Trapping Hands - Trapping Feet Seminar

I will be conducting a "Trapping Hands & Trapping Feet" seminar on Saturday, May 7, at the

Red Dragon School of Martial Arts
McKinley Mall
3701 McKinley Parkway
Blasdell, NY

The admisson fees:  $39 Advance payment before Thursday May 5 and $49 at the door. 
Due to space limitations on the training floor only 20 participants will be admitted.

The trapping techniques, drills and applications for this seminar will be taken from the art
systems that I am certified to teach:

Tracy System Kenpo
American Modern Arnis
International Modern Arnis
Oliverez Pangasinan Eskrima
Hawaiian Kenpo-Kuntaw (Kuntao)
Atillo-Saavedra Eskrima (Balintawak)

This seminar is open to All martial artists regardless of system or style as well as belt ranks.
The trapping techniques that I will be teaching are adaptable to most empty hand systems
and depends more on leverage and body positioning than a person's physical size to be
effective.

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
Grand Master, Mataw Guro, Director,
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates

Economy of Motion: Aiming the Spear

Economy of Motion: ‘Aiming the Spear’

In the Paradigm Escrima-Kenpo System of self-defense curriculum, the technique known as ‘Aiming the Spear’ has been adapted for usage against nine (9) aggressive assaults.  Using one (1) technique to handle or defend against several different attacks maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of the technique while saving instructional (learning) time.  This single technique approach allows the student to concentrate on and refine the movements of ‘Aiming the Spear’, thereby developing a highly responsive set of behaviors to several different attacks.

‘Aiming the Spear’ can be used to defend against and counter:

                1. Forehand Slap

                2. Backhand Slap

                3. Single Lapel Grab

                4. Double Lapel Grab

                5. Front – 2-handed Choke Hold

                6. Side – 2 handed Choke Hold

                7. Forehand Stick or Club Attack

                8. Backhand Stick or Club Attack

                 9. Overhead Stick or Club Attack

        This technique is also known as “Stop Hit” in the JKD System founded by the late Bruce Lee.  The core movement principle in all cases is that the defender’s counter strike occurs simultaneously with a blocking motion.  The counter strike is an upward heel hand (heel palm) to the point of the opponent’s chin, with the goal of snapping the head back, thereby exposing the throat for a follow up strike with the opposite hand. 

        ‘Aiming the Spear’ is a highly assertive countering maneuver that adheres to the old fighting adage that ‘the best defense is a good offense’.  This technique is used to stop an aggressive physical attack immediately, with the defender’s first movement.  The defender takes over the action sequence and thereafter dominates the action right through to the conclusion of the defensive sequence.  Ideally the attacker will be dropped to the ground, in pain.  He will be unable or unwilling to continue the confrontation and the defender can safely escape to more secure position or place.

The basic ‘Aiming the Spear’ defensive sequence as taught by the Paradigm Self Defense Instructors is in response to a forehand slap attack to the defender’s face.  Assuming that the attacker is right handed, the forehand slap will be directed toward the defender’s left cheek or ear.  The defender will usually step directly forward with his right foot while making an outward left forearm block and a simultaneous rising heel hand strike with his right hand to the point of the attacker’s chin.  The next move in the sequence is for the defender to step forward with his left foot and use a straight left hand half-fist (Leopard’s Paw) strike to the attacker’s exposed throat; following the half-fist strike, the defender will execute a right front snap kick to the attacker’s abdominal area.  After the front snap kick, the defender will retract his kicking foot, step straight back, placing the foot down on the floor and push-step backwards, establishing an on-guard position.  If the former attacker can not or does not immediately try to get back on his feet to continue the encounter, the defender retreats to a safer area.  

        The on-guard position is used by the defender to insure that the attack has been effectively neutralized as well as to survey the immediate surrounding to determine that it is safe to leave the area.  If there is no need to continue engaging the original attacker or any other person, the defender can and should retreat to a safer area. 

Economy of motion as a martial arts concept has been around for quite some time and it is generally understood that the defender should not use any greater physical force than is  necessary in order to successfully defend oneself.  It is generally better to deliver quick, short, precise and powerful counters against an attacking opponent.  The defender should, in most cases, avoid using large or wide movements which expose vital areas of their own anatomy to the attacker.  The defender can use singularly or in combination, blocks, parries, interceptions, deflections or counter-strikes to disrupt and stop the other person’s negative actions.   When the defender keeps his/her defensive movements, small, tight, and direct, they are using one aspect of the ‘economy of motion’ concept.

        Another way to apply the economy of motion concept is to use one (1) self-defense technique against several attacks as mentioned in our opening paragraph.  Since the technique will be used in essentially the same manner in nearly all cases where it is applicable, the defender has more time available to practice and perfect that technique.  Generally the more practice repetitions a student has, the more comfortable the student becomes with the technique.  Comfort is often accompanied by confidence.  When both comfort and confidence are present the student is much more likely to utilize a particular technique when they are threatened.  If a student can learn and use one technique to counter 9 different attacks, that is probably better than having to learn a separate defense for each of those same 9 attacks.

        As an example, consider the following situation.  Defending against a front 2 handed choke; using ‘Aiming the Spear’, the defender steps straight back with her left foot, while counter-grabbing the attackers right wrist with her left hand and simultaneously using an right upward heel-hand strike to the chin.  The follow-up motion would be a right side thrust kick to the attacker’s lead leg at the knee.  The ‘spear’ technique has been modified to meet the conditions of the attack and the relative positions of the defender and attacker to one another.  The half-fist strike to the attacker’s would be difficult and very slow to deliver effectively.  Going to the low-line side kick is much more economical and practical in this situation.  The same choke defense would be applicable if the attack were a 2 handed choke from the side.  On the other hand, a 2 handed rear choke defense is not realistically feasible using ‘Aiming the Spear’.  The two-hand (2) front choke using ‘aiming the spear’ photo set follows:

        Defending against the two (2) hand double lapel grab is very similar to what is done to defending against the two hand front choke attack. One difference with this version of ‘aiming the spear’ is that the defender will use a left hand outward forearm strike to the attacker’s right wrist instead of a wrist grab as was done with the counter to the front choke.

        It is also possible to use the ‘aiming the spear’ concept to defend against a side choke attack.  The defender simply steps away from the attacker and strikes with the hand closest to the attacker’s chin while pulling at the wrist of the hand attached to the front of their own throat.  In the photo sequence below the defender will step to her right side, strike with her left hand as the right hand, counter-grabs the attacker’s left wrist.  The defender is pulling the attacker towards herself.

Defending against a forehand stick or club attack is quite feasible if one uses the same steps as taught against the fore-hand slap attack.  The primary differences are that the defender would want to control the attacker’s right hand and disarm the stick/club.  The stick disarm can occur before or after the low-line kick to the attackers knee depending on the relative body positions of the two individuals.  The front snap kick is usually the preferred kick with this technique.

Some defender’s would might prefer, in this situation, to change the half-fist throat strike to a trapping technique against the attacker’s right hand, then utilize a downward hammer-fist strike to the opponent’s groin as a prelude to the stick disarm.  Quite likely the actual kick used would be changed to a low-line side thrust kick, which would follow the groin strike and precede the disarm.

Backhand stick attacks are defensible using ‘aiming the spear’ concepts as well.  The actual ‘aiming the spear’ technique would be preceded by a blocking and/or passing movement to open up the target areas for the spear technique.

        The overhead single stick attack is treated in a very similar manner to the backhand single stick attack, as follows in the next photo sequence.  The operative difference between the backhand strike and the overhead strike is the attacking angle used by the attacker.  The defender will want to shift to the “stick-side” in most cases.  This will afford the defender a better position to counter the attack and she is less likely to have to contend with a left hand strike from the attacker.  A left hand strike by the attacker is a very strong possibility if the defenders shift to the inside position at the onset of the stick attack.

            

        Economy of motion does not require a slavish adherence to the original technique as taught.  Changes are both allowed and encouraged in order to make sure that the technique is flexible enough to be effective in different situations.  It is imperative that the student understands the basic principles that are inherent within the ‘aiming the spear’ technique.  It is also important that the instructor helps the student to learn how to “fit” the technique to their own individual body.  The principle or core movements of the technique are always applied.  There are no wasted or exaggerated movements.  ‘Aiming the Spear’ is a simple, direct and powerful self-defense technique with the emphasis on counter-attacking the aggressor.  The adaptive flexibility of ‘Aiming the Spear’ makes it one of the best techniques to utilize when examining the “economy of motion” concept.

Jerome Barber, Ed.D.

Director and Principal Teacher

Paradigm Self Defense Arts Associates

May 8, 2010

Footnote: The original article had a series of photographs accompaning the essay portion that is being reproduced here on the blog.  If you care to see the full article with photos, simply e-mail me at
paradigm.sda@hotmail.com to receive copy.  Jerome Barber, Ed. D.  February 6, 2011.

Principle and Decisons in Life

Principle is always inconvenient.  Principled positions are very difficult to live up to although they may be easily applied when someone else has to (or had to) make a tough decision.  When and where the rubber is meeting the road one must act in some manner because all of the equivocation room has been used up.  It is time for action and you are the only one who can make the decision about which way to go.  Idealism increases in proportion to the distance from home, it is always easier to say what should be done when you are not in the sighted cross hairs... principles are a real bitch!

I can tell you readers from personal experiences that principles can and do come back to bite you you squarely in your backsides; they can and often do take a huge chunk of flesh when they sink their teeth into your stated principled position on some matter.  Your problem and mine at the critical moment in time when that decision has to made is surprisingly quite simple... do you live up to and by the principles that you have claimed publicly to have in the past?  Or do you (and I) avoid taking the principled position that we have espoused so loudly in the past?  Quite simply do you (and I) stand tall or do we cut and run?  Which is going to happen, which position will be taken at that critical moment?

A 2nd problem with principles is that we are NEVER tested just once in life!  There will be numerous times over course of our lifetimes that we are forced to face the test of principles.  Nor are going to be comforted by the knowledge that there is a set number of times that we will have to face up to the challenge of having our principles tested.  Each testing moment come and go.  We will be judged as passing or failing by others who were able to stand on the sideline, pontificating on how well we met or failed the challenge, but they did not have to participate in the decision making.  It is unfair but it is what it is!

One can claim to be a principled person.  One can espouse all of the correct and polite statements but in the end everything comes down to how well your actions match your words.  You will have to live your life in such a manner as to not violate the very principles that you espouse, yet, you must be able to live without some sort of rigid certainty that denotes that you have ALL of the correct answers for every possible life situation.  There most certainly are some people who have that absolute certainty about them and they are quite often very quick to tell the rest of us what to do and how to do it.  However, they also get challenged and have to stand up to the task of making a principled decision just as the rest of us must from time to time.

As a teacher, I have had to help my students from time to time as they faced some difficult decisions in their lives.  But when push came to shove, I could only advise.  When to the time came to stand and deliver each of these students had to make their own decisions.  I am reminded of this because this past weekend I had to make a principled decision based on my stated beliefs before my student could make his own decision.  I believe that we both made the correct decisions but over the hours and days that it took to complete the process, there were moments of doubt and concern.  In the end neither of us had a choice.  We could not avoid standing on principle and doing the right thing.

Sincerely,

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
Mataw Guro & Grand Master
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates  

A quick review of Bram Frank's new book "Comceptual Modern Arnis"

I just complete a quick reading of Bram Frank's new book, "Conceptual Modern Arnis" and it's a beautiful thing to behold, all 500 pages of it. Bram Frank has taken a straight-ahead approach and pulls no punches in explaining how and why he has made the 'translations' and 'innovations' that he has to the art of Professor Remy Presas. This is Bram Frank's book all the way! He honors and recognizes the founder and grand master of the Modern Arnis, but he also steps out in a very bold and direct manner to claim his own place within the art as an innovator in what he refers to as the Black Sheep/Renegade mode of people. Among those cited
by Bram Frank are Tom Bolden, Hock Hockheim, Shishir Inocalla, Douglas Pierre, Richard Roy, Kelly Worden and Brian Zawlinski.

Throughout this book, Bram Frank pay attention to and recognizes the prominence of Professor Presas without resorting to elevating the founder/GM to demigod status or some other larger than life figure
whose feats are the things of legend. This book is about Modern Arnis
as Bram Frank sees it and that is more than enough to hold a reader's attention.

The whole Black Sheep/Renegade thing is an integral part of Modern Arnis and it is so deeply engrained in the fabric of the art that only a blind idolater would deny its existence. But alas there are a significant number of those folks within the Modern Arnis ranks. Bram Frank very smartly quotes Professor Presas, in his own publication: "Modern Arnis-Philippine Stick fighting Manila, Philippines 1974":

"Long ago, Arnis was a dying Filipino martial art…based on long experience in practice and teaching of the art, I have modified many antiquated techniques and introduced new ones… What came out is what I call “Modern Arnis” today. In my 27 years of research and practice of the art, I have concluded that it can compare in effectiveness with contemporary martial arts now sweeping the world in popularity…Its modernized presentation will help students understand the intricate styles and techniques."

Then Bram Frank goes on to write the following statement:

"Ok… Who does need tradition? Obviously those that seem to feel that by following a set path one can get to whatever place one needs to get too… Sounds too general? Ok…There are those that study Modern Arnis as the absolute gospel of ARNIS; whatever they have seen, studied or understood is EXACTLY how Modern Arnis really is. There can be no other interpretations of the way. This strict interpretation makes it a little hard for those of us who see Modern Arnis as a living entity."

In essence Professor Presas opened the door for and encouraged the development of a "Black Sheep/ Renegade" movement. From Bram Frank's research and conversations, he found that:

"When Professor Presas was just Remy Presas, a young man searching for knowledge…the way of the truth wasn’t even in the picture yet, he studied with ANYONE who would teach him. Over the years he came to see certain truths in each interpretation of Arnis, Kali or Eskrima. What most people who look at Modern Arnis or Presas Arnis gather at first glance is that Modern Arnis contains the names of many systems and styles and says it contains the way of these systems. Then one example is given to illustrate that system or way and Modern Arnis moves on. To the average person that’s akin to saying I know football…look this is the ball, you throw it, and standing there as if one truly understands football. Well actually if that was a conceptual statement it might actually be true, but westerners don’t think conceptually. Modern Arnis does."

It's obvious to those with good sight, even those whose vision has been corrected that the following statement by Bram Frank is also true:

"Remy Presas was a renegade in his homeland. He learned from many. He took what he saw as the basic truth and made it into a Filipino generic art. An art that would truly represent the Philippines and do honor to the whole class of fighting arts such as Kunai, Kali, Eskrima and Arnis…sort of the Tae Kwon Do of the Filipino martial art world. In doing this he set a way of learning that is still going on today. He’s still learning and Modern Arnis is still changing and evolving!"

Obviously that last sentence was written before 2001, while Professor was still alive and teaching his art. It is also equally obvious that Bram Frank believes that his book is following the the tradition that Professor Presas, himself, began with his founding of Modern Arnis. That is what makes the book so outstanding in my opinion. Modern Arnis in the hands of a Black Sheep/Renegade is a 'living' martial arts form that can be developed to fit each individual rather than forcing every individual to conform to some predetermed movements that both stifles and stuffs any original thinking or creativity. In a sense its too bad that Bram Frank placed this information at the back of the book in Chapter 24, but the fact that it is being used as a prelude to the final chapter which asks the question "Is Modern Arnis a Closed Family?", makes the transition to that chapter all the more important.

So many people assocaited with Modern Arnis in the USA, Canada and Europe tend to see Modern Arnis as strictly a stick based martial arts with some complimentry empty hand techniques. Bram frank states that:

"Renegade Modern Arnis Stick-fighting is about hitting the opponent. Nothing fancy, just hit the opponent. WHY? Because if you hit the
opponent then more than likely the opponent is NOT hitting you! This hitting action can be a flashlight, a cane, a stick, a hammer or a collapsing baton. I think you get the idea. Something longer than your hand and percussive!"

In other words Modern Arnis is a self defense fighting art with some alteration designed into it to make practice sessions safer for the participants; but at the central core of the art it all about fighting
for your own survival against another person. Then there is that other contention that separates this book from the others available on the art. It is the extension of Modern Arnis concepts to the blade such as the knife and bolo, which are featured in this book.

Bram Frank also wrote the following statement:

"Renegade Modern Arnis knife usage: steel seeks flesh and then cuts flesh! Using a blade would entail the same Conceptual motions. Ok… it’s almost the same usage as with empty hands…so let’s look at the same situation as presented originally with a percussive tool involved or with empty hand. The attacker comes at you with a wild swinging right handed strike. With your right hand you deflect / intercept the incoming attack by cutting into the arm with your knife’s edge."

There it is. The subject matter of this book and the very thing that a good number of Modern Arnis people outside of the Philippines want to avoid discussing. The blade concepts that exists within the art. A good number of people fall back to the position that 'Professor wanted to show 'the beauty of the art' as their rationale for avoiding any references to the blade aspects of the art within their instructional formats. They are justified to a degree because Professor Presas did say that presenting 'the beauty of the art' was important to him, but he also mention in his 1974 book on Modern Arnis that the stick was a training tool and it worked because it was less lethal than the blade. Therefore, it is not a matter of which side of the debate that one is on, because both sides have of the discussion have merit. It is really a matter of understanding that Modern Arnis concepts allow for and easily incorporate the blade. "Conceptual Modern Arnis" broadens the point of view regarding the utility and function of the art. The book gives the reader a great deal of information and factual data that encourages us to think outside of the box, look beyond a narrow set of restrictions and explore new options that exist but are not necessarily being taught by a majority of Modern Arnis instructors. This book encourages the reader to study the art in detail then find ways to "make the art for yourself" as the late founder stated quite often when he teaching his art, Modern Arnis, at the various seminars and camps around the world. I know that I heard him express that point of view at least once a day at every event that I attended from 1981 through 1994. Bram Frank has done just that and you will be better off reading this book from cover to cover, than ignoring
it for the sake of comfort and conformity.

beginnings are delicate times

"The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensations which tells you this is something you've always known." -Frank Herbert

Testing the site

Hello Folks, please post some simple statements to test the site for ease of use, to make sure that you get published and that comments from other authorized authors can comment on your posts.
Thanks.

Jerome

testing the waters

Testing the waters.
Testing the waters again