental victim is likely to be a friend or a training partner and one feels towards that person almost as if they were a brother or sister. If it is a senior that you have clobbered, you feel terrible because you've repaid the kindness of his instructing you by battering him. If it is a junior, you feel worse; a junior in the dojo is dependent upon you for his progress, not for abuse. The initial response to causing such an accident in the dojo-the unconditioned response of the untrained budoka-is to abandon instantly whatever exercise it is, to rush forward, apologizing profusely and checking for damage.

The dojo, however, is not a place for unconditioned responses. The budoka who go there to practice must be willing to give a great deal of their lives over to the crafting and shaping of very highly conditioned responses. They are seeking to respond correctly to every contingency, in a wide variety of situations. Among these contingencies is the possibility of an accident. The budoka must realize there is a chance, a risk involved, every time he trains. When you allow me, for the purposes of our learning, to uncork punches at your face, or to twist your wrists to nearly the point of injury, or strike at you with a weapon, you are accepting the possibility I might miss, go a bit too far. I assume the same; that I may injure you. We have voluntarily accepted what insurance companies call "assumed risk." Like mountain climbers, big wave surfers, and ski racers, budoka would be fools if they thought the martial Ways were risk-free. That is simply not the nature of these ways.

If we have trained properly and we exercise care for our partner, we can (and absolutely must) cut the odds of an accident or injury. But we can never entirely eliminate risk. So when in the dojo an accident does happen, we should not be too surprised. We should not indulge in a lot of pointless blather then. We should admit it if it was our fault, and inquire if the injury is serious enough to warrant attention. If it is serious, we'd better be calling an ambulance or rendering first aid. These require coolness and a presence of mind. There is no time, and no reason to engage in excessive apologizing which, while it may make us feel better, won't do a lot of good for our injured friend.

This attitude may seem heartless. But remember, Yanagi-sans's first words to me were, "my fault." He accepted the blame for the accident, simply and honestly. Then he asked if I was all right, in a way that was straightforward yet not condescending, respectful of my dignity.

Simply and honestly; straightforward and respectful. This is the best way for the budoka to behave when he has been responsible for an accident in the dojo. He will also find that it is an excellent way of meeting a number of other situations as well."

Lowry's experience here is not unique. You will have an opportunity to say these words many times over the course of your journey in martial arts. And you will hear them as well. When you hit one of your friends or training partners too hard, when you make the mistakes that are an inevitable and essential part of the learning process, the only thing to say is this,

"I'm sorry. My fault. Are you okay?"

There is no shame in this. This is right and honorable conduct. Remember this when you accidentally hurt your training partners, and when you are accidentally hurt by them.

American Freestyle Karate and the Power of Confrontation

Dan Anderson is one of the most accomplished American martial artists. On the website for his school, his bio reads,

“Professor Anderson is the director and chief instructor of Dan Anderson Karate and has a 7th Degree Black Belt in Karate, a 6th Degree Black Belt (Senior Master) in Filipino Modern Arnis, and an 8th Degree Black Belt in MA-80. He is a 4 time national karate champion, having won over 70 Grand Titles! He is the founder of American Freestyle Karate, a uniquely American martial art as well as the author of the best selling book, "American Freestyle Karate: A Guide To Sparring" which has been in print for 30 years. He has been honored by inclusion into the Karate Living Legends, a lifetime achievement honor, being one of the 50 most influential martial artists in the 40 year history of tournament karate. Prof. Anderson's school has been continually teaching martial arts to the residents of East County for 25 years, making it the oldest Karate school in this area.”

The book mentioned above, American Freestyle Karate: A Guide to Sparring is widely recognized as one of the seminal and most authoritative written works on the subject of karate style point sparring. It's topics span stance and posture, body movement with and without footwork, developing power, kicking, punching, and blocking, and monitoring the opponent. It contains both technical information, including step by step breakdown of techniques and combinations, and strategic and conceptual instruction which informs the practitioner in his approach to both sports combat and self defense.

One particularly valuable section discusses the concept of confrontation, so crucial to success in freestyle sparring,

The Ability to Confront

“To confront – verb transitive – Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 2.a. “to cause to meet: bring face to face.”

Psychologically, everything in karate boils right down to the idea of confrontation, to face up to something. Sparring, approaches, technical information, everything.

A person's ability to confront things comes with familiarization and gradient stages of the ability to confront itself.

When you have trouble with any face of karate, it comes from a failure to confront that particular area. Example: a person is a strong technician and is tough but does not think when sparring. The thing to do is to have them confront thinking during sparring in gradient stages. 1) Plan out each attack and carry out the plan; 2) spot circuits (habit patterns) in your opponent's sparring, etc. Take him through each step until he is up to sparring and thinking.

The ability to confront is such a great part of everything. Anything you can do well is because you can confront it, meet it face to face, nose to nose with a big grin. Karate has always felt easy to me, but acceptance of getting hit in the head has never been easy. My ability to confront things is up on karate and down on getting hit in the head.

Things that you cannot confront easily will have to be worked through, but if you take any one particular thing and work it out in easily handled steps, pretty soon the punch in the head (or whatever) will not seem so awful to you.

This is how I break my students into sparring. Thanks to movies and television, beginners come in with preconceived notions of karate, ranging anywhere from macho brutality to the idea that the studio is a monastic retreat for pacifistic martial monks. But, they have one thing in common; they sit back and tense up when watching somebody else spar. Here it is so close to them, violence, punching faces, kicking groins, struggling. A sparring match can be a fearsome sight to a lot of beginners. So, I start them off easy with a punch, a stance, a kick, a block, until they are comfortable with it. Then slowly, easily in a line drill, they see that attack come at them and block it. Great. That attack was handled. Then after a while, they get into slow and easy, unstructured blocks and attacks with a partner, the same thing that bugged their eyes out in the first place, sparring. The only difference is that through a series of gradient steps, they reached a point where what was once foreign to them was now recognizable and comfortable. That is what the ability to confront is about. Anything you have trouble with, work on in easy steps until it becomes comfortable.

Professor Anderson's advice transcends the art of kicking and punching. Take it with you in your training, practice your least favorite techniques. Do ten more kicks when you're already tired. But apply the lesson to the other facets of your life as well.  Confront, persevere, have indomitable spirit.

Everything in karate boils right down to the idea of confrontation. Karate no shugyo wa issho.

From the Monk to the Master

The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom (不動智神妙録, fudōchishinmyōroku) was a letter written to Yagyū Munenori by the Japanese Buddhist monk Takuan Sōhō. In it, Takuan attempts to adapt Zen teachings to the art of the sword. According to the modern translator William Scott Wilson, “one could say that fudōchishinmyōroku deals not only with technique, but with how the self is related to the Self during confrontation and how an individual may become a unified whole.”

“Takuan Sōhō was a Zen monk, calligrapher, painter, poet, gardener, tea master and, perhaps, inventor of the pickle that even today retains his name. His writings were prodigious (the collected works fill six volumes), and are a source of guidance and inspiration to the Japanese people today, as they have been for three and a half centuries.”

Takuan influenced both Munenori and Musashi, and his teachings are reflected in both Book of Family Traditions and Book of Five Rings. In The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom, Takuan begins by explaining the importance of No-Mind-No-Thought. Per Wilson,

“Again, we speak with reference to your own martial art. As the beginner knows nothing about either his body posture or the positioning of his sword, neither does his mind stop anywhere within him. If a man strikes at him with the sword, he simply meets the attack without anything in mind.

As he studies various things and is taught the diverse ways of how to take a stance, the manner of grasping his sword and where to put his mind, his mind stops in many places. Now if he wants to strike at an opponent, he is extraordinarily discomforted. Later, as days pass and time piles up, in accordance with his practice, neither the postures of his body, nor the ways of grasping the sword are weighed in his mind. His mind simply becomes as it was in the beginning when he knew nothing and had yet to be taught anything at all.

In this one sees the sense of the beginning being the same as the end, as when one counts from one to ten, and the first and last numbers become adjacent.

In other things – musical pitch, for example, when one moves from the beginning lowest pitch to the final highest pitch – the lowest and highest become adjacent.

We say that the highest and the lowest come to resemble each other. Buddhism, when you reach its very depths, is like the man who knows nothing of Buddha or the Buddhist law. It has neither adornment nor anything else which would draw men's attention to it.

The ignorance and afflictions of the beginning, abiding place and the immovable wisdom that comes later becomes one. The function of the intellect disappears, and one ends in a state of No-Mind-No-Thought. If one reaches the deepest point, arms, legs, and body remember what to do, but the mind does not enter into this at all.

The Buddhist priest Bukkoku wrote:

Although it does not

mindfully keep guard,

in the small mountain fields

the scarecrow

does not stand in vain.

Everything is like this.”

Takuan believed that only by keeping the mind from stopping in any one place could the swordsman act with the spontaneity and freedom of the beginner. But he also emphasized the importance of rigorous training, saying, "If you do not train in technique, but only fill your breast with principle, your body and your hands will not function."

Train the techniques. Repetition is the mother of skill. But in your training, seek what Takuan called No-Mind-No-Thought.

"If one reaches the deepest point, arms, legs, and body remember what to do, but the mind does not enter into this at all."

The Importance of Visualization

Mental focus, concentration and visualization are some of the most important parts of your training. Most people are familiar with the saying that sports is 90% mental and 10% physical. Despite that, many people fail to spend as much time practicing in their heads as they do practicing on the floor. Yet again and again, top level athletes and performers in every field credit their success to mental preparation.

Jerry West, former Guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, had such a penchant for hitting buzzer beaters he was nicknamed ‘Mr. Clutch’. In one memorable game in which his team was trailing the Knicks with a few seconds left in an NBA Finals game, West took an inbound pass and shot from 60 feet at the buzzer. Knicks guard Walt Clyde Frazier recalls thinking: “The man’s crazy. He looks determined. He thinks it’s really going in!”. Of course, it did go in, sending the crowd reeling and the game to overtime. One time, when asked about his ability to frequently hit the big shot, West revealed the root of that confidence Frazier witnessed. West explained that he had already made those shots time after time in his mind. Jerry West, like so many other legends such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Phil Jackson, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky and countless others, realized the power of visualization.

What is Visualization?

Visualization is a form of guided mental imagery, where the performer imagines himself succeeding at his physical tasks. A popular visualization for athletes is the mental rehearsal of sporting events while ‘intending’ a desired outcome. Amazingly, research has revealed that visualization can actually enhance performance to nearly the same extent as physical practice. A study conducted by Dr. Blaslotto at the University Of Chicago is an intriguing example.

The goal of Dr. Blaslotto‘s study was to determine the effects of visualization on sports performance. As a performance measure for this experiment, the researchers chose the free throw percentage of a group of basketball players. First, to establish a basis for the study, the current free-throw success rate of each of the subjects was tested and recorded. Three groups were then established, and the athletes were assigned to one of the groups at random. After 30 days of testing and retesting, the results were as follows:

The third group, who neither physically practiced or visualized shooting free-throws, showed no increase in percentage.

The first group which physically shot free-throws for an hour daily, collectively improved thier free-throw shooting by 24%.

The second group, which practiced daily by visualizing shooting and making free-throws, collectively improved their free-throw shooting by a shocking 23% without having physically shot a basketball!

Another similar study was done by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation exploring the effects of visualization on muscle strength. The results of that study also astonishingly revealed increases to muscle strength through visualization, further reinforcing the fact that mental training is actually as impactful a tool in performance enhancement as physical training. In one of the most well-known studies on Creative Visualization in sports, Russian scientists compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their training schedules:

Group 1 - 100% physical training;
Group 2 - 75% physical training with 25% mental training;
Group 3 - 50% physical training with 50% mental training;
Group 4 - 25% physical training with 75% mental training.

Group 4, with 75% of their time devoted to mental training, performed the best. In explaining the results the Soviet scientists involved concluded that, "mental images can act as a prelude to muscular impulses."

With each imagined repetition, a neural pathway is formed. Neural pathways in short, are clusters of neurons in the brain that work together to create a memory or a learned behavior. Dr. Blaslotto explained, “As your brain conceives of an act, it generates impulses that prompt neurons to ‘perform’ the movement being imagined by transmitting those impulses from the brain to the muscles.” This in turn creates a habit, or neural pathway in the brain, programming your body’s actions as if you physically performed the activity.

Studies show that the human mind has difficulty separating reality from imagined reality. If you’ve ever had a dream that felt “so real,” you understand. This happens because much of the brain is unable to differentiate between "real" events and "imagined" ones, and so treats them both the same in terms of chemical and physiological response. That's why when a person reads a sad story they cry, even though no actual sad events have occurred, or when they watch an action movie their temperature, heart rate, and adrenaline levels will increase, even though they are sitting perfectly still in a safe, dark movie theater.

We can use this to our advantage in our training. Visualization can help us to rehearse combative, dangerous, and challenging situations in order to prepare us for a violent encounter. It can also help us to improve our technique performance. The basketball study above showed almost the same improvement in groups that imagined practicing as in groups that actually hit the floor. If we combine both aspects of our training, we can see massive advances in our skill level.

It is also important to visualize an opponent when we perform our techniques. Any time you are practicing your kenpo in the air, imagine an opponent who you are intimidated by. See yourself hitting that opponent in the face, in the body. Put the situation into a context where you might be forced to defend yourself. You are safe in the school, but imagine you are having to do your kenpo in a dark, rain slicked alley late at night in a bad part of town. You will find that your mindset and your performance will be drastically affected by this kind of visualization.

When I am focusing on learning the proper anatomy of targets and weapons, I visualize a solid blue human body form, like this,

It helps me to visualize exactly what I am hitting, what effect it will have on my opponent, and how the surrounding anatomy will be affected.

But when I am practicing my techniques for self defense performance, I visualize a big, bad, scary looking man who intends to do terrible, terrible things to us all. It helps me to use the face of actor Danny Trejo.

You can use whatever images you like. Maybe someone from your past, maybe someone you saw on television. Maybe it helps you to see the image of something you find frightening like a monster from your childhood. The key is to select images which cause a visceral reaction for you, and then to train against that imagery and within that chosen context.

Everything that you experience takes place within your mind. Everything you perceive to be real, the things you touch, taste, see, smell, and hear, is actually just a highly detailed projected environment created by the computer in your head. It receives input from all the sensory organs and then compiles that into a hologram so real you never question it. But much of what you think you see is actually just the brain filling in holes in the information its receiving from one source with information it's receiving from another.

A particular blind spot known as the punctum caecum in medical literature is the place in the visual field that corresponds to the lack of light-detecting photoreceptor cells on the optic disc of the retina where the optic nerve passes through it. Since there are no cells to detect light on the optic disc, a part of the field of vision is not perceived. The brain fills in with surrounding detail and with information from the other eye, so the blind spot is not normally perceived. Even though you know it's there, and you can “see” it, it's actually just your brain telling you what it expects to be there. We can take advantage of this. Since our reality is only happening in our minds, we can create alternate realities, practice a number of scenarios within them, and benefit from that training. The brain can't tell the difference, and neither can the body.

So train hard. And think hard. Kenpo is a mental pursuit as much as a physical one. And the student who focuses on his performance and visualizes his success will find his reality matching what his brain expects to see.

Drills -
Beginner: During every technique repetition in the air, imagine a real, aggressing opponent. See your strikes hit real, vulnerable targets.

Intermediate: Perform a technique on the body. Close your eyes, and visualize yourself performing the technique perfectly, from start to finish, ten times against a real opponent. Now open your eyes and perform the technique on the body again. Pay attention to anatomical repositioning and accurate targeting.

Advanced: Imagine an attacker at 12 o'clock. When the opponent attacks, defend the original attack and then begin a counter offensive striking combination. Continue that action to a takedown and then a finishing move. Begin again with a standing opponent.