Excerpts from the Diary of a “Mad” Kenpo Scientist, Part Three

SubLevel Four Kenpo Concepts

(by Ron Chapél, Ph.D. msuafc.com 1-15-16)

(Published in Martial Sport Magazine Mar. 03)

Up until the passing of Ed Parker I had not given much thought to the diversity of Ed Parker’s teachings over the years, and its affect on what he, in general called “American Kenpo.” I considered myself a good friend first and a student second, and I assumed his contemporary lessons for me were no different than others he considered “close.” I watched him teach and influence a variety of motion Kenpo-Karate based concepts over the years. He continued to share with former students who had gone on their own, as well as his current black belts who taught commercially. However I really thought there were others he was teaching similarly to myself and never gave it much thought. In all fairness, who really knows?

 

After his passing I was caught off guard at the amount of curiosity students at all levels of Kenpo had about where my information came from. I took for granted and spoke of things they had never heard of from an American Kenpo perspective. I was further surprised how strongly some argued that such things “didn’t exist in Ed Parker’s system” and how their personal understanding of his creation was “complete.” Others simply assumed his Infinite Insight series of books were the collective sum of his knowledge. “How arrogant,” I thought to myself for someone to assume they know all Ed Parker knew, or the sum of his knowledge was in a few books on concepts. Others wanted to know where this information was written down. Still others asked the question, “Why didn’t Ed Parker teach me that?” That’s a question they should probably reserve for themselves.

 

Clearly there are advanced aspects to Mr. Parker’s commercial vehicle he often privately called Motion-Kenpo. However I personally use the word “advanced” to mean knowledge not contained therein, not to demean or as a put down of other concepts. I coined the terms Advanced American Kenpo Concepts, and SubLevel Four based on phrases Ed Parker always used when he wanted to work on very specific areas in my interaction with him. He borrowed the former and used it himself on the jackets of the videos his son produced.

 

This advanced level of Kenpo, shortened sometimes to SL-4™ tends to be misunderstood because it covers multiple areas of applications. When SubLevel Four is used to strike, nerves are activated through Destructive Sequencing utilizing Chinese Acupuncture Meridians and nerves embedded in cavities. This causes the subject to involuntarily react in a predictable manner and creates a Negative Body Posture. This places him at an anatomical disadvantage. In simple terms, nerve cavities are made accessible and body positioning is mechanically restricted and vulnerable, thus the term Negative Body Posture.

 

This unique methodology effectively manipulates his body for each additional action until he is essentially incapacitated by a bodily dysfunction called Physical/Mental Disassociation, or actual and complete unconsciousness. At the very least your adversary is severely momentarily physically restricted. During this striking process, minor or major manipulations are employed to assist in placing the opponent into a negative posture to facilitate the desired nerve cavities being “open” and accessible. Once that occurs, particular natural weapons are then executed in a specific method, manner, angle, and known sequence in conjunction with the created negative posture. This process is initiated by your opponent’s own aggressive actions and posture. When you are capable of understanding as well as reading Martial Posture, you know what nerves are most easily accessed based on his actions. Although it would seem to be a complicated process, with proper basic training it really is not. Freshman students routinely do it quite effectively. The method is all in the design of the Default Techniques and the level of knowledge in their execution. If you learn the technique properly, it functions on its own. Like with an automobile, when you turn the ignition key, a series of very complex things take place in successive order. You don’t really have to know how or why these things happen to be a driver, you just have to know how to turn the key.

(for the rest of the article please follow link)

http://msuacf.com/excerpts-from-the-diary-of-a-mad-kenpo-scientist-part-three/