Attack and freeze defences...

[Flying Crane]

Sapper: making non-penetrating contact and having the uke "react" to strikes by pretending to be moved or hurt is one of Kenpo's primary technical and training advances over prior Karate practice. But, if you want a person to act as "natural as possible", then the person would be moving, blocking, and hitting back, not just standing there and "reacting" like good dummy. And that is what is missing in most Kenpo training.

One more point: I believe the technician in Andrew's post is Bob Liles, a well respected Kenpoist with several decades of experience.

I think this is a good point. My earlier post regarding the reactions of the uke were really aimed at how the technique is designed in the first place. Having the Uke "play along" with the technique is not so much what I had in mind, but rather the logical structuring of the technique so that any follow-up shots make sense based on how the Uke could be expected to react when struck, rather than simply throwing a whole bunch of random strikes for which the Uke would have already been on the floor. Again, I think that after about 2-4 strikes it becomes very unrealistic to think that any additional pre-planned strikes will be successful as planned. For about 2-4 strikes, I think it makes sense to cautiously trust the barrage to be workable to some extent, but after that, all assumptions are off the table.

 

[arnisador]

It is worth noting that the techniques are designed for the correct body movement following a paticular strike. Eg a inward block on the striking arm will have a very specific reaction.

Heh. In theory, theory and practice are the same...in practice, try telling the drunken nutcase who just ignored your inward block that he failed to use "correct body movement" in response to your technique.

We emphasize working with many different partners precisely because everyone moves and reacts differently. It's fine to go with the odds, and I don't necessarily object to that strategy, but one must be prepared for an "incorrect" (!) reaction from one's opponent. Someone who chooses to get in a fight with you believes he has reason to believe that he will win that fight--one such reason may be that he knows he has an abnormally high pain tolerance. A typical attacker is not the same as the average person. They're drawn from different populations.

In Modern Arnis, we emphasize a flowing response to the changing conditions of the fight. This is essential at stick-speed. It's nice to have a patterned attack to enter into once an opponent is dazed in order to overwhelm him (sinawali in FMA, chained techniques in Wing Chun, standard combos in boxing, etc.), but bad to use it too soon.

My experience has been that many people who emphasize practicing in this attack-and-freeze manner (which I associate with Kenpo, but which other arts sometimes use) are susceptible to a defense of stepping offline on a 45 degree angle forward. They will throw at least one more strike at the empty space where you "should" be.

At a seminar once, I was subjected to an extreme version of this. Person A would throw a single strike, then stand stock-still (arm extended, etc.). Person B would counter and strike, then slowly circle 360 degrees around the stationary Person A while throwing strikes at available targets. I was told that this helped Person B learn how to find openings to counter-attack. I thought it was nonsense.

I'll believe that this is a good idea when I see a boxer/kickboxer/wrestler/judoka/UFCer/etc. use it. Everyone needs a compliant partner some of the time, but if this is the most realistic form of semi-sparring drill that you do then I think there's a problem.

 

[Makalakumu]

I think that FC and Sapper6 brought up some very good points. I agree strongly with the 'attacker' 'reacting' to the strikes that are being thrown. This is something that I'd always bring up to students when teaching them.

I'm posting this link to show a few more techniques. IMHO, they give a much better idea as to how someone should be moving/reacting.

http://www.ltatum.com/TipOfTheWeek.html

First of all, that was pretty sweet. Secondly, is Mr. Tatum actually whacking his uki?