Kenpo's Compounding by Athos Antoniades
(IRISH FIGHTER Vol. 8. No. 4.)

American Kenpo Karate is based on a rapid succession of strikes in sequential flow, which allows the practitioner to take advantage of every conceivable natural weapon during the execution of an attack. Once the practitioner has committed to an attack they follow through with an unending flurry of strikes with their body moving in directional harmony, whereby all body parts are moving harmoniously in the same direction. This is continued until the attacker has been totally subduded.

Whereas many martial styles emphasise using the use of one powerful blow in an attempt to defeat an opponent, in Kenpo the practitioner uses a de of open and closed hand strikes, kicks and sweeps. In the Kenpo system this concept is known as 'compounding'. It can be thought of as a powerfu hammer-like action that never lets up until the opponent is just overwhelmed by the sheer force and speed of the techniques that are continually raining down on him or her.

Compounding is the soul of the Kenpo system adn is what makes the art so unique in the martial arts world. Kenpo is often criticised as being the style of overkill, but I would argue tha tonce you have committed yourself to an attack you should continue with it until your opponent is defeated.

If we start and stop, without neutralising the attacker, we may end up neutralised ourselves! The tehory behind the compounding concept is: if you can roll off any number of techniques in oen flowing attack, you are sure to strike your target with one of your chosen weapons adn even if you are blocked during the attack you simply couter off the opponent's block and keep on attacking in a flowing sequence. Continuously training in this method of fighting will entrench the concept into the subconscious, so that, after a while, compounding becomes automatic.

We do not have to cock and chamber every strike but rather allow our techniques to flow liek water by using the 'point of origin' principle. Each strike follows from the previous one without actually having to withdraw the hand. Instead we work on teh bases that, for instance, as the funch goes in, the hadn is already in the target area so tehrefore without drawing it back to strike again - like so many other martial styles do - we merely convert the outstretched hand to form another strike weapon and commit it to the already on-going attack. The springlike wind up of the body, using the principles of torgue and body mechanics, allows further power to facilitate extra strikes with the same hand.

In my American Kenpo Taiji, we have further enhanced the potency of compounding by incorporating the internal martial aspects of other arts into each strike. Each strike within a compounding sequence is aimed at a deadly Dim Mak (pressure) point, thus causing energy disruption as well as physical damage. Also by encouraging the use of our Reptilian brain, effectively taking us into survival mode, and using body connectivity to make each of our strikes a Fa-Jing (explosive energy) strike, we can further enhance our power by up to seven times.