A couple of points were brought up by members this week which I answered in class
Shamrock has seen a YouTube clip of a kenpo instructor demonstrating five swords. The final sword, the lateral shuto to the throat followed by the low back kick as you turn away was explained in a strange way. The explanation was of bending over to touch towards the ground as you throw your leg back the other way, allegedly to get more power.
The problem here is the so called instructor, while probably capable to explaining five swords if he just stuck to explaining it properly was trying to put his own spin on it, probably to sound knowledgable, some kind of expert with inside knowledge other people song have. This is a big problem with public teachers who do big public seminars and get posted on YouTube, ego and greed.
The truth is, the pure Kempo striking method you simply chop the throat and the add the extra kick to the lowline, which can be the leg or groin, as you step out, maybe escaping, or maybe turning to the next opponent. All techniques that involve a few moves and last more than a couple of beats involve moving up the circle or line due to what else may be happening, such as the presence of a second attacker.
The truth is the mechanics where you bend forward, throw the arm that way and kick back are a throwing technique. This is not employed what you are stepping away to strike, it is off when you are caught in a clinch and turn away to make a throw.
This throw can be uchi mata, where your leg lifts his inner thigh, or harai gosh, where your leg is outside his hip and you bump him over it.
The throwing down arm is, of course, an example of tsuki komi push pull method used in jujutsu and judo throwing techniques.
As well as showing the dynamics of these throws, we looked at how we take muso dori, the straight Armbar, with a groin rear scoop kick, followed by uchi mata otoshi, to slam his face to the ground. Ganseki nage can be achieved from this position, and Ganseki otoshi is the obviously related technique.
We then went on to look at how the first three moves of the five star block sequence, used in punch range to defend a jab, cross, hook attack, are, against a lapel grab, a rising arm break followed by a lateral arm break, followed by a strike, the common strike being the shuto, last sword from five swords
The important point is to isolate any art, in this case Kempo, without having the jujutsu to understand the more complete art of Kempo jujutsu, the proper application of the movement when the range changes from punching to trapping to grappling, means the so called instructor will miss the point and end up making something that is complete nonsense
Be careful of anything you watch online, especially as it's being given away for free. What is the incentive for a so called professional instructor to give something away fir free on YouTube? It's usually down to ego.
