For all those still remotely interested in this thread, I just found this online...it's kind of long so grab a coffee before you begin, but it answers my original question very nicely.
"This section I'm writing out of frustration at the criticism American Kenpo (and it's derivatives) attracts from people who don't understand it! The general criticism is that the self defence techniques that we practice (see clip 6 below for an example) "wouldn't work". People don't mention a particular part they don't think would work, they generally just condemn the entire technique. When probed further, and this is the crux of it, they mention that the person is "'just standing there while the guy hits him...that wouldn't happen in real life".
Now, listen carefully...that is completely true, it's blatantly obvious, you're not clever for realising it and not only do I agree with you but any American Kenpoist would also agree with you. Nobody ever claimed that the person was going to stand there while they were hit as they do in practice, because that isn't the way the system is designed to work.
As Senior Grand Master Ed Parker used to say, learning Kenpo is like learning a language. He used to call it "The A-B-Cs of motion". When you learn a foreign language, you begin by learning individual words. Then, when you have learnt some words, you begin to learn word groupings (which words can go together and be grammatically correct), which you build up into sentences (collections of word groupings) and finally a conversation (a collection of sentences, responding to the words and sentences used by the other parties in the conversation).
How people teach martial arts varies, but American Kenpo is taught in much the same way. Your words are your basic strikes, such as a jab, inwards block, front kick, hand sword, stance change etc.. When you enter a school, you will begin by being taught these moves in isolation, much as when you being to learn a language you are taught the meaning of single words. Just as learning single words helps to build up your pronunciation skills, so learning a piece of motion in isolation helps to improve your confidence, balance, targeting, breathing and other fundamentals.
Once you have learnt some basic moves, you move onto small combinations, analogous to our word groups. These are small groups of moves that fit well together, such as a jab-cross or double factor block. From there we then move onto practicing a whole sentence. When learning language this is typically something simple such as "Can I have a loaf of bread please?". The sentence is grammatically correct, shows correct word groupings (for example you're not asking for a loaf of cheese), but is ultimately not something you'd ever walk into a deli in the South of France and actually say. However, practicing sentences like these helps to concrete the language into your mind, helps you with timing and pronunciation, helps you with grammar constructs and generally aids your intermediate learning.
The American Kenpo technique is analogous to these sentences. That is to say, it is practiced as it is, against a 'dummy', to help you learn combinations of moves, timing, distancing, anatomy and physiology, body mechanics, the limits of your own strength etc., as well as to concrete the moves into your mind. What is remembering the syntax of a foreign language so that is can be called instantly to mind and used is the same as what is called 'muscle memory' in martial arts; that is practicing a move so many times that it's execution becomes natural and almost without thought.
To summarise, just as our language student would rarely walk up to a counter and pronounce "I would like to buy a load of bread please!", neither would our Kenpo student approach a self defence situation by attempting to execute an entire technique on a person who was just stood there. No, rather, our language student would use the skills that he had learnt to have a conversation with the shop keeper; maybe he has to ask the price, maybe the shopkeeper suggests an alternative, maybe a greeting is exchanged...the nature of the conversation is unpredictable, just as a self defence situation is unpredictable.
A trained Kenpoist realises this and approaches the self defence situation in the same way as the conversation, not by trying to use something pre-prescribed but by reacting to the other person, using appropriate responses to motion just as the language student uses appropriate responses to language. Just because the language student began his studies by practicing phrases, he is no less able to have a conversation in a foreign language than our Kenpoist is able to fight, though he practiced his techniques against a compliant dummy. "
Makes sense to me!
Thans for everyone's input.
-Mike
Yeah, I've seen a lot of similarities between the FMA that I do and the Kenpo that I've been exposed to.
