The KI to Fighting Supremacy Part 1

Inside Kung-Fu
“The KI to Fighting Supremacy Part 1”
Interview by Michael Janich
June 2005
Pg 34-39, 95

Joseph Simonet has taken 30 years of conceptual study and turned it into one revolutionary martial arts system.

For years, Joseph Simonet has been one of the best-kept secrets in the American martial arts community. An exceptionally talented practitioner and instructor with high-level ranking in numerous Chinese, Indonesian, and Filipino martial arts, he is best known for his ability to cross-reference and synthesize the common elements of individual arts into universal concepts and physical principles that transcend style.

KI
This universal body of knowledge forms the foundation of his revolutionary KI Fighting Concepts curriculum and its wooden dummy-based, state-of-the-art training methodology, the Art and Science of Mook Jong. In this two-part interview, Simonet explains the method behind his uniquely visionary madness.

INSIDE KUNG-FU: When did you begin your training in martial arts?
JOSEPH SIMONET: I started training in 1972 in Japanese karate. At that time, I as already a competitive power lifter and was looking for other ways to challenge myself physically.
IKF: When did you get involved in kenpo?
JS: I switched to kenpo in 1973 and met Al Tracy in 1975. Although I have studied many different arts since then, I am still associated with Al Tracy and Tracy’s kenpo and am probably the highest-ranked practitioner of that system no teaching that art exclusively.
IKF: What ranks do you hold and in what arts?
JS: I am currently an eighth-degree black belt in Tracy’s kenpo; a fourth-degree in doce pares under Christopher Petrilli; a second degree in eskrido under Cacoy Cañete; a second degree in pentjak silat tongkat serak; and a black-sash level in wing chun gung-fu. I also have an instructor’s certification in Yan style taiji.
IKF: What do you mean “black-sash level” in wing chun?
JS: I’ve trained in both classical wing chun and its non-classical variants for over two decades and had the opportunity to study with some of the best wing chun instructors in the country. I learned the classical wooden dummy set from the great Wang Kiu and ultimately mastered all the skills of the system on my own terms.
IKF: But you never received a formal rank?
JS: I trained with people who had their black sash and could do everything that they could-usually better. That taught me that individual accomplishment is always more important than formal rank or certification. If anyone doubts my skills in wing chun, they are welcome to stop by anytime and “stick” with me.
IKF: What was the significance of each of the arts you studied and how did they give you the tools to develop as a martial artist?
JS: I consider kenpo to be the most complete encyclopedia of physical motion in the martial arts. If you want to catalog a movement, you can find it in kenpo. The Filipino arts taught me the importance of flow and the fact that spontaneous application is more important than rote technique. Through wing chun I developed an in-depth understanding of physical structure and the advantages of skeletal alignment over muscular strength. Silat taught me forward enerfy, taking an opponent’s space, and the secrets of body leverage and angles in throwing. And from taijiquan I learned the power of fluidity and relaxed movement.
IKF: Which arts were the most revolutionary to your development as a martial artist?
JS: At the time, every one of them was revolutionary to me, because I immersed myself completely in that art while I was studying it. I wanted to make sure that I understood the totality of the art in its pure form first. Then, I stepped back and looked at the art with a critical eye to draw the best elements and concepts from it.
IKF: Which arts were least beneficial?
JS: I have learned something from every art I’ve studied-even if it was what not to do. Once you discover that, you reverse-engineer your training to focus on the stuff that does work.
IKF: What is KI Fighting Concepts?
JS: The KI in KI Fighting Concepts stands for “karate innovations.” I founded it in 1979 as a hybrid system designed to fill in some of the blanks that I found in kenpo, but it’s grown far beyond that. The way I see it, every martial art presents a specific model. Although every model works fairly well at a basic level, the more I challenged them, the more their limitations became apparent and the models broke down. To fix them, you have to look outside the model and draw from something else.
Over time, what began as a hybrid system of kenpo has become and eclectic blend of pre-eminent martial arts systems, unified at the conceptual level. The development of KI Fighting Concepts has also paralleled my personal development in the arts, filling in the blanks in the totality of my own training, knowledge, understanding, and training methodology.
IKF: So KI Fighting Concepts follows the model of “absorbing what is useful?”
JS: Absorbing what is useful is a nice start, but more important that that is extracting what is essential. A “useful” skill set that doesn’t include the really critical skills that you need to fight well is a guaranteed way of getting your butt kicked. It’s like having a survival kit full of “useful” items that doesn’t include matches or some other way of making a fire. Without that essential element, you die.
IKF: There are a lot of styles and systems out there that claim to have extracted the best of all the arts. How is KI Fighting Concepts different?
JS: Most people who claim to have created eclectic systems have done nothing to integrate their arts at a fundamental level. If you duct tape a wrench and a screwdriver together, you haven’t invented anything. By the same token, duct taping a bunch of tae kwon do techniques onto jiu-jitsu ground skills doesn’t produce an integrated fighting art.
The “concept” in KI Fighting Concepts reflects the fact that it is a synthesis based on total integration of the component parts, not just a buffet line of different martial arts techniques. So many styles are actually defined by the minute difference that set them apart instead of the 99 percent of the content that makes them similar. That’s ridiculous.
By understanding the core concepts and mechanics that are common to all systems, you can achieve total integration at the foundation of the art and flow to any technique you choose. This approach also helps you appreciate various styles for what they contribute to the whole, rather than blowing them off because “their stance are wider than our stances.”
IKF: You’ve got some pretty impressive martial arts credentials, but what qualifies you to create your own martial art?
JS: After 30 years of training, six black belts, and years of seeking the truth from other people, I decided that I was qualified. Who told Yim Wing Chun, Mas Oyama, Morehei Uyeshiba or any other founder of a martial art that they were qualified? Nobody. Because of all the tradition and ritual that surrounds the martial arts we forget that men developed all arts. In most cases, they were developed to overcome the shortcomings of the systems they already had, which were also developed by men. Well, the same thing applies today.
It amazes me that when it comes to every other field of human endeavor-science, medicine, technology, education-we constantly strive for progress. But when it comes to martial arts, most people are convinced that someone else figured it all out and created the ultimate fighting art hundreds of years ago. I don’t think so.
If I have the knowledge, the skills, and the insight to create a superior system, I’m not going to hold back because it’s not traditional. The telegraph was a great invention, but I don’t see anyone trading in his cell phones for one.
IKF: So you no longer see much value in the traditional martial arts?
JS: All living things are evolving, dormant, or dying. When viewed in this way, most traditional arts are at best either dormant or dying. As cultural experience, as a form of fitness, or as an off-the-shelf basic self-defense, they’re fine. But as a state-of-the-art fighting system, no art that values tradition above function is worth betting your life on.
IKF: What about the instructors who claim to have adapted their traditional arts to the needs of modern self-defense?
JS: If they’re still restricted by the limitations of their tradition, they’re going to come up short. Training in traditional martial arts is like restoring an old car. You bust your butt for years to get everything to look exactly like the original. But when you’re done, you’ve still only got a 1973 Pinto. Granted, it’s a beautiful, historically accurate Pinto, but it’s still a Pinto.
IKF: Do you consider yourself in the same league as people like Mas Oyama, Ed Parker or the founders of other well known systems?
JS: That’s not for me to judge, but that’s certainly my goal. They were great men and great martial artists because they started with the martial tradition that they learned and continued to analyze, innovate, and build upon it. That tradition-a legacy of innovation and progress-is what I really value.
If you think about it, the biggest difference between me and the founders of other arts is that I’m still alive. As strange as it may sound, in the traditional arts, being dead is a great qualification. Your followers will spend years interpreting and re-interpreting everything you said or wrote like your grocery list somehow holds the key to martial enlightenment. I’m here to answer questions and provide guidance to my students now. I’m also continuing to grow and learn along with them.
IKF: What has been your most satisfying experience or accomplishment in the martial arts?
JS: Realizing that I was in control of my own destiny and didn’t need validation from anyone else.
IKF: What has been the most frustrating?
JS: Waiting so long to realize it.
(In part two, Simonet explains his fighting philosophy, the role of wooden dummy training in the quest for personal martial excellence, and his plans for the future.)

Sinawali

Filipino Martial Arts
“Sinawali: The Mechanics of Martial Motion”
By Michael Janich
July 2003
Pg. 54-61

Sinawali is a template for learning proper movement. It’s like the paint-by-numbers approach to artwork.

Sinawali, or double-stick training, is a practice familiar to many Filipino martial arts. In its most common form, two eskrimadors, each armed with two sticks, face each other and simultaneously perform an identical series of prescribed strikes, hitting their sticks together in various rote patterns and rhythms. Meaning, “to weave,” sinawali gets its name from the intricate, intertwining patterns of the sticks as they are wielded in these drills.

Although sinawali is practiced in many Filipino martial arts forms, most of this practice usually consists of simple mechanical repetition. At a basic level, this type of training is an extremely efficient way of developing form and programming motor skills. However, to the advanced practitioner, these amazing drills offer a much higher level of skill development and a true understanding of physical movement.
Joseph Simonet has spent years analyzing and refining sinawali drills to extract their deeper meanings. The founder of KI Fighting Concepts, a concept-based martial training institute in Wenatchee, Wash., Simonet has instructor-level ranking in kenpo karate, Indonesian pentjak silat, wing chun gung-fu, Yang style taijiquan, doce pares eskrima and eskrido. With more than 30 years of martial arts training to draw from, Simonet still considers sinawali drills a critical step in his eclectic KI Fighting Concepts curriculum.
“Like any form,” Simonet explains, “sinawali drills are designed to be a dictionary of motion – a means of learning and refining specific movements through structured repetition. As a learning process, they are excellent. But like any form, we need to remember that the material learned is what’s important, not the process.”

Mechanical, But Effective
Even at the basic level of mechanical repetition, sinawali training offers a number of significant benefits. First, because the student must move weapons in addition to his limbs, the paths of the movements are more visible and therefore more easily learned and corrected. The weight of the sticks also provides a form of resistance that helps the practitioner develop strength in the appropriate muscle groups while at the same time programming motor memory.
Since most people have a dominant side, training with matched weapons allows the weak side to “copy” the movements of the strong side, balancing the body and promoting the rapid development of weak-side skills and strength.
By working with longer weapons and striking stick to stick, beginning eskrimadors can train safely and develop their reflexes progressively by maintaining a long-range distance relationship with their partner. Once the basic patterns have been learned and the students are hitting consistently, they can increase both the speed and power of their hits, ultimately achieving full-power, full-speed hits in rapid succession with their partner. In the process, the also learn the importance of weapon grip and impact-shock management – critical but often-overlooked aspects of real-world weapon use.

Express Yourself
Although basic sinawali training offers a number of significant benefits to the novice, the real value of these drills lies in the root movements – and the practitioner’s ability to understand and creatively express these movements.
“The key to mastering any martial art form is the ability to appreciate and apply the physiological potential o fits movements,” Simonet explains. “This does not mean accepting and mimicking the one or two applications your instructor taught you. It means experimenting and looking deeper into the dynamics of the motion to extract its full potential.”
Simonet’s approach to sinawali training is a direct reflection of his Filipino martial arts lineage, which starts with his primary instructor, doce pares eighth-degree black belt Christopher Petrilli, and extends to Petrilli’s instructor, legendary doce pares grandmaster Cacoy Cañete. Both Petrilli and Cañete take a unique approach to sinawali, emphasizing the extreme close-range applications of this normally long-range style of training. The result is a higher evolution of the basic body mechanics of sinawaali that emphasizes unconventional strikes, particularly ones that take advantage of the punyo, or butt end of the stick.
For example, most Filipino martial arts practitioners of are familiar with Heaven Siz, a basic six-count sinawali pattern that consists of a right angle 1, left angle 1, right angle 2, left angle 2, right angle 2, and left angle 1. In its standard form, all strikes are executed with a full stroke, hitting with the long end of the stick.

Close-Range Tactics
A more advanced version of this drill emphasizes close-range tactics and the use of the punyo as well as the main body of the stick. In this drill, the first and fourth strikes are executed almost like a hook punch – following the same downward diagonal angle, but with the stick tip down and across the body and striking with the face of the punyo just beyond the knuckles of the hand. The third and sixth strikes are also designed for close-quarter use and are delivered with the bottom end of the punyo. This is represented in partner training by striking wrist to wrist.
With one subtle addition, an even more advanced eight-count pattern can be created. After the first and fourth strikes of the above pattern, a close-range abaniko (fanning) strike is added, rotating immediately out of the punyo punch and striking with the long end of the stick.
The above variations of Heaven Six add two unorthodox but highly effective strikes to the practitioner’s arsenal: a downward smashing strike with the long end of the stick held horizontally and the obvious punyo-style punch. In application, these unusual strikes are devastating, hitting with amazing force from unexpected angles. These strikes also promote the concept of striking rapidly with alternate ends of the stick. This is a trademark of Simonet’s unique brand of stickfighting.
“To appreciate the full physiological potential of a motion, you need to look at the entire movement not just the strike,” Simonet notes. “In the case of sinawali patterns, the positioning of the hand as it chambers and prepares for a strike is often a structurally powerful and very useful movement. Rather than wasting it, we take advantage of it and make it into another hit.”

Long and Short of It
To further refine the ability to hit alternately with both the punyo and long end of the stick, Simonet uses yet another unique drill. In this drill, the practitioners begin with the sticks in their right hands crossed diagonally in front of them, chambered near their left shoulders. On the first count, they strike with an angle 2 backhand with the long end of the stick. Rebounding from this strike, they punch forward and upward with the punyo of the stick for count two. Chambering near their left shoulders again, on count three they strike wrist to wrist, simulating and angle 2 punyo strike. Chambering across the body yet again, they strike with a full angle 2 stroke for count four. The follow through of this strike leaves them chambered near their right shoulders for an angle 1 strike with the long end of the stick (count 5). On count six, they rebound and punch upward and to the right with the punyo of the stick, chambering near their right shoulders again. Count seven is an angle 1 strike with the bottom of the punyo, simulated by striking wrist to wrist. Chambering once again at the right shoulder, both partners strike with a full angle 1 stroke (count eight) that follows through to chamber at the left shoulder, where they are ready to start the drill again.
This drill may be performed with a single stick, as described here, or by alternating hands with two sticks. With practice, the eskrimador learns to rapidly alternate between punyo punches, strikes with the long end of the stick, and strikes or hooking actions with the bottom of the punyo.
In a close-range encounter, a simple backhand angle 2 strike to the head with the stick can now be instantly followed with a punyo punch to the throat, a backhand punyo strike to the side of the neck, and another full-stroke angle 2 strike to the head in just fractions of a second. Any blocks that an opponent may be able to insert to foil this flow are immediately “removed” by hooking the blocking hand with the punyo and pulling it our of the way. When fighting with single sticks, the non-weapon, or “live” hand continues the same patterns of movement as when armed with the stick, but now its function is that of tapping and clearing the opponent’s limbs. When combined with hooks with the punyo, the result is an extremely sophisticated and brutally effective system of close-quarter trapping, all based directly on sinawali movement patterns.
These are only a few examples of the advanced sinawali patterns that form the core of Simonet’s KI Fighting Concepts stickfighting curriculum. His entire program of instruction includes more than 100 sinawali patterns and variations, each of which this author designed to ingrain a specific set of body mechanics and motor memory. In addition to the drills themselves, Simonet’s teaching and practice of sinawali also requires that students be able to instantly flow from one drill to another. The motions required for these transitions offer yet another spectrum of movements and promote spontaneity and quick reflexes that go far beyond the rote memorization and mechanical execution of basic sinawali.
“Like any prescribed form,” Simonet says, “sinawali is a template for learning proper movement. It’s like the paint-by-numbers approach to artwork. By following someone else’s color pattern and brush strokes, you learn the mechanics of painting. Once you’re comfortable with them, you paint your own picture. Just as two people given the same paints and brushes will paint two different pictures, two martial artists will find different meanings in the movements of sinawali. Like any other true art form, in the martial arts, personal expression is the ultimate goal.”