Originally posted by cdhall
I was told that Intellectual Departure was removed from the Yellow Belt Curriculum because it was too hard for beginners to get. I was told that Mr. Parker had it in there and he is the one that also took it out.
It's hard to learn, unless taught well! Ask Huk Planas about it, and he'll give you tons of good info and make it easy to learn (or so it seemed when he covered it in a seminar I was at). Maybe it's just because we did it a thousand times. Then, Mr. Trejo spent the next hour showing us how to use it effectively in sparring. Quite a good day for learning Int Dep!
The problem I see with the tech is that it breaks a rule -- in it you turn your back to the opponent. Granted, you are doing a back kick at the time, but still you go from facing them to looking over your shoulder at them, then back to facing them.
But, once you learn it, you can see how it teaches a number of different concepts well, like one way to deal with a starting arm position that limits your defensive options, why we don't normally turn our backs, maintaining momentum while changing directions, one good way to surprise a sparring partner, and completing one of those _categories_ that so many people get irritated about. And other stuff. I'm sure when I'm a more advanced student I'll be able to pull more lessons to mind when I think of Int Dep.
In all, the tech has good and bad. I'm of a mind to teach it, so people can learn from it, even if it breaks rules as a self-defense tech (after all, it ain't the only one!).
:cuss:
