Well, yes, you do really. There is a line I think I got from one of Tom Patire’s guys when I was learning CDT and LRT – “Be a surgeon, not a butcher”. The point, of course, being that while they both cut “meat”, one does large, (rather) inaccurate work; they other makes much smaller, more precise cuts. To me, really, it’s about the right tool for the job – if I’m sectioning some beef, I want a butcher because a surgeon with his little scalpel is gonna take WAY too long. On the other hand, if I need eye surgery…
The examples of accuracy saving the day are legion – if you read Marc “Animal” MacYoung’s early books ( I don’t remember which one), he talks about a fight he was in during his youth that lasted just two hits – the BG (bad guy) hit him in face (an untargeted shot, catching his cheekbone), and Animal’s shot, a middle knuckle to the sternomastoid joint (that little hollow spot behind your jaw), that made the BG’s eyes water. The BG in question, if I recall correctly, was larger, stronger, and uglier that MacYoung. This size differential made targeting all the more relevant – when you are bigger than your opponent, you can afford to wail a bit, and to soak up some generic hits; when you’re smaller though, you don’t want to take any hits…especially ones you don’t have to.
Let me delve just a bit more, with a story about Matt Thomas (founder of the Padded Assailant courses, father to Model Mugging and FAST Defesene). In the early days of his developing “a new approach to self defense”, Thomas wanted to find out what the most vulnerable targets on the human body were. Target that would work no matter what the size difference was. His methodology? Figuring that even the most feeble human being could generate a foot pound of force, he laid on the floor, held a 1 pound weight 1 foot from his body (incurring a foot pound) and dropped it onto different areas, judging the pain of impact. I’ll spare you the results of most of the test (like the ribs and legs), and get to the good stuff – dropping the weight onto his groin hurt. He was unable to release the weight onto his eye, the anticipation of the result kept his brain from releasing it.
Okay, so that’s a bit extreme, cutting the body down to two targets, but it did give a starting point. I can also tell you from some of my own more extreme training that the difference of ONE INCH can be the difference between a knockout and an angry BG.
You must practice accuracy to have it. It’s not something you can read about and they just “have”. Your instructor should, and ours do, tell you the target for each strike in your techniques – and I don’t mean “hit his head, then his chest”; I mean “hit him in the temple, then the bladder”. Physiology plays such a huge part in winning. Why do you think that NO professional fighting sport allows strikes to the back of the head, eyes, groin, throat, kicks to the knee, etc.? Because they work TOO WELL. They would reduce an athletic contest to a race to deliver a crippling or fatal blow. You need to know where you are supposed to be hitting, and very often with which weapon. In MacYoung’s tale above, a regular punch would have failed miserably, because it would not have penetrated to the nerves lying behind the bone.
No strike in Kenpo is delivered just to be hitting. They all are intended to either set up the next shot, ie create an opening, or to end the fight. All. No, really. All of them.
Okay, so now I’ve bored you to death with why, now how about I give some useful info on the how? That’s probably why you read this anyway…well, that and my scintillating wit. I’ll give you two very good ways to work accuracy, one that you can work in class, and one to work on your own time.
First, in class, with a body…uh, partner. This one is really easy, and I’m not sure why people skip it. Every time you do a technique, not some times, not mostly, but every time, be sure to touch the actual target of the strike, and focus on it in your mind. Okay, you can’t really touch people’s eyes, but get as close as you can without making your partner upset. For accuracy you don’t have to hit hard, you just have to be on target.
Second, at home. How far you can go with this one will depend alot on how understanding your spouse/ room mate is. Basically, what you want to do is get some paper and some string, and hang the paper from the string at different heights. Hang them all over if you can, in a place that you have to go through alot. The hall to the bathroom is usually good. Every time you walk through, strike at the paper – try to use different strikes, and to not break stride. When you get a good “pop” each time, make the paper smaller (I mean, how much of a challenge is 8.5″ x 11″?). Post its are really good for this. You can even draw little eyes or targets on them if you want.
If you have a heavy bag, you can use colored tape to make different striking areas on the bag to aim at.
One more story – when I was coming up, there was this big guy, we’ll call him Umpo. Umpo was a real pain to work out with, he was 6’3″ or so, probably 250#, and worked as a Corrections Officer in Baltimore City. He felt that everything he did in class, whether he was working with people his size, or housewives that could fit into one of his pant’s legs, should be done the same way he would do it at work. Umpo didn’t really care about his training partners (which is a good way to end up with none, which he did), he only cared about Umpo. As you know, I’m about average size, 5’10″ ish, back then 150#, but I like contact. So one day I find myself working out with Umpo, on Begging Hands, and we get into a dispute about the final strike. Umpo insists that it’s a double palm strike to the pectorals; I assert that it’s a strike to the floating ribs on either side. So, to settle it, I tell Umpo to try it on me his way, and I’ll do it on him my way, and we’ll see. So Umpo does his, and BLASTS your poor instructor back about 10-12 feet. I bounce back over to him, glint in my eye (nobody ever said we Irish were smart, just scrappy) and extend my hands to take my turn. Umpo no grab. In fact, something has convinced him that he doesn’t want to let me do it on him. Umpo then left! I can only surmise that Umpo gleaned his impending doom from my face. I’m pretty sure if he’d have let me, I’d have lacerated his liver at the least. Ah well.
Well, that’s about it for now. The next one is up to you: Path of Action, or Involuntary Body Response – let me know!
Mr J