Intermediate Training:

Students who have proven themselves and progressed from the beginner levels of white, yellow and orange belt will begin to learn the techniques and skills necessary to earn their purple, blue, and green belts. These are what we term the intermediate levels. Before, where students learned their ABCs, words, and sentences, they now begin to develop the skills to create paragraphs, short stories, and longer stories.

In the intermediate levels, students build on the solid foundation they began and developed in the beginner levels. The student will now learn how to more aptly apply the knowledge and skills, as well as develop new ones and to begin closing the distance in self defense between themselves and the opponent. Where in the beginner levels distance was your best friend in terms of personal protection, you will now close that distance due to a development of both skill and confidence, but also to reduce the ability of the opponent in his or her attack. Within the intermediate level the student is ready to begin the journey into the principles and concepts of Kenpo and self-defense in today's society.

During the beginner levels, the student begun to develop the three stages of learning:

• Primitive or embryonic: the student did not know very much Kenpo and thus, learned the basic movements that appear in techniques and forms.
• Mechanics: At the beginning level the basic mechanics involved in the execution of the techniques was learned, but not readily applied and thus, there was little flow, which also results in less confidence and self esteem. Generally, at the beginning level you neither reacted instinctively to an attack nor adapted the techniques to variations in attacks (force of the attack, height and weight of the aggressor, etc.).
• Spontaneity: You should understand both the execution of techniques and how they flow together. You react appropriately to an attack without stopping to think, but during the beginner level, that may have proven difficult.

Within the intermediate levels, you will continue to work on the three stages of learning and perfect them as well as the basic rules below:

• Establish your base: You will now have learned how to develop a solid base stance, but will improve upon it so that you will easily maintain balance so that your movements, positioning, etc. work in unison.
• Keep distances: While at the beginner level you stayed clear of the attacker, you will now focus more on getting off the line of attack, as well as in closer.
• Control, disarm and execute the technique: At the intermediate level you will truly learn that the priority in an attack is to control any weapon the aggressor may have and take care of it. Once this is done, you can eliminate the threat of a new attack. But also, you will fully realize that you are working against the opponent, not the weapon he or she may be holding, although you must remain cognizant of such to determine range, angle of cancellation and so forth.
• Strike and check: When you struck as a beginner you attempted to maintain control. Now, you must control and avoid, be it with an arm, hand or leg, the possible cons of our opponent. The check avoids vital area exposure to the adversary. And, at this level speed of both attack and defense significantly increase.

During the intermediate level, you will enhance your principles of force. While you learned them in rudimentary form at the beginning level, you must perfect them at the intermediate level. Each technique within the Ed Parker Kenpo system is based on one of the following principles. Often, several of these principles are used simultaneously in a technique, but generally, there's always one that is more dominant than the others.

Principles of force:

• Marriage of Gravity: This is the force we apply when we go in favor of gravity, that is, in, vertical, and downwards. All the mass of the body is involved. It is gaining the ability to use all your body mass rather than just an appendage on it and takes a considerable amount of time and effort to perfect. It is unlikely you will perfect it until later, advanced training stages.
• Back-up Mass: This is marriage of gravity, but could be thought of more when moving the body in a straight line in a horizontal plane into the opponent. Examples will be focused on within the course.
• Torque: Takes place when turning or rotating and provides a great force in a small space. Applied correctly this force is sufficient to tear tissue, break bones, or even burst internal organs of the opponent. In a simple analogy, you are applying a physics formula: F = m · a (force = mass x acceleration). However, often the acceleration in the torque is angular instead of linear. To take full advantage of body mass you must correctly shift from stance to stance, forcing the body’s trunk to work as transmitting axis.

Further intermediate skills development will include a great amount of work on the principles of movement.

Principles of movement:

• Economy of motion (or movement): You will not squander energy with unnecessary movements and displacements. Essentially you will defend or attack from your current position without necessitating other movements, telegraphing, etc.
• Action-reaction: Each action of the opponent must be followed by a reaction from you in a manner that will deter an attack.
• Instantaneous acceleration: You must remain completely relaxed in a confrontation until the moment when the impact of your defense strikes a body part on the opponent. This will ensure strike power is maximum, but to do so requires total relaxation, which will take you time to develop.

Many additional components will be developed and learned at the intermediate level, as well as learning much more. Your journey will become both more challenging and dynamic. The knowledge you acquire will astound you. So, what are you waiting for? Join Today!