Kenpo Self Defence

What keeps trained martial artists awake at night are situations like the following. Meet Mary, she works hard in her Kenpo class and has earned the respect of her fellow students. She knows her stuff, is quick thinking and understands the physical imperatives of a fight. However this evening Mary finds herself faced with a situation that she has not experienced before.

The man in front of her is not threatening her exactly. He’s just standing there but he won’t go away. With Mary is her best friend Sue. The latter is happy to joke with the man but Mary has a bad feeling. She starts to observe her environment. It is later than she had realised and the streets have begun to empty.

Who is this guy? Sometimes the more harm someone intends you the more harmless they pretend to be. She’d like to take the initiative but she doesn’t want to escalate the problem. If she insults him he might get angry, right? She doesn’t want to get into trouble. And if the man is no stranger to crime, when challenged he will make sure to tell her so. Even the thought of serious and plausible threats directed at you can be frightening.

In principle the girls could make a run for it but Sue isn’t prepared for that. Mary takes her friend by the arm and tries to leave but there is a parked car blocking their path. The man starts to get insistent and Mary watches as he puts his hand in his pocket. Adrenalin begins to push into her bloodstream. It increases her muscles ability to act but makes her feel weak. In apprehension Mary’s brain has already started reapportioning priorities in her cortex. This is why when Mary starts to speak she finds it difficult to think of what to say. She is aware of somebody getting out of a car in front yet she finds herself unable to look at them because her attention is inextricably locked on the angry man in front. She knows that if he draws an edged weapon then their chance of escape will be dramatically reduced. Because of the adrenalin her knees are shaking. This surprises her and she begins to doubt herself only compounding her distress.

She could have been firmer with Sue and steered her to a taxi before they bumped into this guy. Perhaps if Mary had more experience she might have known better what to say to the man. Criminals will tend to avoid people who look and sound like they know what they’re doing. She could hit the guy now and run but as with most situations there is too much doubt and uncertainty. It is not illegal to hit someone first if it is clear that they are just about to hurt you but Mary would need to be careful in presenting this evidence to the police.

Frustrated the man reaches out and grabs Sue. This is assault. Sue may need to submit. There will always be situations where doing nothing is the best thing that you can do. Mary however decides to act. As she has been trained in Kenpo she has already been studying the tactical situation. She has been judging her position relative to her opponent. Her base response and its variables have been catalogued in her mind through careful repetition. Complex martial training fails under combat conditions as peoples’ brains can simply seize up. Whilst there seem to be a multitude of techniques in the Kenpo system really there are only a handful. Like letters in an alphabet many words can be made from a few simple elements. In this way Mary has been trained for fluency not complexity.

Unnoticed Mary has positioned herself in a pre-fight stance. She will need a stable base to take action from. Wrestling on the ground is the fashion in sports fighting but it is a highly unsuitable tactic for a street fight. Mary knows that she must divert the man’s attack then stop any further action. Time will slow down as her brain increases it’s activity but Mary’s perception of time is also changed by her training allowing her to anticipate and cut off her attacker’s advances. She will most likely stop him by causing him pain, by knocking the air out of his lungs or by literally shaking his brain. A front snap kick to her attackers groin causes him to flinch and drop his hands. Mary salutes him with a palm strike to his now unprotected nose. These are the natural actions and reactions that Kenpo utilises. Moreover Mary understands how to use her body dynamically. She isn’t reliant on her muscles for power and she is not left pounding repetitively at her oversized opponent. She knows how to torque her whole body into a target. She forms her weapons to fit their target and uses striking patterns that leave no room and no time for her attacker to regain an initiative. Ironically, the better trained she is the less damage she will need to inflict as she manipulates her attacker.

Of course the psychological distress of a violent encounter can linger longer than any bruises but thankfully her training has given Mary an understanding of these events and the confidence to keep moving forward.