10 Principles of Kenpo Jujits part IIII

The next two principles we are going to cover this week are Power Patterns and Timing and Speed as these two go hand in hand. The first power pattern we are going to talk about is Linear power this one will be used when you are going to strike in a straight line such as seen in Kenpo Shield or Attacking the Circle B. When developing linear power your back leg should go into a hard bow stance. Your forward knee should be bent and the back leg is locked out, with the heel on the floor. As with all power patterns this is a transitional motion, once you have thrown the strike go back to your fighting stance. Circular power is going into a softbow or going from softbow to softbow. Examples of this power pattern can be seen in Returning Dragon and kimono Grab. The last power pattern is drop of body weight, in this instance you can end up in a softbow or by lowering your horse stance. For example the ending of Returning Dragon, after you have knee your opponent in the body you check the head drop to softbow as you are doing a downward elbow strike to the opponents back. Dropping into a lower horse stance, can be seen in Armbar, by dropping your body weight you are adding more pressure to the lock. Some techniques will use a combination of power patterns such as in Returning Dragon; you are using circular power for the strikes then drop of body weight when you strike the elbow in the back.
Even though the power patterns are important the timing and speed is critical to the execution of Kenpo techniques. If your timing is not right the power pattern will not work and you will not have the speed you need to complete the technique. When talking about timing we are talking two actions the 1st is the timing of a strike for example when you throw a punch you want to make sure you do not turn your arm over until the elbow leaves the rib cage. If you rotate the arm too soon you are not going to have the maximum power in the strike as you would if you timed it correctly. You also have the timing of your strike and power pattern. The two should work as one move not two separate moves. When you throw a reverse punch the hand should be coming out of chamber as you are pivoting into hard bow, as your strike hits your opponent you should be competing the hard bow at that very second, if you strike to early or to late then you will not have your body weight behind the strike just your own muscle power.
There are 3 types of speed but this week we are only going to talk about explosive speed or reaction speed. By this we mean how fast you can react to what you see and get into the proper position. By having the proper speed and timing you will have the power that must be implemented at the time when your opponent moves to proper positioning.
Remember you must have a proper power pattern, proper timing and speed in order to have a proper technique. Without any one of these the technique may not work correctly or be there when you need it.