Horizontal Grappling

(comments by Dr. Ron Chapél from a discussion on Facebook) 

Mr. Parker came to a reasonable conclusion that most seem to ignore in favor of what he called, "Horizontal Grappling." This was really big in the fifties and Mr. Parker predicted the wrestling/kickboxing popularity would return. But he also said for street self-defense purposes over the competition variety, there is a reasonable priority one must accept. 

Mr. Parker had a Judo/Jiujitsu background so he was speaking from experience. He said, all horizontal grappling if it occurs on the street, would begin as vertical grappling first. He reminded me of Judo Randori where you must defend against both, and points are given for the takedowns as well as the submissions. It doesn't make sense to ignore what happens standing up, so you can train on the ground. This is what I call an "Assumption of Failure." 

If your overriding philosophy is, "All fights go to the ground" then it makes some sense, kinda. But my decades of experience on the streets in rough neighborhoods as a cop tells me otherwise. In fact, it truly is the opposite. 

Because of the vulnerability of being on the ground "in the hood," two guys throwing blows at each other who both go down, will disengage so they can stand up and start all over again. Neither one wants to be on the ground, and even this scenario is extremely rare. 

The answer he said was always "footwork" and it is one of the least-known aspects of the arts because teachers do not have the knowledge or the labor-intensive will to teach it, and it has zero commercial appeal. I'm reminded of the uneven Shaolin Temple Floors in China littered with divots from nothing but foot and stance training over the years. 

So, to concede the failure of your ability to remain upright, and concentrate your training on the horizontal ground would seem to ignore a huge chunk of street truth. If an attacker's strength is in ground grappling, of course, he wants to take you to the ground, and it's a great selling point in the business of martial arts.

So you see, Mr. Parker suggested students front load their training priorities as he placed them in the Web of Knowledge. At least it is something to think about. Ask any of my students and the one phrase they all hear in their sleep is, "Fix your feet!" for a reason.

A story told by Mr. Tom Bleecker

Back in the mid-1960s I was a member of Ed Parker’s demo team and often demonstrated the Black Belt Set (now known by most as the Two Man Set) with a brown belt named Jimmy (“Little Jimmy”) Doughtery. Jimmy and I had that form down to a science. One afternoon Ed Parker gave a demonstration at a health club where everyone was gathered around the pool area. Near the end of the demonstration, Jimmy and I were called upon to perform the Black Belt Set. Jimmy walked to a specific spot and waited for me to take position. When we ended the form with my executing the lock-out side kick, Jimmy’s block was right on the money, and as he spun me around 180 degrees, much to my horror I found my left foot positioned at the edge of the pool. It was too late, and in I went with a huge splash. It got a great laugh and most everyone probably felt it was prearranged. It wasn’t. Later Jimmy confessed that he had arrived at the club early and mapped out the form and had positioned himself at the outset in the very spot he knew would land me in the pool.

Ms. Brittany Tatum on the value of learning the technique extensions

(from a recent conversation on Facebook)

Extensions afford us more opportunities to sharpen our sophisticated basics, identity master key movements, further connect our upper middle and lower case and bring all of it into further study of the Universal Pattern. 

Also, continuing the technique is a great way to practice destroying the attacker’s foundation, which translates nicely into developing one’s sparring mindset. You can also use extensions to position the “body” or what’s left as an additional shield, trip hazard, distraction, when facing multi attackers.

Another book I'll probably have to get

(from Jaime Elias Castro's Facebook page)

After two years of intense work, I am excited to be able to share with you all my first literary work. Writing about a myth so dissected by the media as Bruce Lee is not an easy task. That is why I always told myself that if one day I dedicated my time to him again it would be to offer something new and unknown about him. His millions of admirers around the world deserve no less from me.

The journey has been long and sometimes exhausting, but since I visited San Francisco’s Chinatown for the first time in 2010 and got to know the places where the story took place, I had clear its meaning.

One of the key moments in Bruce Lee’s life took place in November 1964. The Chinese martial arts community of the Bay Area in San Francisco, tired of the continuous attacks of the Little Dragon, sent a master named Wong Jack Man to take down this young man from nowhere who questioned all the established canons and attacked centuries of martial tradition.

That fight, which could have gone unnoticed, became the most ‘unknown’ and discussed about martial fight of the 20th century. An episode of such magnitude in the life of Bruce Lee is something that had hardly been dealt with in the necessary depth, much less in our language. I sincerely believe that this work succeeds in clearing up all doubts surrounding the fight forever.

The book, created in a large format, 170 pages and 200 photographs, tries to transport us to another era. It was always my intention to place the reader at the epicentre of the historical, social and cultural context in which these events took place. No work done to date has managed to bring together such a quantity of testimonies, interviews and press clippings about a fight that changed the history of the martial arts forever. A duel that led Bruce Lee to evolve as a martial artist, to create the Jeet Kune Do and to install martial arts in the most absolute modernity

Note: Pending tying up a few small details, I will be able to announce shortly the date of the presentation of the work and its release date. Thank you very much.

A few Kenpo quotes

"Kenpo is the thinking man's pugilism." - Mr. Stephen LaBounty

"A kid asked me once when do you know you're fast and I said when you need holsters for your hands." - Mr. Larry Tatum

“We don’t break rules….we just bend them real bad!” - Mr. Huk Planas

“Let others talk about whatever your rank is, you should spend your time proving them right - or wrong." - Dr. Ron Chapel

“The problem isn't the bad techniques, it’s the bad technicians.” - Mr. Frank Trejo

"If you hand a calculator to a chimpanzee, he'll throw it away as useless." - Mr. Parker

A small mystery solved

Over three years ago I posted this photo of Mr. Parker in an Aikido dojo,

https://kenponotes.blogspot.com/2021/09/mr-parker-in-aikido-dojo.html

I had no information on the photo, it was just Mr. Parker in an Aikido dojo shaking someone's hand. Well, we can all sleep a little easier now. Thanks to a recent interview with Mr. Chuck Sullivan the mystery has been solved. 

Mr. Sullivan talked about how he got started in the martial arts and how he met Mr. Parker for the first time. Turns out that Mr. Sullivan had been out of the Marines for a few years and he was out of shape, and was looking to get back into shape. As a kid living in Chicago he had always wanted to study Judo but there were no Judo schools accessible to him. Then one day his brother-in-law told him that a Judo school had just opened only a couple of blocks from their house (Los Angeles area) so he went to check it out.

On the dojo's exterior it had the words "Aikido, Judo, Karate." Apparently the building was being shared and used a couple of nights a week by each martial arts instructor. 

That same week he was able to go observe one of the Kenpo classes which was being taught by James Ibrao and he was hooked. At the next class he went to observe he met Mr. Parker himself.

"It had been an Aikido school and it had been run by an Air Force sergeant who would train the guys and then when he would get transferred he'd leave his most advanced student in charge. And at this time he didn't have an advanced student advanced enough and he sold it to Ed Parker. He said you know, I got nobody... if you want it you can have it at a decent price. Whatever it was, I don't know what their deal was, but uh, he said why don't you do a demonstration for my guys and if they like you enough... they'll come over... he got every one of them. I mean he did a demonstration, he got every one of 'em, I mean they transferred right on over."

Then Mr. Sullivan talked about how later Mr. Parker closed up that school to open up his Pasadena school, and the rest is history.

JOE PALANZO: Triple Punch article