C&S Online
An Online Newsletter For The
C&S Self Defense Association
Spring 2002

Confidence. Fitness. Success.

Thoughts From The Board of Directors...

Do you know how to ask a good question?  What role do questions and their answers play in ones understanding? The incredible strides made by humankind have happened because people were able to ask questions and seek answers. From science (Why does light have colors? How can birds fly?) to engineering (Can these materials support this weight? What forces are involved in flight?) to philosophy (What is truth? What is the nature of Nature?). There are literally an infinite number of questions one can ask. But how many have changed the course of history? Not that many. The answers to such questions as How can I preserve fire?, Can I cultivate these seeds?, How can I combine copper and tin (bronze)?, How can I use steam to make power?, How can the nucleus of atoms be altered? were all extremely important. Can you guess when they were first asked?

In the United States, we take for granted the freedom to express our ideas openly and to sometimes ask uncomfortable questions. This is of course not true in other parts of the globe. The September attack on the United States showed Americans that such freedoms cannot be taken for granted and that we must sometimes fight for this most basic of human rights the right to question preconceived ideas; the right to think differently; the right to pursue knowledge on our own terms rather than dictated by some higher authority. It is shocking how many people on this incredible planet are not free to question.

As a scientist, I can speak from experience about how powerful a good question can be. The research areas one pursues often depend on the kinds of questions that can be asked. We often ask, Is this problem "doable"? That is, can current observations and mathematical models provide the necessary tools to solve the problem? If not, can a new way of describing the problem be found? When Isaac Newton wanted to understand how planets orbited the Sun or how a projectile moved in space, both under the influence of gravity, he had to develop a whole new kind of mathematics using what he called "fluxions." Today we know it as differential calculus. This innovative and powerful tool can be used to describe how things change in time or space. It is truly the mathematics of Nature. Newton's incredible achievements in science and mathematics were possible because he was able to ask deep questions about the way our universe works.

What about martial arts? Do questions make a difference? If you have experienced a third degree brown belt test or higher, you realize the importance of answering a variety of questions about the nature of your Art. How deeply you believe in your answers is also important in assessing your understanding. When your instructor asks you to perform a front kick you can hopefully get your body to do it right. It's a different matter when you are asked why you do a front kick or how you teach a beginning student to do one. Even this level of questioning is pretty straightforward. It becomes far more dicey if you are asked to discuss various aspects of martial arts history or how one can best maximize force in a given situation. These higher order questions require that a student is able to process the information that is taught and synthesize it appropriately. The history question may require you to give your own interpretation while the force question might require a more logical, empirical answer. In our Art we demand that our instructors are able to ask the right questions. Every question asked has a reason behind it. On the other hand, students also have questions (they wouldn't be good students if they didn't). It's interesting to notice how student questions change from white belt to brown belt or black belt. The questions generally become more challenging the higher the rank though it sometimes surprises us when a beginning student asks a deep and profound question about the Art. The question and answer process is called the Socratic method after the Greek philosopher who developed the approach. The Socratic method is the principal tool Tiger Line schools use in the oral exams that are given at the orange (history), green (vital striking areas), and purple belt (physics of karate) levels. It also permeates the whole fabric of the Art that we teach. It all begins with that penetrating question. Do you know how to ask a good one?

Finally, I'd like to share the following written by scientist Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

"The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light."

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

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Grandmaster Paul B. Dusenbery, PhD holds a 7th Degree Black belt. He began his studies with Grandmaster Rose in 1972. Dr. Dusenbery is a space scientist, writer, lecturer, and is the Executive Director of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO. He oversees the Dusenbery Tiger leg of C&S. Grandmaster Dusenbery can be reached at dusenbery@spacescience.org.

A component of what I do for a living  is enabling law enforcement agencies to access criminal intelligence databases via the Internet. This process involves encryption/decryption software and hardware. The process is complicated by the presence of firewalls and proxy servers. If you don't know what these terms refer to, count yourself lucky indeed. The upshot of this is that with different vendors supplying computers, firewalls, proxy servers, and differing operating systems (i.e. Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, and now XP) there are problems that have to be ironed out for each combination of factors. My suggestion, which is being addressed, is to list each solution in a technical manual much like the ones car manufacturers issues for service departments. I think that this might be an interesting idea for us to explore in this forum. That is, trying to answer technical questions about techniques and theories in our Art. Just like the "Letters" column in the first addition of a magazine, I will have to wing it this time.

I will start with some questions about techniques that have cropped up in the past that you might find interesting or informative. I must say however, at the outset, that my responses are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all of the instructors in the C&S family. We are somewhat eclectic and allow a considerable amount of variation in approach.

One of the most frequently asked question I get is "I understand how to throw power into the opposite punch with my back leg driving the technique, and my hips adding power, but how do I do that with my forward punch? It feels awkward." Indeed the alignment for the opposite, or reverse, punch is very natural and the hip movement flows easily for added power. But the mechanics of the forward punch are much different. If you try to throw the forward punch straight across with hip motion you will lose a great deal of your pectoral muscle lock that aids in combining your body weight with your muscular effort. In order to get the same "oomph" from the forward punch, you have to drop the punching side hip down and slightly lean in that direction before you punch across you body. When you do this, you will feel your punching side toe dig into the ground and you will experience a much better pectoral lock.

Probably the most often asked question is "How do I get more power in my front kick?" The answer to this question is to limit the reabsorbtion of the power in the kick by your body. If you are standing erect when the kick connects, you have very little resistance to the pushing back effect that Newton's Law predicts. In order to resist this force, you must have the supporting leg bent, and have your body weight forward. This allows you to use the earth as a brace to shove back against the force and direct more of it into the opponent. Remember to bring the kicking foot up in a bike pedaling motion and get the knee as high as possible to take advantage of the large muscles in you legs.

Wrapping up this edition of the Technical Page, I recently had a question, from a police self-defense trainer that I know, about delivering a brachial plexus blow to the neck using the forearm. He wanted to know if it was proper to use the inside of the forearm to deliver the blow. While it would still work, turning the palm down and using the bones of the forearm would be better for two reasons. First the bone surface is smaller, thus concentrating the force. And second the pectoral lock that is so useful in most cases creates a problem here. It prevents total energy transfer; the spring-like effect of the pectoral lock causes a reabsorbtion of energy. When you deliver the strike palm in the pectoral locks automatically, when you deliver it palm down it can't lock and your arm hits the opponent's nerve plexus like a dead weight, with near-total energy transfer.

I don't envision this as a regular column, but I will be happy to respond to any email questions and may have them appear in later newsletters if volume is sufficient to warrant a Technical Page revival.

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Master David R. Landers holds a 6th Degree Black belt. He began his studies with Grandmaster Rose in 1969. He served as Deputy Chief of Police of Effingham, Illinois from 1997 to 2000 when he assumed the role of Illinois State Field Coordinator for the Midstates Organized Crime Information Center. He oversees the Landers Dragon leg of C&S. Master Landers can be reached at dragon@effingham.net.