kidswarrior
Senior Master
Although not kenpo specific, this thread was pretty good, I thought: http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51508&highlight=handshake Some here may be interested in the ideas there.
Handshake Attacks, Gift in Return, Gift of Destiny, Broken Gift
- Thread starter Dan G
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Koshiki
Brown Belt
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2013
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My school, TKD-based, not kempo, doesn't officially teach handshake-attack defenses, but I think we must collectively know a disturbingly large amount. We view them as parlor-trick type things, like, "hey guys, guys, check out this hilarious new way so-and-so showed me to inflict pain from a handshake!!!" That said, as others have mentioned, if you're learning self-defense, you might as well cover-your bases! A lot of handshake-based ouchy-things can be easily translated into come-along escort type things, or whatnot. So, perhaps not the defense you are most likely to need on the dreaded "street," but hey, if it's out there, you might as well learn it, no?
RTKDCMB
Senior Master
I learned a few of those when I was doing Hapkido for a while, they were quite good so I have incorporated them into my repertoire. Also when they go for the sucker punch you can move your head or block/deflect the punch. One thing you can do when a stranger comes up to shake your hand for no reason is take one step forward or backwards so that one foot is in front of the other and to only extend your arm so that your elbow is close to your body. That will increase your leverage and will reduce his if he has to extend his hand further away from him to meet yours. That way you can be defensive without appearing to be.
My next class will be on defences againts the wave. 
There is a series of finger lock defenses in FMA (from Wally Jay small circle jiu jitsu through Remy Presas, I believe) that is an interesting entry technique into defense against aggressive moves such as pushing a finger toward someone or placing a palm onto the chest. They are fun to practice and impressive in their ability to control an opponent when used by a skilled practitioner. A training session usually leaves everyone going home with sore hands and fingers and a little humility. I think of them as an option for controlling the escalation of violence if you are skilled, and setting up an opponent for serious harm if you deem it necessary.
Mauthos
2nd Black Belt
This is quite an interesting old thread especially as I was teaching some of the 'Gift' techniques last night. Personally whether it ever happens or not I think when learning SD techniques it is useful to learn as many as you can from as many different attacks as possible, therefore an unfriendly handshake has never really been that surprising to me.
However, with the basic Gift of Destruction being particularly simple yet effective and one I think is fairly useful, after all these years I must admit that I still struggle to find an actual scenario where I would use Gift in Return, that one has never seemed that useful to me, doesn't flow that well and there is the potential for mistakes. I would probably never use this one myself. However, if anyone can enlighten me to a situation where that particular 'gift' would be the best choice to use I would be interested to find out your reasons why.
However, with the basic Gift of Destruction being particularly simple yet effective and one I think is fairly useful, after all these years I must admit that I still struggle to find an actual scenario where I would use Gift in Return, that one has never seemed that useful to me, doesn't flow that well and there is the potential for mistakes. I would probably never use this one myself. However, if anyone can enlighten me to a situation where that particular 'gift' would be the best choice to use I would be interested to find out your reasons why.
A good reason off the top of my head is that this both cancel you opponents actions, and is hard to see what is happening by both the opponent any third parties.
Sean
