Mischievous Ramblings II

Pistolcraft vs. Kenpo as Martial Arts, part 1

I wrote:

But I will say that I have a new appreciation for pistolcraft as a martial art, having visited Gunsite Academy in Paulden, AZ for a one week Pistol 250 class in January.  I would say it took 3-5 years of regular training (2+ hours a night 3-4 nights a week) to feel comfortable in my ability to handle a situation with Kenpo.  One week of excellent training on top of years of casual shooting might have done it using a pistol.

And Dr. Slammy commented:

Wow. You really think you made THAT much progress? I mean, that much Kenpo is going to make it pretty much instinctive, right?

And here's my (somewhat) long-winded explanation:

They're very different.  Consider the decision tree, to begin with.  Ed Parker's Kenpo teaches well over 100 different techniques.  They are not intened to be used verbatim, but represent examples of self defense motion.  If you try to decide which technique to use, you'll spend so much time shuffling position, attack, defense, and environment that you'll get your clock cleaned.  There are ways to reduce the combinatorial explosion, including muscle memory, becoming creatively post-technique, and probably others my cold and fevered brain can't come up with right now.  The decision tree on a firearm in a typical situation consists of "am I in immediate threat of lethal force?  then shoot the threat until it stops".  It's a very different thing.

If you are a responsible martial artists, you have to make the determination that it's worth fighting right now.  As a student of the arts who is aware of commotio cordis, I understand that any punch thrown is potentially lethal, and that is the bar that I set for fighting: if life is not threatened, walk away.  That calculation is the same one that allows for use of a firearm in self defense (generally speaking -- I am not a lawyer):

• is the potential victim Innocent of current wrongdoing?
• is the threat Imminent?
• is the response Proportional?
• can the threat be Avoided?
• am I being Resonable in evaluating these questions?

Regarding "avoidance", I'm just going to include it and not worry about Castle Doctrine or Stand Your Ground and just assume, from the beginning, that I would prefer not to kill someone if I don't have to -- if I can avoid the situation I should do so.  That closes a big can of worms that I'm not going to address while my brain is cold/fever fried.

So for me, the calculation of whether this is worth fighting over is very close to the question of whether this is worth shooting someone over.  As such, the decision tree for using a firearm in self defense is much shorter than the decision tree for using Kenpo.  Kenpo allows for much more proportionality in response, but as soon as a punch is thrown, the encounter is already potentially lethal.

So that's the decision tree part.  Now to the training part.  I mentioned that Kenpo teaches more than 100 techniques, plus kata, fighting/sparring techniques, sets, and a large collection of basics (kicks, blocks, punches, parries, stances, movements,....).  Gunsite teaches a five-count presentation:

 

On top of which you must understand stance, sight alignment, grip, and trigger press.  All of which are simple if not easy.  But the basic "technique" that you will use once you enter a fight is pretty well set.  The variables are fewer and their variation generally less.  (generally -- I'm sick, so be nice)

There's just a lot less to learn in order to effectively use a pistol.  Which is what makes them so useful to people who don't want to spend 8-10 hours per week at the dojo in order to protect themselves.  We could require all police officers to spend 3 years getting an effective black belt in martial arts, but instead we send them to the police academy and teach them to shoot.  (Yes, they learn hand-to-hand techniques as well).  It's just more efficient.

In addition, a handgun is a far better tool for a small, weak, or physically challenged individual than a black belt is.  A handgun can be used from a position of disadvantage.  It can be used against multiple attackers.  It can be used at range.

And it's way more effective against Zombies.

 

"God made Men, Samuel Colt made them Equal"

Since I cannot physically practice Kenpo anymore, I've had to reconsider personal defense.  White American males of my age and class are not prime candidates for violent crime, and Kenpo has for years been more of a fascinating physical and mental discipline than a plan for Der Tag, but I do occasionally worry about my ability to deal with a situation since I can't practice and I can't count on my body to perform under stress.

When we moved back to the US, we had some specific concerns about Sara's safety.  She appeared on at least one list of people destroying America on some rather unsavory rightwing sites.  Having had some previous experience with a stalker, we took the matter rather seriously for a while, but eventually concluded that her lowered profile was probably sufficient protection.

During our research, however, we determined that Washington state has some of the weakest, if not the weakest, requirements to obtain a concealed carry permit in the country.  I'm not going to talk about the sense of that, at least not now, but we did look at obtaining carry permits.  With a carry permit (called a CPL -- Concealed Pistol License) you can carry concealed (Washington is generally an open carry state) in most locations and you don't have to deal with waiting periods while buying firearms in Washington state because they've already done a background check on you.  You still need to do background checks as required by law (e.g. any firearm you buy from a licensed dealer), but there are no statutory waiting periods.

Each having a background with guns (both of us had at least partially rural upbringings, and my father thought he wanted to be Ernest Hemingway when he grew up), we had seriously discussed whether it was necessary to teach our children to shoot and about gun safety.  We decided that they were more likely to be urbanites that we were, and put all our firearms in storage during their years in our house (and of course they stayed in storage in the US while we were in Canada).  We never expected Kiernan to be the paintball reincarnation of Wyatt Earp :-).

With our empty nest came a desire to re-examine and re-experience shooting.  We have bought several new firearms and visited a variety of local ranges as well as taking handgun training classes.

No, I'm not going to announce whether or not we have CPLs, nor am I going to announce whether or not we carry legally or otherwise.

But I will say that I have a new appreciation for pistolcraft as a martial art, having visited Gunsite Academy in Paulden, AZ for a one week Pistol 250 class in January.  I would say it took 3-5 years of regular training (2+ hours a night 3-4 nights a week) to feel comfortable in my ability to handle a situation with Kenpo.  One week of excellent training on top of years of casual shooting might have done it using a pistol.  I put videos of the two simulators on youtube here and here.

So there will be quite a bit more conversation about guns than there has been.  Since I doubt there are a whole lot of readers out there, I don't know if it matters.  If I offend you and you leave, sorry about that.

Back troubles, self-defense, & helping Mr. Frank Trejo

I studied American Kenpo actively for 10-ish years, covering nearly half my adult life when you consider the off-and-on nature of it.  I studied at Master John Sepulveda's Santa Clara Kenpo Karate in the Bay Area, Shayne Simpson's in Bellingham, and Chris Hermann's Alpha Martial Arts in Seattle, and other instructors included Mr. Buda, Mr. Tabb, Mr Graves, and Professor Skip Hancock from Spokane.  In late 2011 I received my black belt from Mr. Hermann.

I also seriously injured my back during the test.  I had first thrown my back out in about 1978 while moving into my dorm room at Pomona College by reaching out and lifting an empty cardboard box.  Periodically since I've had to spend some time doing PT, seeing a chiropractor, or taking serious painkillers because my back had gone out again -- usually because I did something stupid, like carried too much firewood, or pushed myself too hard.  In the black belt test I overexerted doing a pulling drill.  It was my breakthrough moment for the test, but it cost me.  I tried to return to the mat several times, but after re-injuring my back about six months later I gave up.

I have not been back to Alpha Martial Arts or stepped on a dojo mat since.  I've done months of Physical Therapy, worked (and still work) with a Personal Trainer, and am up to working out three times a week at a local gym.  But I know myself, and even at my now-best, I do not want to re-injure myself.  I know enough to know that I will not go 50% or 75% or whatever it is that I can do without injury.  I have to stay off the mat.

And it's too painful to go watch what I can't do anymore, so I have not been back into a dojo since about six months after my test.  Until Saturday (yesterday), when Alpha Martial Arts held a benefit seminar for Mr. Frank Trejo, who's got some medical issues.  I knew I could not get on the mat, and I knew that I should not stay and watch while I'm fighting a cold (no reason to infect others), so I just stopped by to drop off a donation.  I watched perhaps 5-10 minutes of Mr. Durgan teaching, and ached to be back on the mat.  It hurt not to get on the mat.

Because I can't do Kenpo anymore, I've had to reconsider my personal defense, and I have done some weapons and lethal force training, which I'll talk about later.

A Personal Landmark

My training lineage:
T-shirt of Mr. Simpson's lineage: Ed Parker's American Kenpo (top of triangle);
Skip Hancock's Kenpo 2000 (left); Mr. Simpson's Pacific Northwest Karate Center.
T-Shirt of Alpha Martial Arts' logo. Black belt including my name and Alpha
Martial Arts' logo.  Photograph by Evan Robinson.  Click to embiggen.

Sara wrote to an email list we're on:

Evan's been doing Kenpo karate for as long as I've known him. Longer, actually: when I met him, he was a 25-year-old four-night-a-week dojo rat with six-pac abs and an appetite for esoteric books on management of violent conflict. Kenpo is a big guy's art, a very technical kind of karate that's favored by bouncers, bodyguards, and other people for whom self-defense is a serious business. In fact, Kenpo was founded by Elvis's Hawaiian bodyguard, Ed Parker; and Elvis himself had a Kenpo black belt. Evan took some workshops with Ed Parker back in the day, and has always sought out teachers who were directly Parker-trained.

But Evan quit Kenpo at 28,  just a few months shy of getting his black belt...though he's never stopped training on his own through all the years that followed.

Fast forward to four years ago. We're in Vancouver, and Evan's been piddling around with a local dojo that (ahem) lacks the rigor of the far more serious one he'd trained with in Santa Clara. But he finds a really great one over the border in Bellingham, which is closely affiliated with Parker's most respected remaining student. We're making weekly trips there anyway, so he joins up, digs out his brown belt, and gets back into training.

When he moved to Seattle last year, he asked the Bham dojo for a referral to another school in the city. We bought our house, in part, because it's a 10-minute drive from this one.

Long story short: Tonight, Evan finally received his long-delayed black belt, after a seven-hour marathon test that started at 9 am this morning and ran until 4 pm. I was there for the last couple hours of it, and was amazed at both the rigor, and the fact that my 50-year-old guy was holding up under it. He was probably the oldest person testing -- and also the biggest, and also one of the two or three most skilled. (They call him "Po" -- the Kung Fu panda.)

One of the universal rituals of martial arts is that when you're given your black belt, your instructor gives you a ceremonial kick in the gut. Usually, one or two other instructors stand behind you to catch you if you should get knocked over. 

Evan was the last candidate kicked. When his turn came, nine instructors got off the bench to come and stand behind him to support him. Pretty sweet. When I came down to the mat to hug him afterward, his heavy canvas gi was completely drenched with sweat -- not a dry spot on him anywhere. He's resting now, after a hot shower, a steak dinner, and a stiff dose of ibuprofen....

Half a lifetime. And about time, too.

I blush :-).

I have trained at: John Sepulveda's Santa Clara Kenpo Karate in Santa Clara, CA (an IKKA school) in the late '80s and early '90s; Shayne Simpson's Pacific Northwest Karate Center in Bellingham, WA (Kenpo 2000 under Professor Hancock); with Professor Skip Hancock in Spokane, WA (Kenpo 2000); and now with Mr. Chris Herrman of Alpha Martial Arts in Seattle, WA (under Mr. Brian MacDonald of Boston, MA).  Each of them (and my individual instructors, including Jesse Guel, Marcus Buonfiglio, Jeff Buda, Howard Tabb, Master John Sepulveda, Tom Graves, Greg Moench, Penny Simpson, and Shayne Simpson) have contributed greatly to my understanding of the art and ability to perform.

Without going into details (and thus providing spoilers for other students of Mr. Herrman's), I will say that the two part blackbelt test (90+ minutes Wednesday night of conditioning and sparring and about six hours of running/biking; pad & bag work; sets; self-defense techniques; and forms on Saturday) was certainly the most difficult physical challenge I have ever faced in a non-survival situation, and possibly the most difficult physical challenge ever.

Yes, it was worse than the Grouse Grind :-).

But deeply satisfying to have completed.

My thanks for the congratulations I have received.

Ten Laws of Kempo

Recently there have been many mentions at the dojo of "The Ten Laws of Kempo".  Since I've not seen a written list I turned to the Internet.  There are any number of pages, but they all seem to contain substantially the same text, which appears to have been published by Black Belt Magazine, authored by Professor Charles Mattera.  Since Professor Mattera is the head of the USSD organization which is where I train, I think it's likely that these are the laws being discussed.