My First Trip to LA
Last week I had the opportunity to go to Los Angeles for the first time. Although it was a work related trip I had the chance to do a couple of things that I've really wanted to do. One of those things was to meet Dr. Chap'el and find out what this Sub Level 4 actually is.
When I first arrived at the school I was greeted by Mr. Perez. He's a 4th Degree Black Belt in AAKC, very friendly and very good. He was about to start the Saturday class, so I sat down and waited for Dr. Chap'el to arrive. When Dr. C came in, the class stopped to acknowledge his presence and then proceeded. I introduced myself and was greeted with a big bear hug. He stopped briefly to speak to a grandmother who was watching her grandson (Christopher), who couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 doing Long One (right side). Earlier she had explained to me that he was in a tournament in Vegas last week and did Short Form One. She was pretty knowledgeable for a grandparent as she let me know who was working on what in the beginners class. Anyway, I digress. Dr. Chap'el spoke to her and she mentioned she had brought the gi that her grandson had outgrown and that she, "hoped Edmund's little one could fit it". Ok, she's on a first name basis with EP jr. So I went in the office with Dr. C and we chit chatted a bit. We talked history, I saw his original IKKA 7th Degree Certificate, old photos of he and SGM Parker, Tommy Chavis, etc...He gave me some additional information to read and we went out to watch the class. As we talked about Sub Level 4 and where Mr. Parker was taking Kenpo I could hear in his voice that there was no doubt or question of his conviction that this was what Mr. Parker showed him and he gave him full credit.
He never put down others he simply made his position clear, we then went out to watch the class. As we talked he had his intermediate and advanced belts form a technique line to work though courses 101,201 ect...He explained to me that Mr. Parker was in the process of moving Kenpo to a educational based system (i.e. School instead of Dojo, Tuition instead of dues, Diplomas instead of Certificates), which I found very interesting. As this students ripped through technique after technique Dr. C would take a minute and have me either act as attacker or defender to show me the different control manipulation concepts. Many of my misconceptions were cleared up and I could see how off base many people are on the net when they talk about what control manipulation is. It's definitely not grappling! He showed me multiple instances where you can control manipulate through strikes and he even took a minute to show me a couple of advanced "energy drains" that were pretty mind blowing. We talked about the importance of alignment in blocks and not just the block itself, but the importance of following the proper path to that alignment to maintain and create the structural integrity of the action. He showed my how very simple methods were used to align and fortify ones position and how improper slap checking in the wrong spot can actually drain your own energy and magnify your attackers strike at the same time. We discussed the philosophy of SL-4 not attacking soft tissue targets. They can, and they know they are there, but as he said and EP jr. said, "is it warranted to blind a man because he won't let go of your hand?" We discussed buoyant foot and hand position, CMA's (control manipulation alternatives) and the like. At one point said let me show you one manipulation and popped me lightly in the neck area. Next thing I know I'm feeling a little light headed so he sat me down. Clearly, he knew this would happen, because right after he did it he got closer (to catch me if need be) and said, "let's sit and talk". The strike was not hard at all, but it brought home the point of what he calls a "knock out". When a person is disoriented such that their eyes are open, but nobodys home. Because of the manipulation they are almost having an almost out of body experience.
He told me that one of the primary goals of SL-4 is to make sure that its practitioners survive the initial attack and he showed me several instances against chokes and holds that this could be done (as well as strikes). He asked me a very simple question that started the basis of our alignment discussion. Why do people punch at you? My answer was to hit you. Ok, why else? Huh....ok, I'll punch you react. Next thing I know he's got my arm in a figure 4, "sometimes they punch to set you up so they can get hold of one of your extremities (very loose quote) so you have to have proper blocking alignment so it can't be collapsed". So as we went on and I soaked up all this information I found myself being able to see the alignments, control manipulations and control releases taking place in the techniques. Actually, heard him tell one of the guys that he wasn't doing the control release properly so I got to check it out and see what he was talking about. We discussed purposeful defiance and compliance and the idea of being able to defy or comply when you want to based on body alignment. I saw so much and I've left out all the comedy that took place during the whole process. As Dr. C would tell his students, "Come here son let me help ya" in his best cross between W.C. Fields and Fog Horn Leg Horn or he would say, "where's my knife, I can't believe your still doing that wrong", "Come here son let me help ya". A couple of times he was driven to eat a cookie in disgust and he made sure they knew it, and the group would say, " No Sir, No not a cookie". Finally, as the class was going the oldies were playing in the background so every so often Dr. C would yell, "Smokie!!!" and the class would stop and look to see if he was imparting some great Kenpo knowledge and he'd say it again without paying attention to them, "Smokie Robinson" and then he'd break out into song. This also happened with the Jackson 5 and Diana Ross (or it might have been Aretha! Aretha Franklin). There was definitely a fun, but down to business atmosphere. After the class I met the Dean of Instruction, and a couple of the guys from class. All were very nice and humble and told me to come back so I could participate in the class sometime. There were no superior attitudes. In fact as I watched them do the techniques you could see them conferring with one another on various aspects of the alignment or contact manipulation that was present for a technique. So a Black Belt or Brown or even Blue would say no it's done this way without worry that he would be put down for speaking out of place.
Afterwards, Doc and I went to a little Chinese shop with some great barbecue pork and egg rolls that were ostrich sized "egg" rolls and we talked more about Kenpo and many other non-Kenpo related topics. He invited me back down and I thanked him for a memorable Kenpo experience of a lifetime.
The three things I walked way with from this experience were that Dr. Chap'el doesn't do hypothetical Kenpo, Sub Level 4 and Control Manipulation aren't adding locks to the end of your techniques and this man has a lot more that we haven't even began to see. It's so much deeper and is definitely another level.
The one thing I didn't mention was that when Dr. Chap'el looked at me at the beginning of the day he immediately said, "either your right shoulder has been hurt or it's about to be hurt" without even touching me or any cues on my part. Of course I denied it because I didn't want to have him hold back on the information (I had my shoulder cranked by a figure four move back in late July and it still acts up sometime). Anyway, about half way though the day I asked him how did he know my shoulder had been hurt? As he laughed, his answer was he could "see it on me". "Huh, what do you mean?" "I can see the hot spot on your aura" and we spent some time talking about Chi and internal energy.
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My next trip to see Doc in LA found me downtown, in a horse stance, at night, in the parking lot of a bar, as crack heads came over to beg for change (here we go again)...My first introduction to indexing, but that story is for another day....:-)
1 comment:
That was quite an education and experience. Can't wait to hear what happened in the parking lot!
RB
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