Inside Kung-FU Instructor of the year- IKF February 2009

Inside Kung-Fu Magazine

February 2009 Vol. 37

Instructor of the Year

By Dave Cater

It took Joseph Simonet nearly 25 years to become an overnight sensation. Simonet, a contributing editor of Inside Kung-Fu for the past two years, has taken the martial arts world by storm with a teaching concept both unique and traditional. One-half (along with 2008 “Woman of the Year” Addy Hernandez) of the juggernaut martial arts system known as KI Fighting Concepts, Simonet has taken the best ideas of his predecessors and synthesized it into a magical collection of training, conditioning, technical and application skills that can benefit anyone of any discipline.

“What good is a martial arts technique if you can’t use it?” ask Simonet, whose Unique Publications books and DVDs are among the company’s best-sellers. “For an application to be beneficial, it has to be easy enough to learn and even easier to apply,” adds Simonet.

Now don’t think for one minute that Joseph has borrowed from his martial arts brethren. Far from it. Long before the world knew who he was or what he could deliver, Simonet was training with some of the most-respected minds and most-admired technicians in the martial arts world.

Like any trailblazer, however, Simonet was not content to stand on ceremony. In other words, he was not afraid to tinker with perfection. What may have worked in the 1500s was due for some modernization; the street fighting techniques practiced 40 years ago needed a facelift to tackle the dangers of today.

Through seminars around the world-from China to New York and hundreds of stops in between-Simonet is spreading the gospel of his exciting new discovery. KI Fighting Concepts is a living, breathing 21^st- Century approach to training that fits around the practitioner like a new pair of jeans. The more you wear it, the more it stretches to fit your style. It takes a martial artist of vision to create something so revolutionary. It only took the rest of the world 25 years to take notice.

KI Online Training- IKF January 2009

IKF Magazine

January 2009

Vol. 37

KI Online Training

By Joseph Simonet

In the fall of 1995, Addy Hernandez was attending college near Spokane, Wash. The three hours of travel time from our hometown to Spokane created a bit of a challenge for us to get together and train. We would usually alternate travel on weekends; she would come home one weekend and I would travel to Spokane the next weekend. Though not an ideal situation for quality training time, we managed to make it work. On one of my trips to Spokane, Addy and I wandered into a used bookstore. The owner of the store asked us if we would like to see the “Internet” in action. Remember this was 1995 and at that point in time, I had never seen anything on the World Wide Web. So we proceeded to the store owner’s office and were amazed at all of his fancy computer stuff. At that moment, I felt like I was stepping into the future. He asked me what I was interested in searching, and I replied martial arts.

In a matter of seconds he was showing me photos and text from a Web site somewhere in Europe. Initially, I was blown away. The marvel of visiting all these different martial art sites soon dimmed as I became more disappointed in the quality, or should I say “lack of quality,” of the actual karate, kung-fu and so on. The technical genius of the Internet was overshadowed by the unimpressive and sloppy presentations of the so-called “masters” I observed. I remember saying at the time, “You can bounce it off the moon and circle it around the sun and back, but it’s still watered-down karate to me.”

The Internet has grown in availability, quality and enormous technical advances. Since my first chance encounter with the Web, I have waded through eight different “webmasters.” (It’s interesting to me how as a martial artist we spend a lifetime training to master our craft, and tech geeks take a weekend Web design workshop and call themselves “webmasters”). Our Web site, KIFightingConcepts.com, still isn’t finished nor shall it ever be. We are constantly evolving despite the long run of “masters.”

Developing, maintaining and improving one’s Web site is an enormous task. One of my main objectives for ours is to offer online martial arts training. The challenge has been waiting for technology to catch up with the public’s demands. The public is looking for affordability, availability and high-speed quality. I believe we’ve finally arrived.

Addy and I are now offering online training through our site. The subjects are many and varied. We are teaching kenpo karate, wing chun, Filipino arts (stick and blade), Pentjak silat, tai chi, boxing, weapons, wooden dummy, lock flow, sensitivity drills and grappling. Our intent is to make available the most comprehensive collection of preeminent martial arts training on the Web. We both realize that to complete this task will ultimately take years. However, we already have several hundred downloads available right now. I estimate we’ll have several thousand training choices before we are done. The idea is to show the world our vision of what training martial arts is all about.

Sometimes people ask me if I’m worried that other martial artists will take our “secrets” and call them their own. First, there are no secrets. I once read that to make an apple pie from scratch, you would first have to reinvent the universe.

Addy and I have unique and highly functional training methods that are fun, challenging, practical and thus valuable. We are opening up our art and training methods to the world. We have already made several DVDs with Unique Publications and Paladin Press. Offering downloads is not intended to replace or dismiss our Unique or Paladin DVDs. On the contrary; we believe all our projects, books, articles, DVDs, seminars, camps and now online training are part of an integral tapestry of our life’s work.

Our DVDs are comprehensive presentations of specific arts and training methods. Someone interested in defensive knife training in particular would be advised to purchase the “A Cut Above” DVD from Unique Publications. If someone was interested in Sinawali (double-stick drills) I would suggest getting our “Secrets of Sinawali” from Paladin Press. What is useful about our online training is that once you sign up, you can have both knife and stick training available to you as well as hundreds of other training tips and drills. It just depends on your interest and, of course, your depth of knowledge.

We encourage beginners to high-level black belts to reference our material somewhat as an e-University. Everyone has something to gain. We will also address questions by choosing the most interesting or relevant ones, and creating downloads to represent our answers. We will demonstrate the why’s of our answers in this format. We believe we can show and share the depth of our skills and knowledge. So every week, ask us the tough questions. We’ll pick the best ones and address it right on our site. Addy and I are excited about this aspect of our online training. Come visit us at www.kifightingconcepts.com.

Following a Vision- IKF February 2009

Inside Kung-Fu Magazine

February 2009

Vol. 37

Following a vision

By Addy Hernandez

Late last summer, my instructor Joseph Simonet and I had just finished an amazing tai chi session together. I was sitting in the center of our Bagua (the name of one of our training platforms at Wind and Rock) as Joseph went and gathered some organic apricots from one of our trees. He brought them to me without a word as we sat and enjoyed the sweet fruits of our labor. It was one of those moments!

This feeling of wholeness and well-being overtook me. As a cool breeze and warm sun intoxicated my senses, I felt and intuitive vibration of being here in the now. Breaching the silence, I simply said, “Thank you.” Without hesitation Joseph replied, “Don’t thank me, thank Lillian, Lillian Susumi.”

I learned from Joseph that Lillian was one of his earliest tai chi instructors back in the 1980’s. She specialized in tai chi chueh and was the one who introduced Joseph to Gao-fu, his most prolific tai chi teacher. Joseph told me the story of Lillian calling him from several states away, asking permission to come and visit him on her vision quest of enlightenment. Apparently, she was seeking a favorable location to live her art. She felt a need and a calling to reach out to Joseph. A few days later she arrived and visited with Joseph for several days.

During her visit, she had identified several vortexes on Joseph’s property. After a few days rest, she left, never to return.

As Joseph told me this story, once again, I was enveloped in this sense of bliss. “So,” I asked, “Are you telling me that I’m sitting in the center of a vortex?”

Joseph replied, “It’s not that simple; let me explain.”

Joseph proceeded to tell me that he felt his art, “The Art and Science of Mook Jong,” was really very simple. It was really more like the “Art of Intuition.” He summed it up by saying it was all about, “the skill of thinking intuitively” and manifesting it physically through the notion of synchronicity.

Intrigued, I replied, “What is synchronicity?”

Joseph answered, “Synchronicity is a theory from Carl Jung relating to meaningful coincidences. Jung was a student of the I-Ching.” Joseph later confided in me that during Lillian’s visit she had also opened a gate for him. He learned to let go of knowing and began accessing the not knowing – an intuitive synchronicity. Joseph proceeded to tell me that when he built the “Bagua” training platform, he simply let go and filled in the blanks. He had a vision of what the platform was meant to be and followed that vision literally.

However, after designing, building and training on the Bagua, the intuitive, metaphysical, spiritual and historical significance has only now begun to reveal itself. This is where the story gets interesting. Unbeknownst to him, in building his “training platform” Joseph tapped into a 100 million-year-old life form-one of the oldest and most valuable written texts on the planet, all the while creating a giant natural magnet out of earth crystals.

Starting with the “vortex” location that Lillian had sensed, Joseph outlined an octagon shaped with basalt rock columns. Basalt rocks have a strong magnetic property, are hexagonal in shape (six-sided), and are a group of rock formations referred to as metamorphic rock or changes in form. This coincides with the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching (The Book of Changes) and Bagua’s palm changes. At the center of our platform is a brown Moroccan marble yin/yang symbol, which is also a part of the metamorphic rock classification. Captured in the brown marble is a fossil from the cretaceous period (150 million years ago). It’s a nautilus fossil whose species has survived several severe extinction events. Joseph also built an 8-foot waterfall which crashes into rocks and emits negative ions. Negative ions help purify the air, similar to the surrounding trees which create negative ions during photosynthesis. Imbedded in the concrete octagon are the 8 trigrams and the 64 hexagrams of I-Ching. Granite is known for its high level of oxygen composition.

Adding up all these “coincidences,” I realized that when Joseph said Lillian had opened up a gate for him, he truly tapped into a universal matrix of intuitive synchronicity. No wonder I feel an amazing energy when I train on the “Bagua.”

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Grappling

“Weapons of Mass Destruction”

By Joseph Simonet

January 2006

Pg 88-90, 127

If you are an MMA Fighter who wants a weapon that is versatile, simple and powerful, consider the Supported Elbow Frame.

I have trained in the martial arts since 1972. From the very beginning, my interest and/or motivation was to be able to defend myself and become a functional fighter. My journey of 30-plus years has been filled with highs, lows, injuries and triumphs.

Anyone who pursues the truth in the fighting arts ultimately will get his ego crushed and his hat handed to him on a regular basis. The karmic freight train is coming around the bend, and it’s coming for you.

I have experienced countless “reality bites” moments. One such moment occurred November 12, 1993 at McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado. I found myself ringside at the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Being a veteran martial artist and holder of multiple black belts offered little solace as I stared into the face of reality.

“Oh, (bleep), I have to learn the ground”.

There I was, nearly 40, and immediately desperate to gain knowledge of the ground. My first opportunity was with the local high school wrestling team. I was allowed to train with the varsity heavyweights. It was a humble beginning as my pursuit of knowledge took yet another turn.

Since that fateful day, my training has become more refined and focused. My system of training has been organized into what I call “The Art and Science of Mook Jong” (ASMJ, wooden dummy training).

5 Ranges

It is widely accepted there are five ranges of unarmed combat: kicking, punching, trapping, clinch and grappling. “The Art and Science of Mook Jong” focuses on trapping and/or clinching range. The movements I utilize are essential ingredients distilled and extracted from preeminent martial arts systems such as kenpo karate, wing chun, silat, doce pares, tai chi, boxing and an eclectic ground game. I have discarded 90 percent of the techniques and training these arts had to offer. I felt most of the material just did not hold up in real fighting.

“The Art and Science of Mook Jong” is powered by a superior attitude. In the stand-up game, superior attitude defeats superior techniques. However, it is only when you add conditioning to the attitude and technique methodology that real success can be achieved.

The Supported Elbow Frame

The supported elbow frame is one of the most significant and essential weapons in the ASMJ arsenal. All MMA practitioners should train and utilize this weapon because of its versatility, simplicity, and power.

To create a supported elbow frame (1-4), start in a left lead, with your body leaning forward. Thrust your left elbow up until it is pointed into your opponent’s centerline. Cover your left ear with the palm of your hand. As this is happening, your right hand creates a frame by attaching to your left inside forearm near the elbow. This is the basic supported elbow frame.

It is imperative to established a lower art base. When executing the supported elbow, sink your base as you move forward to prepare for absorbing a powerful strike, such as a head-high roundhouse kick or a huge over hand punch.

Surviving the Big Punch

Distance is one key to using the supported elbow to survive the big punch. This forces my opponent to bridge the gap and commit to a big bomb. While standing just outside of punch range, I have allowed myself time to react to a big right hand (5-6).

As my opponent loads for the punch, I begin to sink my weight and move forward into his centerline. By creating the supported elbow frame, I have protected my head, neck and face, while solidifying my base. When my opponent makes contact, he is not prepared to hit such a solid target, which in turn disrupts his timing and base.

My left elbow also acts as an attack as I drive the point into his oncoming shoulder (7). Note my body position and/or base. I have successfully absorbed the big punch, bridged the gap, and disrupted his base, while attacking with an elbow point by entering into trapping range.

Wrap, Trap, Attack

After blocking his right punch, my left hand now circles counterclockwise to trap my opponent’s right arm above the elbow, while simultaneously striking his jaw with my right elbow (8). My left hand now attaches to my right biceps, which creates another support, adds striking power and hyperextends his right arm. I follow with a standing armbar on his right arm as I crash down on his collarbone or jaw (9).

I then hook my right hand around his neck as I jerk him into a right knew to the race, while still locking his right arm (10). I release my opponent’s left arm and proceed into a guillotine (11-13). I finish by sitting and falling back into guard position as I plant his face into the mat.

In developing fighting skills, simplicity and versatility of technique weighs heavy on value. It only makes sense to develop muscle memory and skill sets that work at all ranges.

Supported Elbow When Mounted

This next example begins from the mounted position. The attacker throws a big right punch. The defender on the bottom (14-15) prepares for impact with a supported left elbow frame. Once the punch is deflected and jammed (16), the defender wraps his opponent’s right arm with his left arm. Notice, this is exactly what was demonstrated in the stand-up version.

After wrapping the right arm, the defender strikes with his right hand and then reverses position. Note, the defender’s elbowlock and right hand position (17-18). If his opponent extends his hips to free up pressure on his face, he only adds more tension to his left elbow. The defender now applies more pressure, stretching the elbow joint and punishing the face (19). When tension reaches its peak, the defender releases his right hand for a downward elbow cut to the face (20).

Prevent the Rear Choke

When you find yourself mounted from the rear and your opponent is moving in for the kill (choke), the supported elbow frame may just save you from defeat. I can use the elbow frame to block my attacker’s attempts to put me in a choke. Essentially, I am tucking my chin, locking my arms, supporting my heard forward, and buying time.

Next, the attacker briefly aborts the choke attempt and decides to strike. I simply reverse my elbow position to my left side and block his strike. As a follow-up, I grab his left arm, extend it over my right shoulder and apply pressure with my head and body.

Developing Training Drills

Now that we have demonstrated the technical value of the supported elbow frame, let’s establish functional training drills as well. Begin by facing off in a fighting position wearing focus mitts or gloves. Have your partner throw big punches to your head as you counter with the supported elbow frame. This should be done on both sides. Add intensity and realism to the attacks as you get more comfortable with this drill. In other words, try to take his head off with huge powerful attacks. Make it real.

To follow up, feel free to add tie-ups with knew attacks. Be creative and intense.

Sticking and Contact Drills

Sensitivity drills are extremely important in “The Art and Science of Mook Jong.” Body contact is a key component in learning to listen to my opponent’s intent. For example, the next photo sequence will demonstrate a training drill guaranteed to develop muscle memory and body awareness.

Face off with a partner and begin the drill with your partner’s right punch and your left supported elbow frame counter. Now, wrap your partner’s right arm as you strike with your right hand while applying a lock with your left arm. Hook behind his head and applying a follow-up right knew to his midsection.

After your knee strike, plant your right foot back and let go of the lock. While this is happening, your partner throws a left punch. Repeat the same counter-sequence on the left side. This pattern should be repeated from side to side. To attain a higher and more intense level of training, include heavier contract that continues for the equivalent of two-minute rounds.

Linking drills is a challenging, essential aspect of sensitivity training. Repetition and body sticking will enhance every fighter’s skill level. After excusing the left knee, step forward with the same leg and begin the pummeling drill. Make sure to repeat on each side.

Skills Box

By now you should have gained a new insight and greater appreciation for the supported elbow frame. You will find its function to be an essential tool in your fighting skills box. When in doubt, train harder.

Sinawali: The Mechanics of Martial Motion

Filipino Martial Arts

“Sinawali: The Mechanics of Martial Motion”

By Michael Janich

July 2003

Pg. 54-61

Sinawali is a template for learning proper movement. It’s like the paint-by-numbers approach to artwork.

Sinawali, or double-stick training, is a practice familiar to many Filipino martial arts. In its most common form, two eskrimadors, each armed with two sticks, face each other and simultaneously perform an identical series of prescribed strikes, hitting their sticks together in various rote patterns and rhythms. Meaning, “to weave,” sinawali gets its name from the intricate, intertwining patterns of the sticks as they are wielded in these drills.

Although sinawali is practiced in many Filipino martial arts forms, most of this practice usually consists of simple mechanical repetition. At a basic level, this type of training is an extremely efficient way of developing form and programming motor skills. However, to the advanced practitioner, these amazing drills offer a much higher level of skill development and a true understanding of physical movement.

Joseph Simonet has spent years analyzing and refining sinawali drills to extract their deeper meanings. The founder of KI Fighting Concepts, a concept-based martial training institute in Wenatchee, Wash., Simonet has instructor-level ranking in kenpo karate, Indonesian pentjak silat, wing chun gung-fu, Yang style taijiquan, doce pares eskrima and eskrido. With more than 30 years of martial arts training to draw from, Simonet still considers sinawali drills a critical step in his eclectic KI Fighting Concepts curriculum.

“Like any form,” Simonet explains, “sinawali drills are designed to be a dictionary of motion – a means of learning and refining specific movements through structured repetition. As a learning process, they are excellent. But like any form, we need to remember that the material learned is what’s important, not the process.”

Mechanical, But Effective

Even at the basic level of mechanical repetition, sinawali training offers a number of significant benefits. First, because the student must move weapons in addition to his limbs, the paths of the movements are more visible and therefore more easily learned and corrected. The weight of the sticks also provides a form of resistance that helps the practitioner develop strength in the appropriate muscle groups while at the same time programming motor memory.

Since most people have a dominant side, training with matched weapons allows the weak side to “copy” the movements of the strong side, balancing the body and promoting the rapid development of weak-side skills and strength.

By working with longer weapons and striking stick to stick, beginning eskrimadors can train safely and develop their reflexes progressively by maintaining a long-range distance relationship with their partner. Once the basic patterns have been learned and the students are hitting consistently, they can increase both the speed and power of their hits, ultimately achieving full-power, full-speed hits in rapid succession with their partner. In the process, the also learn the importance of weapon grip and impact-shock management – critical but often-overlooked aspects of real-world weapon use.

Express Yourself

Although basic sinawali training offers a number of significant benefits to the novice, the real value of these drills lies in the root movements – and the practitioner’s ability to understand and creatively express these movements.

“The key to mastering any martial art form is the ability to appreciate and apply the physiological potential o fits movements,” Simonet explains. “This does not mean accepting and mimicking the one or two applications your instructor taught you. It means experimenting and looking deeper into the dynamics of the motion to extract its full potential.”

Simonet’s approach to sinawali training is a direct reflection of his Filipino martial arts lineage, which starts with his primary instructor, doce pares eighth-degree black belt Christopher Petrilli, and extends to Petrilli’s instructor, legendary doce pares grandmaster Cacoy Cañete. Both Petrilli and Cañete take a unique approach to sinawali, emphasizing the extreme close-range applications of this normally long-range style of training. The result is a higher evolution of the basic body mechanics of sinawaali that emphasizes unconventional strikes, particularly ones that take advantage of the punyo, or butt end of the stick.

For example, most Filipino martial arts practitioners of are familiar with Heaven Six, a basic six-count sinawali pattern that consists of a right angle 1, left angle 1, right angle 2, left angle 2, right angle 2, and left angle 1. In its standard form, all strikes are executed with a full stroke, hitting with the long end of the stick.

Close-Range Tactics

A more advanced version of this drill emphasizes close-range tactics and the use of the punyo as well as the main body of the stick. In this drill, the first and fourth strikes are executed almost like a hook punch – following the same downward diagonal angle, but with the stick tip down and across the body and striking with the face of the punyo just beyond the knuckles of the hand. The third and sixth strikes are also designed for close-quarter use and are delivered with the bottom end of the punyo. This is represented in partner training by striking wrist to wrist.

With one subtle addition, an even more advanced eight-count pattern can be created. After the first and fourth strikes of the above pattern, a close-range abaniko (fanning) strike is added, rotating immediately out of the punyo punch and striking with the long end of the stick.

The above variations of Heaven Six add two unorthodox but highly effective strikes to the practitioner’s arsenal: a downward smashing strike with the long end of the stick held horizontally and the obvious punyo-style punch. In application, these unusual strikes are devastating, hitting with amazing force from unexpected angles. These strikes also promote the concept of striking rapidly with alternate ends of the stick. This is a trademark of Simonet’s unique brand of stickfighting.

“To appreciate the full physiological potential of a motion, you need to look at the entire movement not just the strike,” Simonet notes. “In the case of sinawali patterns, the positioning of the hand as it chambers and prepares for a strike is often a structurally powerful and very useful movement. Rather than wasting it, we take advantage of it and make it into another hit.”

Long and Short of It

To further refine the ability to hit alternately with both the punyo and long end of the stick, Simonet uses yet another unique drill. In this drill, the practitioners begin with the sticks in their right hands crossed diagonally in front of them, chambered near their left shoulders. On the first count, they strike with an angle 2 backhand with the long end of the stick. Rebounding from this strike, they punch forward and upward with the punyo of the stick for count two. Chambering near their left shoulders again, on count three they strike wrist to wrist, simulating and angle 2 punyo strike. Chambering across the body yet again, they strike with a full angle 2 stroke for count four. The follow through of this strike leaves them chambered near their right shoulders for an angle 1 strike with the long end of the stick (count 5). On count six, they rebound and punch upward and to the right with the punyo of the stick, chambering near their right shoulders again. Count seven is an angle 1 strike with the bottom of the punyo, simulated by striking wrist to wrist. Chambering once again at the right shoulder, both partners strike with a full angle 1 stroke (count eight) that follows through to chamber at the left shoulder, where they are ready to start the drill again.

This drill may be performed with a single stick, as described here, or by alternating hands with two sticks. With practice, the eskrimador learns to rapidly alternate between punyo punches, strikes with the long end of the stick, and strikes or hooking actions with the bottom of the punyo.

In a close-range encounter, a simple backhand angle 2 strike to the head with the stick can now be instantly followed with a punyo punch to the throat, a backhand punyo strike to the side of the neck, and another full-stroke angle 2 strike to the head in just fractions of a second. Any blocks that an opponent may be able to insert to foil this flow are immediately “removed” by hooking the blocking hand with the punyo and pulling it our of the way. When fighting with single sticks, the non-weapon, or “live” hand continues the same patterns of movement as when armed with the stick, but now its function is that of tapping and clearing the opponent’s limbs. When combined with hooks with the punyo, the result is an extremely sophisticated and brutally effective system of close-quarter trapping, all based directly on sinawali movement patterns.

These are only a few examples of the advanced sinawali patterns that form the core of Simonet’s KI Fighting Concepts stickfighting curriculum. His entire program of instruction includes more than 100 sinawali patterns and variations, each of which this author designed to ingrain a specific set of body mechanics and motor memory. In addition to the drills themselves, Simonet’s teaching and practice of sinawali also requires that students be able to instantly flow from one drill to another. The motions required for these transitions offer yet another spectrum of movements and promote spontaneity and quick reflexes that go far beyond the rote memorization and mechanical execution of basic sinawali.

“Like any prescribed form,” Simonet says, “sinawali is a template for learning proper movement. It’s like the paint-by-numbers approach to artwork. By following someone else’s color pattern and brush strokes, you learn the mechanics of painting. Once you’re comfortable with them, you paint your own picture. Just as two people given the same paints and brushes will paint two different pictures, two martial artists will find different meanings in the movements of sinawali. Like any other true art form, in the martial arts, personal expression is the ultimate goal.”

Fighting Master in Shanghai

Freetime

“Fighting Master in Shanghai”

By Shimeng Tang

2006

Pg. 41-44

Recently, an agreement has been reached between Shanghai Mingxin Sports LTD. And Mr. Joe Simonet, the founder of the KI Fighting Concepts, which makes SMX the exclusive agent of KI Fighting Concepts in Greater China. On signing this agreement, SMX will bring a brand new life style to the people of modern times.

Mr. Joes Simonet is an American celebrity as well as a private fitness advisor of some other celebrities. He often appears as Mr. Cover of “Paladin Press”, a widely read fighting sport magazine and is a frequent guest in American TV shows. In addition, he runs his own martial school together with his wife, Mrs. Addy Hernandez.

In June 2006, upon the invitation of SMX, Mr. Simonet and Mrs. Hernandez brought the modern martial sport especially suitable for Chinese people—Mook Jong Arts, which regards defense as its first priority, rather than attack. It’s easy for both teacher and learner, even for those most inexperienced. According to Mr. Simonet, “KI fighting” derives its idea from the traditional Chinese martial arts—Wing Chun, and has developed itself into a modern fashionable self defense sport, in combination with Karate, Pentjak Silat, Doce Pares and Tai Chi.

As the exclusive agent in Greater China of KI Fighting Concepts, SMX will work closely with domestic organizations in the name of KI Fighting in the evaluating of the project’s market value and the exploring of further business chances. SMX is a company based on a team of professionals. Its core competence is the delivering of professional services, such as finding value added sport management solutions for clients, providing sponsorship and cooperation chances, planning grand attractive events and the last but no the least, holding sports games.

Finding Balance- IKF February 2008

Inside Kung-Fu

“Finding Balance”

By Addy Hernandez

February 2008

Pg. 24

I have been a business partner and student of Joseph Simonet’s for about 14 years. It has been an amazing delight and a daunting challenge to keep up with his energy and creative mind. Joseph has explosive motor skills, coupled with an innovative mind. I’ll never have his size, speed or strength. However, I am developing physically, spiritually, intellectually and creatively on my own.

As a female martial artist, it is up to me to extract and discern the value of the lessons I am taught. It is my choice and/or decision to understand that Joseph, as well as other influential people in my life, are my guides not my guardians. It is through my eyes, and my eyes alone, through which I view the world.

I choose to be the perpetual student. I maintain an insatiable appetite to grow and become an evolved woman/person. My fields of interest are endless: martial arts, cooking, running, gardening, pottery, reading, collecting wine, business, teaching and herbology.

I have met a lot of high achievers in my life. However, many seem to be out of balance and out of sync with those around them, as though they have sacrificed love, serenity and the simple things in life for money or places of high social rank. To me, the key to a life of harmony is one of balance.

Finding balance and peace in one’s life is all about making the right choices. I am convinced that I can make positive choices, which will almost always produce harmonious results. Certainly, life confronts us with many challenges and sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I am, however, a believer in the old adage, “chance favors the prepared mind.”

One of the ways in which I prepare is a combination-training program I have personally developed called, “Yo Qigong.” This is an abbreviated term, which combines yoga, tai chi and qigong.

I have been developing and teaching Yo Qigong for about 10 years. I do not have any official certification in yoga. However, I have learned from books, DVD’s and by attending yoga classes. Whenever I travel, I always seek out a yoga class. I am always open to new experiences and methods of teaching and learning. From San Francisco to New York, Toronto to Shanghai, I have experienced a wide variety of yoga practices and ideas. Every yoga class I attend sheds new light and perspective, which then enriches my personal yoga growth.

One of my first martial arts lessons as a 17-year-old schoolgirl was in Yang-style long-form tai chi. My teacher, Joseph—yes, that Joseph—started me on my lifetime path of Chinese internal arts. One of Joseph’s first points to me as a beginning tai chi practitioner was that it takes about 20 years of internal training to begin to understand the value and way of the art.

I was intimidated and humbled by Joseph’s words. However, it also galvanized my resolve to learn, practice and live the way of tai chi. I have been practicing Yang style for about 14 years, with a lifetime to go.

Joseph learned the long form from John Candea in Manitou Springs, Colo. Mr. Candea was a doctor of acupuncture and herbology. Joseph always felt privileged to have Mr. Candea for his first instructor. I say “first” because Joseph has ought out many tai chi and qigong instructor over the years.

Perhaps the most notable of internal teachers Joseph learned form was master Gao Fu. It was summer 1994 when Joseph trained with Gao Fu privately in Seattle, Wash. Joseph’s eyes always sparkle brightly as he recalls lessons he learned from her. He refers to her as “living light.” Gao Fu died in 2005. And though I never met her, I swear I feel her spirit move through me as I practice my tai chi.

When teaching my Yo Qigong, I alternate yoga positions and tai chi flow with natural patterns of spontaneity and organic feel. Depending on the energy of the students, each class is like its own entity – unique and full. Some aspect of yoga, tai chi and qigong is represented at every class. All these arts are energy-cultivating activities, with a combination of harmony and vitality emerging form our efforts.

I am only a beginner, one barely scratching the surface of such ancient and holy disciplines. It is with my deepest love, respect and humility I open my heart to the universe. To those over-achievers whose life seems to be out of balance, try yoga, tai chi or qigong classes and discover the harmonious and balanced life awaiting you.

Way of the Blade- IKF August 2007

Inside Kung-Fu

“Way of the Blade”

By Addy Hernandez

August 2007

Pg. 24

My martial arts training began in the early summer of my 17^th year. I was a bright-eyed, impressionable, high school senior ready to conquer the world. I wanted to leave my past behind and strive full throttle into the future. Paradoxically, fate had already intervened as my past and future were on a collision course in which my reality would be forever forged.

From the beginning, training with sifu Joseph Simonet was physically, mentally and emotionally challenging. Intuitively, he seemed to know my limitation – real or imagined. Sifu Simonet introduced me to several training methods. We boxed, grappled, weight-trained, ran, hiked and worked endless rounds of focus pad combinations. I learned aspects of wing chun, silat, kenpo, doce pares and Yang-style tai chi. Each art offered a unique and challenging expression of fighting dynamics. My passion for the martial arts was insatiable as several years of training ensued.

One day during a private lesson, sifu Simonet handed me a training blade and asked me to show him my knife fighting skills. I assured him , I didn’t know any knife fighting techniques or methods. “Actually, it’s everything you know,” he replied. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” I said. Unbeknown to me, sifu had specifically taught me techniques and methods of movements, which were translatable to knife application. My jurus from silat, my kenpo techniques, the stick drills, everything became knife. My astonishment soon turned into delight, as I realized edged weapons had already been an integral part of my life.

I was born in Mexico in 1976. I was just four years old when my mother died while giving birth to my baby sister. With five very young children, my father packed up and headed north to America in search of work in the orchards of Washington State.

My father is a hard-working man, proud of his craft and Mexican heritage. He grew his own vegetables and butchered livestock to feed his family. Of all the children, I was the one who did not shy from the process of butchering our animals. Very early on, I would learn the skills by watching my father kill, skin, gut and clean animals. For me using an ax, knife and machete became a natural and necessary part of growing up. I would cut off the head of chickens using an ax and then clean and bone them with the sharpest knife my father owned. I have cut up rabbits, pigs, turkeys, deer and even a bear. It was not unusual to see my father and me side by side cutting down alfalfa and corn stocks with a machete. The use of edged tools has always been a part of my Mexican culture.

Growing up, I wanted to be like all the “American kids.” Being young and immature, I was sometimes embarrassed that we slaughtered our animals for food. Now, as a woman and martial artist, I have come to appreciate my heritage with pride and renewed respect.

It was when I was six or seven that I first witnessed an underground Mexican pastime –cockfighting. During harvest every fall my father would hire dozens of workers to pick apples. This was a time of excitement as well as long, hard hours in the orchard. At night the men would gather to drink, play music and gamble on cockfights. The scene of men gathered around a circle of rope yelling and cheering during these cockfights is both surreal and vivid. These vicious rituals would often end with dead or several injured roosters.

Unfortunately, there were some mean who would cheat to win at any cost. In cockfighting, the cheaters would secretly attach thin razors to the cock’s feet, which of course would destroy its opponent by slashing it into a bloody mess. On one particular night, the crowd was loud and frenzied. Apparently, two cheaters had been caught. In punishment, they were forced to arm each rooster with razors and fight. Here I was, a young girl, witnessing a vicious reality of contesting with blades. My recollection of the night ended in chaos, spurting blood and yelling men.

The next day, I asked my father about the cheaters and the fighting, “Papa, I don’t understand. Who was the winner of the fight?” In a somber voice my father replied, “Hija, in a real cockfight with blades – the winner is the second one who dies.”

Through my father and our culture’s necessity to survive, killing and cutting up animals taught me respect in the blade and a strong value for life. Through sifu Simonet and my passion in the martial arts, I understand the lethality of bladework through osmosis and practical self-defense application. The philosophy of these two men has merged and allowed me to forge my own way of the blade.

Choosing a Knife- IKF June 2007

Inside Kung-Fu

“Choosing a Knife”

By Addy Hernandez

June 2007

Carrying a weapon for self-defense is a serious commitment. If you are going to trust your life to a piece of gear, you owe it to yourself to choose that gear carefully. When it comes to choosing a knife for personal defense, there are some specific qualities you should consider.

Strength tops the list of qualities that a good self-defense knife should have – particularly if it is a folding knife. The design, engineering and quality of execution of a folding knife lock all affect a knife’s inherent strength and its ability to withstand the physical stresses of powerful cuts and thrusts. A lock failure could cause a folding knife to not only live up to its name at the wrong time, but it could also cost you a few fingers in the process.

Functionality is another necessary characteristic. The blade style, shape of the point, edge geometry and sharpness all have a direct bearing on how well the knife actually cuts and punctures when employed in a high-speed defensive situation. The best way to understand this quality is through actual test cutting on targets that replicate the body parts you would be cutting with your style of knife tactics. For example, if you focus on disabling cuts that target the connective tissues of the arms and legs, you can make test targets using meat roasts wrapped in plastic (to simulate skin) and covered with clothing. If your knife performs well and creates the depth of cut necessary to hit your preferred targets, you’ve validated the functionality of your knife. You’ll also have a realistic understanding of the true destructive power of your blade.

Another aspect of functionality has to do with the shape and construction of the knife’s handle. A good knife handle must provide you with a secure grip and allow you to manage the shock that is transferred back into your hand during full-power cuts and thrusts. Slippery, poorly shaped handles can compromise your control of the knife and, in extreme cases, could even result in self-inflicted cuts. Imagine thrusting full force at a soft-tissue target and hitting solid bone. If the shape and material of your knife handle won’t allow you to positively manage that type of shock, you need to keep shopping.

Convenient carry must also be a prerequisite of a defensive knife. To ensure that the knife is available when you need it, it should be carried in a comfortable, accessible location on your body at all times. That carry position must work with all the styles of clothing and allow you to carry the knife in a consistent location on your body. Many knife collectors brag about their “rotation” of knives, and often have a different carry knife (or knives) and carry style for every day of the week. Knife players who truly understand self-defense, however, know that the rapid deployment of a knife is a critical component in effective fighting. Always carrying your knife in the same position is one of the keys to rapid deployment, since reflexes are based on consistent, repetitive actions.

Quick, reliable deployment of a knife begins with carry location, but there is more to it than that. That’s why “deploy-ability” – a combination of design characteristics that allow the knife to be rapidly drawn and opened to a ready position – is also an essential quality of a personal defense knife. For folding knives, this usually means a combination of a clothing clip and some type of hole, stud or disk in the blade that allows it to be opened with one hand. For fixed blades, it’s typically a synergy of knife and sheath design that supports comfortable concealed carry and a fast reflexive draw.

The final basic quality of a good personal defense knife is that it is legal to carry in the areas in which you operate. Research of the knife laws in your area – both state and municipal – will help define the types of knives and methods of carry that are legally permissible. In many cases, the terminology of the laws may seem unclear, but if you focus on key elements like blade length restrictions on double-edged blades and other specific characteristics, you can usually get a pretty good idea of what is and isn’t legal.

By choosing a knife that clearly falls within these parameters, you will not only be able to defend your life and the lives of your loved ones, but you will be in a much better position to justify your actions in court. And unfortunately in today’s world, defending your actions just as real a challenge as defending your safety. Do your research, choose your knife wisely and you’ll be well prepared to do both.

Size Matters- IKF April 2007

Inside Kung-Fu

“Size Matters”

By Addy Hernandez

April 2007

Pg. 24

Let’s fact it: in self-defense, size does matter. Like it or not, your size, your attacker’s size and the relative difference between the two have a tremendous effect on how much damage you can inflict on each other.

This problem affects all martial artists, but it is of particular concern to women, because most of our attackers will be larger and stronger than we are. Understanding, accepting and preparing for this disadvantage is critical to any sound women’s self-defense plan.

Many martial arts claim that their technique, combined with only minimal force, can help a small person overcome a much larger one. For example, it is often said that to perform aikido technique, the practitioner only needs the strength to life 16 pounds. In theory, that sounds great. The problem is that it takes years of practice and training to develop the reflexes, timing and finesse to know exactly how to apply those 16 pounds of force in the chaos of a real attack.

Some simple techniques – like eye strikes and kicks to the knee – can allow a smaller defender to cause serious damage and can help compensate for a disparity of size or strength. However, these techniques are target specific and still require a significant degree of speed and strength to deliver.

The ultimate weapon for women’s self-defense is something that requires little skill, almost no strength and can literally destroy any body part it touches. The ultimate women’s weapon – and the ultimate self-defense equalizer – is the knife.

According to a medical study conducted by the Welsh National School of Medicine, a sharply pointed knife blade can penetrate human skin with as little as half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of pressure. They determined this figure by using a specially designed knife with a scale built into it to perform penetration tests on actual human cadavers. While clothing will create some additional resistance, the sharp edge and point of a knife still offer a tremendous amount of destructive power when applied with only minimal force. And, as previously noted, this destructive power applies to literally any body part that the blade touches.

Although any cut you deliver to an attacker can help keep you safe, the best tactic for applying the knife in self-defense is based on the Filipino martial arts strategy of “defanging the snake” – targeting the attacker’s attacking limbs. Normally, this is interpreted as cutting the wrist or forearm to disarm his weapon, but its functional application goes well beyond that. The key is to understand basic human anatomy.

The human body moves because muscles contract. When muscles contract they pull on tendons that are attached to bones. Cutting a tendon – which is similar to a cable – immediately detaches the muscle from the bone, disabling or completely crippling the motor function normally provided by that muscle. Cutting the muscle itself can also produce the same result by destroying the integrity of the muscle and preventing it form contracting. Either way, the result is an immediate loss of the motor function of the joints powered by those muscles and tendons. This happens instantly and is not dependent upon blood loss, pain or any reaction-based effects.

Let’s say an attacker attempts to strike you with a weapon. As he extends his arm toward you, you simply evade and cut the muscles or flexor tendons on the inside of his wrist. The result is an immediate loss of his ability to grip anything with that hand. This same tactic could be used against any type of grabbing attack or attempted abduction. Assuming that your attacker is physically larger and stronger, and that you are justified in using a knife for self-defense, a single cut to his inner wrist offers and immediate release from any choking or grabbing attack.

Similarly, any deep cut to the quadriceps muscle just above the knee immediately destroys an attacker’s ability to support weight on that leg, typically dropping him to one knee and offering an excellent opportunity to escape.

One common criticism of the knife as a defensive weapon for women is that an attacker can disarm you and use it against you. If you introduce a knife into a self-defense situation, you are doing so because you are in fear of suffering death or serious bodily injury. To keep yourself safe in such a situation, anything you do must be done with conviction and ruthless self-confidence. Develop that attitude and combine it with the destructive power of a sharp knife, and you have a solution for the ultimate self-defense equalizer.

A Week of a Lifetime- IKF March 2008

Inside Kung-Fu

“Week of a Lifetime Part 1”

By Joseph Simonet

March 2008

Pg. 24

In the spring of 1986, I saw an ad in Inside Kung-Fu magazine offering a weeklong workshop/seminar on wooden dummy training. The location of the seminar was at a lodge on Whistler Mountain, British Columbia, Canada. The seminar was to be taught by master Wang Kiu, an original core student from grandmaster Yip Man himself. Finally, I thought, a unique opportunity to train hands-on with a real kung-fu master from China. I jumped at the chance.

By 1986, I had been dabbling in non-classical wing chun for about three-to-four years. I built my first wooden dummy (crude as it was) in 1982. At the time, Seattle, Wash., was a melting pot of martial arts practitioners, especially wing chun-based arts.

James DeMile was teaching his Wing Chun Do, as were some of his students. There were several derivations of Bruce Lee’s methods being taught by local legends such as Jesse Glover, Ed Hart and Taky Kimura. I never had the opportunity to train with any of these teachers. However, I trained with some of their students.

The non-classical wing chun being taught in those days was heavy-loaded chi sau, thousands of straight punches and a general attitude of aggression. Some of the classes were taught in closed-door, underground perversity. The word was that these men were tough with a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners kind of approach. This, of course, fell right into my perspective of training at that time.

Nevertheless, I was limited (if not blackballed) in my ability to train with the top guns. In some cases, I was flat-out denied even an opportunity to meet these men. So, I decided to go around them. Whenever people, situations or any particular obstacle confronts me, I become more resolved in my pursuit of my ultimate goal to evolve and succeed. After all, success is the best revenge, and it’s the only one that pays.

So , when the wooden dummy training seminar became available, I was elated to say the least. The weeklong training camp was hosted by Dr. Khoe and his staff from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Khoe was a professor of engineering at U.B.C. The training with master Wang Kiu and Dr. Khoe was a stark contrast in comparison to Seattle’s non-classical approach. These men were highly educated, esteemed professionals in their own right, exemplifying competence and humility.

For five days, Dr. Khoe and his staff patiently assisted us beginners every step of the way. Master Wang Kiu was as highly evolved a teacher as he was a practitioner of wing chun. On one occasion, I was getting upset and impatient with myself, letting my ego get in the way. Wang Kiu came up and assisted me with great agility. He calmed me down and corrected my movement, I thanked him for his help and he said, “Just relax, don’t worry, there are 1,000 doors to the same room.”

The original form taught was the 108 classical mook jong. There are 10 sections, with each of the first nine sections having 10 movements and with section 10 having 18. We were taught two sections per day. Learning this form was a huge challenge for me; most of the movements were quite different from anything I had done before.

Thankfully, the sequences were taught in a linear and logical order. I as able to mimic the entire form by the time I left Friday night. To ensure that I wouldn’t forget it, I stopped along the way home to seattle (a four-hour drive) and practiced the 10 sections in the air. One of the places I stopped to work the form was atop a waterfall in the mountains of British Columbia. I hiked along a river and found this incredible waterfall. Being energized by the week’s rich experience, I hiked up to the top of this waterfall and did the 108 Mook Jong 10 times in the air (without a dummy). In between sets, I did 100 straight punches. I was mentally and physically exhausted by the time I was done. After that workout, I made a promise to myself: I would never forget this treasured form and I would always practice it.

So, for an entire year I performed the 108 classical set at lease once for 365 days straight. Without a doubt, the event of that week’s training and the ensuing 365 continuous days of training had an indelible impact on my training and my entire year.

Note: In part II, which will appear in the May issue, I will examine the physical differences between wing chun and non-classical wing chun. I will also share some of my training experiences and commitment perspectives.

Sustained Effort- IKF May 2007

Inside Kung-Fu

“Sustained Effort”

By Joseph Simonet

May 2007

Pg 24

Recently, after a vigorous training session at my martial arts gym, a young student of mine (early 20s) asked to talk to me in private. “Well of course,” I replied, “what’s on your mind”?

“How do you do it”? He asked.

“Do what?”

“How do you stay so positive, so upbeat and energetic? Here you are twice my age, and you’re fitter, stronger and seemingly happier than me. Oftentimes, I feel like I’m at the end of my rope and you’re always talking about how it’s just the beginning. I feel like I need direction, motivation, hope, something I can hold on to. What’s your secret?”

“Well” I replied, “The simple answer is ‘sustained effort’ and ‘when in doubt, train.’ Through life’s ups and downs, in these uncertain times, training my mind and body has been an enormous foundation that I can stand upon with certainty.”

“No offense sifu, but aren’t you a little old to still be training do hard? I mean seriously, you’re older than my dad and he doesn’t even work out, not like you anyway.”

“No offense taken,” I answered.

I proceeded to explain to the young man that self-doubt has destroyed many people’s lives. Many unfulfilled dreams have been a result of self-doubt and a lack of motivation and discipline. “Keep training,” I said, “no matter how challenging or difficult life seems sometimes.”

Later that evening, I thought about my student and what we had talked about. I was about 20 years old when some old guy (about my age now) explained to me how “it’s such a shame we have to waste our youth on the young.” How ironic. I am now the “old guy” and here I am, caught in a full circle chain of events.

Looking back at my life, I realize I have had to endure several heartaches and trials to get to this point. I feel in love, got married, then divorced. I raised my children into fine adults. I buried my grandparents, buried my father and buried my brother. I became addicted. I got sober. I made money. I lost money. I had moments of triumph and also got my teeth knocked out. I achieved black belt status only to get thrown out of systems by teachers I revered. I have been sued and slandered. I have read books and have authored books. I have traveled the world and back again, and so on.

I have lived over a half-century, only to realize I am just starting to figure things out. Yes, it is only the beginning, and through it all, I have never stopped training my martial arts. Whenever life’s challenges got me down, or dealt me a blow, when joy turned into sadness and doubt, my training kept me on task. I have survived several course corrections, but never have I abandoned ship.

I have been very fortunate to have had many great martial arts teachers and students in my life. Several times in my career I have studied multiple systems at the same time. For instance, in 1976 I was studying goju and hung gar as I was teaching kenpo karate. Sound confusing? I suppose it was, but I was 22 years old and had an insatiable desire to learn. It was the learning, training and discipline that fueled my motivation that kept my life on track. In 1992, I was training pentjak silat, Yang-style tai chi, boxing, and working out with a high school wrestling team all while furthering my development of the “Slam set – The Art and Science of Mook Jong.” Once again, the common thread was sustained effort.

Cross-training with weightlifting has also been a powerful and essential ingredient not only to my martial prowess, but also to my positive state of mind. I started lifting seriously when I was 15. By the age of 16, I could bench press 310 pounds. I was obsessed with lifting. Looking back at my obsession, I now realize that no matter what negativity was coming at me – alcoholic parents, peer pressure, social upheaval (i.e., Vietnam, civil unrest) – weightlifting gave me a sense of control and empowerment. As my poundage increased, so did my confidence and self-worth.

My advice to anyone reading this column is to start training, stay training and encourage others to do the same. Oftentimes, in martial arts as well as life itself, we get bogged down by injury, politics, dissenting opinions and self-doubt. Train diligently; sharpen your skills and open your mind. As a Chinese master once told me, “There are a thousand doors to the same room.” I suggest that hard work, discipline, rigorous martial arts practice, supplemented with cross-training with a lifelong commitment to sustained effort is the key to unlocking your door.

Master of All Trades -IKF March 2007

Inside Kung-Fu

“Master of All Trades”

By Joseph Simonet

March 2007

Pg. 24

Last year Inside Kung-Fu magazine asked me to appear on one of its covers with an accompanying interview. My initial reply was, “Absolutely.” However, soon after “hurray” came my question: “Are you sure you want me on the cover? Am I qualified? The editor replied quickly and matter-of-factly: “Look, enough people hate you so you must be doing something right.”

Fast forward to today. My partner, Addy Hernandez, and I are now being asked to share a monthly column. “Absolutely,” was our immediate reply. Sound familiar? Of course, the same questioned followed: “Are we qualified?” This time the editor said, “I believe you are. However, there are critics who question your credentials and think you’re a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. It’s up to you to convince doubters that your martial skill, credentials, insight, innovation and past instructors are worthy of ‘master’ or ‘expert witness’ status. Good luck.”

First, to my critics and doubters I would ask: ‘How many of you have actually met and trained with me?” My guess is probably none. Addy and I have taught seminars for New York to Shanghai, Houston to Minneapolis, and everywhere in between. The feedback we get from every seminar is, “Amazing,” “Thank you,” “That was incredible.” I’m born-again martial artist. Not once has anyone questioned my knowledge and ability face to face.

So, am I a jack-of-all-trades, master of none? To really answer the question I would have to first reply with another question. “Who can observe the observer?”

It has been my experience that “the biggest trap of all is the one you do not know you are in.” More often than not, a critic will project his abilities, values and/or lack thereof onto others without the prospective of truth or objectivity. My suggestion to all my critics would be to come over, talk and train with me, then express your critique. All I know is that after 35 years of training in the martial arts, I truly feel like a beginner.

The definition of a qualification and/or credential has become blurred with the changing tides in the martial arts. Is it a stamp of approval on the a certificate that some other so-called expert gave you? If so, I have several on my wall. Or, are credentials the accumulation of a lifetime of events, people, places, poignant insights and bruises – physically and otherwise – you have experienced along the way?

Looking back on my martial arts journey, in 1972, I was privileged enough to observe and meet master Gogen Yamaguchi at the Heck Edmusen Pavilion at the University of Washington in Seattle. As a young man, Yamaguchi studied several martial arts systems such as judo, kendo, iaido, jodo and kusarigama as well as goju. Though he was known as a goju master, he was never considered a jack-of-all-trades. Why not? What made him different?

My 35-year background in the martial arts has been laden with multiple martial arts systems. For instance, I have been in kenpo karate for 34 years. Wing chun gung-fu, mook jong (wooden dummy) training and the Filipino arts have been a part of my training for 24 years. I have studied Yang-style tai chi for 20 years and pentjak silat for the last 15 years. All the while, I have been enveloped in the physical culture of fitness and weight training. I have been able to bench press 300-plus pounds consecutively for the last 37 years.

I believe credentials and life experiences are imperative to be considered a master. However, I also believe you must have physical prowess, an ability to teach, a high fitness level and the conceptual ability to innovate. All my certificates, instructors and places of travel throughout my martial arts career have simply amounted to my continued education.

Today, I am extracting essential elements from all the arts I have studied and synthesizing them into what I call “The Art and Science of Mook Jong (ASMJ).” The fundamental aspects of The Art and Science of Mook Jong are that it must be teachable, learnable, practical and marketable. Within this foundational formula is the “seamless transitional integration” of al the aforementioned arts and training methods.

The process behind “seamless transitional integration” is for the practitioner to move from empty hand to blade, to club and back again in a natural and spontaneous flow. This process achievable because our skill sets and training methods call upon nearly identical motor skills and attributes. Individual training in The Art and Science of Mook Jong is done by working the wooden dummy forms “Slam Set,” “Blade Set” and “Club Set.” Partner training consists of two-person drills such as, “Argument of Movement” empty hand and “Point Counterpoint” applied with a knife and repeated utilizing a club.

At this point, I do not consider myself a jack-of-all-trades; nor do I consider myself a master. I would define myself a master. I would define myself as a pursuer of truth and a scientist, which inevitably means I am an innovator striving for martial arts excellence. I will proceed along my own path regardless of doubters, critics or those putting their own interests above martial arts.

Joseph Simonet and Addy Hernandez will be sharing insight on training tips, philosophy, innovative ideas and concepts each moth beginning with this issue.

INSIDE KUNG-FU WOMAN OF THE YEAR – ADDY HERNANDEZ

Inside Kung-Fu

“Legacy of Their Own”

By Dave Cater

February 2008

Pg. 26-31

THE LATEST CLASS OF IKF HALL OF FAME HONOREES HAS CARVED THEIR OWN MARTIAL ARTS NICHE.

No year in recent martial arts history has robbed us of so many great names. From Lily to Larry, David to Daniel, Madame Yu to Bong Soo, they dropped like fallen warriors so quickly we barely had time to mourn one before the next was taken from us. One moment we were talking to them, and the next minute we were talking about them.

And these weren’t your garden-variety marital artists, either; rather, they were legends in their own time – masters and sifu and sensei that spent lifetimes accomplishing great things and creating a better world through martial arts.

If there’s any consolation, it’s the realization that this year’s group of Inside Kung-Fu Hall of Fame recipients is just as noteworthy for their martial arts accomplishments, “Man of the Year” Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming and “Woman of the Year” Addy Hernandez have been industry leaders for years, while “Instructor of the Year” Adriano Emperado remains one of the most-respected teachers of his generation.

In 2007 alone, “Competitor of the Year” Jonathan Wang emerged as a force with which to be reckoned on the open circuit, while the great Randy Couture shocked Gabriel Gonzaga and Gather Time to capture “Grappler of the Year” honors. And finally, long overdue “Writer of the Year” honors go to John Steven Soet, who has chronicled the lives and legacies of these past and present legends.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

2007 2005 2003 2001 1999

Jerry Poteet Nick Gracenin Dennis Brown Hawkins Cheung Wesley Snipes

Hui Liu Lily Lau Graciela Casillas Wang Jurong Lucia Rijker

Doc-Fai Wong Richard Lee Glenn C. Hart Tak Wah Eng Pui Chan

Seming Ma Elaina Maxwell Team Evergreen Jeanne Chinn Cung Le

Jennifer Tijong Collin Lee David Tadman Pat Rice Burt Richardson

Jose Paman Terry Wilson Gerald Okamura Ric Meyers Jackie Chan

Matt Hughes Ronaldo “Jacare” Xande Ribeiro Mark Kerr Shannon Lee

de Souza Kazuyoshi Ishii

2006 2004 2002 2000 1998

John S.S. Leong Henry Look Donnie Yen William C.C. Chen Chuck Norris

Ming Qui Wei Qi He Michiko Nishiwaki S.L. Martin Michelle Yeoh

Tiffany Reyes Carter Williams Lu Xiaoling Mimi Chan Huang, Chien-Liang

Samara Simmerman Tiffany Chen Ziyi Zhang Wallid Ismail Maurice Smith

Jimmy Wong Angie Rivera Travis Wong Anita Lopez

Jose Fraguas Jeff Chinn Jou, Tsung Hwa Martha Burr

Dean Lister Scott Coker Robert Dreeben Gene LeBell

Tito Ortiz Century Martial Arts

MAN OF THE YEAR > DR. YANG, JWING-MING<

He has been a martial arts and publishing giant for more than three decades. With Yang’s Martial Arts Academy (YMAA) schools dotting every corner of the world, and senior instructors creating equally large names for themselves, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming could have easily called it quits, proclaimed a “job very well done” and quietly disappeared into the martial arts fabric.

No one would have blamed Dr. Yang for letting someone else handle the kung-fu reins. All the white crane and tai chi master has done since coming to America in 1974 is establish 50 schools in more than 16 countries, written more than 30 books and produced over 40 DVDs. That’s a lifetime of service for even the heartiest of martial arts souls.

But for the man whom Inside Kung-Fu called “one of the 100 people who have made the greatest impact in martial arts in the past 100 years,” going quietly into that good night was never his style. Nope. For the man who earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Purdue University there were still plenty of goals to meet and promises to keep.

One such promise, made to the late, great tai chi master Jou, Tsung-Hwa, involved establishing a full-time martial arts retreat where young students with a desire to learn both the physical and spiritual aspects of Chinese martial arts could study day and night without the pressures of work or family.

For Dr. Yang, 60, his dream has turned into the YMAA Retreat Center, which sits on 240 acres of remote woodlands in Northern California, isolated from the distractions of modern society. The Center’s established infrastructure includes a solar array for sustainable, off-the-grid power; a spring-fed well; and facilities for living and training. Far from his home in Massachusetts, this quiet place in the forest is entirely dedicated to what Dr. Yang describes as his final mission: to transmit his complete knowledge to the next generation of teachers and preserve the Chinese martial and healing arts.

“Today’s martial arts society, all they teach is martial arts. But part of martial arts training is morality—they ignore it completely,” Dr. Yang said in a recent IKF interview. “It’s a kind of self-discipline, and it’s disappearing. So I need to use martial arts as an educational tool. To teach a new generation about what is morality. Morality is not only to yourself, but also to the people. It’s a mutual relationship. These kinds of things are disappearing.

For 35 years, Dr. Yang has taught the benefits of Chinese culture and popularized traditional martial arts throughout the world. He is in a unique position: Carrying the legacy of the generation of the old masters and possessing a keen understanding of a new generation, he has dedicated his life to bridging the East and the West, and researching the ancient arts with a modern scientific perspective.

Soon he will marry the two philosophies and hope for the birth of a new generation of old-generation practitioners. Dr. Yang’s legacy was solid long before he adopted the Retreat project. This just adds fuel to his already-glowing legacy.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR > ADDY HERNANDEZ<

Not since the days of the legendary Graciela Casillas has a female practitioner so captured our hearts and minds. Beautiful and deadly, Hernandez has taken the martial arts world by storm. A combination of fitness and function, Addy is earning the respect of her peers with a no-nonsense attitude built by years of dogged commitment and training.

An Inside Kung-Fu columnist and Unique Publications DVD author, Hernandez began her martial arts training in 1994 under KI Fighting Concepts founder (an IKF columnist) Joseph Simonet. Training in both kenpo karate and Filipino stickfighting, Addy also found time to study Yang-style tai chi and meditation.

The grueling years of early mornings and late nights paid off with multiple black belts in myriad styles. Today, Hernandez holds fourth-degree black belts in KI Fighting Concepts and doce pares; a third-degree black belt in Tracy’s Kenpo karate; and a second-degree black belt in escrido. She also is a certified instructor in Yang-style tai chi.

Hernandez continues to expand her knowledge and abilities by stretching her mental, physical and philosophical boundaries.

She promotes, organizes and teaches at Wind and Rock, one of the fastest-growing, most highly acclaimed martial arts training camps in the country. She has also been an active participant in Simonet’s many public appearances and seminars coast to coast. She also has appeared on two Inside Kung-Fu covers in the past three years.

Most martial artists would be content to rest on these lofty laurels. But Hernandez, who also teaches yoga and runs marathons, insists she’s just beginning.

“I can honestly say I’ve barely scratched the surface in my training,” Addy explained. “The more I learn, the more I want to learn. It’s as if each martial arts door leads to another.”

The secret, she insists, is to remain balanced and maintain a solid focus on the goal at hand.

“Finding balance and peace in one’s life is all about making the right choices,” she notes. “I am convinced that I can make positive choices, which will almost always produce harmonious results. Certainly, life confronts us with many challenges and sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I am, however, a believer in the old adage, ‘chance favors the prepared mind.’”

When the time came, Hernandez was prepared for her latest challenge—a DVD for Unique Publications called, “A Cut Above.” The DVD illuminates what can happen when a blade finds its way into the hands of a skilled practitioner.

While Addy Hernandez is a relative newcomer to the world of martial arts, she is anything but a neophyte. Combing the drive of a beginner with the desire of a hardened veteran, Hernandez will only get better, stronger and more polished in the decades to come.

>ADRIANO EMPERADO< INSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR

He spends much of his time in a wheelchair these days, but few sifu stand taller in the martial arts world that the incomparable Adriano Emperado. For nearly 60 years, the name Emperado has meant martial arts supremacy; the style of kajukenbo a living, breathing testament to the greatness of so many before him.

Today, Emperado’s kajukenbo is famous throughout the world for its tough-as-nails fighting foundation. Not surprising, actually, considering his rough-and-tumble Hawaiian background and training under the great warrior himself, William K.S. Chow.

Born in Honolulu’s turbulent Palama section in 1926, Emperado spent his formative years in boxing, escrima and judo before joining Chow and eventually becoming “Thunderbolt’s” first black belt.

Emperado opened his first kajukenbo school in 1950 and charged students just $2 per month. The workouts there were legendary; in fact, it is said that class was not over until there was blood on the floor. “You have to experience pain before you can give it,” Emperado said in a 1994 IKF interview. “You have to know what your technique can do.”

Great techniques performed by a great technician proved a perfect combination. Emperado’s fame led to key assignments in law enforcement: 14 years as a harbor policeman; a year with the Hawaii Attorney General’s office; and bodyguard for the governor. Soon, Emperado’s Kajukenbo Self Defense Institute of Hawaii was the largest chain of karate schools in the islands. Emperado brought his skills, as well as several other Chow disciples to America, when he moved to the Mainland in 1969.

For the past 30-plus years, Emperado’s kajukenbo has become a thriving martial art and one of the most-influential styles in the world. Once a year, 3,000 strong gather to pay tribute to their grandmaster. While he sits, they stand and honor one of the greats of all time.

>JONATHAN WANG< COMEPETITOR OF THE YEAR

Had it not been for politics—and a strong addition to a form—Jonathan Wang might be preparing for his coming-out party. As it is, he will have to remain one of America’s best-kept martial arts secrets. Wang was primed and ready to make the Beijing Olympics his personal kung-fu playground while showing the world that Americans indeed can compete on a world stage. And what better stage than the Olympic Games, in the birthplace of kung-fu, doing what he loves best.

Sadly, as they say the best-laid plans of mice and men, as well as those unsuspecting athletes, often go awry. Beijing’s inability to push its home sport into the mix, combined with the addition of “Dan du” movements, which make tai chi more gymnastic, was more than Wang could overcome. For Wang, who runs the Beijing Tai-Chi & Kung Fu Academy in Santa Monica, Calif., the most he can hope for now is the personal pride that comes from being one of the best in the world.

His international results over the past year tell an amazing story of success at every level. Wang enjoyed arguably the greatest single year of competitive kung-fu in Western Chinese martial arts history. Son of the world-renowned tai chi master Daniel Y. Wang, the 35-year-old Jonathan Wang collected an astounding 75 gold medals participating in some of the world’s most-prestigious events.

Among his crowning achievements were Internal Grand Champion honors at the 2^nd International Traditional, Kung Fu & Wushu Tournament; Internal Grand Champion at the USAWKF National Tournament; Internal Grand Champion at the 10^th Annual Dallas Taiji Legacy; Internal Grand Champion at the Dan Diego Grand Nationals International Martial Arts Competition; and International Grand Champion at the Hong Kong 10^th Annual Reunification Tournament.

Wang, however, won’t let something like an Olympic snub keep him from learning and growing. A licensed acupuncturist and holder of a master’s in Oriental Medicine, Wang plans to continue training in Beijing several times a year. Which only goes to show that Jonathan Wang does not need the glory of Olympic Gold to prove his worth in the world of kung-fu.

>RANDY COUTURE< GRAPPLER OF THE YEAR

He clips the “wings” of the fleetest, strips power from the strongest and makes mere athletes yearn for yesteryear. He’s not only nasty, ruthless and impartial, he may be the most hated man on the planet. He is Father Time.

But not even Father Time can handle UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, because a regular fighter Randy Couture is not. He’s indifferent to reputations and welcomes seemingly insurmountable challenges, which is why he looked Father Time square in the eyes recently and submitted him—once again. Defying age, predictions and the odds, Couture, 44, scored a convincing TKO over Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74 in late August and retained his heavyweight title.

“I am not really here for titles,” said Couture. “The hardware is nice and the title is icing on the cake, but it’s more about performance.”

That impressive performance followed his heavyweight title-clinching victory of Tim Sylvia last March.

“Not bad for an old man,” said Couture, immediately after the Sylvia fight. Not bad, indeed.

“He’s [Couture] a unique individual,” said Dana White, UFC president. “You do not see many competing at 44. He’s a freak of nature. He’s an incredible athlete, fighter and human being. I have nothing but respect for Randy Couture.”

The Couture freight train doesn’t show any signs of slowing, prompting some to wonder how long he’ll fight and speculate as to whom can take away the crown.

“Do I think I’ll still be fighting when I’m 50?” said Couture. “No.” White feels otherwise.

“Yes, I honestly do,” he said. “The guy is a freak. He’s an amazing fighter and a monster.”

Although the UFC heavyweight division has beefed up recently, White isn’t sure anyone poses a threat, although he says there could be some “good match-ups” for Couture. When asked whom he sees, Couture uttered the “F” word, as in Fedor Emelianenko.

“I want to fight the best guy in the world,” he said. “And Fedor is the best in the heavyweight division. Bring him on.”

If and when that happens, don’t be surprised if Couture again beats two opponents on the same night—Fedor Emelianenko and …Father Time.

>JOHN STEVEN SOET< WRITER OF THE YEAR

John S. Soet entered the world of martial arts at the age of 16 as a student of the legendary Chuck Norris. Eventually, he earned black belts in shotokan and hapkido, and studied various other arts for more than 20 years. At the same time, he pursued a career in film, journalism and television, earning a bachelor’s in communications from Loyola University and a master’s in professional writing from the University of Southern California.

In the early years of his film career, he was able to work in such exotic locations as Hong Kong and Manila, and directed a series of low-budget films. Among his accomplishments are Fire in the Night (featuring martial arts legend Graciela Casillas), Eliminator Woman (with Karen Sheperd, Jerry Trimble and Michele Qissi), and Southern Fired Shakespeare, which own the gold medal for Best Short subject at the Houston Film festival (the same award previous won by both Steven Spielberg for Amblin and George Lucas for THX1138).

In 1987, he took on a new challenge as editor of Inside Karate magazine, and served in that position for the next 11 years. During his tenure, he was instrumental in launching several new magazines, including Master Series and Inside Martial Arts. He also authored Martial Arts Around the World I and II. In 1998, he was aksed to head up Unique Publications’ video department. Within four years, he expanded the library from less than 300 to nearly 700 videos, making Unique Publications the world’s largest producer of martial arts video.

Today, Soet remains one of the most respected voices in martial arts, a published author many times over and a long-overdue choice as “Writer of the Year.”

One form, one kill- IKF August 2007

Inside Kung-Fu

“One Form, One Kill!”

By Michael Janich

August 2007

Pg. 32-36

One of the longest standing controversies in the martial arts in the value – or lack thereof – of traditional solo forms. To hardcore traditionalists, forms are the heart of an art and carry with them all the secrets of its combat application. They also supposedly allow the practice of techniques that are so deadly they cannot be practiced with a partner.

To the modern, combatives-oriented martial artist, forms are anachronistic, overly stylized and do not support the kind of contact-based training that is necessary to develop real fighting skill.

No matter which side of the fence you’re on, most martial artists agree that when it comes to relating the movements of a solo form to combative application, a lot gets lost in the translation. In fact, the only way to truly relate the movements of a particular form and their original, prescribed function is to have learned them both simultaneously from the founder of the art in question.

For traditional styles whose founders are not longer with us, we have no choice but to rely on the instruction – and invariably the interpretation – of their students. Unfortunately, like most things, the farther you get from the source, the less accurate the material. When you factor that some instructors have altered the applications of their arts to either purposely hide or, in some cases, arbitrarily change their function and relationship between form and function becomes pretty tenuous.

OF FORM AND FUNCTION

Short of a séance seminar with departed masters, the best means of relating movement to combat application is to establish a parallel structure of form and function from the ground up. This ensures that the meaning and combative significance of every motion is clearly understood every step of the way. Done well, it also promotes a much deeper understanding of the true relationship between movement and fighting function. This approach is the foundation of “Argument of Movement,” a revolutionary approach to self-defense training developed by Joseph Simonet.

Simonet is no stranger to traditional martial arts training. An eight-degree black belt in Tracy’s Kenpo, a black-sash-level practitioner of wing chun and a certified instructor of Yang-style taijiquan, doce pares eskrima, eskrido and Indonesian penjak silat, his 35-plus years of martial arts training have included the practice, mastery and analysis of dozens of forms. Yet despite this extensive experience, in every traditional art he studied there was always a high degree of ambiguity when it came to translating form to combat application.

“All worthwhile training should have a clear purpose,” Simonet explains. “If I am going to spend hours of my training time practicing a movement or series of movements, I want to know exactly what it does and how to apply it in a fight. I also want to know that now, not five or 10 years from now when I’ve ‘mastered’ a form.”

Simonet’s curriculum is built upon an in-depth analysis of all the arts he’s studied with a focus on linking them at a conceptual, functional level. The overall curriculum is known as “KI Fighting Concepts,” but the two primary building blocks of the system are a series of two-person drills and forms called the “Argument of Movement” and the “Art and Science of Mook Jong” – solo form that utilizes the wooden dummy most closely associated with wing chun gung-fu.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Argument of Movement consists of two phases: Defend, Neutralize, Annihilate (DNA) and Seamless Transitional Integration. DNA is the form portion of the training, but unlike traditional solo forms, it was specifically developed as a two-person sequence of movement.

“Developing the form from the ground up as a two-person format maintained a focus on functional structure and practical application,” notes Simonet. “This eliminates the ambiguity and speculation that makes many traditional solo forms almost meaningless as a reference for combat application.”

Structuring DNA as a two-person form also allows it, by design, to have both an “A” and a “B” side. Rather than one partner simply serving as a punching bag for the other, the DNA form teaches and promotes the idea that, in a real fight, your opponent will actively counter your technique. Learning how to accept and overcome that is a key process in learning how to fight. The DNA drill gives you that experience and teaches you how to counter your own techniques. In this way, you not only identify the potential weaknesses of your techniques and perfect them to greatest degree, but you also learn how to immediately re-counter your opponent and flow into a back-up or series of back-up techniques.

Similarly, training both sides of the form helps you experience all the movements from both perspectives and refines your understanding of the energy, structure, strengths and weaknesses of every move. Nothing is left to speculation; it either works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, it’s because it’s been countered and your job – as taught by the sequence of the form – is to react to the counter, flow past it and win the fight.

STUDY THE DNA

Once the DNA form is learned as a basic sequence, it is practiced with greater intensity and with different energy levels to simulate different types of self-defense scenarios. One practice run might allow the “A” player’s counters to determine the pace and intensity of the flow, in the spirit of traditional one-step sparring. In another run, the “B” side might emphasize his counters and take a much more aggressive role. This forces the “A” player to perfect his initial techniques, immediately recognize their counters, and quickly respond with a back-up technique.

The second phase of the Argument of Movement is a series of partner training drills designed to isolate and develop the individual skills that are the functional core of the DNA techniques. These drills include refined versions of some well-known training methods like Filipino hubud-lubud and wing chun’s chi sau, but they also include a number of drills that Simonet has developed to hone specific combative skills and reflexes. “The drills I have included in my curriculum are designed to allow training partners to focus on specific core skills, reflexes and structures,” he notes. “By isolating them and practicing them in a format that allows both high numbers of repetitions and high intensity, you develop usable combative skill very efficiently.”

Some self-defense practitioners might argue that practicing drills only makes students good at the drills themselves, not at fighting; however, Simonet’s method also has an answer for that.

“Once a student becomes comfortable with several different drills, we take him out of that comfort zone by introducing integration of the drills,” he explains. “He may start out doing one drill, but in the flow of the movement I initiate a transition to another drill. His job is to recognize the change, respond with an immediate defensive reaction, and instantly flow into the new drill pattern.”

ONE DRILL, ONE KILL

As the name indicates, Seamless Transitional Integration is a structured training method that programs a fighter to seamlessly transition from one drill to another. Each of these transitions is prompted by a different stimulus – either visual or physical – than that “expected” based on the sequence of the drill. Dealing with the new stimulus effectively programs incredibly quick reflexes and ultimately helps a fighter react to virtually any attack from practically any situation.

Once a student is adept at both the DNA form and the individual training drills, the next step is to integrate their functions and explore spontaneous applications and combinations. This is done by isolating portions of the DNA drill, cross-referencing them with the drills that fuel their structure and reflexes and experimenting to unlock and discover other combative functions. In the process, students learn to recognize and emphasize structures, reference points and physical relationships, and immediately seize those opportunities to take control of a self-defense situation.

The other key element of Simonet’s approach is wood dummy training – specifically the mook jong “Slam Set” form he developed. “

“Mook jong training is the most effective form of solo training because it enables you to practice all your movements realistically and with full force,” relates Simonet. “Unlike hitting a heavy bag, the structure of the mook jong allows you to strike, grab, block, parry and effectively simulate almost any technique that can be done to a person. The fact that its structure does not exactly match the physiology of a human body also forces the student to bridge the gap between the dummy expression of a technique and its application on a live person, promoting a deeper understanding of the relationship between form and function.”

When performed at speed, Simonet’s Slam Set is a one-minute form that distills all the key structures and movement patterns of his decades of training. Predictably, it also provides a parallel structure that complements the Argument of Movement training methodology and allows a student to recognize, understand and apply all the key anatomical structures and physical principles that fuel effective fighting technique.

Ultimately, a real fight truly is an argument of movement. And like any argument, the more articulate, fluent, and adaptable you are, the better your chances of emerging victorious. Joseph Simonet’s powerful combination of form and application training teaches the language of combat quickly and effectively and provides a logical and definite link between martial form and fighting function.

The Blade Set- July 2006

Inside Kung-Fu

“The Dynamic Blade Set”

Interview by Dave Cater

July 2006

Pg. 90-94

ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES OF THE KI FIGHTING CONCEPTS APPROACH IS ITS DYNAMIC BLADE SET.

INSIDE KUNG-FU: Please explain the blade set’s connection to your highly successful KI Fighting Concepts Slam Set?

JOSEPH SIMONET: First, let me explain what the Slam Set entails. The Slam Set is about 60 seconds of a high-impact, high-intensity form done on the mook jong (wooden dummy). So far, the Slam Set has taken about 25 years of research and development. Fine-tuning and recalibration of the Slam Set is a lifelong evolution.

The Slam Set is my database. Every single movement I train can be found in the Slam Set. Bruce Lee’s book, “Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense,” states that “a good gung-fu man is a simplifier.” I’ve simplified nearly 35 years of training and study into a 60-second database. From the Slam Set I’ve derived five major new models of training methods. These are the Skill Sets, Two-Man Set, Club Set, Club and Blade Set, and the Blade Set. The Blade Set was created using the empty-hand Slam Set form.

IKF: Are you saying that the blade set is just doing the Slam Set with a knife in your hand?

JS: At first that was my intent. However, one day I was watching my partner Addy Hernandez working the Blade Set in the air and I had an epiphany. Watching Addy I realized a metamorphosis had taken place. The blade set had become its own entity.

IKF: From what arts were the Slam Set and Blade Set taken?

JS: I built the Slam Set predominantly form Tracy’s kenpo, wing chun, pentjak silat, doce pares and tai chi. The blade set came out of the Slam Set. As previously stated, all my movements at this point are from the Slam Set database.

IKF: I didn’t realize that kenpo was a knife-based art. Where’s the connection?

JS: Al Tracy was teaching me a blade/knife interpretation of kenpo as far back as 1975. Kenpo is an art rich with lethal and crippling blade applications. However, it’s not always known or taught.

IKF: How did you decide which movements to leave in and which ones to discard?

JS: Over the years I’ve developed a formula for defining value of the material I keep, and to ascertain its function and practicality. The acronym I use for this process is CAPA or Conceptual Analysis and Practical Application. When building a martial arts modality, one must adhere to the strict law of physics, anatomy, philosophy and intent. In my pursuit of developing an art of the 21^st century, I am not bound by tradition, dogma, religion, culture or any other futilities. It is my intention to rid martial arts of moronic vacuities.

IKF: Using your own acronym, it sounds as though you’re expressing your conceptual analysis. So tell us your practical application of the choosing and discarding of various martial arts material.

JS: After studying in m aforementioned arts for years, I began seeing them as inanimate physical structures. These structures being analogous to let’s say the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge and so on. I broke down these arts to their simplest forms and components. Filtering through these disassembled arts I gathered what I discerned as universal truths and/or essential characteristics. Someone once stated we should, “Absorb what is useful…” I would suggest we “Extract what is essential.”

After unifying these common and essential parts, I went back to the disassembled arts and connected secondary parts as well. These universal and secondary components became the elements of the Slam Set—Art and Science of Mook Jong.

IKF: After training for 35 years, you must have left thousands of parts in these piles. Are they of no value? What did you do with them?

JS: To continue the metaphor, I dug a mass grave and bulldozed all the unnecessary material and covered it up. The last I heard was that a herd of sheep were grazing over the grave as they chewed the last decay off the traditional martial arts carcass.

IKF: Why was it important to incorporate a blade set into your system?

JS: In my view, martial arts in general is in need of a paradigm shift. I’ve been burdened with the obsession of designing a truly new and necessary hybrid martial system. In pursuance of a weapons art, I once again address CAPA.

My conceptual analysis leads me right to the kitchen drawer. If one were not restricted by frivolous doctrine or mandate, knife/blade training is the most natural and accessible of all weapons. Every house, condo, apartment, mobile home, palace, tepee or cave worldwide has knives in them. It seemed reasonable to create a weapons system based on a weapon everyone has access to.

To elaborate on the paradigm shift, let’s look back at the tournaments of the 1970s and the 1980s. Regardless of what “martial art” everyone trained, their sparring pretty much looked the same. So I’m thinking, why train in such and such an art but fight completely different than the art itself? I’ve always felt that every movement one trains must be functional fighting. If not, the practitioner is overloading the nervous system with superfluous motion, all of which equates to being a waste of time, money and opportunity. Martial arts should be based on practical, functional and simple movement. Even today’s students are learning worthless kata, technique and history, all in the pursuance of worthless rank.

The translation of the Slam Set (empty hand) into the blade set is an expression and application of a “Seamless Transitional Integration”—from empty hand to blade to empty hand, regardless of order. Thus, form and function are indeed synonymous.

IKF: Most of your Blade Set moves are practiced on the mook jong. Why is that?

JS: Actually, all the Blade Set movements are practiced on the wooden dummy. As I stated earlier, the Slam Set is the template for the Blade Set. So wooden dummy training is an essential expression of the Blade Set. Also, the Blade Set is practiced with an opponent/training partner as well as in the air.

IKF: How does the mook jong work translate to real-life combat?

JS: The wooden dummy is one of the most versatile training apparatuses in martial arts. It allows the practitioner the ability to generate full-force attacks, trapping options, precise limb destruction and rapid-fire flow with adhesion and spring-loaded attacks. These are essential training attributes necessary for the development of a true combat fighter.

IKF: If someone were left-handed, would that hinder his Blade Set development?

JS: Absolutely not. Within the Blade Set, both the right and left hands are utilized. I designed the Blade Set to be effective with a standard right-hand grip of a standard left-hand grip. Also, one could use an ice pick grip with either hand. If someone wanted to, the Blade Set could be performed with two blades at once with any grip on either hand.

IKF: The Blade Set appears perfect for women to learn. Why is that?

JS: Actually, the Blade Set is perfect for anyone to learn if he is serious about truly surviving a brutal attack. However, that being said, the blade is the ultimate equalizer when it comes to self-defense (other than a gun). Women can level the playing field against stronger and/or larger opponents with functional blade application. Knives are easy to carry, conceal, affordable, legal and lethal.

IKF: What knifefighters/practitioners out there today are you impressed with and why?

JS: There are three blade experts in the United States that I would consider world-class. I’ve personally spent time with each of them. So, my opinion is based on first-hand experience. They are Kelly Worden, Jim Keating and Mike Janich.

IKF: What particular skills and/or accomplishments do you perceive inherent in these knife experts?

JS: Let’s start with Kelly Worden. Kelly is the most skilled and toughest student Remy Presas ever had. He’ll bring it, and bring it hard. Jim Keating is a knifefighter’s knife expert whose skills are exemplary in every sense of the word. Mike Janich is the smartest knife expert I’ve ever met. Mike has successfully translated his massive intellect into surgeon-like precision with his blade.

IKF: Give me three examples of unique and/or essential elements of your Slam Set-Blade Set series that differentiate it from other arts?

JS: 1. My entire database is a 60-second form. I can focus on honing a relatively small amount of information as opposed to cluttering my nervous system with unnecessary junk. 2. Space. The Slam/Blade Set can be done in a very confined space (4×4 feet). Being effective in so little a space is perfect for airplanes, security, crowds, between parked cars, etc. 3. A Slam/Blade Set practitioner can deliver a lethal dose of knees, elbows, blades and attitude in fractions of a second in a “Seamless Transitional Integration.”

IKF: How do you plan on propagating your art?

JS: Several ways, actually. First, Addy and I own a gym in Wenatchee, Wash., and have about 175 students. Secondly, we have teamed up with Unique Publications and we’ll be releasing our Blade Set book later this year. Thirdly, Paladin Press will be releasing DVDs on our Slam Set curriculum later this year as well.

And finally, we will be teaching the “Blade set” at out 7^th Annual Wind and Rock Training Camp in Lake Chelan, Wash., July 7-9. Come and join us. Check out our Web site at www.kifightingconcepts.com for more details.

Supported Elbow Frame Inside Kung-Fu June 2006

Inside Kung-Fu

“”

By Joseph Simonet

June 2006

Pg 70-75

THE SUPPORTED ELBOW FRAME IS AMONG THE MOST SIGNIFICANT AND ESSENTIAL WEAPONS IN THE ASMJ ARSENAL

I have trained in the martial arts since 1972. From the very beginning, my interest and/or motivation was to be able to defend myself and become a functional fighter. My journey of 30-plus years has been filled with highs, lows, injuries and triumphs.

Anyone who pursues the truth in the fighting arts ultimately will get his ego crushed and his hat handed to him on a regular basis. The karmic freight train is coming around the bend, and it’s coming for you.

I have experienced countless “reality bites” moments. One such moment occurred November 12, 1993 at McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado. I found myself ringside at the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Being a veteran martial artist and holder of multiple black belts offered little solace as I stared into the face of reality.

“Oh, (bleep), I have to learn the ground”.

There I was, nearly 40, and immediately desperate to gain knowledge of the ground. My first opportunity was with the local high school wrestling team. I was allowed to train with the varsity heavyweights. It was a humble beginning as my pursuit of knowledge took yet another turn.

Since that fateful day, my training has become more refined and focused. My system of training has been organized into what I call “The Art and Science of Mook Jong” (ASMJ, wooden dummy training).

It is widely accepted there are five ranges of unarmed combat: kicking, punching, trapping, clinch and grappling. “The Art and Science of Mook Jong” focuses on trapping and/or clinching range. The movements I utilize are essential ingredients distilled and extracted from preeminent martial arts systems such as kenpo karate, wing chun, silat, doce pares, tai chi, boxing and an eclectic ground game. I have discarded 90 percent of the techniques and training these arts had to offer. I felt most of the material just did not hold up in real fighting.

“The Art and Science of Mook Jong” is powered by a superior attitude. In the stand-up game, superior attitude defeats superior techniques. However, it is only when you add conditioning to the attitude and technique methodology that real success can be achieved.

The Supported Elbow Frame

The supported elbow frame is one of the most significant and essential weapons in the ASMJ arsenal. All MMA practitioners should train and utilize this weapon because of its versatility, simplicity, and power.

To create a supported elbow frame (Figs. 1-4), start in a left lead, with your body leaning forward. Thrust your left elbow up until it is pointed into your opponent’s centerline. Cover your left ear with the palm of your hand. As this is happening, your right hand creates a frame by attaching to your left inside forearm near the elbow. This is the basic supported elbow frame.

It is imperative to established a lower art base. When executing the supported elbow, sink your base as you move forward to prepare for absorbing a powerful strike, such as a head-high roundhouse kick or a huge over hand punch.

Surviving the Big Punch

Distance is one key to using the supported elbow to survive the big punch. This forces my opponent to bridge the gap and commit to a big bomb. While standing just outside of punch range, I have allowed myself time to react to a big right hand (Figs. 5-6).

As my opponent loads for the punch, I begin to sink my weight and move forward into his centerline. By creating the supported elbow frame, I have protected my head, neck and face, while solidifying my base. When my opponent makes contact, he is not prepared to hit such a solid target, which in turn disrupts his timing and base.

My left elbow also acts as an attack as I drive the point into his oncoming shoulder (Fig. 7). Note my body position and/or base. I have successfully absorbed the big punch, bridged the gap, and disrupted his base, while attacking with an elbow point by entering into trapping range.

Wrap, Trap, Attack

After blocking his right punch, my left hand now circles counterclockwise to trap my opponent’s right arm above the elbow, while simultaneously striking his jaw with my right elbow (Fig. 8). My left hand now attaches to my right biceps, which creates another support, adds striking power and hyperextends his right arm. I follow with a standing armbar on his right arm as I crash down on his collarbone or jaw (Fig. 9).

I then hook my right hand around his neck as I jerk him into a right knew to the race, while still locking his right arm (Fig. 10). I release my opponent’s left arm and proceed into a guillotine (Fig. 11). I finish by sitting and falling back into guard position as I plant his face into the mat (Figs. 12-13).

In developing fighting skills, simplicity and versatility of technique weighs heavy on value. It only makes sense to develop muscle memory and skill sets that work at all ranges.

Supported Elbow When Mounted

This next example begins from the mounted position. The attacker throws a big right punch. The defender on the bottom (Figs. 14-15) prepares for impact with a supported left elbow frame. Once the punch is deflected and jammed (Fig. 16), the defender wraps his opponent’s right arm with his left arm. Notice, this is exactly what was demonstrated in the stand-up version.

After wrapping the right arm, the defender strikes with his right hand and then reverses position. Note, the defender’s elbowlock and right hand position (Figs. 17-18). If his opponent extends his hips to free up pressure on his face, he only adds more tension to his left elbow. The defender now applies more pressure, stretching the elbow joint and punishing the face (Fig. 19). When tension reaches its peak, the defender releases his right hand for a downward elbow cut to the face (Fig. 20).

Prevent the Rear Choke

When you find yourself mounted from the rear and your opponent is moving in for the kill (chokeout), the supported elbow frame may just save you from defeat. In Fig. 21, I am using the elbow frame to block my attacker’s attempts to put me in a choke. Essentially, I am tucking my chin, locking my arms, supporting my heard forward, and buying time.

In Fig. 22, the attacker briefly aborts the choke attempt and decides to strike. I simply reverse my elbow position to my left side and block his strike (Fig. 23). As a follow-up, I grab his left arm (Fig. 24), extend it over my right shoulder and apply pressure with my head and body (Figs. 25-26).

Developing Training Drills

Now that we have demonstrated the technical value of the supported elbow frame, let’s establish functional training drills as well. Begin by facing off in a fighting position wearing focus mitts or gloves (Fig. 27). Have your partner throw big punches to your head as you counter with the supported elbow frame (Fig. 28). This should be done on both sides. Add intensity and realism to the attacks as you get more comfortable with this drill. In other words, try to take his head off with huge powerful attacks. Make it real. To follow up, feel free to add tie-ups with knew attacks. Be creative and intense (Figs. 29-30).

Sticking and Contact Drills

Sensitivity drills are extremely important in “The Art and Science of Mook Jong.” Body contact is a key component in learning to listen to my opponent’s intent. For example, the next photo sequence will demonstrate a training drill guaranteed to develop muscle memory and body awareness. Face off with a partner (Fig. 31) and begin the drill with your partner’s right punch and your left supported elbow frame counter. Now, wrap your partner’s right arm as you strike with your right hand while applying a lock with your left arm (Figs. 32-33). Hook behind his head and applying a follow-up right knew to his midsection. (Fig. 34).

After your knee strike, plant your right foot back and let go of the lock. While this is happening, your partner throws a left punch. Repeat the same counter-sequence on the left side (Figs. 35-38). This pattern should be repeated from side to side. To attain a higher and more intense level of training, include heavier contract that continues for the equivalent of two-minute rounds.

Linking drills is a challenging, essential aspect of sensitivity training. Repetition and body sticking will enhance every fighter’s skill level. After excusing the left knee (Fig. 38), step forward with the same leg and begin the pummeling drill. Make sure to repeat on each side (Figs. 39-41).

By now you should have gained a new insight and greater appreciation for the supported elbow frame. You will find its function to be an essential tool in your fighting skills box. When in doubt, train harder.

Today’s Women of Tomorrow

Inside Kung-Fu

“Today’s Women of Tomorrow”

November 2005

By Dave Cater

Pg 42

Different backgrounds, different styles, different talents inexorable linked by their love of martial arts.

CHRIS YEN

Martial Artist/Actor

For most of her young life, Chris Yen has been known as either: “the younger sister of;” or “the daughter of.” Now there’s nothing wrong with begin associated with two of the world’s top martial arts names – in this case martial artist/actor extraordinaire Donnie Yen or wushu wonder Bow Sim Mark. Most stylists would give their black sash just for a chance to claim such a pedigree.

But when you live it every day of your life, the comparisons are bound to get old – and quick. Chris Yen struggled mightily to find her own identity. It wasn’t easy.

“I trained with that sort of pressure from the time I was real young,” Yen explains. “The pressure came from my mother and from my father, and from my brother who started young. The pressure was always there.”

Describing herself as “rebellious,” Yen yearned for a chance to carve her own niche in the world. That chance came two years ago when she moved to Hollywood and attended her first audition.

“I realized I loved going out to auditions. I loved going to my acting classes. I loved the fact that I can express myself in another forum other than doing martial arts.”

Her love for acting, her desire to express herself in new and different ways, is paying big dividends. Her first major project, Adventures of Johnny Tao, is due out soon and by all indications it could be the rocket that catapults Chris Yen to stardom.

CHRISTINE BANNON-RODRIGUES

Martial Artist/Actress/Spokesperson

Christine Bannon-Rodrigues has parlayed a tremendous career as a open circuit competitor into an equally impressive life as a school owner and spokesperson. Bannon-Rodrigues, vice president and co-owner of Don Rodrigues Karate Academy, Ltd., is also a spokesperson, product designer and product evaluator for Macho Products, Inc.

With more than 40 martial arts magazine covers to her credit and nine WAKO World titles under her belt, many consider Bannon-Rodrigues to be the best all-around female competitor in sport karate history.

MIMI CHAN

Wah Lum Kung-Fu/Instructor

As long as Mimi Chan is minding the store, wah lum kung-fu will be in safe hands. The daughter of grandmaster Pui Chan, Mimi dabbled in film work a few years ago but soon returned to her family’s Orlando school to train another generation of kung-fu practitioners.

Mimi, who provided all the martial arts moves for Disney’s animated character “Mulan,” recently took eight students to Baltimore, where they captured the U.S. Kuoshu Nationals team forms champion trophy.

TIFFANY CHEN

Tai Chi Competitor

Seems that Tiffany has been around so long she should be retired by now. The truth is, Chen has been around so long because she started so young. Daughter of the world-famous tai chi grandmaster William C.C. Chen, Tiffany is reaching her stride in the world of push hands competition.

Inside Kung-Fu’s 2004 “Competitor of the Year,” Tiffany won the award for best “Lei Tai” performance by a female athlete at the First World Competition Tournament in San Paulo, Brazil. The fighter with the model features also was among six athletes who captured gold medals for the U.S. team.

JEANNE CHINN

JKD Stylist/Actress

Jeanne Chinn is one of the busiest martial artist/actors in Hollywood. A longtime practitioner under the original Bruce Lee student Jerry Poteet, Chinn has graced the cover of several Unique Publications’ offerings and each time been a solid attraction.

With recent appearances on “Charmed” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” as well as an solid guest spot on “NYPD Blue,” Chinn has established herself as a solid character actor. Yet she is quick to say that none of her success would have been possible without the lessons she learned studying martial arts.

JENNIFER & CHERI HAIGHT

Wushu Stylists/Cirque Performers

To wushu or not to wushu? That was the question facing teenagers Cheri and Jennifer Haight two years ago. On one side was the chance to compete against the best in the world at their chosen avocation. On the other side were Cirque du Soleil and a chance to star in a multimillion dollar extravaganza to be staged nightly at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

In the end, the choice was obvious. The sisters now star in KA, Cirque’s newest and most-expensive martial arts and acrobatics spectacular. They are, in a word, spellbinding. Wushu weapons flash at the speed of light; spins and kicks fly by so fast your eyes have trouble measuring what’s real and what’s fantasy.

What’s real is the chance they took and the hard work they put into the show. They only fantasy is how easy they make it all look.

LUCY HARO

Lawyer/Wind Chun Stylist

Don’t look now, but the face of wing chun in American is rapidly changing. When Lucy Haro, a family law attorney by trade, wanted to learn wing chun, she skipped the middle men and went straight to the top.

A series of e-mails to grandmaster William Cheung led to training in Australia, followed by more extensive schooling in America. No one of the grandmaster’s most-trusted students, Haro is well on her way to becoming the most-important female wing chun voice in America.

ADDY HERNANDEZ

KI Fighting Concepts

When Addy became just the second Latina to appear on a cover of Inside Kung-Fu, she instantly was recognized throughout the world as one of kung-fu’s top natural beauties. The fact that she also has carved a niche as being one of the best new martial arts technicians only lends validity to her standing.

Hernandez is a rare combination of femininity and ferocity; softness outside the studio and sheer power when it counts. Her mook jong sets are a joy to behold. With videos and books spotlighting Hernandez’ talents, her stock will be climbing for years to come.

LI JUNG

Wushu/Actress/Stunt Woman

This former protégé of the great Wu Bin has easily made the transition from stunt double to on-camera attraction. The hard work that led to a spot on the Bejing Wushu team has propelled Jing to a permanent spot among Hollywood’s “A” list stunt choices.

Along with being one of the country’s most sought after wushu instructors, Li Jing is making inroads in her acting career. She recently filmed a commercial for Microsoft Intel, appeared in a National Geographic documentary, and worked with Donnie Yen in a Hong Kong movie.

MING QIU

Wushu Stylist/Stunt Double

When “Walker, Texas Rangers” co-star Nia Peeples needed a stunt double, Ming Qiu was the only choice. After seeing Ming’s demo tape, Peeples actually flew from Texas to California just to meet the former Jiangxu wushu star. The rest, as they say, is Hollywood history.

Sing 1995, Ming Qiu has been the first – and only – choice on most stunt coordinators’ call list. In the past five years, she’s doubled for Lucy Liu in Kill bill, Charlie’s Angels 1 and 2 and Ecks vs. Sever; shadowed Kelly Hu in Cradle to the Grave, The Scorpion King and “Martial Law;” and appeared in Collateral, Austin Powers: Goldmember, Starsky & Hutch and Spiderman 2. Her television credits include “Law and Order,” “CSI: Miami,” “The Shield,” and “Charmed.”

Currently working on MI: 3, Ming teaches privately at a local park in Monterey Park, Calif., where she ahs 15 students. She also just finished training Milla Jovovich for the film, Ultraviolet.

KA’IMI KUOHA

Kara-Ho Kenpo

From the time she was old enough to walk, Ka’imi Kuoha always seemed ahead of her time. A child actor in her formative years, a high school graduate in her early teens, Ka’imi was mastering her personal learning curve while the rest of her peers were just getting started.

Today, she is the designated leader of a martial arts system founded by the great William K.S. Chow in Hawaii. And she couldn’t be nicer, more unassuming or unaffected by the whirlwind surrounding her appointment. A dancer, singer and performer, Ka’imi first and foremost is a martial artist of great repute whose future will always be bright.

TIFFANY REYES

National Wushu Competitor

There are dedicated martial artists, and then there’s the kind of dedication exhibited by Tiffany Reyes. When Tiffany can’t make the 300-mile trip to Los Angeles to train with coach Li Jing, she’ll perform her sets in front of a computer camera. Together, the pair will discuss improvements and then Reyes will repeat the movements – over and over again.

A client services coordinator for Google, Reyes won a spot on the U.S. Wushu “C” National team in 2003. This year she hoped the four hours a day of practice will pay off with a spot on a the “A” team going to the World Wushu Games in Vietnam.

JENNY TANG

Wushu Instructor

Jenny Tang is a good example of the apple not falling far from the true. A niece of famed tai chi master Wei Qi He, tang spent her formative years as a member of the Shanghai National Wushu Team before attending college in America.

Today, as co-owner of Tai Chi Wushu Resource in Southern California, she is helping produce a new generation of internal stylists. Maybe just as important is her contribution to traditional tai chi tournaments in America, where she has become a trusted judge and valued advisor.

KA-YAN WONG

Choy Lay Fut Stylist/Model

Ka-Yan Wong was born to be a kung-fu master. Even as a baby, her father, choy lay fut master Tat-Mau Wong, was preparing her for the world of Chinese martial arts. By the time Ka-Yan was two, she already was doing full splits and could hold her leg on in a perfect sidekick.

Today, Ka-Yan is that rare martial artists who is exceptionally gifted in all aspects of kung-fu, including hand forms, weapons, sparring and even lion dance drumming. Ka-Yan’s two gold medals in broadsword and nanchuan at the 2004 World Traditional Wushu Festival Competition in China stand out as highlights in a long and successful run of competitions.

Now a young woman with a honors degree in biochemistry to her credit, Ka-Yan also has ventured into the world of acting and modeling. She recently spent a good deal of time in China furthering her modeling and kung-fu skills. Many predict it’s only a matter of time before this child martial artist prodigy makes her mark on the big screen.

GRAYCE WEY

Krav Maga/Traditional Kung-Fu/Actor

Businesswoman, creator, producer, writer, actor. Every time it seems as though Grayce Wey has finally found her niche, she discovers something else to make her life complete. Although she was born in San Jose, Calif., Grayce is fluent in Mandarin. This made her a valuable property with production companies in China and America. One of her early acting roles was a guest spot on Disney’s “Lizzie McGuire.”

But Grayce is much more than an actor. Her first martial art was krav maga. Loving its simplicity and effectiveness, Wey became an instructor and developed the U.S. licensing program for the Krave Maga National Training Center. However, she returned to her cultural roots several years ago by studying traditional kung-fu with Jonathon Wang of the Beijing tai Chi and Kung-Fu Academy.

An accomplished writer, Wey began Desert Lotus Productions in 2003. One of the company’s first projects was Anna’s Eve, a horror film in which – not surprisingly – Grayce produced, directed and starred.

Total Domination part 2

Inside Kung-Fu

“”

Interview by Michael Janich

July 2005

Pg 62-66, 108, 111

The attitude behind Jospeh Simonet’s KI Fighting Concepts system is simple: One move and you’re done.

In last month’s Inside Kung-Fu, Joseph Simonet explained the 30-year background behind his impressive martial arts resume and the genesis of his eclectic KI Fighting Concepts curriculum. In part 2 of his interview, this outspoken martial artist explains his personal fighting philosophy, the role of wooden dummy training in the quest for personal martial excellence, and his plans for the future.

INSIDE KUNG-FU: What are the key components of the KI Fighting Concepts philosophy and curriculum?

JOSEPH SIMONET: Every aspect of my personal study of the arts was a quest to fill in the gaps in both my own knowledge and skills and the curriculum that I offer to my students. After devoting myself to a variety of different arts, I stepped back and began to cherry pick the elements that were most valuable. Again, the goal was to synthesize the various elements at the foundational level, not to arbitrarily lump things together.

In its current form, the key elements of the system include proper structure and alignment, as derived from my interpretation of wing cun and silat; sensitivity and spontaneity, adapted from the Filipino arts, taijiquan, and wing chun; and an attitude of “wherever you’re standing, you’re stand in my spot,” which is a reflection of both my personality and some elements of Indonesian silat.

IKF: Wherever you’re standing, you’re standing in my spot. What does that mean?

JS: It means having the attitude and commitment to totally dominate your opponent. Most martial arts separate fighting into four ranges: kicking, punching, trapping, and grappling. We believe in only one range: trampling range. That’s the range between my initial impact with your body and your impact with the ground. At that point, I’m standing in your spot.

IKF: Certainly somebody of your size and strength could pull that off. But is that a sound foundation of an entire system?

JS: The system works because it is based on proper anatomical structure and a committed attitude. My partner and assistant instructor, Addy Hernandez, weighs half as much as I do and is about one-third as strong, but she can easily knock most men my size on their butts. If the system works for her, it will work for anyone.

IKF: What is Addy’s martial arts background?

JS: In addition to being the first person to earn a black belt in the KI Fighting Concepts curriculum, she has also earned black belts in kenpo, doce pares eskrima, and eskrido, and has instructor’s certification in taijiquan and yoga. She has also kickboxed competitively in the ring.

IKF: If KI Fighting Concepts is a superior system, why did she train in the traditional arts as well?

JS: To teach the full KI Fighting Concepts curriculum effectively—especially to people already trained in other styles—it was important for her to experience some of the traditional arts in their pure forms. That gives her the frame of reference to relate to the other arts, to understand the lineage of our core concepts, and, most importantly, to have a full appreciation of what we do and why. As my assistant and protégé, she needed the additional background. For anyone else just interested in developing fighting skills, the KI Fighting Concepts curriculum is all you need.

IKF: How would you describe your typical student?

JS: Most of our students, both at our school in Wenatchee, Wash., in our affiliate schools in New York, and in our distance learning programs, are experienced martial artists over 30 years old who are frustrated with the traditional arts and really want to learn how to fight. They’ve been around the block, are tired of the hype and want something real.

IKF: Why do they come to you?

JS: In most cases, they got a taste of my approach through my book or one of my videos and like what they saw. They were looking for both a system that made sense and a mentor with the courage to lead, so they came to me.

IKF: You’re a pretty tough and opinionated instructor. Why do they stay?

JS: It’s interesting that usually whatever brings a student to us is never what keeps him here. Our students always grow in ways they never anticipated. Many of them came looking for a physical challenge and never expected the mental and emotional growth they experienced. Others came to me to give them confidence and they ended up finding it themselves through the physical aspects of what we do. It’s just further proof that the martial arts is a personal journey, not a production line to create people who all move and fight the same way.

IKF: Wooden dummy training is usually associated with the practice of specific Chinese systems like wing chun or choy lay fut. Why is this traditional training method such an important part of your eclectic art?

JS: The wooden dummy allows me to practice proper form and structure with full power and resistance. Unlike a heavy bag, it also provides the anatomical tools to practice full-power blocks, traps and other techniques with great realism. Best of all, it’s the only training partner I’ve ever had that never whines and is never tired, sick, bored or injured.

IKF: The core of your wooden dummy training is a form you developed called the “Slam Set.” Why would an eclectic martial art need a form? Are you just replacing someone else’s tradition with your own?

JS: The Slam Set represents all the essential elements I’ve learned in 33 years of training condensed into a 60-second form. If you’ve been around the arts for a while, when you first see it, you’ll see what look like elements of kenpo, eskrima, silat, muay Thai, whing chun and other arts. But when you analyze the form and start extracting applications from it, you realize that what looked like kenpo was not only kenpo, it was also an element of eskrima, and expression of taijiquan, and a fundamental concept of silat. Ultimately, it becomes a window to understanding the common ground of all martial arts.

I developed the Slam Set as a vehicle to train all the core principles of the arts I’ve studied and to provide a set of essential fighting skills in one form. I did it on the wooden dummy so that all the movements would have to be done with contact and intensity and would not degenerate into a meaningless dance. In the process of developing the set, I subconsciously included a number of elements that I knew needed to be there, but at first even I wasn’t completely sure why. As I practiced and analyzed the form and its possible applications, I realized that it truly includes all the movements and skills essential to a real righting system. Even now, years later, I will see a technique or application from another art that I really like and I re-evaluate my curriculum to make sure I haven’t missed anything. In most cases, I end up discovering those movements somewhere in the Slam Set.

IKF: It still seems like practicing a rote form is inconsistent with the spontaneity and “formlessness” you claimed to achieve with KI Fighting Concepts. Aren’t they opposites?

JS: Forms, like oral traditions, are a convenient and effective way of passing on a large body of knowledge, because they allow you to remember things in a sequence. You just need to understand that it’s the knowledge that’s important, not the sequence.

Any movement or series of movements in the Slam Set can be practiced individually as a drill, in any combination, and in any order. With proper visualization and intensity, they can also represent thousands of different applications. For example, what looks like a wing chun bong sao/lop sau/backfist combination to you might be a figure-four armlock to me. The movements are the same, but the intent—and therefore the application—are very different.

By mastering the physical movements of the Slam Set and then creatively expressing them in as many different ways as possible, you don’t do techniques; you make techniques.

IKF: What is the Art and Science of Mook Jong (ASMJ)?

JS: Once I realized that the Slam Set is, in fact, a distillation of all the essential elements of KI Fighting Concepts, it made sense to use it as a primary tool to teach the system to others. In the ASMJ program, students begin by learning the Slam Set form and the most obvious, literal translations of the movements as applications. Once they are competent of the movements. That’s the science.

Then, based on their understanding of the applications, they start analyzing the form and discovering their own combative expressions of the movements. They start seeing applications in the transitional movements of the form—between the “techniques”—and tap into the full potential of their skills. That’s the art.

IKF: How does someone get involved in your curriculum?

JS: We recently established a worldwide federation to provide an infrastructure to share our art. We also host an annual training camp at our facility in Chelan, Wash., which features more than 40 wooden dummies, and teach seminars all over the country. The resources are already there. You just need an open mind and the guts to train hard.

IKF: What are your goals for KI Fighting Concepts and for you as a martial artist and instructor?

JS: I want to build a professional organization of like-minded people who are interested in continuing the development of the effective fighting arts. I want to find worthy instructors who are interested in sharing this information with motivated students. Most of all, I want to leave more than I take.

It’s not about me taking credit for what I’ve done; it’s about enabling others to continue to build upon it without having to do it all over. They shouldn’t have to repeat history. I know that there are plenty of people who have changed their approach to the arts after seeing what I do without ever giving me credit. That’s fine. As long as the evolution continues, I’ve done my part.

IKF: That sounds amazingly humble compared to some of the other things you’ve said in this interview.

JS: Humility is about balancing what you can do with what you say you can do. It’s not about selling yourself short to try to impress someone. When you get right down to it, most of today’s martial arts legends has-beens surrounded by wannabes. I’m here now and I’ve got a lot to offer. People who really want to learn appreciate that and are lining up to train with me. That’s it.

IKF: Nevertheless, I’m sure you know that you’ll probably ruffle a few feathers when this interview is printed. Any final words for your critics?

JS: Sure. I don’t accept challenges; but I do respond to attacks.

Michael Janich is a freelance writer, author and instructor in Longmont, Colorado. He also is a founder of the Martial Blade Concepts system of edged-weapon defense and director of product development for the Masters of Defense knife company. He can be reached at www.martialbladecomcepts.com

The KI to Fighting Supremacy Part 1

Inside Kung-Fu

“”

Interview by Michael Janich

June 2005

Pg 34-39, 95

Joseph Simonet has taken 30 years of conceptual study and turned it into one revolutionary martial arts system.

For years, Joseph Simonet has been one of the best-kept secrets in the American martial arts community. An exceptionally talented practitioner and instructor with high-level ranking in numerous Chinese, Indonesian, and Filipino martial arts, he is best known for his ability to cross-reference and synthesize the common elements of individual arts into universal concepts and physical principles that transcend style.

KI

This universal body of knowledge forms the foundation of his revolutionary KI Fighting Concepts curriculum and its wooden dummy-based, state-of-the-art training methodology, the Art and Science of Mook Jong. In this two-part interview, Simonet explains the method behind his uniquely visionary madness.

INSIDE KUNG-FU: When did you begin your training in martial arts?

JOSEPH SIMONET: I started training in 1972 in Japanese karate. At that time, I as already a competitive power lifter and was looking for other ways to challenge myself physically.

IKF: When did you get involved in kenpo?

JS: I switched to kenpo in 1973 and met Al Tracy in 1975. Although I have studied many different arts since then, I am still associated with Al Tracy and Tracy’s kenpo and am probably the highest-ranked practitioner of that system no teaching that art exclusively.

IKF: What ranks do you hold and in what arts?
JS: I am currently an eighth-degree black belt in Tracy’s kenpo; a fourth-degree in doce pares under Christopher Petrilli; a second degree in eskrido under Cacoy Cañete; a second degree in pentjak silat tongkat serak; and a black-sash level in wing chun gung-fu. I also have an instructor’s certification in Yan style taiji.

IKF: What do you mean “black-sash level” in wing chun?

JS: I’ve trained in both classical wing chun and its non-classical variants for over two decades and had the opportunity to study with some of the best wing chun instructors in the country. I learned the classical wooden dummy set from the great Wang Kiu and ultimately mastered all the skills of the system on my own terms.

IKF: But you never received a formal rank?
JS: I trained with people who had their black sash and could do everything that they could—usually better. That taught me that individual accomplishment is always more important than formal rank or certification. If anyone doubts my skills in wing chun, they are welcome to stop by anytime and “stick” with me.

IKF: What was the significance of each of the arts you studied and how did they give you the tools to develop as a martial artist?
JS: I consider kenpo to be the most complete encyclopedia of physical motion in the martial arts. If you want to catalog a movement, you can find it in kenpo. The Filipino arts taught me the importance of flow and the fact that spontaneous application is more important than rote technique. Through wing chun I developed an in-depth understanding of physical structure and the advantages of skeletal alignment over muscular strength. Silat taught me forward enerfy, taking an opponent’s space, and the secrets of body leverage and angles in throwing. And from taijiquan I learned the power of fluidity and relaxed movement.

IKF: Which arts were the most revolutionary to your development as a martial artist?

JS: At the time, every one of them was revolutionary to me, because I immersed myself completely in that art while I was studying it. I wanted to make sure that I understood the totality of the art in its pure form first. Then, I stepped back and looked at the art with a critical eye to draw the best elements and concepts from it.

IKF: Which arts were least beneficial?

JS: I have learned something from every art I’ve studied—even if it was what not to do. Once you discover that, you reverse-engineer your training to focus on the stuff that does work.

IKF: What is KI Fighting Concepts?

JS: The KI in KI Fighting Concepts stands for “karate innovations.” I founded it in 1979 as a hybrid system designed to fill in some of the blanks that I found in kenpo, but it’s grown far beyond that. The way I see it, every martial art presents a specific model. Although every model works fairly well at a basic level, the more I challenged them, the more their limitations became apparent and the models broke down. To fix them, you have to look outside the model and draw from something else.

Over time, what began as a hybrid system of kenpo has become and eclectic blend of pre-eminent martial arts systems, unified at the conceptual level. The development of KI Fighting Concepts has also paralleled my personal development in the arts, filling in the blanks in the totality of my own training, knowledge, understanding, and training methodology.

IKF: So KI Fighting Concepts follows the model of “absorbing what is useful?”

JS: Absorbing what is useful is a nice start, but more important that that is extracting what is essential. A “useful” skill set that doesn’t include the really critical skills that you need to fight well is a guaranteed way of getting your butt kicked. It’s like having a survival kit full of “useful” items that doesn’t include matches or some other way of making a fire. Without that essential element, you die.

IKF: There are a lot of styles and systems out there that claim to have extracted the best of all the arts. How is KI Fighting Concepts different?

JS: Most people who claim to have created eclectic systems have done nothing to integrate their arts at a fundamental level. If you duct tape a wrench and a screwdriver together, you haven’t invented anything. By the same token, duct taping a bunch of tae kwon do techniques onto jiu-jitsu ground skills doesn’t produce an integrated fighting art.

The “concept” in KI Fighting Concepts reflects the fact that it is a synthesis based on total integration of the component parts, not just a buffet line of different martial arts techniques. So many styles are actually defined by the minute difference that set them apart instead of the 99 percent of the content that makes them similar. That’s ridiculous.

By understanding the core concepts and mechanics that are common to all systems, you can achieve total integration at the foundation of the art and flow to any technique you choose. This approach also helps you appreciate various styles for what they contribute to the whole, rather than blowing them off because “their stance are wider than our stances.”

IKF: You’ve got some pretty impressive martial arts credentials, but what qualifies you to create your own martial art?

JS: After 30 years of training, six black belts, and years of seeking the truth from other people, I decided that I was qualified. Who told Yim Wing Chun, Mas Oyama, Morehei Uyeshiba or any other founder of a martial art that they were qualified? Nobody. Because of all the tradition and ritual that surrounds the martial arts we forget that men developed all arts. In most cases, they were developed to overcome the shortcomings of the systems they already had, which were also developed by men. Well, the same thing applies today.

It amazes me that when it comes to every other field of human endeavor—science, medicine, technology, education—we constantly strive for progress. But when it comes to martial arts, most people are convinced that someone else figured it all out and created the ultimate fighting art hundreds of years ago. I don’t think so.

If I have the knowledge, the skills, and the insight to create a superior system, I’m not going to hold back because it’s not traditional. The telegraph was a great invention, but I don’t see anyone trading in his cell phones for one.

IKF: So you no longer see much value in the traditional martial arts?

JS: All living things are evolving, dormant, or dying. When viewed in this way, most traditional arts are at best either dormant or dying. As cultural experience, as a form of fitness, or as an off-the-shelf basic self-defense, they’re fine. But as a state-of-the-art fighting system, no art that values tradition above function is worth betting your life on.

IKF: What about the instructors who claim to have adapted their traditional arts to the needs of modern self-defense?

JS: If they’re still restricted by the limitations of their tradition, they’re going to come up short. Training in traditional martial arts is like restoring an old car. You bust your butt for years to get everything to look exactly like the original. But when you’re done, you’ve still only got a 1973 Pinto. Granted, it’s a beautiful, historically accurate Pinto, but it’s still a Pinto.

IKF: Do you consider yourself in the same league as people like Mas Oyama, Ed Parker or the founders of other well known systems?

JS: That’s not for me to judge, but that’s certainly my goal. They were great men and great martial artists because they started with the martial tradition that they learned and continued to analyze, innovate, and build upon it. That tradition—a legacy of innovation and progress—is what I really value.

If you think about it, the biggest difference between me and the founders of other arts is that I’m still alive. As strange as it may sound, in the traditional arts, being dead is a great qualification. Your followers will spend years interpreting and re-interpreting everything you said or wrote like your grocery list somehow holds the key to martial enlightenment. I’m here to answer questions and provide guidance to my students now. I’m also continuing to grow and learn along with them.

IKF: What has been your most satisfying experience or accomplishment in the martial arts?

JS: Realizing that I was in control of my own destiny and didn’t need validation from anyone else.

IKF: What has been the most frustrating?

JS: Waiting so long to realize it.

(In part two, Simonet explains his fighting philosophy, the role of wooden dummy training in the quest for personal martial excellence, and his plans for the future.)

Inside Kung-Fu July 2004

Inside Kung-Fu

“Where are the Women of Wing Chun”

By Joseph Simonet

July 2004

Pg 44-48

Although sad to be created by a woman, the art of wing chun has become almost the exclusive domain of mail practitioners.

Wing chun gung-fu is named for Yim Wing Chun, a woman who lived in Yunnan province, China about 400 years ago. According to the history of the style, Yim Wing Chun was engaged to marry a man named Leung Bok Cho. Although Wing Chun was spoken for, a local gang leader took a liking to her and demanded that she break off the relationship with her fiancé and marry him instead. He backed up his demand with threats of violence against her and her family.

Ng Mui, a Buddhist nun who had escaped the destruction of the original Shaolin Temple in Honan, heard of Wing Chun’s plight and offered to help. She suggested that the family send a letter to Wing Chun’s fiancé in Fukien province asking him to break off the engagement. While the family and the gang leader waited for word to come back from the fiancé, Ng Mui began training Wing Chun in Shaolin gung-fu, modifying its methods to suit the needs of a woman and to develop real fighting skill in the shortest possible time.

After a year of training, the response from Wing Chun’s fiancé arrived. But before Wing Chun consented to marry the gang leader, she made a final request. She explained that she had trained in gung-fu and could only marry a man who could defeat her in personal combat. The gang leader eagerly accepted the challenge, only to be soundly defeated by Wing Chun and her devastating new fighting method.

Having won her freedom from the gang leader, Wing Chun continued to study with Ng Mui and codified her teachings into a system of technique that ultimately bore her name. She then married Leung Bok Cho and taught the system to him.

Brief Encounter

Curiously, the passing of wing chun gung-fu from its founder to her husband not only established wing chun as a true martial tradition, it also marked the end of its brief history as a female-dominated style. From that point—and to the present day—wing chun has become more closely associated with male practitioners than its female founders. However, to truly understand the genius of this amazing art, as well as its potential as a modern self-defense system, we should take a hard look at its roots as a fighting art designed by and for females.

Although I am a firm believer in women’s rights, when it comes to physical competition, men have significant advantages over women. Some women’s rights advocates may take exception to this statement, but the fact that most amateur and professional sports in the world today mandate separate competition for men and women strongly supports this assertion. More importantly, if you actually ask most women self-defense students, they will readily admit that they do not consider themselves physical equals to men in a fight. With this in mind, the primary fighting concept of wing chun becomes extremely clear: To win against a larger, stronger opponent, you must fight smarter, not harder. Let’s take a look at how wing chun accomplishes this.

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of wing chun is its approach to timing. Most traditional martial arts operate on two-step timing—when the opponent attacks, you block, and then you counter. Conversely, wing chun uses the concept of simultaneous block and attack to literally beat an opponent to the punch. As an opponent strikes, the wing chun practitioner typically deflects the attack with one arm while simultaneously striking with the opposite hand. Since the opponent is focused primarily on attacking and is usually anticipating a two-step counter (if any), he is typically totally unprepared to deal with the immediate counterstrike.

Comfortably Uncomfortable

Two other important characteristics of wing chun are its emphasis on centerline orientation and its commitment to fighting at close range. When combined with the concept of simultaneous block and attack, these tactics help the wing chun practitioner operate comfortably in the exact spot where most people are the least comfortable: right inside the body’s traditional defensive perimeter.

If you watch two people squaring off, you’ll notice they instinctively position themselves about two arm’s-lengths apart. From this comfortable distance, they close to a sing-arm’s length to actually deliver blows. Wing chun strives to eliminate this comfort factor by closing the distance and orienting on the opponent’s centerline. When an opponent strikes, rather than backing up, he holds his ground and pivots in place. This dissolves the power of the opponent’s strike, helps him “flank” the opponent’s centerline, and creates a force/counterforce dynamic that generates incredible striking power at close range. Collectively, this “in-your-face” fighting strategy helps wing chun players control distance and forces their opponents to fight on their terms.

One critically important aspect of wing chun that offers a tremendous advantage against larger opponents is its focus on superior anatomical structure. Rather than fighting muscle against, wing chun relies on techniques that place the skeletal structure of the body in the strongest possible alignment. For example, to properly perform wing chun’s bong sao (wing block), the hand is rotated inward until the little finger edge faces straight up. The elbow is raised until it is level with the shoulder and the hand is dropped slightly to angle the forearm both downward and inward. In this position, the bones of the forearm cross, bracing both the elbow and shoulder joints to create an extremely strong wedge-like structure. Once this alignment is achieved, the power of the body can be transmitted effectively to the arm through a quick, explosive rotation of the hips. When these elements are used in concert, the result is an incredibly powerful structure built upon skeletal alignment rather than muscular strength.

Sensing An Opening

Also setting wing chun apart from other arts is its emphasis on developing and using sensitivity ina fight. Through exercises such as chi sao and wing chun’s many trapping techniques, practitioners learn to “feel” an opponent’s intent before they see it. Once contact is made, the wing chun stylist uses hi/her arms like antennae, sensing an opponent’s movements through instantaneous physical perception. This is much faster and more efficient than visual perception and, once again, helps the wing chun player stay a step ahead.

These elements can be used individually to give a fighter an advantage in a fight. However, if we combine them into a synergistic system, the result is an extraordinary fighting science that is structurally and tactically superior to many conventional fighting arts. Ng Mui and Yim Wing Chun created an art that allowed a woman with fewer physical attributes to easily defeat a larger and stronger man.

Since wing chun was developed by women and primarily for women, why has its lineage become so male-dominated? The answer is simple. Men also recognize a good then when they see it. And since men also fear attacks by larger, stronger opponents, wing chun has great relevance to their self-defense needs as well.

Functional For Women

Although there are far fewer female wing chun practitioners today than males, traditional wing chun remains a practical and effective women’s self-defense system. However, in the original spirit of the art—to establish a system that uses structural superiority to overcome greater size and strength—I have modified wing chun’s traditional form to make it even more functional and adaptable to women’s needs. The result is “Extreme Wing Chun.”

The fundamental difference between traditional wing chun technique and that of “Extreme Wing Chun” is the use of the wu (guarding hand) as an active support for both offensive and defensive movements. I borrowed this concept from the serah style of Indonesian pencak silat (as well as some movements of tai chi) to further enhance wing chun’s superior structure and give the practitioner an even better chance of “evening the odds” against a physically superior attacker.

For example, let’s contrast a traditional wing chun tan sao (palm-up block) with the “Exteme Wing Chun” version. Normally, the tan sao relies on the structure of one arm to block while the other hand either guards or strikes. Against a right hook, the wing chun player might pivot left to block with a tan sao while simultaneously striking with a right straight punch.

The “Extreme Wing Chun” tan sao takes this concept a step further. By bracing the wrist of the blocking hand with the palm of the opposite hand, the strength of the basic tan sao structure is easily doubled and allows even women of very slight stature to effectively block full-power hooks thrown by much larger and stronger male opponents. At first glace, you might think this tactic sacrifices the ability to simultaneously attack and defend. However, rather than striking with the right fist to the head or body, the strike is actually delivered with the right elbow to the nerve cluster in the shoulder. This simple technique not only stops an attacker’s punch cold, it combines the offensive and defensive function of the tan sao into a single integrated movement that can almost effortlessly destroy the attacker’s arm and his will to fight.

The supported movements of “Extreme Wing Chun” help martial artists further enhance the already-superior anatomical structures of traditional wing chun by adding the power of both arms to the technique without sacrificing the other advantages of the system. This approach works with all of wing chun’s core techniques, including the bong sao, tan sao, pak sao (slapping block), lop sao (pulling hand) and straight punch. Best of all, it continues the tradition of the art’s founder—developing and refining an art that offers the superior structure, timing, and training methods necessary to fight and win against larger and stronger opponents.

Like all martial arts, Yim Wing Chun’s fighting system transcended the traditional arts of her time to achieve specific self-defense needs. Although the result was another worthy martial tradition, her greats contribution was, in fact, her spirit of innovation and analysis. And that spirit is her true legacy—one that lives on in all women martial artists today and through the continues evolution of the arts such as “Extreme Wing Chun.”

Joseph Simonet can be reached at sifu@kifightingconcepts.com His videos are available at kifightingconcepts.com

Inside Kung-Fu May 2004

Inside Kung-Fu

“The Future of Dummy Training”

By Joseph Simonet

May 2004

Pg 30-35, 66-67

Put 13 dummies together and what do you get? The training system of the future.

The mook jong, or wooden dummy, is among the unique and effective training devices developed for the martial artist. Unlike simple punching bags and makiwara that only allow the practice of offensive striking techniques, the mook jong provides a platform for training both offensive and defensive movements. With a bit of imagination, it also helps the practitioner chain numerous techniques together, accurately simulating the dynamics of a real fight—an even that rarely resembles a one-sided offensive combination on a heavy bag.

Although the mook jong is probably the most advanced method of solo training possible in the martial arts, learning its proper use is best accomplished through hands-on instruction with a qualified teacher. To do this effectively, both the instructor and the student should be able to perform the movements on the dummy simultaneously. In this way, the student can accurately mimic the instructor’s technique in real time.

With two or possibly three dummies mounted side by side, an instructor can effectively teach up to two students at a time. Beyond that, however, the traditional wall-mounted dummy configuration makes real-time mirroring of an instructor’s movements—the most efficient learning method—impractical and ineffective.

In the KI Fighting Concepts curriculum, we focus heavily on mook jong training because we are confident that it is the most advanced and productive method of solo practice. Although the roots of our dummy draining lie in wing chun gung-fu (one of our core systems), through extensive experimentation and development we have adapted the techniques of our other core systems—kenpo, eskrima, pentjak silat, and taijiquan—to the dummy as well. The resulting training method is called “The Art and Science of Mook Jong.” Like the KI Fighting Concepts curriculum, this method is an eclectic, combat-orientated synthesis that blends and cross-references movement at the conceptual level, while maintaining respect for the core classical styles. The “science” of our wooden dummy training identifies the common elements and physical structures of the arts and refines them through repetitive contact training. Based on this foundation, students learn to connect and integrate movement in a non-linear progression. This personalized and, ultimately, spontaneous expression of their martial skill becomes the “art” of the method.

Despite the many advantages offered by our mook jong curriculum, for the reasons noted earlier, we sill couldn’t teach it effectively to large numbers of students. Therefore, we applied the same spirit of innovative traditionalism that characterizes our dummy curriculum to the design of the dummy-learning environment itself. The result is The Octagon.

What It Is

The Octagon is a 25-foot-wide octagonal platform that is home to an array of 13 wooden dummies. The base of the Octagon is a four-inch-thick concrete pad reinforced with #9 bar screen. This pad, which required eight yards of concrete, was poured over a two-inch bed of 5/8-inch gravel to keep moisture from leeching out of the concrete and ensure that the base would be impervious to the extreme weather changes at its location in Lake Chelan, Wash. After the concrete was poured, it was carefully surfaced to create a 1-1/2-inch drainage slope from the center to the outside edges of the platform. It was then coated with a pecan-colored powder and stamped with a late stamp for texture and aesthetic appeal. All edges of the platform were reinforced with 22-1/2-degree steel braces to guarantee the proper angles at the corners of the Octagon and further strengthen the platform.

Most traditional mook jongs use a wooden framework to provide the combination of support and shock absorption necessary for a good “live” dummy. To provide this same feel, yet allow for simpler construction and an unobstructed view, we developed a different mounting method. After determining the proper locations of the 12 other dummies, we used a roto hammer to drill a pattern of holes into the concrete to accept threaded inserts. We then used lag screws to attach three steel right-angle brackets to the base of each dummy. A thick rubber pad was placed over each set of mounting holes in the concrete, each dummy was carefully aligned, and then 5/8-inch steel bolts were screwed through the brackets and pads into the threaded inserts in the concrete. By carefully adjusting the tension of the bolts against the compression of the rubber pads, we tuned each dummy to have just the right about of “give” to move and react like a traditional frame-mounted mook jong.

Pivotal Change

The center dummy of the array was mounted differently. Instead of a static mount, we attached it to a pivoting steel sleeve that was inset into the concrete platform. This arrangement allows the center dummy to pivot 360 degrees, yet be locked down in any position. In this way, I can quickly and easily reposition the dummy to provide different views to the students working the outer dummies.

The first real test of the effectiveness of the Octagon came during my Wind and Rock training camp last July. I took 24 of the 60-plus participants in the camp and paired them on the 12 outer dummies. I then proceeded to teach a variety of dummy movements, drills, and combinations just as I do during private lessons. After one partner of each pair had an opportunity to both follow along with me and practice the movements individually, we repeated the process for the other partner. Throughout the process, I adjusted the position of the center dummy to provide a variety of viewing angles for all the students.

The results were phenomenal. I not only could effectively teach dummy technique to a large number of students in a single session, the group learning dynamic provided by the Octagon reinforced the training material and reduced the performance anxiety that students typically feel when working the dummy alone. Rather than feeling like they were in the spotlight, they felt the support and camaraderie of a group training session. The net result was that they learned faster and had better retention of the information than students who performed one-on-one. This method also validated wooden dummy training for many of the participants and motivated them to incorporate it into the practice of their core styles.

Height Advantage

The Octagon also offers a number of other significant advantages. To accommodate students of different heights, the outer dummies of the Octagon were made different sizes. Initially, students are positioned at a dummy that is comparable to their own height and reach to make learning the movements easier. However, once they become proficient at using the dummy, we move them to a different dummy that is larger or smaller. This forces them to adapt their motions to an “opponent” who is taller or shorter than they are. Rather than forcing a technique to work the same way, they learn to modify their movements on the fly to achieve the desired result. For example, an elbow strike to the head of a shorter dummy might only reach the torso of a taller one. A downward check and strike might, therefore, be replaced by an upward check and strike to compensate for the difference in height.

Initially, students are given time to sort out the necessary changes in their technique. Once they have learned to adapt to both taller and shorter dummies, they proceed to a form of “round robin” training unique to the Octagon. Like a game of musical chairs, the students must quickly move from one dummy to the next to perform either a drill, a portion of a form, or an entire form. By varying the movement pattern through the dummies, they have to spontaneously adapt to the different heights as they move. For a real challenge, I have them begin a form, like our “slam set,” on one dummy. On my command, they stop where they are in the form, move to another dummy, and resume the form. This process is repeated until the form is complete. This type of marathon training is one of the most challenging forms of dummy practice and is the final stage of testing in our mook jong curriculum.

Unlike the traditional wooden wall mount, the mounting system used for the dummies in the Octagon allows a 360-degree range of movement around each dummy. Students can practice a broader range of footwork and angling and can even move behind the dummies to practice chokes and rear takedowns.

Multiple Uses

The array of dummies in the Octagon is also an excellent resource for multiple-attacker training. Advanced students who are already comfortable dealing with a single opponent are first introduced to the basic concepts of fighting multiple attackers. Once they understand the concepts of “stacking” attackers, the use of human shields and obstacles, and the use of hit-and-run tactics, they learn to apply them with power in the Octagon. By varying the student’s starting position and orientation, we can simulate countless realistic attack scenarios.

Another unique advantage of the Octagon platform is that its outdoor location leaves it completely exposed to the elements. This allows students to train in all the weather conditions possible in central Washington, from intense heat to bitter cold. When the snow falls, we do not shovel the Octagon platform clean. Instead, we use the snow and ice that accumulates on the platform as a training tool to teach students how to move, maintain balance, and generate power in realistic environmental conditions. Since many real street attacks occur at night, we do much of our practice on the Octagon during the hours of darkness. This teaches us to rely on touch rather than sight and to apply our sensitivity skills to realistic fighting situations.

Since a number of my private students are law enforcement officers and security professionals, I have also adapted the Octagon to their training needs. But using soft-air pistols that replicate their duty firearms, they can practice integrating empty-hand defensive tactics with close-quarters shooting skills. For example, an officer may engage one or two dummies with empty-hand strikes to buy enough time and distance to draw his weapon. He can then fire at the dummies, which simulate attackers at different rangers and angles more realistically than a traditional shooting range. By attaching wooden panels to the dummies or removing the arms from the dummies themselves, the officers can also incorporate the use of barricades and cover.

For most dedicated martial artists, dummy training represents a significant step in their training evolution that allows them to creatively explore both their offensive and defensive technique through dynamic solo training. Similarly, the Octagon represents a quantum leap in dummy training methodology, enabling a single instructor to not only teach a large group of students, but to lead them in real time through progressive dummy drills and forms. It also opens the door to the creative use the multiple dummies and the realistic environmental training that is impossible with traditional mook jong configurations. Most importantly, it is another manifestation of the KI Fighting Concepts motto, “Where innovation transcends tradition.”

Inside Kung-Fu November 2003

Inside Kung-Fu

“Taking Chi Sau to the Street Part 2”

By Joseph Simonet

November 2003

Pg. 108-

One of the most critical elements of understanding and appreciating chi sau is defining the line between chi sau as a training tool and its role in developing real fighting skill. Practiced properly, it is a powerful method of developing close-range fighting reflexes based on touch rather than visual acuity. Practiced improperly, however, it can ingrain habits that are not only counterproductive to your training as a fighter, but can get you killed.

In part one of this article, I described several different exercises that could be used both as a precursor to chi sau training and as supplemental training to develop the structure and musculature necessary to perform chi sau well. As useful as these exercises may be, they are not chi say. As such, they are not and end unto themselves but rather a means to an end. Similarly, we must remember that chi sau is not fighting, but simply a means to achieving that end. Like any drill, the goal is not the drill itself, but the isolation and development of the skills the drill promotes.

To help you get the most out of your chi sau training, part two of this article will identify some of the weaknesses of chi sau as it is commonly practiced and teach you how to improve your practice and appreciation of chi sau by maintaining your focus on the real goal: combat skill.

Lack of Power

Perhaps the greatest problem with chi sau as it is taught and practiced today is that it has been reduced to a form of point sparring. Practitioners who take this approach typically assume laid-back, defensive stances that offer no real base for power generation. With this style of practice, a touch—any touch—is considered a hit. Even worse, many times once a “hit” is acknowledged by both partners, the action stops and they start the drill fresh.

Point sparring has been criticized for decades as an artificial, unrealistic form of training that is far removed from the reality of a full-contact fight. Practicing chi sau with the same mindset—that of a sophisticated game of “tag”—is just as far removed from the reality of a fight and just as counterproductive as training method.

Hits win fights, so good chi sau training must teach you how to hit. Don’t be content with touching to win; learn to

Inside Kung-Fu October 2003

Inside Kung-Fu

“Making the Chi Sau Connection Part 1”

By Joseph Simonet

October 2003

Pg 30-34, 67-68

Sensitivity in chi sau is all about sensing your opponent’s intent through physical feedback and pressure. PART 1

Chi sau is a dynamic, energy-based training exercise that teaches its practitioners the critical elements of structure and sensitivity in close-range fighting. After more than 30 years of training in many systems of martial arts, chi sau continues to be one of the most important training methods in my curriculum. How-ever, writing a meaningful article about chi sau, unlike teaching it first-hand, presents two major challenges.

First, how do I compress 20 years of chi sau training into a few thousands words? The best way for you to understand my teaching is for you t understand me. In short, I write the way I teach, I teach the way I train, I train the way I fight, and I fight to win. With that in mind, this two-part article will focus on the functional structure provided by chi sau training with the goal of practical application in a fight.

The second challenge is making my instruction relevant to everyone reading this. Whether you have been training in the martial arts for 30 years or 30 days, your personal skills and abilities hopefully will be enhanced by what is offered here. And so I have decided to focus on some of the misunderstood aspects of chi sau training and two specialized exercises that form both excellent precursors to chi sau training and useful supplemental exercises for experienced sticky hands practitioners.

Penetrating Hands

Chi sau, or “sticky hands,” is a highly developed training method that is integral to the study of wing chun gung-fu. It is designed to teach practitioners how to quickly and efficiently pierce an opponent’s defenses – and maintain their own – while fighting at contact distance. Although it is often described as a “sensitivity” exercise, this term can be misleading. If your concept of sensitivity is petting a puppy or taking an anger management class, you’re missing the point. Sensitivity in chi sau is all about sensing your opponent’s intent through physical feedback and pressure – Feeling what he is trying to do before you see it.

To achieve this type of feedback, you must make contact. Therefore, the first step in understanding chi sau is under standing the commitment to contact-range fighting. When boxers close the gap and their arms are entangled in a clinch, the referee separates the fighters to allow the fight to continue. Real fights don’t have the luxury, so chi sau practitioners learn to use contact-distance clashes and entangled arms as the foundation of much of their fighting skill. In fact, this type of engagement is precisely the situation in which a well schooled student of chi sau will have a clear tactical advantage and power superiority over fighters from other systems.

The 4 Ranges of Combat

Generally speaking, there are four ranges of unarmed combat – kicking, punching, trapping, and grappling. Chi sau deals exclusively with trapping rang, which can be simplistically defined as the distance at which elbows strikes are most valuable and effective. A more colorful definition of trapping range would be the distance at which knees, elbows, and attitude wreak havoc – the true “in your face” range of close combat. At this range, visual perception – the ability to determine an attacker’s intent by sight – is not fast enough to fight effectively. You are literally so close that your opponent can hit you before you can react.

However, by making contact with him and “feeling” his intent, you can determine it instantly. This “fighting by Braille” approach will allow you to dominate and destroy most average opponents at close range. It is also the one element that is most often missing from the skill sets of most beginning and advanced martial artists of other styles.

Structurally, there are three fundamental arm positions in chi sau: bong sau (wing hand), taun sau (palm up), and fook sau (bridging hand). These are demonstrated in photos 1-3. The unique and often misunderstood aspect of these three positions is their ability to function in multiple ways. They can be used in singular actions as blocks, attachments, and a means of deflecting incoming attacks. At a more advanced level, they can also be utilized in conjunction with other simultaneous actions and as reactive mechanisms. For example, in photos 4 and 5 the taun sau is used in conjunction with a left straight punch to effectively block and counter strike the attacker’s left hook. When considered alone, the specific qualities of the taun sau as a block are clearly seen. When considered with the straight punch, its function as part of simultaneous, coordinated actions is also clear.

Pulling the Trigger

A higher-level application of the taun sau allows it to function as a reactive mechanism or “trigger.” In chi sau training, the taun sau is used as an attachment to “stick” to a partner’s opposite hand, as shown in photo 6. The remaining photos of this sequence demonstrate single sticking hands, or doan chi, as well as the deflecting and triggering qualities of the taun sau. The person on the left (“A”) is attached with a fook sau to the person on the right (“B”), who is in a taun sau position (Photo 6). When “A” throws a left straight punch, “B” senses the incoming attack and maintains adhesion with the attacker’s wrist (Photo 7). This deflects the punch outward and opens “A’s” centerline for an immediate palm heel strike with the same hand (Photo 8). Note that during the palm strike, “B” maintains contact with “A’s” left arm so he can continue to detect, deflect, and counter-attack based on feel and sensitivity.

Even with the benefit of competent firsthand instruction, learning chi sau can be a trying experience. To become an accomplished sticky hands player, you will ultimately have to endure months of frustration, pain, exhausted, aching shoulders, and getting slapped around by more experienced practitioners. However, to make this process less arduous and speed your progress, I have developed a series of training drills as a precursor to actual sticky hands practice. Performed properly, these drills will prepare you physically for chi sau training and also give you a means of solo practice that you can continue to use when training with out a partner.

The Inner Tube Drill

This is a unique and extremely valuable training method, which teaches proper sticking alignment and structure to develop a “feel” for sticking. More importantly, it develops the strength and endurance necessary for quality sticking skill.

The inner tube drill is illustrated in photos 9-12. To perform this drill, the person on the left (“A”) places his right foot forward with 60 percent of his weight on the lead foot. His arms are held palm up with the elbows bent and the inner edges of the arms touching from the elbows the edges of the hands. Both elbows are approximately one-fist distance out from the center of the body. This is the double taun sau. The forward weight distribution and lean creates an aggressive body structure and forward “load.” This posture is also the foundation for straight punching with closing footwork.

The person on the right (“B”) in photo 9 assumes the same body position and the same forward load, however, his hands are placed in a double fook sau position – loosely curled with the insides of his wrists contacting the outside of “A’s” wrists.

From the double taun sau position “A” folds his hands together to a palm-to-palm position while applying smooth forward energy against “B’s” resistance (photo 10). Continuing to roll his hands, “A” goes from palm down to palm out, until the backs of his hands touch and his elbows rise slightly (photo 11). This is the double bong sau position. “A” then reverses this process to return to the starting position (photo 12) “A” repeats this action – double taun sau to double bong sau – over and over against the constant pressure of “B’s” resistance.

Not the “B’s” double fook sau is the connecting bridge between the two partners. As “A” rolls from taun sau to bong sau and provides forward pressure, “B” maintains contact and “rides” the movement and pressure of “A’s” double bong sau.

If you do not have training partner, you can practice this motion with its namesake – and inner tube. Purchase an inner tube from any local bike shop. The size of the tube you choose will depend upon you physique and strength. You may have to try several different sizes before you find one that is just right.

The solo inner tube drill is demonstrated in photos 13-16. Place the inner tube over your body so it is wrapped around your upper back. Hold the front of the tube with your thumbs with your arms in the double taun sau position. Now perform the drill as you would with a partner, using the elasticity of the tube to provide resistance (photos 14-16).

Serious practitioners of chi sau must develop their deltoids, triceps, and lattisimus dorsi to become proficient at sticking. My students perform 500 repetitions of this drill at least three times per week. After three months of this training, they typically will develop the specific strength and form to progress to chi sau training.

Bong Sau Drill

The bong sau drill is another excellent exercise that develops the skills and strength to be proficient at sticking. The body structure, forward load pressure, and arm positions are identical to the inner tube drill; however, in this drill, the practitioner learns to move his arms independently rather than in tandem.

In the bong sau drill, the partner in the double fook sau position is the proactive player. This drill illustrated in photos 17-21. From the same double taun sau/double fook sau starting position, the person on the left (“A”) throws a right straight punch at the chin of the partner on the right (“B”). As “B” senses “A’s” punch, he rolls his left arm into a bong sau position, maintaining contact with “A’s” arm and deflecting the punch upward (Photo 19). “A” then throws a left straight punch. “B” senses her punch and responds with a right bong sau (photo 21).

Continue this pattern, alternating left and right sides for many hundreds of repetitions. As you progress, you can also mix and match right and left punches and vary the speed and energy of your strikes to challenge your partner. Performed properly, this exercise can become quite lively and serve as preparation for actual chi sau training.

These drills are an excellent way to develop the proper structure and specific skill and strength necessary to practice chi sau. By first learning and practicing these, you can avoid many of the common mistakes made in chi sau practice and will achieve proficiency much more quickly. Even experienced chi sau players will find these drills a useful supplement to their current training, as well as a means of practicing their skills when a training partner is not available.

(In part 2 of this article, the author discusses how to expand the skills developed with these drills into actual chi sau practice with a partner.)

Inside Kung-Fu November 2002

Inside Kung-Fu

“Profile Addy Hernandez Taking Charge”

By Dave Cater

November 2002

Pg 136

Talk about your poster girl for high school’s “Most Likely to Succeed” honor! Addy Hernandez was as close to a can’t-miss as you’ll ever find at Chelan High School in Washington.

Homecoming queen. Honor roll. Class president. Cross country runner. Softball player. Martial artist. All while working two jobs to help support her family. Big things were expected of Addy when she started her freshman year at Eastern Washington University.

And she expected big things in return.

“I planned on studying personal training, physical therapy and philosophy,” she remembers, with a smile.

But expectations soon were met with disappointment.

While her body was in a classroom in Cheney, her mind was focused three hours away in an unstructured training hall that more resembled a scene from Walden’s Pond.

A year earlier, Hernandez saw a notice in a local newspaper announcing the promotion of martial arts instructor Joseph Simonet. It took three class before the eclectic master agreed to meet with the high school senior.

“I had to travel up this dirt road,” she recalls. “The sign coming up said, ‘Primitive Road.’ When I got there, he told me to hit him as hard as I could. I went to throw a right punch and then felt myself on the floor looking up. I said, “Cool, okay when do we start?”

Simonet turned to his newest student and simply said, “You’re in.”

That as the beginning of Addy’s year-long love affair with the martial arts.

“I didn’t expect it to affect me that way,” explains Hernandez, who was born in Michuacan, Mexico. “The power the discipline gives you is incredible. It was a fantasy for me to know the martial arts and become proficient and comfortable with them. It changed my whole perspective in life and that was largely due to my teacher.”

She sought the same transformation in college, but there was none to be found.

“When I left the martial arts and went to college,” she notes, “I thought I would find the same kind of teacher and philosophy. But it didn’t take me long to realize the professors and instructors didn’t share the same ideals. I had gone through such an incredible self-seeking journey in martial arts. After a year, I decided to make martial arts a career. Joseph and I became business partners and opened up our KI Fighting Concepts school.”

Hernandez, whose father, Lauriano, moved the family to Washington after the death of her mother, took to her new life with incredible energy and dedication. In just seven years, the 5-foot-3, 118-pound brunette has earned a third-degree black belt in Tracy’s kenpo karate; a fourth-degree in doce pares under master Christopher J. Petrilli; a seond degree in eskrido under grandmaster Cacoy Conete; a third-degree in KI Fighting Concepts (a hugely popular wing chun/pentjak silat/kenpo hybrid); and been certified as a tai chi teacher.

“Usually, fellow martial artists envy my position, because I live in the gym from morning to night.”

That’s no exaggeration. Addy begins each day with a 6 a.m. kickboxing class. That’s followed by a full day of privates, a kids’ class, group classes and more privates. When her martial arts days ends at 9 p.m., her personal day begins with weight training, yoga, Yang tai chi and long-distance running, where she is training for a marathon (26.2 miles).

“I like to take advantage of my youth,” she explains.

Hernandez, who has teamed with Simonet to produce a series of highly successful videotapes for Paladin Press, believes she would have still been successful in life without martial arts. But inside, something would have been missing.

“I think I would have been successful to a point, but without that understanding of myself and that take-charge attitude, I wouldn’t have been as far as I am now with anything I wanted to do,” she admits.

Name: Addy Hernandez

Birth date: June 30, 1976

Birth place: Mexico

Came to America: 1980

Hometown: Lake Chelan, Wash.

Siblings: 3 sisters, one brother

Started Martial Arts: 17

Arts Studied: Yang style tai chi, Kenpo karate, Doce pares, Wing chun, Pentjak silat, Kickboxing, Pankration

Instructor: Joseph Simonet

Height: 5-foot-3

Weight: 118-pounds

Belt Levels: 3^rd degree in Tracy’s kenpo karate; 4^th in doce pares; 3^rd degree in KI Fighting Concepts (wing chun/kenpo/pentjak silat); and certified teacher in tai chi

Current Work: Teaches martial arts full time

Outside Loves: Gardening, pottery, working with bonsai trees, training for a full marathon

Career Goals: To make more martial arts videotapes and to continue studying and teaching martial arts. I also hope to be a voice for martial arts women everywhere.

Facts: Loves children. Also speaks fluent Spanish

10 Years From Now: “I want to establish myself and make a name for myself in the martial arts world. I also want to be the CEO of global e-commerce business.”

Inside Kung-Fu July 2001

Inside Kung-Fu

“Building a Martial Arts Bridge”

By Michael Janich

July 2001

Pg. 91-94, 96, 101

Cross-training in different arts can be an excellent way of broadening your knowledge and rounding your skills.

People study and practice the martial arts for many reasons. Some do it for fitness, others do it for sport, and still others do it to learn to defend themselves. To satisfy these basic needs, just about any singular martial art will do. But among martial artists interested in developing their fighting skills to the highest possible level, it is rare to see someone who trains in a single art.

Cross-training in different arts can be an excellent way of broadening your knowledge and rounding out your skills. However, too many martial artists approach it from the perspective of amassing technique rather than increasing their understanding. If a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, a lot of knowledge, without proper understanding of that knowledge, can be extremely dangerous.

A Different Approach

One martial artist who has taken a distinctly different approach to cross-training is Joseph Simonet, founder of KI Fighting Concepts in Wenatchee, Wash. Rather than accumulating techniques from different styles or attempting to blend arts artificially, he has focused on distilling and extracting the key concepts of the arts. By integrating the arts at the conceptual level, the result is a powerful synthesis of technique that truly transcends the limits of the parent arts.

According to Simonet, “The various martial arts of world are kind of like islands – each reaching above the water and striving for its own identity. Most people who train in different arts and try to combine them into a single expression take the approach of building bridges between the islands. They link the arts artificially.

“For example, you might have someone who practices kenpo and jiu-jitsu to get a well-rounded education in the striking and grappling arts,” he notes. “However, when he fights, he kicks and strikes until he closes the distance so he can grapple. He’s doing kenpo then jiu-jitsu, but he’s not integrating the arts.”

“The key to learning,” Simonet continues, “is diligent study. The key to understanding is relating to different bodies of knowledge and recognizing the similarities that link them naturally. Rather than building bridges between the islands, I take the opposite approach – I drain the ocean of misunderstanding to reveal common ground. Now instead of islands, I have a mountain range.”

Simonet’s approach to the arts is more than just a clever metaphor. He is a 7^th-degree black belt in Tracy’s kenpo karate, a 2^nd-degree in the tongkat serak style of Indonesian pentjak silat, a 2^nd-degree in doce pares eskrima and eskrido, a certified instructor of Yang style taijiquan, and a black sash-level practitioner of wing chun gung-fu. When asked about any one of these individual arts, Simonet can demonstrate and teach it perfectly in its pure form. But when he fights, he instantly and effortlessly flows from one art to the other, often integrating the principles of different arts into a single dynamic expression. In other words, when Simonet fights, his feet are firmly on common ground.

The Key To Mastery

Watching Simonet’s beginning students work through portions of the KI Fighting Concepts curriculum, it was easy to pick out specific elements of Simonet’s parent arts. As one group practices chi sao from wing chun and hubud drills from the Filipino arts, another group is working on traditional silat footwork patterns. However, when his advanced students took the floor, the similarities seemed to dissolve, revealing a unique and tremendously effective hybrid – a result of integrating concept instead of technique.

As Simonet explains, “Each of the traditional arts has one or more unique elements that are the key to its function. By learning an art in its original form, you can discover these elements and develop a thorough understanding of them. Once you’ve done this, you are free to extract those elements and integrate them with the functional aspects of another style or system. This is the approach that I’ve taken in my study and my teaching of the arts. In other words, I’ve paid my dues in the traditional arts so my students don’t have to.”

It may seem that such a conceptual approach to the fighting arts would sacrifice form and structure; however, this is not the case. In Simonet’s words, “Form determines function. They are synonymous. Once you know why something from a traditional art works by learning and understanding its form, you can blend the concept behind that form into your overall expression of the arts. This conceptual integration, combined with an understanding of the importance of physical attributes, can ultimately yield a form that is structurally superior to that of other arts. And that is the goal of KI Fighting Concepts.”

The heart of Simonet’s “conceptual blending” of the arts is his integration of wing chun gung-fu and pentjak silat serak. Wing chun is known for its watertight close-range defenses and structure of simultaneous attack and defense. Serak is renowned for its explosive forward energy and simultaneous upper and lower body attacks. Through his mastery of both arts, Simonet discovered the common ground between their two structures.

For example, the hand position of the supported punch of serak is similar to the wing chun bong sao (wing block) /wu hand (warding or guarding hand) position. Against a straight-line punch, a wing chun practitioner might move off centerline, deflect with the bong sao and then simultaneously grab with the wu hand while countering with a backfist. Against the same attack, a serak stylists might duck low, explode forward while pinning the attacker’s foot with his lead foot, and strike at an upward angle with the supported punch.

Simonet’s version of these techniques integrates the forward energy and supported hand position of serak, the structural strength of wing chun’s bong sao, and the idea that hitting is always better than blocking.

Wing Chun vs. Serak

As the attacker punches, Simonet explodes forward, trapping with his lead foot as his supported bong sao simultaneously deflects the incoming punch and strikes full force into his opponent’s face. The structure of the supported bong sao protects the head extremely well (much like a “frame” in Russian sambo) and, when combined with full-body commitment (and the fact that the opponent is anchored in place by the foot trap), ensures the maximum transfer of force into the striking target. The timing of this technique is also geared toward intercepting – the ultimate goal and highest level of technique in jeet kune do.

This technique also provides an effective defense against trapping techniques such as the pak sau/punch. For example, against a straight punch a wing chun or jeet kune do practitioner might deflect the punch with an inward slap block (pak sau) and counter with a punch of his own. One KI Fighting Concepts counter to this popular defense would be to use the impact of the pak sau to rotate the punching arm into a bong sau position and immediately support it with the guarding hand. This two-handed structure, which is also reminiscent of the roll back and press in taiji, will easily defeat even the strongest counterpunch and pave the way for a variety of immediate counters.

This technique is only one example of Simonet’s ability to integrate various fighting styles into hybrid expressions that are actually structurally superior to the parent arts. In Simonet’s words, “The ‘KI’ in KI Fighting Concepts stands for ‘Karate Innovations.’ It’s all about elevating the level of our art through constant analysis and evolution. Our school motto probably says it best: ‘KI Fighting Concepts – Where innovation transcends tradition.’”

What the Critics Say

Simonet’s indomitable spirit of innovation has earned him a dedicated following among reality-based martial artists. However, it has also prompted some serious criticism from traditionalists, including some of his former instructors. Like his expression of the arts, Simonet’s response to this criticism is well-reasoned and thoroughly researched.

“Some people consider my methods a form of betrayal,” he explains, “However, this type of innovations actually perfectly in line with the strongest traditions of the fighting arts. Every one of the arts we enjoy today started with the thoughts and analysis of a human mind. For example, kyokushinkai karate is an expression of the brilliant thoughts and research of Mas Oyama. If you want to preserve that tradition, fine. Learn to fight like he did. If you want to learn to fight better, learn to think like he did.”

Simonet operates his well-equipped KI Fighting Concepts school with the help of his assistant and protégé Addy Hernandez. Hernandez is a holder of multiple black belts and to date is the only person to earn a black-belt ranking in the demanding KI Fighting Concepts curriculum. She is also a strong believer in putting theory into practice and has applied her skills very successfully as a full-contact kickboxing competitor.

Simonet and Hernandez have a dedicated following of more than 150 students. They also travel frequently and maintain an active seminar schedule at locations nationwide. However, to make their unique expression of the fighting arts available to more martial artists, they have organized the “Wind and Rock” training camp at picturesque Lake Chelan in Washington state.

Based on the tremendous success of the first camp held in July 2000, it will become an annual even that will set the standard for all other seminar camps. In addition to Simonet and Hernandez, Wind and Rock 2001 will feature noted jeet kune do instructor Burton Richardson and doce pares eskrima master Chris Petrilli.

No matter how you look at it, all martial arts traditions began with innovation – the commitment of one person to do things differently to achieve a higher goal. If that spirit of innovation is the height of martial tradition, that tradition is alive and well in Joseph Simonet and KI Fighting Concepts.

Inside Kung-Fu April 2000

Inside Kung-Fu

“Joseph Simonet’s KI Fighting Concepts”

April 2000

Discover the ultimate training method from the martial art

that is more Jeet Kune Do than Jeet Kune Do:

Joseph Simonet’s KI Fighting Concepts

Sifu Joseph Simonet has devoted his life to mastering a variety of traditional martial arts. After nearly 30 years of experience in the martial arts, he is a Master Instructor of kenpo karate (6^th degree black belt) and a certified instructor of Tongkat Serak pentjak silat (2^nd degree black belt guru dua hitam), Doce Pares escrima (2^nd degree black belt), Eskrido (2^nd degree black belt), Yang-style taijiquan and wing chun gung fu.

Through his mastery of these arts, Simonet has realized the values of these various styles; but more importantly, he has realized their shortcomings, both as individual fighting arts and as they apply to people of various abilities, skill levels and body types. This realization led him to develop KI Fighting Concepts: An American Martial Art.

Mirroring Bruce Lee’s original Jeet Kune Do, KI Fighting Concepts draws from all sources and strives for development without boundaries. But unlike modern Jeet Kune Do and most of the other eclectic fighting arts practiced today, KI Fighting Concepts is not merely a combination or haphazard complication of martial arts techniques. Because Simonet has taken the time to understand and master the traditional martial arts in their pure forms, he knows what elements are worth keeps and which should be discarded. He also knows better than anyone that no one martial art is best and that self-development and self-perfection can only come by focusing on the needs of the individual. KI Fighting Concepts is therefore a synthesis of the physical primciples and fighting strategies common to all fighting arts that uses these elements as a foundation to develop the individual fighter. In today’s martial arts world, KI Fighting Concepts is more Jeet Kune Do than Jeet Kune Do.

“There is no substitute for a tough and intelligent approach to training. I personally recommend and endorse this training method and feel that it will give you the edge you need on today’s streets”. Pentjak Silat Grandmaster Ma Ha Guru Victor deThouras

The training methods of KI Fighting Concepts, like the art itself, are intensely progressive and unique. They also make extensive use of the most versatile and effective martial arts training aid ever developed: the mook jong. The mook jong, or wooden dummy, consists of a central body, several protruding arms and, in some cases, an extended leg. It is mounted on a shock-absorbing frame that allows it to provide almost human reactions while easily withstanding the most powerful strikes. Its unique design allows a fighter to practice full-power blocks, strikes and kicks with the same realism as training with a partner, but unlike a training partner, it is never tired, sick, bored or injured. When combined with the proper mind-set and form, this simple device allows the martial artist to train in virtually any technique with tremendous realism and bone-breaking power. It is the ultimate training aid for the ultimate martial artist.

Although the mook jong is usually associated with the practice of wing chun gung fu, its usefulness extends to all martial arts styles. Through his decades of experience, Sifu Simonet learned to use wooden dummy training to perfect his practice of all these arts and ultimately forged them into an explosive synthesis called the “Slam Set.”

“This is the way Bruce Lee would be training with the mook jong if he were alive today.” Grandmaster Al Tracy, Tracy’s Kenpo

Simply put, the Slam Set is the most highly evolved wooden dummy form ever developed. Drawing from his extensive knowledge of the martial arts and countless hard-core fighting experiences, Simonet developed the Slam Set to provide combat-orientated martial artists with everything they need to know to be effective in a real fight in one explosive form. However, the Slam Set is not merely combination of techniques from different styles. Like KI Fighting Concepts, it is the key to understanding the common principles and movement patterns of all martial arts.

Together, KI Fighting Concepts and the Slam Set form a scientific approach to personal combat that enables the practitioner to understand the core principles of the martial arts and use them to perfect his (or her) fighting skills. This approach also allows a fighter to train with proper and complete technique, as well as full power. The result is a highly accelerated method that integrates skill training with physical conditioning to produce astonishing results in a very short period of time.

Until recently, this training method was only shared with an elite group of Sifu Simonet’s private students. However, thanks to a new Paladin video production, the secrets of the Slam Set are now available to you. In the professionally produced two-tape set The Mook Jong Slam Set – Dynamic Wooden Dummy Training for All Martial Artists, Simonet takes you step by step through the movements of the Slam Set and explains their underlying principles and traditional origins. He then puts theory into hard-core practice and teaches you how to apply these movements to destroy a typical street attacker in a matter of seconds. Whether you own a wooden dummy or not, the dozens of explosive fighting applications shown in this set and the insight into the core principles of realistic fighting are more than worth the price of these videos.

Joseph Simonet has devoted his life to the mastery, analysis, and synthesis of the martial arts for one simple reason: so you don’t have to. Don’t miss this opportunity to let him teach you the underlying secrets of the fighting arts and lead you toward personal perfection. The key to discovery in the martial arts is self-discovery. Let the Slam Set show you what you’ve been missing.

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