# SL4-ish palm heel...you'd think I hit him with a sledge



## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (Aug 7, 2006)

It ain't no mystery that Doc Chapel takes a lot of guff for the SL4. It also ain't no mystery that I'd be in his crib full time if circumstances were different. I get what I can, when I can, and practice what I DO know, then use it to experiment with cleaning up whatever I can until I get to the mat with him and his motley crew again. I still got a lot to go (a lot), but I think my bod may be (gradually) embracing some SL4-induced change. A funny thing happened on the way to a nap today.

I&#8217;m in the wine country, taking odd wine country jobs. Been pouring at a local winery, and was asked to pour at a special event. OK. I need the green.

The event has a lot of nouveau riche from the Bay Area coming in to try new vintages, and show off their latest rides, etc. There&#8217;s a young guy who has more money than tact or brains, and he begins to berate one of the bartenders. It escalates to &#8220;ugly&#8221; fast, and they start to blows. Well, with too many years bouncing to stand by and watch a comrade get pummeled, I leap in to break it up. I grab the NR guy in a figure-4 (right arm around his neck from behind, and my left arm entangling his behind his back), and stretch him backwards by puffing out my chest. His friends, not to be outdone, start on me. One of them has apparently had some MMA-type training or boxing or some dang thang, but not enough. He starts to punch me, leaning in to shoot the blow past his buddy&#8217;s noggin. I lean the noggin into the way, and he whaps his friend square in the face. A little ticked, he doesn&#8217;t skip a beat, and drops to a single-leg shoot on my left leg (closest to him, and available at a slight angle towards the front). 

I &#8220;trake&#8221; his buddy when I see what&#8217;s happening (impulse the radius into the wind pipe to induce spasm and pre-occupation), and this is where the cool SL4 part starts. I start a reverse step-through with the left leg, to keep the guy from getting his shoulder into my thigh or knee (he has one hand behind my leg, but doesn&#8217;t have both clasped yet). As I let go of the choke and start to bring my right arm around, my hand drops to my side, palm facing forward (the beginning of a particular index in SL4 kenpo), and then bring it up to the side of my head-ish, palm still facing forward (as in a &#8216;surrender&#8217; position). As my left leg starts to plant, and the marriage of gravity moment is arriving, I bring my right palm down in not much more than a push-down blocking motion to his spine, right between the shoulder blades. You would have thought I hit him with a 100-pound sledge. He hit the floor straight down, face planted, and was deeply TKO&#8217;d. Some other members of their group were on the way in as this happened, so I figgered I oughta get my hands back up and ready to deflect some incoming ordnance. Unfortunately (from a hindsight view of strategy), I don&#8217;t bring them up to the SL4 braced-index position, but rather to my more familiar, standard kenpo stance&#8230;palms forward, lead hand higher than rear&#8230;twin dragons fighting after the pearl&#8230;you know the stance; the typical stance everybody poses in, and practices in the mirror to look cool. The way the remaining guys slammed on their brakes, you&#8217;d have thought Bruce friggin&#8217; Lee raised from the dead and yelled &#8220;wagaaah&#8221; at the lot of them. I went from thinking I was gonna get buried under an angry dogpile, to untouchable in less than half a second. The looks in their eyes were priceless (and me without a camera).

Odd thing is, I still really believe that shots to the back are wasted. &#8220;Spine&#8221; shots in karate are aimed at some of the most heavily armored body parts, where all the good stuff is tucked away in vaults of bone&#8230;it&#8217;s like aiming *at* armor plates, instead of *between* them. It had to be that I (luckily) caught the guy just right as he over-extended to keep up with my left leg in the reverse step-thru (Doc calls this a misaligned state, but again&#8230;purely luck and coincidence on my part, as misaligning the guy wasn&#8217;t where my mind was at). The indexes are wicked cool&#8230;prep the body for max effect. Odd thing again&#8230;although I&#8217;ve been practicing them (i.e., re-training all my basics to include indexing prefixes to basics executions, at least insofar as I know how), I didn&#8217;t intend to use it this time around&#8230;I was just trying to get my choking arm free of the first guys body, towards me & around his torso, and up into live play. But I followed the path of an index. I&#8217;m not even sure if it was a proper index for a push-down block or not, but it sure worked well as the prep for a downward thrusting palm-heel that follows the same arc.

Thanks Doc. Bitchin' stuff. Keep it comin'.

Dave


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## lenatoi (Aug 7, 2006)

OK..... Not exactly where I thaught that story was going.... But whatever makes you happy dude.


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## JamesB (Aug 7, 2006)

more! more!


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## Makalakumu (Aug 7, 2006)

I just finished the movie Sideways, which is set in Wine Country.  Now that would have been a cool scene...


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## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (Aug 7, 2006)

lenatoi said:
			
		

> OK..... Not exactly where I thaught that story was going.... But whatever makes you happy dude.


 
Sorry I didn't meet your expectations. And what makes me happy is being able to ambulate away after a conflict using my own feet, under my own volition. So, yeah...in that context, it made me very happy, dude. When kenpo works somewhere outside the mind and off the chalkboard, that also makes me happy. And when I can let the world outside SL4 know that some of the principles have been put to a test in trial under fire, against antagonists, and NOT against willing & cooperating training partners...well, I'm sure you can grok or suss the rest (I'm never sure which is which).

Regards,

D.


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## Doc (Aug 7, 2006)

Kembudo-Kai Kempoka said:
			
		

> Sorry I didn't meet your expectations. And what makes me happy is being able to ambulate away after a conflict using my own feet, under my own volition. So, yeah...in that context, it made me very happy, dude. When kenpo works somewhere outside the mind and off the chalkboard, that also makes me happy. And when I can let the world outside SL4 know that some of the principles have been put to a test in trial under fire, against antagonists, and NOT against willing & cooperating training partners...well, I'm sure you can grok or suss the rest (I'm never sure which is which).
> 
> Regards,
> 
> D.


Fix your feet, get in class, and finish learning the Basic Index Set.


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## lenatoi (Aug 7, 2006)

I *AM* happy it worked off the chalk board. I didn't mean to sound rude... I just thought you were going to wake up at any moment.


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## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (Aug 7, 2006)

lenatoi said:
			
		

> I *AM* happy it worked off the chalk board. I didn't mean to sound rude... I just thought you were going to wake up at any moment.


 
So...is this one not supposed to sound rude?

Wide awake,

Dave


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## MJS (Aug 8, 2006)

So anyways...back to the topic of the thread!:ultracool 

Glad to hear things worked out for you Dave!  

Mike


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## Carol (Aug 8, 2006)

That is intersting stuff, Dave.

Out of sheeeer and total curiosity, you mention stuff like getting in to a stance that is not an SL4 stance.

Why do you think that is?  Overriding defaults from prior training?  Something that just felt proper at the time?   Being a rather mild-mannered corporate type, reading about someone actually in a fight is like reading about a whole 'nother world


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## Ceicei (Aug 9, 2006)

Dave,
Thank you for sharing your story!  You have a knack for story-telling and should write a book about your experiences.  This post makes SL-4 sound very intriguing and brings up many questions in my mind...  

One question is "why isn't SL-4 taught more"?  Are there traveling seminars available?  If there is one going on nearby, I'd like to know when and where.

I have a lot of other questions, but I'll bring these up later as it is past midnight here.

- Ceicei


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## Doc (Aug 9, 2006)

Ceicei said:
			
		

> Dave,
> Thank you for sharing your story!  You have a knack for story-telling and should write a book about your experiences.  This post makes SL-4 sound very intriguing and brings up many questions in my mind...
> 
> One question is "why isn't SL-4 taught more"?  Are there traveling seminars available?  If there is one going on nearby, I'd like to know when and where.
> ...


I refuse to allow anyone to teach SL-4 who is not qualified and who does not have a teaching credential. I and students in my lineage are the only persons rgularly training in SL-4. If they are not my student, they are not Sl-4. Most of our fully qualified instructors are professional people who are not interested in teaching or running a school for business. (Many of them professional law enforcement, local and federal) They are interested in Kenpo and being the best they can be in their skills and knowledge. Occasionally they do seminars, but rarely are we invited to camps. Mostly we travel and do stand alone seminars to very good reviews. We have groups in the UK headed by Prof. Kevin Mills and have done many seminars there, as well as with Vivion Spain in Ireland.

Coming up:

October: Brian Duffy's Camp In Texas.
November: Kenny Gonzales in Tampa Florida
December: Chili, South America


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## Kensai (Aug 9, 2006)

Good on yer mate. Score 1 for the good guys!!  

It sounded impressive too. From a Wing Chun perspective, I'd probably have just punched everything in site, and been swamped. 

Gives you satisfaction that your stuff works eh? :asian: 

Regards,

kensai.


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## John Brewer (Aug 9, 2006)

Doc said:
			
		

> I refuse to allow anyone to teach SL-4 who is not qualified and who does not have a teaching credential. I and students in my lineage are the only persons rgularly training in SL-4. If they are not my student, they are not Sl-4. Most of our fully qualified instructors are professional people who are not interested in teaching or running a school for business. (Many of them professional law enforcement, local and federal) They are interested in Kenpo and being the best they can be in their skills and knowledge. Occasionally they do seminars, but rarely are we invited to camps. Mostly we travel and do stand alone seminars to very good reviews. We have groups in the UK headed by Prof. Kevin Mills and have done many seminars there, as well as with Vivion Spain in Ireland.
> 
> Coming up:
> 
> ...


Did you teach any SL4 at the Internationals seminar?


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## Ceicei (Aug 9, 2006)

Doc said:
			
		

> I refuse to allow anyone to teach SL-4 who is not qualified and who does not have a teaching credential. I and students in my lineage are the only persons rgularly training in SL-4. If they are not my student, they are not Sl-4. Most of our fully qualified instructors are professional people who are not interested in teaching or running a school for business. (Many of them professional law enforcement, local and federal) They are interested in Kenpo and being the best they can be in their skills and knowledge. Occasionally they do seminars, but rarely are we invited to camps. Mostly we travel and do stand alone seminars to very good reviews. We have groups in the UK headed by Prof. Kevin Mills and have done many seminars there, as well as with Vivion Spain in Ireland.
> 
> Coming up:
> 
> ...



Thank you for your explanation.  It is evident you want to maintain good control of the quality of SL-4.  No objection with this!

I hope to some day meet you.

- Ceicei


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## Doc (Aug 9, 2006)

Crane557 said:
			
		

> Did you teach any SL4 at the Internationals seminar?


Yes I did sir, although we only had an hour. We touched briefly on muscle reassignment,  nerve acqusition, and B.A.M.'s. Most importantly, we demonstrated, the importance of understanding and acquiring proper stances in execution. Something that everyone takes for granted, but are unable to quantify or demonstrate "How."


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## Doc (Aug 9, 2006)

Ceicei said:
			
		

> Thank you for your explanation.  It is evident you want to maintain good control of the quality of SL-4.  No objection with this!
> 
> I hope to some day meet you.
> 
> - Ceicei


Thank you ma'am. There is nothing more important to me than preserving the knowledge and quality of what I learned from my teacher. Not egos, the number of students, having lots of black belts, etc. The Kenpo itself is the driving factor coupled with the desire to leave my wing of my instructors Kenpo Lineage intact to represent the man's knowledge and true genius. That is my unshakeable legacy goal.

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." &#8212;Marcus Aurelius


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## Bode (Aug 9, 2006)

Crane557 said:
			
		

> Did you teach any SL4 at the Internationals seminar?


Yes, Doc was there along with a number of his students. He taught a seminar for one hour after Mike Pick on Friday. 

We will keep everyone posted on future events/seminars. Doc has at least 2 lined up in the next few months.


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## John Brewer (Aug 9, 2006)

Doc said:
			
		

> Yes I did sir, although we only had an hour. We touched briefly on muscle reassignment,  nerve acqusition, and B.A.M.'s. Most importantly, we demonstrated, the importance of understanding and acquiring proper stances in execution. Something that everyone takes for granted, but are unable to quantify or demonstrate "How."


Wow I'm sorry I missed it. I was only there on Saturday. I find all the posts on SL4 very interesting. Thank you Sir.


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## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (Aug 9, 2006)

Carol Kaur said:
			
		

> That is intersting stuff, Dave.
> 
> Out of sheeeer and total curiosity, you mention stuff like getting in to a stance that is not an SL4 stance.
> 
> Why do you think that is? Overriding defaults from prior training? Something that just felt proper at the time? Being a rather mild-mannered corporate type, reading about someone actually in a fight is like reading about a whole 'nother world


 
Bad habits die hard. In my own pea little brain, Docs Braced Index position he teaches in SL4 would have been a whole lot more effective against bracing for impact against likely incoming charges. Hands are contacting each other in front of the body in a way that improves stability through proprioceptive neuromuscular attenuation. In the typical kenpo stance (sometimes called a full-fan), the hands are facing the bad guy, palms mostly forward. Pretty, but not nearly effective in absorbing and repelling bull rushes.

I just wasn't thinking. Realistically, there was noting compelling me to act, and I could have showed some restraint and just stood between the guys with my arms out; it's worked before, and since neither of these guys were huge, probably would have worked again. Discretion being the better part of valor, and all that...I probably lacked discretion.

Regards,

Dave


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## John Brewer (Aug 9, 2006)

Bode said:
			
		

> Yes, Doc was there along with a number of his students. He taught a seminar for one hour after Mike Pick on Friday.
> 
> We will keep everyone posted on future events/seminars. Doc has at least 2 lined up in the next few months.


Thanks for the info Sir.


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## DavidCC (Aug 10, 2006)

Ceicei said:
			
		

> Thank you for your explanation. It is evident you want to maintain good control of the quality of SL-4. No objection with this!
> 
> I hope to some day meet you.
> 
> - Ceicei


 
You could arrange a seminar of your own, bring Dr. Chapel out, and invite everyone who does kenpo within 100 miles of you...  it worked out well for me   darn near broke even on the thing, and got a weekend of intense Kenpo.  Which led directly to me spending a week in LA as i described in a previous thread...


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