Expert: David R. Organ - 9/12/2007

Question
QUESTION: I have been taking Kenpo Karate in Colorado, I am not in any advanced ranks or anything, but when I read this forum online:
http://www.all-karate.com/forums/index.php?s=178d6c16513d2271393445595d81d311&sh

it has me worried that in fact my karate will be worthless on the streets.
I am 20 years old, I have lived outside of the country most of my life, in Africa, and I can tell you that the fact is not that maybe I might get in a fight, the fact is that I plan on going back there, it is like my 2nd home, and the fact is I WILL end up in that sort of situation, as I have at least 50 times been in a fight situation, none of which I really instigated, hard to believe in America, but in Africa it is another story, I have literally been walking and had people step out in front of my path and begin pushing me around, even when I move with friends, allot of times they are drunk, and it's not just being in a bad place at a bad time, it is everywhere, it's part of living there. Most people there actually know Taekwondo, or kick-boxing/boxing, they have many gyms and instructors of those type there, they really know hardly anything about karate. I need something effective that I will have real confidence that I can in fact fight and win.
I am worried that I will continue in Kenpo and I know the movies show that this stuff works, but I do not want to spend 10 years to learn how to make fancy moves or 20 years, however long, I am also aware that things depend on me, how much I put into it, that it is MY kenpo etc. But even so, we train with willing partners, we never actually have the contact with anyone like we would on the street, I myself had a recent eye opener, I went to see a friend of mine, who owns a financial institution, he knew I was in Karate, and we were in his office he turns around and jumps at me quickly, I could actually see him coming for a moment but I completely froze up, and all those moves and sets and forms and blocks and strikes and everything went right out the window, and as if he's fighting on the street, pushes me to the ground and lifts something up as if he's going to smash my head in, if that was on the street and he wasn't my friend, I would have been finished right there.
So maybe I don't have enough training, which is how I defended myself and my Kenpo, and my Kenpo instructor says that it doesn't matter, you will use what you know to defend yourself even if you are not black belt or what not. I know enough about fighting mostly getting beaten to the ground, to know that it happens so quickly usually you end up on the ground with no time to even think about stepping back into a stance, no time for a stance, just allot of confusion, grabbing fast punching noise and shear strength, big black guy grabbing you and throwing you to the ground.
I also am cross training as of recently, with Aikido, but allot of Aikido is so submissive on the behalf of the training partner, and in such slow motion, I'm almost convinced that they can't perform that type of Martial art on the street with an experienced street fighter.

ANSWER: Hello, Danny. First, please allow me to apologize for my lateness in answering you - I'm in the middle of moving house (Ugh! Moving!) and my computer's still in a box...somewhere. I think it's in the garage.

At any rate, I missed your question, and I'm sorry.

Now to your question. It shows you've made a couple of wrong assumptions regarding Aikido and Martial Arts (MA) in general; but that's totally OK - they're the same assumptions everyone gets wrong at first. The trick is to recognize and correct them; something a lot of people never do.

The first is this: You need to understand that Aikido is a defensive art; it is NOT a 'self defense' system. This might sound like a really narrow division but believe me, it's not. A 'Self Defense' system is exactly that - it teaches you to defend yourself under a given set of conditions. A 'defensive art' on the other hand is a lot more complicated and subtle. A defensive art such as Aikido teaches the *principles and fundamentals of defence*; not 'how to defend yourself' per se. In other words, it teaches the underlying structures of defence - balance, structure, co-ordination, etc.
These principles are not easy to learn; they take time, effort and strenth of will to develop; which helps to make the study of the Arts as deeply rewarding as it is - it takes discipline, character and confidence to learn the Arts.

When looking at Aikido and observing the slow movement and 'submissive' ukes (attackers), remember that you're not seeing people learn how to 'fight' in such a stilted, stylized fashion. Techniques are performed at slow speed because it's extremely hard to practice slowly - you can't hide incorrect body movement with speed. Ukes go along with nages (defenders) because they're not opponents - they're training partners. They're giving their bodies to allow nage to learn the principles the technique teaches. Aikidoists practice using energy, inertia and skeletal geometry rather than muscle because force only serves to patch incorrect technique. Even in real life; if using defensive principles properly one should NEVER be meeting force with force, that's a recipe for disaster. One should instead be taking an opponent's force and using it to your own advantage and that's exactly what aikido teaches.

The practical upshot of all this is you can learn to "use aikido" to defend yourself; but it's going to take you a hell of a lot of time and effort - on the order of 20+ years. But that's not the point, from a defensive viewpoint. You can instead learn - REALLY learn - the defensive principles that Aikido teaches and incorporate them into your daily routine very quickly - on the order of weeks. This path, however, depends on knowing what those principles actually are. Unfortunately that is something frequently not taught directly in schools; and quite frankly these principles are far beyond the scope of this response. If you wish; I can E-mail you directly and give you references to study the principles yourself.

The next point you're getting confused on is shown when you describe being mock-attacked by your friend - you froze; rather than countered. What you're confusing is the difference between skills and skillsets.

Bear with me on this. A skillset is what you're learning when you're taking MA. A 'skillset' is simply a collection of stuff you've learned. It might be really interesting, valuable stuff, but still just a collection of stuff. You've LEARNED it, but you're not gonna be able to DO anything with it yet. Until you can use it effectively; take it into your subconcious so you can do it without even thinking about it - in other words, to become skilled - it's just going to remain a collection of interesting stuff.

Becoming skilled takes time - more than that, it takes confidence and sure faith in the skillsets; faith that only comes from experience. It's more than learning; it's *understanding*. You're probably too young to read much Heinlein, but in order to be truly skilled at something, you need to grok it. (Look it up. ;-) )

All that said; don't be too embarrassed if you didn't respond 'properly' when your friend mock-attacked you. Let's be real here - you're with a friend in a bank - not exactly a likely place for an assault. Your guard was down and guess what? Were I in your shoes, he'd have likely planted one on me as well. It's a basic fact - you CAN'T have your guard up at all times, you've got to drop 'em sooner or later. You know what they call people who are ALWAYS prepared for violence? Sociopaths.

The 'trick' is not to be prepared at all times; the 'trick' is to be aware of your surroundings, to understand where and when an attack might occur, and to take steps to avoid those situations BEFORE they happen. Are you shaken out and ready to go when walking down a dark alley in Johannesburg? Oooh, you'd better be, or chances are you're not walking out again. But what about when sitting in church? In school? In the doctor's office? Not likely - these are places where violence is unlikely; so being prepared for it is a pointless waste of energy. You CAN be prepared at all times but trust me - it doesn't make you any friends; I wasn't exaggerating when I used the word 'sociopath'. I mean think about it - suppose you *were* ready to go when your friend attacked. Kenpo is a superb art; beautifully designed for defence. Don't you realize that if you *had* responded "properly" ('properly' here being defined as using Kenpo to fight off the attack like you would in the dojo), your friend could easily have been seriously injured? Is that what you want?

BTW: Right at the beginning of your question, you said you were worried about Kenpo being worthless on the 'street'. I hope I've corrected your thinking on that. You didn't say, but being in Colorado I assume you're taking Ed Parker Style American Kenpo. Believe me - that's one of those arts I firmly believe everyone should study. It's coverage of the fighting fundamentals is superb - and as a matter of fact it combines beautifully with Aikido. It provides the range and power of a damned effective striking art while Aikido is (in my opinion) matchless for the close and infighting ranges. Were you to continue with this form of crosstraining, I'd strongly recommend Judo or Greco-Roman wrestling as well, to develop your groundfighting skills. These three arts compliment each other wonderfully; and I hope you haven't lost any faith in Kenpo based upon the less than expert opinion of anyone on those forums.

There's one other point I want to make Danny; but I can guarantee you're not going to like it. I want you to think about it though. In your post, you state that you've been involved in 50+ fight encounters; none of which you instigated.

OK - I'm going to assume that number isn't an exaggerstion; I know that Africa's a violent place.

But: You may not have instigated the fights; but what did you do to avoid them? What steps did you take? Did you try to talk down/defuse the situation or did you play the fighter's game? Did you have any awareness of the developing situation?

Don't answer me - that's not what these questions are for. These are all questions you need to ask yourself after any physical encounter - what could you have done better?

I'll be honest - I don't get into a lot of fights. I've been in plenty of physical encounters (which have included such artful accessories as knives, a machete, a couple baseball bats and a gunshot from point-blank range), but not fights. Why? Because I don't want to fight - so I get out of it. OK; it certainly helps that I'm twice your age, stand 6'4", weight 210lb and look (and am) mean, so it takes a pretty drunk - or arrogant - idiot to actually consider throwing that first (and only) punch. The thing is however, it rarely gets to that stage, since I look ahead, see the developing situation and avoid it long before it occurs. This is a skill that needs learning and developing like any other. While fighting may well be unavoidable in some cases; I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts the vast majority of those 50 fights could have been avoided with the right training and will.

Danny, that's the best I can do for you at the moment. I realize none of these points are simple or clear, but it's a hell of a complicated field and there are no easy answers. Still, I hope I've been able to give you a little confidence and understanding about what you're looking for in your MA training. You've got a long road ahead of you - might as well make sure you've got the right series of road maps.

As this is my first question I'm not sure about the protocol on AllExperts, but if any other experts reading this wish to chime in, they're more than welcome. :-)

Cheers Danny, I hope I've helped. :)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, you have helped allot! Great reply.
You mentioned taking Judo or wrestling, are they the same? I though Judo was more like a reflection of Aikido where you usually avoided the ground, use your opponents energy.
I would love to incorporate some ground fighting, I was thinking about Brazilian Jui-jitsu, but my week is packed with Karate Lessons and Aikido Lessons already. I am thinking about changing schools, the Aikido, because the school I am in is more like a club, I don't think I'm getting all I can get out of it, I could just swap it for BJJ school, what do you think?

Answer
Hi again, Danny. That's a tough question, not knowing your specific schools. Obviously I'm biased towards aikido; it is my primary art after all. That said, take whichever one feels best for you. Judge the schools with a great deal of forethought before making a firm decision - like I suggested in my first response; there might be a lot more going on in one particular school that meets the eye.
If your intent is to learn self defence; I would personally steer clear of BJJ - just a personal observation there; but many of the schools I've observed are far too sport-oriented to be particularly effective for self defence. Judo and wrestling are themselves sports of course, but BJJ and MMA is the latest martial arts fad; the latest 'ultimate big thing' that everyone wants to do. BJJ schools therefore are overwhelmingly geared to winning MMA competitions. The vast majority of what they teach is great for sport - don't think I'm knocking it for a second - but spectacularly unsuited for real-world defense. A good knowledge of the ground is essential though; which is why I would recommend supplementing your skills with either Judo - for the trip to the ground and back - or G-R wresting, which is excellent for when you're actually there.

One other thing - where in Colorado are you? If you're near Denver (specifically Castle Rock), I've a few people you can call for further info. :)

Cheers!