AMERICAN KENPO - INTERNALISED by Athos Antoniades
(Irish Fighter June 2000)

Black Belt Athos Antoniades - chief instructor of the National Kenpo Karate Association (NKKA) in England - is well known for establishing and running the only American Kenpo club in London. What is not so well known however, is that, for the last 12 years, Greek-born Antoniades has been stuying and training in a number of 'internal' arts.

He initially started studying Qi Gong with Denis Ng about 12 years ago, and for almost four years now, he has been training in 'Old' style Yang Tai Chi Chuan with Paul Brecher, the London representative and instructor for well known Australian internal expert Erle Montague.

As a result of this cross-training, Antoniades has come to the conclusion that external and internal are really one, and in order to attain maximum potential, all body capabilities and mental abilities must work in unison. "Physical muscle strength must combine with internal power for maximum results," Antoniades said.

Antoniades puts into practice the principles of the internal arts in his American Kenpo classes which he teaches at his studio in Ballard's Lane, North Finchley. "I found that the results were amazing with students progressing much faster. By applying these principles, speed and power also improved tremendously," he added.

'Is greatly enhanced'
"Nothing is taken away from the Kenpo art as I'm only adding to what is already there. By adding internal power the whole style is greatly enhanced in every way," he said. "I believe that Mr. Ed Parker - founder of the American Kenpo system - was all about progress, which is why those who claim to teach 'traditional' Kenpo obviously didn't understand what the great grandmaster was trying to achieve."

Antoniades is convinced that Parker, regarded as the 'Father of American Karate', was internalising his style as he often spoke of energy disruption and unity between body, mind and spirit.

"The first thing I teach my students is to relax, as this allows the 'chi', 'ki' or internal energy to flow easily and combine with muscle (physical) strength thus producing a great deal more power than just muscle strength power. When you manage to do this the power generated can be as much as seven times stronger," Antoniades said.

"We should tense only at the point of contact and immediately relax again for maximum power and speed. This principle adapts very well to Kenpo as we're taught to strike from the point of origin using economy of motion. As we don't use distance for power, proper body mechanics incorporating internal energy is an excellent means of meeting our objectives. The explosive penetrating power emited by following this advise is known as 'Fa-jing'."

"Power can then be achieved over a very short distance. However, in order to execute a Fa-jing strike, body connectivity is essential." The upper and lower body sections must move as a single co-ordinated unit. It is the whole body that is the weapon as the power created by just the arms or legs is only 'push' power, and lacks the deadly penetration of Fa-jing.

Hitting a heaving hanging bag with Fa-jing will cause the bag to shudder rather than swing away, such a strike, when done correctly, can cause internal damage to an opponent, Antoniades said.

'Conectivity'
"Conectivity may best be explained by describing how it would be applied in the case of a punch or other hand strike," Antoniades explained. "The power begins as the foot pushes off against the ground in a spring-like action. Power is then realised from the leg, controlled by the waist and back and released out through the hand."

'Rebounding' is another internal principle which Antoniades talks about. "By staying relaxed and only tensing at the point of contact, and then immediately relaxing again, the tact, and then immediately relaxing again, the striking weapon is forced to rebound off the target. It does this by penetrating further into the target, causing internal damage, before rebounding back again as one relaxes," Antoniades concluded.