Kenpo on Ice!

I mentioned on Mastodon a few days back that I was making a surprise for my teachers. I sent it to them, and they liked it quite a bit, so since I appear to have not brought shame to my masters or my school, I thought I’d share it here as well.

After a fall spent doing katas in increasingly cold parking lots, I decided to take one of the upper black-belt requirements — modifying ten existing techniques from lower belts and explaining why — and do a write-up on specific issues relating to performing martial arts in cold weather. I called it Kenpo on Ice!, because that is the kind of person I am, but to be clear, the modifications come both from performing techniques on a slippery or unreliable surface and from performing techniques for self-defense when both the attacker and I are wearing clothes suited for winter in Edmonton — thick gloves, a heavy puffy coat, and snow boots.

It is very much an Inside Baseball sort of document, because, well, I’m writing stuff for my teachers, but I tried to put in additional descriptions, along with a glossary at the end for folks who practice other styles to use for reference. If I bring up a particular strike, and you are having trouble visualizing what I mean, just check the back.

And if you’re reading this as a practitioner of another style, or as a rare fellow Kenpo student, and this is helpful for you, please feel free to ping me on Mastodon and let me know!

Mastodon Link: https://wandering.shop/@PaladinBard

I put the file here in readable mode (assuming I am doing this correctly) for ease of use, but to be clear, you’re welcome to download it and share it freely as long as you’re not charging anyone else money for my work. The links to open it in a separate tab and download it are below the embedded bit.

Happy reading!