Sound familiar?

I have a very interesting collection of friends, acquaintances, cohorts, connections or whatever you want to call them. A result of that is I get a lot of interesting information sent my way. One such source is a Mensa friend of mine, who sends quite a bit of varied articles. One I just received was about politics in Pakistan, not something I'm particularly interested in, but as a good headline is supposed to do, it pulled me in to read it.
The article is titled Tribes of Terror and the author is Stanley Kurtz for the Claremont Institute. What's this got to do with your interest in Kenpo or the arts in general? I'm going to paste a few of his lines here and all you have to do is think about them in the context of the Kenpo family as it exists after the passing of Ed Parker.
"Traditionally existing outside the police powers of the state, Middle Eastern tribes keep order through a complex balance of power between these ever-fusing and -dividing ancestral groups. (Anthropologists call such tribes "segmentary lineages.")
Ed Parker didn't exercise a police power but he did keep firm control of the IKKA. Some might argue that he did exercise police power, but you guys can hash that out. But it's the second part of the sentence that struck me where he says "Ever-fusing and - dividing" in reference to groups. Doesn't that sound like so many of the Kenpo groups you know of? If you interact with other martial artists you'll hear a story like ours as well. And if you are aware at all of history and current events you know that human beings just do this sort of thing all the time.
Lineage is important for lots of reasons. Who your lineage is aligned with, if any, may or may not be. Getting into a contest about whose art or association is better is like two kids arguing about whose daddy can beat whose. So when I read the occasional blurb sent my way regarding who is now part of an alliance, it really doesn't affect my life. I don't read most of the karate gossip I get, and rarely see the websites like kenpotalk, etc. By the way, I really liked the "segmentary lineages" line. Now we have a term for those who change from instructor to instructor. Just what we needed in Kenpo, another term.
I don't see the fusing and dividing of the various Kenpo groups as really being a factor. Can't do anything about it anyway, although there seems to be a person or two out there who think they can and they make themselves the policeman. I have more important (to me) things to do. I'm sure you do, too.

Martial arts in the future

Click to enlarge.

The doctor is in

This is related to the question recently raised about centerline theory, which in turn led to discussion about striking targets on it. Dr. Rowe forwarded this about chest wall impact.

Volume 338:1805-1811 June 18, 1998 Number 25
Next

An Experimental Model of Sudden Death Due to Low-Energy Chest-Wall Impact
(Commotio Cordis)

Mark S. Link, M.D., Paul J. Wang, M.D., Natesa G. Pandian, M.D., Saroja
Bharati, M.D., James E. Udelson, M.D., Man-Young Lee, M.D., Mark A.
Vecchiotti, B.S., Brian A. VanderBrink, B.S., Gianluca Mirra, M.D., Barry J.
Maron, M.D., and N.A. Mark Estes, M.D.

ABSTRACT

Background The syndrome of sudden death due to low-energy trauma to the
chest wall (commotio cordis) has been described in young sports
participants, but the mechanism is unknown.

Methods We developed a swine model of commotio cordis in which a low-energy
impact to the chest wall was produced by a wooden object the size and weight
of a regulation baseball. This projectile was thrust at a velocity of 30
miles (48 km) per hour and was timed to the cardiac cycle.

Results We first studied 18 young pigs, 6 subjected to multiple chest
impacts and 12 to single impacts. Of the 10 impacts occurring within the
window from 30 to 15 msec before the peak of the T wave on the
electrocardiogram, 9 produced ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular
fibrillation was not produced by impacts at any other time during the
cardiac cycle. Of the 10 impacts sustained during the QRS complex, 4
resulted in transient complete heart block.

Conclusions This experimental model of commotio cordis closely resembles the
clinical profile of this catastrophic event. Whether ventricular
fibrillation occurred depended on the precise timing of the impact. Safety
baseballs, as compared with regulation balls, may reduce the risk of
commotio cordis.


Source Information

From the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Tufts-New England Medical Center,
Boston (M.S.L., P.J.W., N.G.P., J.E.U., M.-Y.L., M.A.V., B.A.V., G.M.,
N.A.M.E.); the Maurice Lev Congenital Heart and Conduction Center, the Heart
Institute for Children, Christ Hospital and Medical Center, Oak Lawn, Ill.
(S.B.); and the Cardiovascular Research Division, Minneapolis Heart
Institute Foundation, Minneapolis (B.J.M.).

Address reprint requests to Dr. Link at the New England Medical Center, Box
197, 750 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111.

More on the "interesting question"

This from Dr. Jacobus in Nebraska.

For clarification sake for the blog. The "Box of Death" is referred to in many Trauma textbooks as an area, as I described. But we use it in description of concerns for penetrating trauma. As was concisely described by others, the confluence of science within the martial arts will offer up more "mainstream" science hopefully to balance the knowledge of the body that comes with Oriental Medicine and the hundreds and hundreds of years of human anatomy knowledge from martial arts etc.

Historical interest

Over the years the system has changed in regard to how many techniques are taught per level. There are instructors still teaching the original 32, there are some still teaching the Parker curriculum as it was before he created the lists of 32. In the early 80's it was chopped to 24 per belt. People say he was "going to make it 16" but I never heard him say that. The techniques were re-sequenced in the 80's also. Some techniques were dropped and others added. This seems to be of some interest and I base that comment on how many videos I've sold of the original ten yellow belt techniques as well as seeing how many people don't know them when I go out to teach seminars.
I scanned and uploaded the original requirement booklets from yellow to green on my website. If you're a member you can see every page along with the commentary I've added. You can see the changes made in form sequencing, lists of the freestyle techniques, and the elaborate grading code he developed.
In addition I scanned in the IKKA member handbook. It's neat to see how he laid out the standardized uniforms and testing procedures for what was originally a very tight and strong group, along with other items.
I want to emphasize that Mr. Parker marked them as copyrighted in the 70's and they're not up on the web for people to go and use them in their schools, so I hope people will respect that. They are there for the historical interest. I have them and want to share the information.

Interesting question

One of my Chicago guys, Tony Velada, sent me a link written by a kung-fu stylist about the "centerline". As all you martial artists know, we are always talking about it - what it is and where, how to protect it, how it moves, and how to control it. The article was accurate and had good detail from the internal arts point of view. I forwarded it to many of my students and former students. One of the people I sent it to is Craig Jacobus and chiropractor now living in Nebraska and teaching emergency medicine. Craig was a paramedic when I met him way back in the 70's or early 80's and went off to med school. I'd like to share his comments on the centerline as related to Western medicine, with a slant toward emergency medicine.

The concept of Centerline, as it is described can be related to what we call in trauma the "box of death". It is the mediastinal area, as you know. The middle of the chest that contains the vital organs- heart, lungs, aorta, sup/inf vena cava and of course the vagus nerve. Cranial nerve 10/ vagus nerve, "operates" the workings of a good part of the 'automatic'/ autonomic nervous system. Striking a target that is innervated by the vagus nerve (many) can cause anything from a very slow almost imperceptible heart rate to unconsciousness to multiple organic failures.
From the medical perspective, most all of the article makes sense. Coupling that with my meager early training in acupuncture, admittedly just enough so I was not ignorant but not enough to practice it, the points correlate. But the healing arts of thousands of years are still being understood and hard to correlate with our current system of only a 150 years or so.
Take care guys,
Craig Jacobus

The original link for the article is below.
http://www.kung-fu.se/centerline.htm

Thanks to you guys for the questions and participation.

Ed Parker's passing

This past Saturday was the 17th anniversary of Ed Parker's passing. I posted a small salute to him and those who have kept the flame burning on my site. I include even those who just started taking kenpo lessons because they are a part of the history of the system.
The photo I put on the site is the same as the one above. I could have used one of the portrait shots I have but I wanted one that showed him as one of the gang. He's relaxed and enjoying being with the guys. You see Frank Trejo throwing a back elbow at John Conway Jr, too, so you see it's not a formal photo.
I've been working on scanning many of my photos for inclusion on my websites photo gallery and another book I'm working on. But these pictures always remind me of how much I miss him, and of the responsibility people like me have as seniors in the system.
I had the strangest thought on Saturday morning, which was the actual anniversary day. It was that if I live only as long as he did I have five years left. When it's your time to go, it's time. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be around a long time to aggravate you guys. My dad is 80 and going strong.But, realistically, I do ride a motorcycle and fly airplanes, which are "risky" and, God help me, I drive in the Ft. Myers traffic. Some blue-haired old lady who's been mixing her medication and martinis could take me out. In the meantime I'm not going to not about dying. Got too much stuff to do.