American Kenpo Taiji Association

PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN KENPO by Athos Antoniades
(MARTIAL ARTS ILLUSTRATED June 99)

American Kenpo, referred to as a scientific art of self-defence is probably the most practical of the martial arts, as it is to do with current street fighting.
Its based on a rapid sccession of strikes in sequential flow, and directional harmony, whereby all our action moves in the same direction, thus reinforcing the delivery of our strikes.

POWER
In Kenpo we are taught to always use economy of motion, therefore, all our strikes happen from the point of origin. Most styles generate power by cocking their weapons before striking, thus, using distance in order to gain power. We have already said that we strike from the point of origin - how then do we gain the power behind our strikes? A quick twist of the waist whilst striking is an excellent source of power, therefore rotational force and torque qould certainly generate power as the strike would be supported by body power instead of merely arm power. A progression would be the priciple of Fa-Jing (explosive power), whereby the whole body acting as a 'connected unit' rotates violently at high frequency, throwing out a fist, palm or elbow supported by the force of the body.

It is not the had of the elbow that strikes but the whole body, the fist merely delivers the strike.

Breath is another crucial factor which is obviously directly linked to our Kiai. The Kiai should be a continuous exhalation of breath as opposed to a patchy one, as a patchy Kiai will break the continuity of the motion, and the subsequent los in momentum leads to related power.

Gravitational marriage involves dropping the weight of the body as we strike - thus, using gravity to enhance the power of the strikes.

By replacing blocks with parries, we deflect the opponents strike instead of stopping it, thus allowing him to continue along his path. Using the Kenpo principle of opposing forces, we can double the impact of our blow by opposing his momentum with a strike.

The greater the acceleration at which we deliver our strike, the greater the force will be - which takes us opn to the Kenpo principles of speed.

SPEED
We have already seen that in Kenpo we adopt the economy of motion principle and therefore strike from the point of origin, avoiding unnecessary movements but instead using movements that follow direct angles, thus eliminating telegraphing. If we throw a punch at the target area, without drawing back to strike again, we merely use the hand to form another strike weapon and commit at to an already ongoing attack using body torque and positioning for power.

The way in which we use our breath is of crucial importance in relation to speed. The breath is the mediator between the body and the mind, therefore in order to increase the momentum of our strikes, our breathing must be continuous. If our breathing is patchy our motion will not flow with continuity. The breath should be in sync with our mind and body. The body should not be tense but loose and relaxed with our natural weapons being loose-heavy.

Learning by practice how to punch-off fast and strong, using Kenpo to push drag manoeuvre and striking first with our natural weapon closest to the target would also increase our speed.

'DARTING' TECHNIQUE

A further method we use to increase sleed is the combination of moves - instead of blocking, cocking and then striking, we do all three at once. Attempting a traditional block and strike at close range, where street-fighting happens, will just not work, instead the attacker is more likely to connect with his target. What this teaches us about distance is that when the attacker is within striking range, we should not wait for him to attack, but attack him first. Our best defence will be a strong offense. There is little point in stepping back and blocking, as he is likely to continue with this attack until he connects with his strike, and he can come forward faster than you can go back.

A common mistake is to zero in on major targets such as the head or groin and forget to hit on our way in. The Kenpo 'depth zone theory' advocates striking targets closest to us first and proceed toward the major targets of our opponent. These strikes not only injure, they also become automatic checks which keep the opponent from retaliating because when targets are hit, they normally do not retaliate by hitting back.

NO MIND/PERIPHIAL VISION
In a fight situation, the survival part of the brain takes over, witht he subconscious taking over from the conscious mind and directing our body to survive after-action. Like a wild animal we become spontaneous masters of asaptability with all our action being both defensive and offensive.

This is often referred to as the 'NO MIND' state of mind or the state of 'DOING WITHOUT DOING'.

In the 'No mind' state we will automatically use peripheral as opposed to focus vision. Instead of focusing on the attacker's individual weapons which will make us oblivious to what the other parts of his body are doing, our mind and vision are instead locked onto the space which is occupied by his body, as he moves, his space moves, therefore we move accordingly.

The 'No mind' state is developed as a direct result of training diligently over a long period of time. Thousands of hours of solo and two person training in our techniques, forms, sets and sparring give us the ability to act calmly and spontaneously in a flash, when the situation warrants it.

Techniques are undoubtedly an essential part of our training, but we must not restrict ourselves to predetermind moves and prevent ourselves from being spontaneous. Streetfighting happens much too fast for techniques to work. When learning techinques we should look at the principles inherent in every technique and make sure that we are pplying the priciples correctly - it is not how many techniques we do which is important, but how many we learn.

The years of training in techinques, form,set in conjunction with our sparring will teach us mind/body co-ordination, proper stance, posture, manoeuvering, timing, speed and power over short distances, thus enabling us to go into the 'No Mind' state, when the situation warrants it.

The beauty of it is, once in the 'No Mind' state, because of the years of training in all the above, our body will know exactly how to react in countering our attacker's offensive action.

Athos Antoniades is head of the National Kenpo Karate Association (NKKA) and runs a number of Kenpo clubs in the London area. He has recently completed a training video on the Principles of a American Kenpo, which covers such areas as power, speed, peripheral vision, 'No Mind' and much more. Also included in the video will be a bonus Kenpo Action film starring Athos entitled The Chase. The video costs "24.95 +"2.00 p&p and can be ordered from NKKA, 8 Percy Road, London N12 8BU, United Kingdom. Tel 0181 446 1172

PRESS RELEASE
Athos Antoniades is head of the National Kenpo Karate Association and is, surprisingly as it may sound, the only American Kenpo instructor in London, running a number of successful clubs.

Athos first discovered Kenpo whilst recovering from a knee cartilage operation, an injury sustaned during a Kickboxying tournament. Recovering from the operation, he looked around for a style to train in which incorporated a lot of hand movements, thinking this would allow him to continue training until he made a full recovery from the knee injury. Kenpo's no nonesense approach to streetfighting got him hooked to this dynamic and exciting martial art. He never returned to Kickboxing. Gaining his 1st Dan Black Belt under Master Bob Rose, Athos then travelled to America on a regular basis to train with some of Kenpo's top instructors and gained his 3rd Dan.

Athos finds it unacceptable that Kenpo, which is probably the most popular style in America and massive in Ireland (Dublin) is so thin on the ground in England. He is on a mission to spread toe word and has had a trememndous success in London currently running three successfuly clubs.

The fact that Athos is the only American Kenpo instructor in London aroused the interest of the major martial arts magazines who often carry articles and features on him. It was one of these articles that made it possible for him to promote kenpo through films.

After a feature in Fighters magazine, Athos was approached by a film production company Red Moon Productions to appear in the feature film Ashes to Ashes. As well as appearing in the film he eventually choreographed most of the fight scenes - for which he credits Kenpo's flashy but effective techniques. Athos comments "I was sitting around one day waiting to go on set when the director asked for my opinion opn a certain fight scene. I showed them the techinques 'Evading the Storm' and 'Flashing Mace' adn that was it. I was immediately promoted to Fight Co-ordinator."

Athos enjoyed working on the film so much tha the wrote his own story and made his own 'short' Kenpo action packed film 'The Chase' which is based on an experience he encountered involving a group of thugs attempting to abduct a group of young girls. It had always been his intention to make a series of training tapes so he uniquely combined his first tape on The Principles of American Kenpo covering power, speed distance, no mind,peripheral vision with The Chase. The running time of the tape is approximately one hour.