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Tai Chi and World Dragon Kenpo By Jim Patus (IND)
When Coach Pfeiffer first mentioned Tai Chi at one of our monthly Slayer staff meetings I didn’t say much. Of course, I vowed my support; in all the years I been training under Coach Pfeiffer he’s never steered me wrong, but… I had just started working with Okinawan White Crane. Isn’t that going to be soft enough to complement Dragon Kenpo? Coach Pfeiffer was working with a system developed by Dr. Paul Lam based on Sun style Tai Chi. I don’t know much about Tai Chi but I quickly found out that Sun style doesn’t have much in the way of fighting applications. But if the Coach wants support for his new found passion I guess I’m (reluctantly) in.
I ordered the video. There’s only one set (kata) on it. I already know a dozen or so Okinawan/Japanese kata. How hard can this be? I’ll set aside one day next week and get it knocked out. Boy, was I surprised. The White Crane I had been working with had some new movements, but this stuff was totally different from anything I have ever tried.
I worked with it for a couple weeks and even though l didn’t feel very proficient I realized that I was learning something that has a payoff beyond the promise of good health. I signed up for the workshop that Coach Pfeiffer was scheduling at Lake Geneva through Dr. Lam’s organization. I was hooked. Even though I knew that I had a lot of room for improvement I was really enjoying Tai Chi and I wasn’t exactly sure why.
Then I got a message from Coach Pfeiffer that the workshop was cancelled because the enrollment was not high enough to be practical for Dr. Lam’s people to run it. I was very disappointed. He called later and he told me about the possibility of running the workshop anyway. Now I was really elated.
I could hardly wait for the workshop. I practiced Tai Chi for Arthritis every day trying to get ready and I was frustrated at my lack of improvement. (I realize now that I was trying too hard to make it happen quickly.) I continued to work on my Okinawan forms, too. I had a renewed energy, like a kid looking forward to a family vacation.
My first experience of Tai Chi with Coach Pfeiffer was on the shore of Lake Geneva. (I’ll have more about my total Lake Geneva experience next month.) That experience on the shore set the tempo for the rest of the weekend. Friday was relatively slow paced, going through the basic movements. The session lasted about four hours, which I thought was just about right. Coach Pfeiffer provided a lot of details that are not on the videos. He also helped correct those many errors that creep into our routines that we are not even aware of. (Fellow student Mike Wiesnewski loaned me a DVD player so that I could review the videos and be ready for the Saturday session. Thanks, Mike!) During the session on Friday a couple came in and asked about Tai Chi. Apparently they had been involved in Tai Chi before and heard about this program through the Y. Friday evening I attended one of Coach Pfeiffer’s Dragon Kenpo self defense classes and there was a gentleman there who brought news of the possibility of a group interested in Tai Chi for a fitness program. The word is getting out.
Saturday the session was a little more intense and a little longer. We practiced teaching each other and observing each other teach. My Tai Chi still was not perfect (and it still isn’t) but I felt really good about the workshop. I felt not only that it directly helped improve my Tai Chi but that it gave me some tools I can use to continue to improve. I started working with another one of Dr. Lam’s videos (Tai Chi for Beginners) just to see how it would go. I was amazed that now, after the workshop at Lake Geneva, I know what things to look for.
I didn’t do any Okinawan kata for a while after I got back from Lake Geneva; I was busy playing catch-up at work. The following Saturday I was going through Naihanchi (Tekki) Shodan when something hit me: The lateral moves and forearm blocks were very reminiscent of “waving hands in the clouds” from the Tai Chi for Arthritis set. I shrugged it off as an interesting coincidence. I went on to Naihanchi Nidan. I stopped halfway through the opening move. I know I must have had a big smile on my face. “If I squint just right, it’s the ‘single whip’ from the Tai Chi for Arthritis set.” I doubt that studying Tai Chi by itself will provide any self-defense skills. Tai Chi has certainly had an impact on the way I practice my kata. I now perform the three Naihanchi kata very slowly, paying careful attention to breathing. Then I perform them “the regular way”. I know that my rhythm and precision of movement have greatly improved thanks to Tai Chi.
There are other aspects of Tai Chi that makes it appealing to those of us pursuing Dragon Kenpo. Many times I have heard Coach Pfeiffer assert that one of the great things our style has going for it is its non-competitive nature. Dr. Lam in his Tai Chi for Beginners Handbook says “The good thing about Tai chi is that it is progressive but not competitive. You progress for your own enjoyment and fulfillment and you can continue to improve no matter what age you are. This improvement brings enlightenment and better health.” I hope to offer a weekly Tai Chi session at the college where I work. I think it may be useful as a drawing card to our Saturday Kenpo training sessions once folks realize the philosophy of what we are about.
I encourage all practitioners of Dragon Kenpo to consider Tai Chi. Dr. Lam’s Tai Chi for Arthritis video is available through the online store on the World Dragon Kenpo Website. Coach Pfeiffer also offers a Tai Chi Weekend at a nominal cost. This would be an ideal fieldtrip for a DK training group. If you are within a reasonable distance, Lake Geneva itself is well worth the trip. I’m already making plans to go again next summer.
~Newt Gingrich
Cross Ranking and Rank for Money Schemes
At first, it sounds harmless, and maybe even a way to spread good will to our brothers and sisters in other systems. Let me explain what this means to the uninitiated.
Cross-Ranking should not be compared to Cross-Training, which is merely studying multiple systems so that the practitioner feels more “well-rounded”. For example, a Brazilian JuJitsu student might take up Boxing or American Kenpo, so that he has standing defense as well as groundwork. This is completely fine, and often encouraged; provided you actually do go through the additional system and earn your rank.
Likewise, cross-ranking should also not be confused with honoring rank. Honoring rank is where a person comes from a system to another similar system, and since they had the basic blocks, kicks, punches, and maybe even a handful of the same techniques, they would begin the new system with a yellow or orange belt, skipping the basic belts.
There are several types of cross-ranking, such as “buying rank”, where one person of dan rank would pay dues to another for rank in the others system. An example is Mr. Bob has 4th dan in Mega-Doju-Ryu Karate, and offer Mr. Carl the usual belt fees associated with a 3rd dan in Mr. Carl's system in exchange for that rank. Mr. Carl gets to show he has high ranking black belt students, has some cash and dues every month or year, and Mr. Bob gets an ego boost and another Black Belt to hang on the wall.
A person has a mid to high dan ranking in a certain martial art, lets say ABC-Ryu Kenpo, he runs into someone with mid to high dan ranking in another system, let's say XYZ JuJitsu. Now the Kenpo guy offers to give the JuJitsu guy dan rank in ABC in exchange for rank in XYZ. Suddenly, ABC guy has dan rank in two martial arts.
Sometimes this rank is given in exchange for something - I recently read a tongue in cheek thread on a message board where someone said “Well, it depends on how well they cook and wash my car..” While that was a joke, believe it or not, sometimes this is really how rank is given.
Let me provide an example of why cross-ranking is such a horrible thing, and an abomination to everything Martial Arts stands for. For the purpose of this article, I am going to create a fictitious person named Bob.
Bob enrolled in a distance learning Martial Arts class, not because he didn't live near a good school - there were plenty in his area - but because he thought he could learn this stuff faster and without paying an arm and a leg for a school. Bob wanted to learn at his own pace, and maybe cut a corner here and there.
The course was in Cheatum&Howe's Ka-razee Ryu, along with the 6 videos, walking the student from white to 5th dan black belt, it also came with a signed certificate of your new rank of 3rd dan black belt (to get higher rank, you needed to send in a note saying you really did learn the system, and a 100.00 check).
One day, while reading about the other people who had gone through the same course, Bob saw someone was a 3rd Dan Fu-Jitsu practitioner. Bob decides to trade ranks with this person, who gladly accepts the offer.
After doing this three or four times, Bob now has 3rd and 4th dan in several different systems. Bob figures, “Hey, I can create my own based on all this knowledge I must have now..”. So Bob creates Bo-Kenshin-Kai (see, Ken and Kyle were going to help with this system - they were other black belts he cross-ranked with).
Now that Bob has this new Bo-Kenshin-Kai system, he is naturally ranked as 10th dan and Soke. Well, Bob goes to some even higher ranked fellows he met at the Cheatum&Howe's Ka-razee Ryu Summer Ring Fling, and offers them 8th and 9th dan in exchange for the same in their systems.
Since Bob has all this knowledge, which magically comes to him in his sleep, with his title, Bob decides to setup shop.
Bob's Bo-Kenshin-Kai opens for business - on the web. Pictures of Bob's Dojo (which seems to closely resemble a High School trophy case and the flooring just in front of it) abound on the site. Bob is now Soke of Bo-Kenshin-Kai, 9th degree Black Belt in Jeet-Kune-Lo (a new derivative of the obviously imperfect Jeet Kune Do), 8th degree Black Belt in Splash-a-roo (a system developed completely underwater by street-fighting synchronized swimmers), multiple 6th and 7th degree Black Belts in various other systems, and since he holds a 10th dan, he self promoted to 4th and 5th dan in the systems he earlier traded for cross-ranks in his systems.
No one seems to question Bob, but let him continue to offer sage advice, and words of wisdom that only a Soke would be able to offer. This goes on for some time, until the damage is so deep, it cannot be undone. Damage? Ahh ... there is damage here.
The damage is when a young (in the arts) practitioner comes looking for advice on a particular method. In chimes the Wise One, later, no one notices that the young practitioner has not been on the boards or in contact with anyone for some time. Then, news hits the boards that the young one attempted this method the way the Wise Soke explained it, and he broke his training partners collar bone (it could have been worse..)
But this is not all the damage - there's more. All this back and forth cross ranking has made it “ok” in this group. Now people are more open and accepting of the concept of trading belts back and forth.
This is poison.
Now, Little Jimmy's mom decides that since Soke Bob has such high level credentials, she's intrusting her son to his training. Of course, little Jimmy does not know the difference, and the first (fairly harmless) thing that happens is he gets laughed out of the tournaments. “It's just that they don't know what the real thing is, Jimmy.”, his instructor would tell him. Then, one evening, he is leaving the grocery store, and is held up at gunpoint (many years later in his training), he attempts a “Panther Crawls Up The Pant Leg Of the Crane” and suffers at the hands of his assailant. Why? Because his martial arts is just THEORY. Theory practiced and taught by a phony Soke.
This is just one facet of the dangers of cross-ranking. Take a look at the well know great martial artists, and how many different black belts they have: Sijo Adriano D. Emperado (Kajukenbo), Hanshi Thomas B. Mitose (Kosho-Ryu Kenpo-Jujitsu), Professor William K.S. Chow (Kenpo-Jujitsu - later Kara-Ho), Edmund Parker (American Kenpo). Each were/are head of their respective and respected arts, and each held a maximum of two black belts: One in the art they trained up in, and the other in the art they were head of. These men needed no cross-rank to make them more knowledgeable. Sijo Emperado once said (and I'm paraphrasing) that he didn't need to read about or learn any other system - he had enough to worry about with Kajukenbo.
It is the opinion of this practitioner of Kenpo and Kajukenbo, that cross-rank trading serves only the ego of the people that are swapping belts, and can actually be quite harmful to people who would be their students.
- Rick Collette, Staff Writer State Director
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