The Web Master: Spinning Concepts with Sensei Paul Lopresti

            With the increasing popularity of mixed martial arts and Brazillian ju jitsu (BJJ), thanks to the popularity of UFC and other televised tournament fighting, the average karate practitioner can no longer assume their attacker to be ignorant to fighting techniques. The average sports fanatic with some athletic ability will have the functional knowledge to apply an arm bar, choke or double leg throw without ever setting foot in a dojo by simply getting a little surly with their friends and typing in: “how to do a arm bar” into YouTube and applying techniques; something our karate forefathers never had the opportunity to do or deal with. I make this point in order to address the common idea that the majority of the karate practitioners rarely practice going to the ground—not  just a common theme in the popular fighting arts today, but a common theme in fighting, period! Now, more than ever, knowledge of ground technique is rather essential to the self-defence repertoire since being dragged to the ground is a common situation to find oneself. At Sensei Paul Lopresti’s Aiki Kenpo Jujitsu (AKJJ) seminar in Georgetown, Ontario—hosted by Sensei Helen and Sensei Brian Sakamoto—we addressed different situations and ways of transitioning to submissions on the ground. Sensei Paul is not only a fantastic grappler with a 5^th Dan in AKJJ, an MMA Coach, and a Shidoin in Koryu Uchinadi, he also has a keen understanding of Shoto Kan kata, as it was the style he originally started at seven-years-old.  Throughout the seminar, Sensei Paul spun connections between the body mechanics of techniques we would do while standing, like within a kata, and applied these same movements to the ground, opening the group’s eyes to what I have come to call the “Web”: an interconnection of solo movements to their applications and the free flow of seamlessly connecting one application to the next.  Using the idea of the web in connection with biomechanics, I will explore how striking and ne-waza come together within this seminar with particular attention to the bottom position.  

            Coming from a Shoto Kan background myself, I find one of the most hated stances is kokutsu dachi (back stance). On many occasions I remember having to sit in my kokutsu dachi for extended periods of time; legs burning, knee’s shaking—and not in the cute Sensei-just-told-me-I’m-awesome kind of way. Not only is it extremely uncomfortable, but it is extremely impractical in its usual application. However, Sensei Paul revealed the back stance’s true colours. A simple grappling exercise starting from the knee on belly position; in this position while facing the opponent, your closest knee cuts across the opponent’s hips, with minimal weight on your foot. The other foot is in line with the opponents head, but not directly beside it. Through the following visual one can see the physical similarity between the formally known kokutsu dachi and the knee on belly position.

Photo from http://shotokankarate-magpie.blogspot.ca
/2009/11/stances-launching-pads-or-landing-gears.html

Photo from http://thejiujitsulab.wordpress.com
/2011/06/26/knee-on-belly-%E2%80%93-part-i-chokes/

All the weight is positioned on the back leg, the heels are lined up in the “L” position, while the other leg is out for support. In Shoto Kan, kokutsu is usually practiced for the sake of making the leg stronger or when one gets pushed back, but just like the spider spits its web, it reaches much further than we imagine when the same mechanical position is applied to grappling.  If the opponent were to struggle against this position one would notice the stance of the top person would obviously change to maintain the knee on the opponent’s belly. The position then changes, shifting between front stance and back stance to adapt to the opponents movements. Hence, both classical Shoto Kan stances, usually annoying and impractical whilst learning kata, have a far more extensive application, than creating power for oi-tsuki and stepping back to evade an individual’s attack.

            Another standing technique found in karate and other striking arts is the hiza geri (knee). If someone is properly executing a hiza geri with all their body weight moving into the technique with the hips driving forward, one can very much see the similar body mechanics of the hips with shiko-walk (See example by Sensei Avi Nardia here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koI2gb8asZY). The shiko-walk is a common solo grappling technique used in the application of a double leg take down or passing the guard. An example of an application for the solo-knee is the knee cutter pass to gesa-gatami, in which you press your knee onto the inside of the opponent’s thigh to get passed the guard (please refer here at 2:42 for example of knee cutter pass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6OXHhvKaSA). 

With that said, Sensei Paul spun further applications of hiza-geri through his presentation of a ground drill of his own creation, completely committed to the bottom position called Ura Ne-Waza. Based on my understanding, the creation of the drill was a type of critique against common grappling practice’s, mainly because most BJJ clubs teach grappling initially from a superior position of being on the top and very rarely address ways of being successful while on ones’ back. Ura ne-waza was inspired by one of Sensei Paul’s female students, who constantly found herself on her back against bigger opponents; the type of opponent a woman is most likely to find herself against. With ura ne- waza, one can protect themselves against larger opponents using various holds and restraining techniques, as well as ways of entering submissions from their back, which includes kimura, guillotine and ude gatami  to name a few.  

Here we see Ray Scott applying the knee in guard
position with Sensei Josh Stewart

One position in the drill called "knee in guard", which uses the exact same body mechanics of a standing knee strike or shiko-walk. In this position, you stick to the opponent’s upper body by under hooking the right arm with your left arm, grabbing the opponents left wrist with your right hand and pressing your right knee into the crevice of the elbow and bracing the bottom of the right foot on the left side of the opponent’s hip. In doing the "knee in guard" position, you prevent the opponent from attempting a series of punches towards the head, while simultaneously acts as a potential transition into a multitude of submissions, such as omo-plata or the kimura. Through these controlling positions found in Sensei Paul’s ura ne-waza­ I learned, as the opponent struggles against the position, much like the prey within the web, you have a better sense of where they will turn next and can, with functional spontaneity, capitalize on their position.

 Not only are the body mechanics of a knee seen in ground work, but through our hip rotation, as well. The hip rotation used to generate power in all striking techniques and strongly emphasised in Koryu Uchinadi Kenpo Jutsu (See example of a kata here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0lKLQVBX2E) can also be used to create space to escape holds and to transition into other submissions. For example, in order to transition to the guard when someone is in the mount, explosive hip movement is paramount to accomplishing a hip escape, and that movement is very much the same as expanding into any striking technique standing. The feet are planted on the floor, as the arms push the opponent’s knee out while the force of one side of the hip drives forward and other side retracts back, just like a gyaku-tsuki.

 Furthermore, the strength of hip and core rotation is a necessity for all transitional movements.  Transitioning is the ability to gracefully interweave a series of movement that make up the web of fighting, meaning it is the point at which you move into your arm bar or your kimura from the guard that determines ones success, because with movement comes the potential for space, and with space comes the potential for the opponents escape or defence. Space in grappling, like in Star Trek, is “the final frontier” because knowing how to create it and limit it is fundamental, as I learned while going through Sensei Paul’s arm bar and kimura series. In the arm bar and kimura sets, Sensei Paul taught several different ways of getting into these techniques, in doing so, we learned to recognize very specific situations that could be used to transition from the guard to our desired submission. When we are given several different options from a single position, this is only where the web starts. As we move from the guard to our submission, we integrated a hip swivel like a spider winding down its web, demanding us to rotate our hips just like in our usual standing practice. 

Cassandra Langdon applies kimura on Tina Langdon

Sensei Anthony Woodward applies arm 
bar after moving from guard position

Throughout the seminar, Sensei Paul not only demonstrated his understanding of the body mechanics of ground techniques, but also demonstrated his ability as a teacher and coach. Sensei Paul taught individuals of varying backgrounds, such as BJJ, wrestling and karate, and explained techniques in a way that could be understood by individuals of any martial arts background. He is both patient and highly intellectual in his approach to teaching a group or an individual. I feel one learned the most from Sensei Paul in one of two ways, the first is through rolling. At the end of the seminar we were given the opportunity to experiment with the variety of different techniques we had learned throughout the seminar via two minute grappling sessions with our colleagues. Something under-represented in most karate practice is realistic “practice.” While rolling we were told to go at different intensity levels, for example 60 per cent, so everyone could practice in a safe and fun manner. The other and most simplistic way in order to gain the knowledge of a teacher is to ask questions. In Sensei Paul’s seminar, he says he always gives everyone the opportunity to ask questions about their experiences, and what worked for them or didn’t work for them in the past and in the rolling session. In this way, Sensei Paul can tweak the techniques taught to fit the individual style, strength and size of the student. 

Although, most karate practitioners do not pursue ground techniques, their standing technical knowledge maintain the same body mechanics of ground techniques. The connective thread between standing and ground techniques are demonstrated through kokutsu dachi and knee on belly position, knee strike in comparison to both shiko-walk and “knee in guard”, in addition to the hip rotation while doing a hip escape from the mount or transitioning to an arm bar from the guard. The body, of course, can only move is so many ways, it should be expected how we generate power standing and evading others can be applied the same on the ground. Despite the fact common sense dictates principles of body mechanics and physics are applicable no matter the position one is in, standing, ground or otherwise, many karate practitioners continue to turn a blind eye to the importance of ground work and grappling. The concepts found in our standing repertoire cannot be completely understood unless both teachers and students experiment and play with the preconceived notions of what is karate: a form of self-defence. To claim the art as self-defence and not address all the Habitual Acts of Physical Violence allows ignorant individuals to be caught in their own web. Hence, all martial artists must explore the concepts found in their systems with a critical gaze in order to completely comprehend the web we weave.


For more information on AKJJ, Sensei Paul Lopresti, please visit: 
https://www.facebook.com/aiki.kenpo.jujutsu?fref=ts
http://www.koryu-uchinadi.com/aiki-kenpo-jujutsu/
https://www.youtube.com/user/loprestip
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