Tightrope

“Knowing isn’t enough, you have to be able to apply.” 

A few weeks ago Gene and I attended a seminar given by Mr. Richard “Huk” Planas and the above quote was his very first teaching of the day. The analogy he used was immensely powerful; everyone knows HOW to walk a tightrope. You place one foot in front of the other, you keep your balance and pray you make it to the other side. Now, DOING this is a whole different ballpark.

This is exactly why we chose the name Scholar and Warrior Kenpo Academy; you must be able to do the technique not just run through the motions. In order to make the technique work correctly you must know and understand the principles and basics behind the motion you are performing.

“The Scholar and the Warrior, come together and move forward in the battle. Fighting side by side and back to back…”

By employing only one you will only be able to perform at half of your potential. The Scholar is the wise one, the intelligence that is able to see all three points of view in the situation, the attacker’s point of view, the defender’s point of view and the outside third party’s point of view. *He is able to use these insights to take on the situation as a whole and analyze it before reacting. And this is done in a phenomenally short amount of time. The Scholar has familiarized himself with principles that the motion is founded on. The Scholar comes to you in time, you first have to be able to perform the motion somewhat before you can understand it, however you must be able to understand the principles behind the motion before you will ever be able to utilize it correctly and effectively.

The Warrior represents strength; he has no qualms about diving into the battle head first. The Warrior is obviously the physical aspect of your training and *he is who you will begin training first. In the beginning the Warrior will be clumsy and awkward but as with everything else, dedication and time will hone in his skills and make the foreign movement of before seem natural.

Mr. Planas shared so much knowledge with us that day; this is merely a snippet of what we learned in 4.5 hours. But I found this applicable not only to beginners but to Kenpoists in all stages. I know I found it very useful myself. Time to start walking the tightrope.

*He is interchangeable with she.