ALPHABET OF KENPO

There is an old saying, that "you can’t teach an old dog new tricks", this adage is sometimes taken literally and can be a deterrent to many older people, who will probably find it daunting enough to undertake a new fitness programme, combined with a change of lifestyle, as extreme for them, as taking up martial arts. Especially when you imagine coming into a studio full of gymnastic teens, able to perform 360° spinning kick, with a back flip and landing in a box split, and all this when you yourself cannot put on a pair of socks without having to sit down. If you combine this with the need to learn a foreign language, just so that you can understand what your English-speaking instructor is trying to get you to do, then it is understandable if the whole thing becomes too much to undertake and a person opts to join the local bridge club instead. It is for this reason why KENPO karate, as opposed to other styles of martial arts, is the best choice of systems for the older individual to select.

There are a number of elements, which are built into KENPO, which help in the learning of the style, and the most simple and beneficial is our use of language and imagery. If our native language is English, then I feel that it serves no useful purpose, except possibly a feeling of elitism and separatism to learn an Eastern language. A right snap kick is just that, no matter what you call it, and while in a class and drilling moves, if an instruction is called and the brain must go through the process of receiving it through the ear transmitting it through to the brain, translating it, and then sending the relative impulses to the limbs, who will then perform the movement. Even though this process will, with practice, only take a millisecond, it is an unnecessary burden on the beginner, and I imagine that, over the years there have been countless people who because of a fear of misunderstanding an instruction, and a feeling that they would look foolish in front of a group, have left other styles.

This is not the case with KENPO. By using English (obviously in the case of English speaking countries only ), we take a little of the mysticism out and keep the practical in. Our system of technique names may to the outsider, or beginner, sound like a low budget Hong Kong movie, but if we take a few moments to explain the use of language and imagery to a new student, it can help them in their understanding and memory of techniques. By way of our use of word imagery, such as calling an elbow a wing, or a rigid hand chop a sword, not only can we picture the elbow looking like a wing, or a chopping hand looking like a sword being yielded, but it can help a person to understand and remember what is meant when they, for example, come across the techniques of Obscure Wing and Obscure Sword. Similarly, the use of the word obscure in the name will convey the concept of an attack coming from an area which can just be seen in their peripheral vision.

If we continue with this train of thought it can help us to visualise the images of charging rams, thundering hammers and raining lances, and to remember the techniques to which these seemingly medieval names are being applied. Words can paint pictures, and pictures and images are easier for the memory function of the brain to store away for recall at a later time. If we see a beautiful rainbow seeming to reach into a forested valley, it is the image which will be indelibly imprinted on our mind, and which we will always remember at a later time, and not a series of words describing exactly we saw.

Likewise when we hear the words raining or thrusting lance, it is the image of a knife coming raining down at you, or being thrust at you, which immediately spring to mind (to the KENPO mind anyway). Remembering the name of a technique and picturing the attack, which the defence is against is all very well, but when a technique is composed of ten to twenty co-ordinated moves and reactions, then there must be a way of teaching and formulating these moves so they are easier to learn and apply.

I have had the privilege of training a number of times with Professor John Sepulveda, his ability to teach, and his style of teaching can make the seemingly most complex combination of moves accessible to any KENPO practitioner, no matter what their level of competency.He can paint pictures with words, which can make you literally visualise his ideas. I once heard him explain a way of looking at the learning process, which I shall now borrow from him to help illustrate my belief in the suitability of KENPO, and its methodology of learning.

Imagine coming into your first KENPO class. You did not start off by learning long form four, instead you probably began by drilling inward blocks, right and left, right and left, again and again. Over those first few months you spent most of every class drilling basics, or trying to grasp the complexities of managing to step back, simultaneously with the inward block in Delayed Sword.

Every one of us began that way, until bit-by-bit, month-by-month and year after year we began to put more and more sequences together. Professor Sepulveda suggested that we apply the concept of learning the alphabet to learning KENPO. If we take a move such as the aforementioned right inward block, and call it A. We could possibly call a left inward block B, a right neutral bow C, a left front kick D etc, etc. As we learn more and more letters of the alphabet, we will find ourselves putting them together in different ways, and thus spelling words. These different words are the techniques of KENPO.

If we take it a step further, and put these combinations of letters together into longer sequences, they become like sentences. We then discover that we are performing forms or sets. Taking the example even further still, we can write our own sentences and thus formulate our own forms. If you imagine all the above as learning a new language, then I would like you to hold onto that thought, as I further apply the analogy, to an older person learning KENPO. Just as when we learn a new language, it may take years to become fluent, and even then, an Irishman living in Paris, or an American living in Dublin, for thirty years or so, will always retain an accent and sound like a foreigner. But he will be understood.

Conversely a person who learns a basic vocabulary, and can put together a few simple sentences can also be understood. Some people who learn another language will always be heavily accented. They can speak and hold a conversation which can get their ideas across, but they may never get to the level of competence of writing a piece of classical literature. The same can also be said of an older person taking up KENPO. Some vocabulary of motion may never be physically attainable to the older person, but we can look at it two ways. One way, is the concept of self defence. If a person is attacked with a front right punch, and the only technique that they can successfully perform is Delayed Sword, then they have been successful in defending themselves. They have achieved what they set out to do.

Just like a person who speaks broken, ungrammatical French or German, will be understood, so also will a person who is physically only able to perform basic blocks and strikes, without being able to implement the delicacies of nerve strikes, or the acrobatics of jumping turning kicks, will also be able to defend themselves.

This is true, no matter what age a person is, coming into KENPO. After that first class that was previously mentioned, a person should be at least able to perform the most rudimentary version of an inward block, which in the realm of possibility could save them coming home from that very first class. Our basic vocabulary has a letter for most types of attacks, and defences. As time goes on, we find that we can use different and longer words to mean the same thing, but we can never say that we had never come across any word, no matter how basic, or accented, to deal with any attack which may be thrown at us. If that basic physical level of movement is all that they are able to attain, and they can utilise it, then they are performing the very tailoring of the art, of which I spoke about earlier, and which I believe to be the soul of KENPO, probably taken to its limits.

The second way to look at limited vocabulary of motion, is simply by way of exercise and fitness. An older person may decide to take up KENPO as a combination of new challenge and fitness regime, without contemplating the self-defence element. They may feel that they want an exercise regime, which utilises all parts of the body. Physical movement and co-ordination, combined with using the mind. If this is the case, then all that they basically want to do is to work out to their own level of ability. Simply raising the heart rate is beneficial, as also is using the muscles and the limbs to stop them from seizing up.

From the age of 25 years upwards, our metabolism lessens by 5% every decade. This means that a 45 year old man will need to either increase his exercise regime by 10%, or else reduce his calorie intake by the same percentage, just to keep the onset of middle age spread at bay.

SUMMARY

Whatever the reason is, that an older person may want to take up KENPO. Be it that they are trying to counteract the already occurring onset of old age, or to keep it at bay, or they want to set themselves a new challenge, or even to possibly protect themselves from being seen as easy targets for muggers. I feel that they will find, by the ability to adapt and tailor the level of vocabulary of motion to suit whatever they can physically manage, that they can achieve more than they ever imagined. Whatever the reason that they originally contemplated choosing KENPO, be it defensive, or a new health habit, they will discover that all that they ask of the art will be given to them in return