# Sacred Cows in the Martial Arts



## Yondanchris (Nov 14, 2012)

This is an article written by my instructor as copied (with permission) from Facebook! 
I would like to talk about the "Sacred Cow" syndrome that is rampant in martial arts! 

"*Sacred Cow, according to Wikipedia (for what that's worth):
 A figurative sacred cow is something else that is considered immune  from question or criticism, especially unreasonably so.[2][3]

  Years back I wrote a blog about the Fallacy of the Mass Attack, mostly  to piss off a few people who were not going to read it anyways, 
it  garnered few comments, I think because there are so many Sacred Cows in  martial arts.

 From Dictionary Online;

 fal·la·cy [fal-uh-see]  
 noun, plural fal·la·cies.
 1. a deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.: That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy.
 2. a misleading or unsound argument.
 3. deceptive, misleading, or false nature; erroneous.
 4. Logic . any of various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically unsound.
 5. Obsolete . deception.

 Number 1) deceptive, misleading, false notion, belief 

 deceptive advertising that features prominent fallacious  conceptualizations having to do with the perfection of Self.  
Signs in  windows that tell prospective students and parents how wonderful their  lives will be if they just work on the 
self aspects of their life.

 misleading students in to believing that they are learning the  deadliest forms of MA and that there training is best 
because the  instructor has rank in no less than 5 or six of 'the most deadly forms  of fighting'.

 false notions that are reinforced by rules and  etiquette that water down the effectiveness of not just the defenses 
but  the attacks as well.

 belief, I think I'll leave that one alone for now.

 Number 2) a misleading or unsound argument 

 misleading students in to believing (whoops) that curriculum should be  pared back to allow for quick 
advancement through ranks but with a high  cost for the student should they have to use their skills.

 so  called instructors who are great at getting in to the picture with a  prominent black belt but mimic 
the worst possible models of training.  There may be lots of photos on the wall, but the foundations 
of what  they teach are ridiculously inadequate.

 Number 3) ...false nature, erroneous

 the false nature of the attack, lacking NOW and When/Then leads the  instructor to find fault in what they teach. 
At at this point there must  be some other system that fills the knowledge gap, OR, the system has  to be tailored 
(changed at the whim of) by the instructor to make it  'functional'. If the attack sucks, well, your technique sucks also.

 erroneous rituals that increase the likelihood that the instructor will  wind up a Cult of Personality, and, 
the development of the sycophantic  behavior of some of his/her students.

 Number 4) Logic . any of  various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically  unsound. 
(this is the biggest and most common fallacy outhere)

  Logic - remember, martial arts is whatever the instructor says it is, so  how is a new student going to know 
what they are learning, especially  when the kool-aid being served is sweet enough to dazzle the senses? 

 reasoning the defies reason, make stuff up about what you didn't  understand when you learned it and once 
you've told the lie enough you  begin to believe it yourself. 

 Number 5) Obsolete 

  That same year that I blogged the Fallacy of the Mass Attack I also  blogged about training methods I 
observed as being, Old Model, Present  Model and New Model.

 Old Model training is the static horse and  how the structure and methods of instruction are handed 
down to  students who are incapable of performing at the higher levels of their  instructors. 
15 minutes of sweating, 10 minutes of stretching, 15  minutes of basics (almost always in a static horse) 
and one or two self  defense techniques, sets or form. Maybe it is better to spend less  perpetuating bad 
calisthenics and potentially damaging stretching for a  more concentrated approach to the basics 
through practicing sets in a  relaxed and sedate pace. 

 The Fallacy of the Mass Attack is  easy to find on you tube, at tournaments and in movies. 
Is the gang of  baddies going to come at you one at a time and let you do your  choreographed 
nasties while maintaining the needed distance and timing  needed do what is basically showing off? 
Why does this Sacred Cow still  exist? Inertia. Why does the Sacred Cow exist at all? 

 Neutral  Bow, You Must have a perfect neutral bow.Your toes HAVE TO BE PARALLEL  
or you will be cast out of the club and excoriated because you didn't  have you freakin toes parallel. 
The neutral bow may be uniqueish to  Kenpo but it's just one of many stances, and besides, 
if you waste time  trying to get to an unimpeachable neutral bow whist someone is trying to  rearrange your face, 
I cringe at your chances to do anything to stop  the attack.

 Blocking from 3 to 9 and from 9 to 3. WHY? WTF?  
Chapter and verse can be cited for the sophisticated motion called the  THRUSTING INWARD BLOCK! 
THE CONCEPTUAL BOX! MARGIN FOR ERROR! DEPTH OF  ACTION! OUTER RIM! OUTER PERIMETER! CANCELLING ZONES! 
There is more, but  suffice to say, if you still treat a punch like it is a grab, and you  are not waiting for 
THE GRAB to touch you and BE A GRAB, then you or  your instructors missed the point of the attack.

 Twist Stances.  Oh boy, here we go. Look closely at Stance Set 1. 
There are TWO types  of twist stances in StaS1. Rotating Twist and In-place Rotating Twist.

 Cat Stances. Or, maybe you should be turning your hips first instead of  sliding your front foot almost 
all the way back to your back foot  before you kick with the front foot. Here's a question for you, 
is it  possible for your lead leg kick to be a thrust kick and not just a  snapping kick? 
Can you increase the level of penetration in to the  target with your front leg? 
Absofeakinlootly! It's called a 30/70 cat  stance and HIPS CONTROL FEET!

 Finding Balance and a pivot point  (before making contact with the target) and still throwing what 
you  assume is a a power kick (mostly roundhouse). Wait, some of you think  that you should never 
pivot on the heels of your feet when fighting or  doing anything Kenpo. NEVER ever ever. Bite me. 
Try doing Thrusting  Salute while pivoting on the ball of your left foot as you line up the  kick. 
Talk about constipated and mumbled motion! Find balance IN THE  TARGET. 

 Back kicks. The lazy instructor allows students to  believe that the back kick is any hip position and 
foot posture that  executes a kick behind them. It appears that where their hips are is  irrelevant to the 
structure of the kick and whatever comes out of that  cluster f' is called a back kick. 
HIPS CONTROL FEET, KNEES AIM FEET.  It's not rocket science, but is easy to screw up. 
Call it a back heel  kick, and don't chamber that knee in front of you to kick behind you.  That is just stupid.

 Sacred Cows infect training to such a  degree (pun intended) that it's almost as if the old saying is true,  
"Don't wash the dirt off the car, it's the only thing holding the car  together,"  
Let's assume that your instructor is in the Mechanic of  Motion phase. 
He or she is able to mimic what they learned well enough  to show it to you, but, 
it's a copy of a copy of a copy and holds no  relevance to what the original version taught.

 Or, your  instructor is in their Technician of Motion Phase and is tinkering with,  
altering significantly and in general screwing around with what he/she  was taught. 
Oh goody, not only was the model screwed up to begin with  but now it's TAILORED! 
Everything is fine now, he/she fixed all of those  little details that didn't make sense in the first place! 
Alright!  let's move on, there's nothing to be learned that can't be messed with  in the future...

 My favorite, the Salesman of Motion. CLUELESS.  His answer when you ask him about what he 
just showed you is to  stammer, guffaw and point out that he's a black belt and is not to be  questioned. 
On second thought, you attacked him wrong. Wait, that seems  to be the industry standard in Kenpo, that pesky attack thing. 
Sing with  me, Doe a deer a female deer... and that brings us back to DOH!!!!!!!!!

 Share with us your observations of the Sacred Cow in the Kenpo you see.  It always helps to 
acknowledge that there is a problem before it can  get better. 
But please, no names, it gets messy if you point fingers at  someone else because there are three fingers pointing at you too. 
Keep it  light, complain about yourself if you want to, just don't let on that  you are talking about yourself.

 Sacred Cow, ..and that brings us back to DOH! (the only thing Homer has ever said that I liked)" *


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## Tony Dismukes (Nov 14, 2012)

I sincerely hope your teacher is a better martial arts instructor than he is a writer.


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## arnisador (Nov 14, 2012)

I did find that pretty confusing to follow, yeah.


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## clfsean (Nov 15, 2012)

ummmm .... what??


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## Flying Crane (Nov 15, 2012)

I guess someone had some frustrating experiences?

A lot of this I wouldn't call a Sacred Cow.  Rather, it's just that there's a lot of nonsense that goes on in the martial arts and most people don't have a very good understanding of what they are doing and what they should be working to develop.  A lot of people who are teaching, shouldn't be.  I'll even go farther than that and say that MOST of the people who are teaching, shouldn't be.  Truly good instruction is rare and difficult to find and not available to everyone.  Not even close.  So a lot of crappy teachers teach crappy martial arts and promote their crappy students into even crappier teachers, and the problem perpetuates and gets worse.


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## Flying Crane (Nov 15, 2012)

I've been trying to go thru this and read it again and make some sense out of it.  It's not the easiest piece to follow.  The author would benefit from the help of a good editor.

Anyway, from what I can piece together from this blog, I'd say the author makes some valid points, makes some other points that tell me he doesnt understand some things very well, and also talks about some things that are unique to kenpo and kenpo's way of looking at the world.


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## Tony Dismukes (Nov 15, 2012)

Michael, that was pretty much my assessment as well.  The guy starts out talking about sacred cows, but then just lists a bunch of things that he believes people are teaching badly.  The disorganized thinking, subject jumps, and excessive use of all-caps remind me of the sort of writing you typically see on wackadoodle conspiracy theory websites, but I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he's just a bad writer, not crazy.

He also seems rather prone to hyperbole.  "_Your toes HAVE TO BE PARALLEL or you will be cast out of the club and excoriated because you didn't  have you freakin toes parallel._"  Really?  I haven't visited that many kenpo clubs, but I'm pretty certain most of them don't kick people out for failing to have a perfect stance.


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## arnisador (Nov 15, 2012)

Tony Dismukes said:


> He also seems rather prone to hyperbole.  "_Your toes HAVE TO BE PARALLEL or you will be cast out of the club and excoriated because you didn't  have you freakin toes parallel._"  Really?  I haven't visited that many kenpo clubs, but I'm pretty certain most of them don't kick people out for failing to have a perfect stance.



Maybe not, but they are rather strict on "alignment" issues in Kenpo.


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## Flying Crane (Nov 15, 2012)

arnisador said:


> Maybe not, but they are rather strict on "alignment" issues in Kenpo.




it depends.  Some of them are, others feel free to change things however they want.

I'd put my money on the guys who believe that alignment is important, and there is actually a right way to go about things, than the guys who think it's all wide open for interpretation, and who have no concept of a solid foundation.


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## LawDog (Nov 15, 2012)

I would agree with you to a point. Most of the ones who do not teach well were never taught "how" to teach properly instead they only know the "just do" thing


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## Yondanchris (Nov 20, 2012)

Number 1) deceptive, misleading, false notion, belief 

Welcome to what I was force fed for 10 years! It wasnt until I started evaluating my knowledge and training paradigms did I realize that I had been sold a bill of rotten goods. 

Number 2) a misleading or unsound argument

I wonder how many of those prominent seniors where smiling in said pictures. This pyramid scheme sucked both my parents and I in for years! Then I finally grew up! 

Number 3) ...false nature, erroneous

As an instructor myself, the light bulb created by contact resistance and NOW/When/Then methods was akin to a nuclear bomb to my martial knowledge. I thought I had tailored my previous system for my studentsuntil I realized I was just smearing the poo all over the place. 

Number 4) Logic . any of various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically unsound. (this is the biggest and most common fallacy out there)                                                                                                   

KoolAid sometimes its water and sugar and sometimes its cyanide. We see this with the cultapersonality and their sycophants spewing whatever magical spell they have come up with this week and pass it off as original or hidden knowledge B.S. . Give credit where credit is due. Mr. Parker was a genius and we are all just the beneficiaries of his epiphany.   

_Number 5) Obsolete -That same year that I blogged the Fallacy of the Mass Attack I also blogged about training methods I observed as being, Old Model, Present Model and New Model.

Sacred Cows infect training to such a degree (pun intended) that it's almost as if the old saying is true, "Don't wash the dirt off the car, it's the only thing holding the car together," Let's assume that your instructor is in the Mechanic of Motion phase. He or she is able to mimic what they learned well enough to show it to you, but, it's a copy of a copy of a copy and holds no relevance to what the original version taught. Or, your instructor is in their Technician of Motion Phase and is tinkering with, altering significantly and in general screwing around with what he/she was taught. Oh goody, not only was the model screwed up to begin with but now it's TAILORED! Everything is fine now, he/she fixed all of those little details that didn't make sense in the first place! Alright! let's move on, there's nothing to be learned that can't be messed with in the future...My favorite, the Salesman of Motion. CLUELESS. His answer when you ask him about what he just showed you is to stammer, guffaw and point out that he's a black belt and is not to be questioned. On second thought, you attacked him wrong. Wait, that seems to be the industry standard in Kenpo, that pesky attack thing.                                                                                    _

Okay sorry for the long quotebut tons of GOLD in there. If we do not pioneer and innovate within our own system we will continually be bogged down by the Old and Present Model of training. Sacred Cows show up in many forms that hinder forward progress.                                                                                 

Mechanic of Motion  Technician of Motion  Salesman of Motionwhich one are you? Seriously?                                                                                 

There are millions of Mechanics of Motioncopies and imitators of their instructors. If I want to see Mr. Tatum move I will watch Mr. Tatum, if I want to see Mr. Parker move I will watch Mr. Parker move, If I want to see Mr. Salantri move I will watch Mr. Jack Cole move.wait, I mean I will watch Mr. Salantri move. There is no room in Kenpo for 100 people  who move like Mr. Salantri, or a 1,000 that move like Mr. Parkerwe are asked and challenged to move like ourselves using the laws of motion that Mr. Parker conceptualized for us!!!                                                                                        

Technician of Motion  can only tinker with a good model to begin with. If you try to take apart a junk caryou still have a junker. If you try to tinker with a Rolls Royceyou might create something great! The foundation must be there for the Technician to work with or else the Law of Entropy will certainly take over where there was once order and comprehension, devolves into disorder and absolute incoherency.                                                                                 

Salesman of Motion  Need I say morethere are way to many of these within the system. Rank whoring has made them greedy, prideful, and arrogant. As someone once said, who was correct to point out that we have raised the bar to the level of mediocrity. (Not a direct quotetrying to remember exactly what was said). In other words we are continually bringing up generations of kenpoists that believe that they are excelling and are good black belts/instructors when we are actually raising the bar to a new level of mediocrity.

Just my .02 cents! 

Chris


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## MarkC (Nov 20, 2012)

"*Neutral  Bow, You Must have a perfect neutral bow.Your toes HAVE TO BE PARALLEL  
or you will be cast out of the club and excoriated because you didn't  have you freakin toes parallel. 
The neutral bow may be uniqueish to  Kenpo but it's just one of many stances, and besides, 
if you waste time  trying to get to an unimpeachable neutral bow whist someone is trying to  rearrange your face, 
I cringe at your chances to do anything to stop  the attack."

*
This right here is indicative of somebody who can't execute their stances well, gets criticized, and doesn't like it. 
Being too lazy to do your basics correctly and then poking fun at people who aren't is pretty weak. The last two sentences...crap. If you put in the reps and practice correctly, you don't need to worry about having to think about hitting a stance (or executing any basic) correctly.


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## Touch Of Death (Nov 21, 2012)

MarkC said:


> "*Neutral  Bow, You Must have a perfect neutral bow.Your toes HAVE TO BE PARALLEL
> or you will be cast out of the club and excoriated because you didn't  have you freakin toes parallel.
> The neutral bow may be uniqueish to  Kenpo but it's just one of many stances, and besides,
> if you waste time  trying to get to an unimpeachable neutral bow whist someone is trying to  rearrange your face,
> ...


I agree, the write up you have may be imperfect, but, yep, if you don't take the time to perfect your basics, you are screwed.


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## MarkC (Nov 26, 2012)

Watching the video of the person (who I believe) is being quoted reveals that his stances--every one demonstrated--needs work, especially in the balance department. And yeah, the feet need fixing.


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## Yondanchris (Nov 27, 2012)

MarkC said:


> Watching the video of the person (who I believe) is being quoted reveals that his stances--every one demonstrated--needs work, especially in the balance department. And yeah, the feet need fixing.



Who exactly do you believe is being quoted? And why not suggest that to the person in question? Rather than guessing.


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## MarkC (Nov 28, 2012)

Because if you're quoting who I think you are, he seems to get bent too easily about comments on his stuff, and I'm not trying to offend anybody or start a feud. You probably know the video I referenced. Watch it with honesty and ask yourself if the execution is good. I saw problems with balance throughout, but particularly in the twist stances. None of us are perfect, least of all myself, but I stand by my comments.


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## GrandmasterP (Nov 29, 2012)

Sensei's snotty wife at one of my old dojos, took your money at the door.
She was a right 'sacred' cow if you didn't have the right change.


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## Aiki Lee (Nov 29, 2012)

Chris, I'm not really following the article and what you posted very well. Could you go into more detail about what your instructor is trying to say?


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## Yondanchris (Dec 2, 2012)

Himura Kenshin said:


> Chris, I'm not really following the article and what you posted very well. Could you go into more detail about what your instructor is trying to say?



Okay, sorry it has taken me so long to reply...been super busy! 
I will try to encapsulate thoughts paragraph by paragraph. 
			 				BOLD sections are the original post by my instructor...below will be a synopsis and commentary of my own. 
 *
 "Number 1) deceptive, misleading, false notion, belief 
 deceptive advertising that features prominent fallacious  conceptualizations having to do with the perfection of Self.  
Signs in  windows that tell prospective students and parents how wonderful their  lives will be if they just work on the 
self aspects of their life. misleading students in to believing that they are learning the  deadliest forms of MA and that there training is best because the  instructor has rank in no less than 5 or six of 'the most deadly forms  of fighting'.
 false notions that are reinforced by rules and  etiquette that water down the effectiveness of not just the defenses 
but  the attacks as well. belief, I think I'll leave that one alone for now."* 

Okay in the beginning my instructor defines sacred calf's and begins to break down his view of modern martial arts (especially kenpo) through the lens of that definition. For instance here he takes the first definition and applies it to current situations (deceptive instructors through watered down systems and supposed "best" system or formula to fight) 


*"Number 2) a misleading or unsound argument 
 misleading students in to believing (whoops) that curriculum should be  pared back to allow for quick 
advancement through ranks but with a high  cost for the student should they have to use their skills.
 so  called instructors who are great at getting in to the picture with a  prominent black belt but mimic 
the worst possible models of training.  There may be lots of photos on the wall, but the foundations 
of what  they teach are ridiculously inadequate." 

*Basically a commentary on the modern McDojo paradigm in the martial arts. Specifically the instructors within 
kenpo who stalk 'seniors' for pictures and signatures to promote themselves as "legitimate" while being at best
mimics or mimes of their instructor....copies of copies of copies (see Mechanic of Motion Phase below). 

*Number 3) ...false nature, erroneous 
"the false nature of the attack, lacking NOW and When/Then leads the  instructor to find fault in what they teach. 
At at this point there must  be some other system that fills the knowledge gap, OR, the system has  to be tailored 
(changed at the whim of) by the instructor to make it  'functional'. If the attack sucks, well, your technique sucks also.
 erroneous rituals that increase the likelihood that the instructor will  wind up a Cult of Personality, and, 
the development of the sycophantic  behavior of some of his/her students." 

*Instructors that do not delineate or understand the web of knowledge, especially the concept of levels of severity. 
A NOW attack is a punch, kick, knife, club, gun, or multiple opponent attack that requires immediate response. 
A When/Then attack is a grab, choke, hold, or lock that requires us to respond to the attacker WHEN he does this,
THEN I do this. A misunderstanding of this delineation causes instructors and students to tinker with the Ideal phase 
because they do not understand the attack (methods, motion, timing..ect) (Video and written thesis to be posted soon). 
 Because they tinker or modify the technique to make it 'functional' they miss the boat in the real reason for teaching
Ideal Phase Techniques = concepts and principles. (See Sr. Prof Rich Hale's "white papers" on the subject). 

Because certain instructors miss the concepts/principles/web of knowledge/level of severity they start making their
own systems or curriculum that boosts their ego (10th Dans, Soke, Hanshi, Founder) in which they begin to cultivate a 
"cult" of their own in which their students become sycophantic and believe that their own doo doo doesn't stink. 
*
 Number 4) Logic . any of  various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically  unsound. 
(this is the biggest and most common fallacy out there)
 Logic - remember, martial arts is whatever the instructor says it is, so  how is a new student going to know 
what they are learning, especially  when the kool-aid being served is sweet enough to dazzle the senses? 
 reasoning the defies reason, make stuff up about what you didn't  understand when you learned it and once 
you've told the lie enough you  begin to believe it yourself. 
*
Kool-aid, the flavor of the studio (methods, application, atmosphere) where the teacher is "selling the sizzle, not the steak". 
New definitions, new acronyms, new stuff to memorize... trying to simiplify or expand a system that has already been both
simplified and expanded by Mr. Parker (strictly talking Kenpo here...) 

*Number 5) Obsolete 
 That same year that I blogged the Fallacy of the Mass Attack I also  blogged about training methods I 
observed as being, Old Model, Present  Model and New Model.

Old Model training is the static horse and  how the structure and methods of instruction are handed 
down to  students who are incapable of performing at the higher levels of their  instructors. 
15 minutes of sweating, 10 minutes of stretching, 15  minutes of basics (almost always in a static horse) 
and one or two self  defense techniques, sets or form. Maybe it is better to spend less  perpetuating bad 
calisthenics and potentially damaging stretching for a  more concentrated approach to the basics 
through practicing sets in a  relaxed and sedate pace. 

The Fallacy of the Mass Attack is  easy to find on you tube, at tournaments and in movies. 
Is the gang of  baddies going to come at you one at a time and let you do your  choreographed 
nasties while maintaining the needed distance and timing  needed do what is basically showing off? 
Why does this Sacred Cow still  exist? Inertia. Why does the Sacred Cow exist at all? 

Neutral  Bow, You Must have a perfect neutral bow.Your toes HAVE TO BE PARALLEL  
or you will be cast out of the club and excoriated because you didn't  have you freakin toes parallel. 
The neutral bow may be uniqueish to  Kenpo but it's just one of many stances, and besides, 
if you waste time  trying to get to an unimpeachable neutral bow whist someone is trying to  rearrange your face, 
I cringe at your chances to do anything to stop  the attack.

 Blocking from 3 to 9 and from 9 to 3. WHY? WTF?  
Chapter and verse can be cited for the sophisticated motion called the  THRUSTING INWARD BLOCK! 
THE CONCEPTUAL BOX! MARGIN FOR ERROR! DEPTH OF  ACTION! OUTER RIM! OUTER PERIMETER! CANCELLING ZONES! 
There is more, but  suffice to say, if you still treat a punch like it is a grab, and you  are not waiting for 
THE GRAB to touch you and BE A GRAB, then you or  your instructors missed the point of the attack.

 Twist Stances.  Oh boy, here we go. Look closely at Stance Set 1. 
There are TWO types  of twist stances in StaS1. Rotating Twist and In-place Rotating Twist.

 Cat Stances. Or, maybe you should be turning your hips first instead of  sliding your front foot almost 
all the way back to your back foot  before you kick with the front foot. Here's a question for you, 
is it  possible for your lead leg kick to be a thrust kick and not just a  snapping kick? 
Can you increase the level of penetration in to the  target with your front leg? 
Absofeakinlootly! It's called a 30/70 cat  stance and HIPS CONTROL FEET!

 Finding Balance and a pivot point  (before making contact with the target) and still throwing what 
you  assume is a a power kick (mostly roundhouse). Wait, some of you think  that you should never 
pivot on the heels of your feet when fighting or  doing anything Kenpo. NEVER ever ever. Bite me. 
Try doing Thrusting  Salute while pivoting on the ball of your left foot as you line up the  kick. 
Talk about constipated and mumbled motion! Find balance IN THE  TARGET. 

 Back kicks. The lazy instructor allows students to  believe that the back kick is any hip position and 
foot posture that  executes a kick behind them. It appears that where their hips are is  irrelevant to the 
structure of the kick and whatever comes out of that  cluster f' is called a back kick. 
HIPS CONTROL FEET, KNEES AIM FEET.  It's not rocket science, but is easy to screw up. 
Call it a back heel  kick, and don't chamber that knee in front of you to kick behind you.  That is just stupid.

*One of Mr. Parker's main goals in the creation of American Kenpo was to expand the knowledge and understanding
of the science of the martial arts and perfect the understanding of the human bodies motion. With that goal in mind
Mr. Parker broke many TRADITIONS which hindered training and where in fact DANGEROUS. My instructor is 
pointing out modern TRADITIONS that are once again DETRIMENTAL and DANGEROUS to students training. 
 OLD MODEL, PRESENT MODEL, NEW MODEL - It is easy to identify OLD and PRESENT MODEL training and 
contrast them...the next step is to take Mr. Parker's example and challenge OLD and PRESENT MODELS to come up
with NEW/FUTURE MODELS that will take our students to the next level within the art. 


*Sacred Cows infect training to such a  degree (pun intended) that it's almost as if the old saying is true,  
"Don't wash the dirt off the car, it's the only thing holding the car  together,"  
Let's assume that your instructor is in the Mechanic of  Motion phase. 
He or she is able to mimic what they learned well enough  to show it to you, but, 
it's a copy of a copy of a copy and holds no  relevance to what the original version taught.*

Mechanic of Motion - MIMIC and a MIME....COPY of a COPY. Lack in depth of knowledge and 
ability to teach. (See Mr. Tatum's definition and qualities for 1st Degree Black Belt) 
The alternative is BB who not only MIMIC or MIME but understand the concepts/principles of
the art and are able to teach them to the next generation. 
*
 Or, your  instructor is in their Technician of Motion Phase and is tinkering with,  
altering significantly and in general screwing around with what he/she  was taught. 
Oh goody, not only was the model screwed up to begin with  but now it's TAILORED! 
Everything is fine now, he/she fixed all of those  little details that didn't make sense in the first place! 
Alright!  let's move on, there's nothing to be learned that can't be messed with  in the future...*

Technician of Motion - See NUMBER 2 ABOVE. A sacrifice of the IDEAL MODEL of training for 
a (nice, new, shiny) technique that has been 'tailored', 'grafted', 'what if'd' because of a lack of knowledge
about the IDEAL PHASE of the technique in the first place. 

*My favorite, the Salesman of Motion. CLUELESS.  His answer when you ask him about what he 
just showed you is to  stammer, guffaw and point out that he's a black belt and is not to be  questioned. 
On second thought, you attacked him wrong. Wait, that seems  to be the industry standard in Kenpo, that pesky attack thing. 
Sing with  me, Doe a deer a female deer... and that brings us back to DOH!!!!!!!!!*

Salesman of Motion - The black belt that knows everything yet can SHOW and DO NOTHING! This is the level of 
instructor that I grew up with in an un-named system and commercial studio, THOU SHALT NOT QUESTION...
cause honestly...they DON'T KNOW! 

 Just some more of my thoughts, and hopefully it will clear my instructor's thoughts up for you as well! 

Cheers, 

Chris 

​


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## Aiki Lee (Dec 2, 2012)

OK, I think I'm getting it now. To me, a "scared cow" is a taboo subject that people think shouldn't be question, but all the things listed should be constantly questioned by anyone serious about improving. They are only "sacred cows" to those who consider themselves already to be the epitome of skill and excellence. So I would agree that all those things described reflect poor training and a limited understanding, but the way it was written was a little confusing. Thank you for explaining it further.


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## Bigdavid5.0 (Dec 2, 2012)

Flying Crane said:


> it depends.  Some of them are, others feel free to change things however they want.
> 
> I'd put my money on the guys who believe that alignment is important, and there is actually a right way to go about things, than the guys who think it's all wide open for interpretation, and who have no concept of a solid foundation.


 No doubt about it.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Dec 10, 2012)

Flying Crane said:


> it depends.  Some of them are, others feel free to change things however they want.
> 
> I'd put my money on the guys who believe that alignment is important, and there is actually a right way to go about things, than the guys who think it's all wide open for interpretation, and who have no concept of a solid foundation.


Agreed. There IS some room for interpretation, and the actual strikes you do can be changed, but the overall ideas have remain. They're there for a reason and otherwise its just a completely different idea. It's like saying that WC shouldn't focus on the central line...yeah i suppose you can do it, but you're ignoring the purpose of the art, and rendering it a lot less effective.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Dec 10, 2012)

As far as the comments about having a 'perfect neutral bow' or other stances/strikes...yes, if you are in a fight, you don't have the time to make sure every movement is perfect. That is why you make them all perfect in practice and drills, so that when you get in the fight, they are done in the way they are supposed to be done without thought. then everything's "perfect" (or close to it) without having to waste time focusing on all the minute problems. 

Unfortunately, I can't comment on the rest of the post, since I may have misunderstood BUT from the EPAK instructors I've met, they seem to know what they're talking about, answer my questions when I ask, and as far as I know actually studied with the people they claimed to (although to me it doesn't matter how pure your lineage is, as long as what you teach makes sense and is effective).


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