The one time I attempted to show Sherman Harrill one of my studies.

I never spent enough time with Sherman Harrill to really show him many of the things I trained in.

One time in Western Massachusetts, during a lunch break, I did show Sherman the first row of my Yang Tai Chi form. He was interested because he really wanted to explore the uses of those movements. Alas, that was not to be.

Another time, during his clinic on Wansu kata in 1997, during a break of his presentations I did show him a part of an Indonesian drill I had learned. Specifically it was a series of counters against a left lead head punch, and right reverse head strike followed by a left uppercut delivered in a rapid 1-2-3 combination.

I was not trained in the method but Tristan Sutrisno allowed be to observe him training hin senior students in the entire drill. The sequence was not very long for both sides, just 7 moves or so, so I acquired it. Observing that set I began to see where his fighting ability came from, and I was very interested.

Then when I returned home from that trip I decided to try it out on my students the next Saturday morning class. I showed to them and everyone began to do it hard and fast. It was painful. Then when we went harder and faster it hurt ever more.

So the attackers started pulling the strikes to avoid the pain, and it immediately got sloppier and sloppier. Not what I wanted to we put it aside into my notes.

About a year later I bought a VHS tape on Indonesian technique. Waching it I saw the same first three movements executed as an attack against three defenses working off of the same movement. I paid attention to that, but again something for my notes, not for practice.

Then at a summer camp Ernie Rothrock showed a simple way to stop a roundhouse strike to the head. He just steppd in and raised his hands before his face as he turned into the strike. I was chosen to be his attacker. It was very painful. Then ‘playfully’ he began to say “Karate Boy, is that all the harder you can strike?” So I attacked with a harder, quicker roundhouse strike to hie head. Again he did the same thing, and it hurt more. I tried again and again, and all I accomplished was to turn my arm into hamburger.

But when he explained what was happening, how the mere motion of raising his hands became my arm striking the forearm and the biceps tendon into those unmoving hands each time the faster I went, the harder it struck.

I started to understand what power was inherent in passive movement, which was behind those experiences. As a result I began to see new uses for kata kamae, as well as thinking of a new method to instruct that drill.

So we began with softer attacks and just used light slaps for the defense, to get used to where the contact was coming from. Allowing the attackers to get used to being struck in those places.

At the same time I began exploring different ways to use just those 3 defensive movements for the triple attack.

The original defense:

1. Against a left incoming punch, the left hand rotates right and strikes across the body with an open knife hand, the knife hand striking into the biceps of the attacker stopping the attack.

2. Then against the right incoming punch the left hand rotates left and strikes back across the body with an another open left knife hand, striking into the biceps of the attacker stopping that attack.

3. Finally against the left uppercut, the right knife hand strikes down into the rising uppercut into the biceps causing more great pain. (Alternatively both hands could also strike down into the rising uppercut, the left knife hand into the biceps the right knife hand into the forearm.)

A second approach uses the leopard paw.

1. Against a left incoming punch, the left leopard paw, strikes across the body, a strike with the finger fore knuckles. Strikes into the incoming biceps causing pain.

2. Against a right incoming punch, the left leopard paw, then strikes with the forefingers of the leopard paw into that punch biceps, again causing pain.

3. Finally against the rising uppercut that follows, both hands strike down with leopard paw strikes. The left paw striking into the biceps, the right paw striking into the forearm.

The ridge of knuckles striking into the unprotected biceps or forearm as a ridge of knuckles, causing pain as a result.

Then the third approach using a punch for the strike.

1. Against the left incoming punch, the left punch strikes across the body into the biceps of the attacker. But the punch strikes with just the middle knuckle of the fist. This causes even more intense pain as the strike is done with only a single point of the fist for greater penetration.

2 Against the right incoming punch the left punch then strikes into the biceps of the attacker. Again the strike is done with the middle knuckle of the fist, becoming a single striking point for the pain.

3. Finally against the rising uppercut that follows, punch down with both fists, each striking the rising biceps or the rising forearm with a single middle knuckle of that punch.

What happens, where you always striking into the exposed vulnerable area of an incoming strike, working against that strike from the space that strike contains. The first counter series uses the plane of the knife/ridge hand to cause pain. The second counter series uses the ridge of the fore knuckles the leopard paw creates in cause even more intense pain. The third counter series uses the single point of the fist, the middle knuckle, to cause again more intense pain, The single point of the knuckle focuses your defense into an even smaller strike into that most vulnerable place which has presented itself.

Principle involved: While the attack is focusing its force on the end of their fist, they present opening as that punch comes in, and you are moving into the opening their attack creats to attack them to what they have provided.

So I had worked all of this out myself, and of course showed my students. It was of course up to them to use what they learned. The complete Juru 1, which they learned they did get down, and this is discussing just the first 3 moves.

So as it turns out I took time at that clinic to show this to Sherman, going through all 3 defenses, explaining them. Sherman watched and then he offered a 4^th option, just using the forearm for the counter strikes. (and I could see the logic, especially when attacked as you are very close to the attacker.)

I thought I might show him something new. Of course I had no idea, and never would, what Sherman may have worked himself. He had shown so many different things over the years. But he did instantly show there was also a 4^th option.

Of course I did not explain every step of the motion involved.I was focusing on where the ending defensive strikes involved. This is Tristan Sutrisno performing the complete motion for the first example defensive movement involved.