American Kenpo Taiji Association - Lesson 2: Amendments to Kenpo Basics

LESSON 2: AMENDMENTS TO KENPO BASICS

Everyone should continue the Chi Kung exercises taught in lesson 1 for the whole of this series and beyond. Chi development is an imperative and integral aspect of our ultimate objective.

In this lesson we will make various amendments to our Kenpo basics in order to gain a psychological warfare advantage against our attacker/opponent.

1. STEPPING FORWARD

From our attention stance we must change the way we get into our fighting stance from stepping back to stepping forward. Not only does this give us a psychological advantage against an opponent/attacker but also gives us many other benefits. These are:

A.	Stepping forward will upset his timing as we are not where he expected us to be when he attacked instead we are in his face! Stepping back the way traditional Kenpoists do now, is the worst thing we can do as he can come forward a lot faster than you can step back. There is also the added disadvantage that stepping back is a defeatist attitude which will cause the mind to panic as it realizes there is something wrong. In a panic you are likely to do all the wrong things a sure way to defeat.
B.	It is therefore evident that stepping forward will optimize our own timing as instead of being where he expected us to be we are already in his face striking him.
C.	We must always fight the body not the weapons (arms and legs), and by stepping back or standing still we are fighting the weapons, possibly blocking them and blocks simply do not work in a fight. Doing the wrong thing will also mean that we are likely to take the full force of his attacks by stepping forward we can intercept the attack before it gains momentum.
D.	We should always step forward at 45°, this will give us optimum placement and positioning. If we continue to step back and block his attack he will know and may alter his attack. However, by stepping forward at 45° we would allow him to proceed along his chosen path until it is too late, before he realises what is going on he would have been hit!
E.	Subconsciously he expects us to step back, stepping forward would momentarily upset his train of thought allowing us plenty of time to attack with a rapid succession of strike.
F.	Defense and offense must be one, thus will only be achieved by stepping forward. Two step fighting such as stepping back, blocking and then attacking is not only time wasting but means we are fighting the weapon and not the body.
G.	As we shall see in later lessons, stepping forward is one of the requirements of entering our Reptilian Brain which will place us in survival mode.

2. FIGHTING STANCE:

We must change our basic fighting stance, the Neutral Bow which involves the legs being equally weighted, to a stance where we are weighted on the front leg. Being equally weighted causes energy (chi) to stagnate thus impeding our access of the Reptilian Brain which requires energy flow. Chi flows where there are different polarities such as Yin and Yang. Placing more weight on the front leg would make this leg Yang and with the back leg being Yin energy will flow making it possible for us to go into Survival Mode.

3. CROSSING OUT at the end of each technique must be eliminated as this has the effect of training the subconscious to do the wrong thing. In a fight we must rush in like raging fire raining multiple blows on our attacker until he is subdued. What we must not do is strike him and then step back to admire our work! Look what happened to Frank Bruno, when he stunned Mike Tyson in their first encounter and then stood back to admire his work instead of finishing the job. He gave Tyson the opportunity to come back and demolish him. Therefore no crossing out keep going until your attacker is down and out and then stay on top of him in fighting stance to ensure he doesn't get up and do a number on you.

See you next lesson and remember.......

THE ONLY THING TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF!