Deacon rolls with the punches

Hard work pays off for 69-year-old martial artist

(valleybreeze.com March 18th, 2020)

Just shy of 70 years old, Kim Deacon’s dedication to the martial arts has grown from a hobby to her life’s passion.

A rare feat, Deacon recently earned her 7th-degree black belt. Less than 2 percent of people studying the martial arts earn their black belt, the color associated with expertise.

Her journey began as the owner of a Woonsocket nightclub in the 1970s and 1980s, where Deacon said fists flew more often than at her martial arts studio. When Deacon was assaulted at her club, her friend Sharon gave her a three-month gift certificate to learn self-defense.

Uneasy, Deacon gave it a go. She hasn’t stopped learning since earning her first belt.

“I thought purple would look nice on a black uniform, so I earned my purple. Then I thought: a brown belt sounds impressive. Then: well, I’m so close to the black belt I’ll work for that,” she said.

In 28 years, she has earned black belts in three systems including Shaolin Kenpo Karate, Nick Cerio Kenpo and American Kenpo.

She described the American Kenpo system, in which she earned her most recent black belt this month, as far more “sensible and street smart.”

“There aren’t kicks to the head,” she explained. “It’s based on typical reactions that the human body would have in an actual fight.”

Instead of very exaggerated forms with big, wide stances, she learned that space is time.

“If you’re taking up too much space with your motion, you’re taking up too much time,” said Deacon, who lives in Woonsocket.

Deacon grasped an important lesson around her third or fourth black belt.

“I realized that it’s not the goal, it’s the journey I was in love with,” she said. “That changed my attitude about studying the art.”

She opened her own studio on Winter Street in Manville called Designed Defense and began teaching classes to children and adults.

“Every student comes in looking for something. Be it confidence, the ability to accept, coordination, the ability to interact with others … to look you in the eye. They may not know it, but I see it,” she said, adding that her goal is to help unlock the potential in her students. “It’s about personal growth,” she said.

Even Deacon is forever learning. “I’m humble enough now to realize that the more I know, the more there is to know,” she said.

Although Deacon was given a shiny new belt upon earning her 7th-degree black belt, she said she’ll continue to use her original black belt.

After decades of practice, the belt that started off black has since faded into a shade of white – the color students earn first. Deacon said it’s a physical sign of her practice coming full circle, remembering her foundations while expanding on her base.

“It’s been a journey that I’ve been so blessed to have been placed on and a path I wouldn’t change,” she said. Over the years Deacon has survived six heart attacks and four stints, but she’s still punching.

Decades after the assault at her club, Deacon said her feelings toward her attacker have faded from hatred to “deep and sincere appreciation.”

If not for him, and for her friend encouraging her to try, Deacon said she wouldn’t be where she is.

“For a few years I saw his face every time I threw a punch,” she said of her assailant. “I can’t remember his face now, but if I saw him again I’d take him to dinner and say thank you.”

https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/deacon-rolls-with-the-punches/article_9fce6814-10f6-55d1-8ad6-82c7ef7f06a5.html

A fun idea from USSD - the 5 Animal Medal Series

The 5 Animal Medal Series is an exclusive set of medals that celebrates your dedication, perseverance, and achievements in martial arts. What makes this collection truly unique is that it comes in 5 separate pieces, each representing a different Shaolin animal: Tiger, Dragon, Snake, Leopard, and Crane – all renowned for their strength, wisdom, and agility.  This medal is in addition to any medals you receive at tournaments for placing 1st - 4th in your division.  Keep reading to learn more...

Here's how the 5 Animal Medal Series works:

Participation and Progression: The journey begins when you compete in a minimum of 4 events at any given tournament. Upon doing that, you will be eligible to receive your first piece of the 5 Animal Medal along with the center USSD bonsai tree that holds it all together.  Then for each tournament that you compete in a minimum of 4 events, you will receive another piece of the medal.

Symbol of Excellence: As you collect each piece, you'll not only build an impressive medal but also showcase your commitment and growth in martial arts.

Coveted Completion: When you have earned all five animal pieces, you will have completed the 5 Animal Medal Series, earning a highly coveted and prestigious award to demonstrate your accomplishments.

Unite the Animals: Once you possess all five pieces, you can combine them to create an extraordinary and unique medal representing your personal journey through the martial arts.

This series aims to inspire our students to push their limits and embrace the spirit of competition, fostering a sense of camaraderie among students in all of United Studios of Self Defense.

We believe this initiative will encourage you to set new goals, participate in various events, and showcase your skills. Whether you're an experienced practitioner or just starting out, the 5 Animal Medal Series is a fantastic way to motivate yourself and celebrate your progress.

Ed Parker Jr. artwork done for Mr. Chapél

 

(recently posted on Facebook by Mr. Chapél)

The expanded design based on the Vitruvian Man was created and executed many years ago by Edmund Parker II inserting some of the terminology and principles utilized within the system as we trained, for presentation in an academic discussion and as a companion logo to the Martial Science University Design Logo.

“BODE” – Body Optimized Defensive Energy

“PNF” – Proprioceptive Neuro-muscular Facilitation.

“BAM” – Body Alignment Mechanism.

“BIT” – Body Index Training.

“PAM” – Platform Aligning Mechanisms.

“GCM” – Grapple Control mechanisms.

“SIA” – Surviving The Initial Assault.

“SIR” – Significant Initial response.

“DIP” – Decision Index Point.

“DAM” – Disassociated Anatomical Movement.

“MRT” – Mental Reference Training.

“ASS” – Adrenal Stress Syndrome

Useless vs Unuseful

(recently posted on Facebook by Mr. Rich Hale)

Several of our senior Kenpoists are known for their intellectual approach to our art. One of these guys is Dennis Conatser, who's fond of saying, "You don't know what you don't know."

What this means to me is when we enter a new realm of learning, we'll come across many things we've never imagined or thought about, so we won't even know the questions, let alone the answers.

A good example is when I first started in Jiu-Jitsu. While kneeling in front of my instructor, he put one hand on my knee and one hand on my opposite shoulder, then swept me down to the mat. Thinking I knew this technique, I tried it on one of the other white belts. Well, I didn't know that, done incorrectly, that action could cause your opponent to bend forward, so as I successfully swept my opponent to the mat, I also successfully swept his forehead into my face. I simply didn't know that could happen. Thereby, I didn't know what I didn't know.

To this end, Mr. Parker missed his opportunity to fix everything in Kenpo, because if he'd only asked me at orange belt, I could have fixed everything!

Seriously, the real problem with not knowing what we don't know occurs after we get our black belts and mistakenly think we're experts in karate. Before then, we generally have someone ahead of us who keeps us on course, but when we get our black belts and open our own school - we're the boss, we're in charge, and everyone listens to us. No matter how stupid we are.

When we have our own schools and we get to decide what's right and wrong, we make our biggest mistakes. We determine which techniques are good or bad, and we choose to teach katas or not.

Yes, we can all look back and recognize times we were mistaken and made a wrong decision. That's not the problem; it's our unwillingness to go back and correct mistakes that could lead to our lack of progress.

Let's say, on the way up, we learned a technique that seemed to have no practical value, so when we opened our own school, we deleted it from our curriculum. Later, we discovered this technique contained movements that developed several inherent weaknesses in our overall physicality. How do we reintroduce this technique back into our system?

When we removed this technique, we thought we were evolving and shedding unnecessary techniques, but as we personally grow and our overall knowledge of the martial arts improves, we must be able to go back and correct mistakes we've made simply because we didn't know what we didn't know. This may sometimes leave us wishing we'd never deleted something from the system in the first place.

Don't get me wrong. There are several techniques from the classic Ed Parker curriculum that I either don't teach or don't spend much time on. Yet, there isn't a single technique that I have thrown out entirely.

Mr. Parker's Encyclopedia of Kenpo contains around a thousand terms. Most are easily understood, but the terms "useful" and "useless" take more consideration. Useful is straightforwardly defined as "Any logical or practical move that can be effectively used."

On the other hand, Useless is more complex, defined as "Not the same as Unuseful. These are moves that are not effective under any condition."

This leaves us with the term "Unuseful," which is not explicitly defined in the Encyclopedia of Kenpo but is referred to in Mr. Parker's Zen of Kenpo, under the term "Usefulness," where Mr. Parker says to categorize your moves as useful, unuseful, or useless. Then cautions us never to discard knowledge that is not applicable to us but to store it.

More from Mr. Tatum

Functioning within the genetic code of the Art

(posted on Facebook by Mr. Tatum a couple of years ago)

Each technique carries a genetic code that binds the system together. Because of this, each technique is coded with a concept or principle about how the body can function and an overall strategy.

As within our own bodies, each gene is responsible for a job such as what color our eyes will be, our hair color, how tall we will become, etc;

The overall end product is what we are.

It is the same with our Art each technique carries certain coded information that at the end of our development of each belt level, will leave us with certain body behaviors, such as heighten responses, muscles reaction from our nervous system which has been changed. All of our senses become galvanized into a new form of our body.

As with certain cancers, we have found out that they can attack the genes and change them in such a way that they are altered and the process of dysfunction begins within our body.

Now, this is a sad refrain of how delicate our genes are but it also sheds light on how other choices we make can have an altering effect such as with Kenpo when taught with all the inside coded lessons.

Each Belt referencing from each other as illustrated in this Kenpo gene helix. 

Now, this is not to say that every technique has to be taught past a certain point if one can transfer the code to each encounter without the help of each technique in the book.

None the less, the examples are given to help the student to see the future lessons within.