“I could hurt him real bad,” Maria was thinking while she was looking at the boy. “I could kick him right now, he is totally exposed” she thought. At the same time she couldn’t help but think back at one of her last Kenpo Karate classes. It was the day that Master Sascha Williams told her about different ranges. He said that range is about how far away you are from your opponent. He also talked about telegraphing. He said that when you do a punch or a kick from very far away (long range), your opponent can see it coming (because the move is now telegraphing, you can see it before it gets close) and he can block it or he can move out of the way. But when you are every close to your opponent (close range), then your opponent doesn’t have enough time to react.

Maria was standing right in front of the boy who was picking on her. “What are you looking at Fig-face?", the boy said while he was poking his finger in Maria’s chest. “What’s the matter, forgot how to talk? “Maria had seen this boy before and she knew that he always picked on people that were smaller than him. Again Maria had to think back to her Kenpo Karate class. “If your attacker is bigger than you, you need to be very good at moving in or out. Never stand at a distance where your attacker can reach you with his long arms, but you can’t reach him. Either be so far away from him that he can’t touch you, or be so close that you can reach him the same time that he reaches you.” Maria could hear Master Williams’ words echoing in her head. “If your opponent is very close to you and he is not protecting his vital targets, like his stomach or his face, then he won’t be able to block your move fast enough. But don’t forget if he is making this mistake, then he probably doesn’t know much about self defense.”

Maria was starting to feel more and more sure about herself. She started to realize that this boy would be easy to defend herself against. Especially when the boy made like he was going to punch her. Maria thought “He is pulling his arm way back when he gets ready to punch. He is really telegraphing! I don’t have much to worry about. “Again Maria thought back to one of her Kenpo classes when the instructor showed her all the ways that she could use to protect herself. “There are many things you can do", Master Williams said. “If your opponent throws a punch at you, you could block it. But you could also evade it.

That means you quickly move out of the way to make your attacker miss. Or, if you wanted to, you could use a parry. A parry is where you use your open hand and you guide your opponent’s punching arm away from you. It’s much softer than a block. Often your opponent will loose his balance when you do this. And you don’t need to be strong to do a parry.” The bully started to get impatient with Maria. “What’s the matter, are you chicken?” he said. “I don’t want to fight,” Maria said. “You’re chicken all right,” said the boy. Now he started to push Maria against her chest with both of his hands. “You’re chicken, you’re chicken,” the boy teased her. Maria knew she had to do something. But she didn’t want to make the situation worse.

Maria knew she could just kick the other boy right in the stomach. But she didn’t want everybody to think that she lost her temper. “You don’t have to kick or punch somebody to protect yourself,” she could hear Master Williams’ voice in her head. “You could just use one of the sweeps or takedowns you learned in your class.” Maria liked it when she learned the sweeps. She learned how she could just kick out her opponent’s legs from under him and make him fall down. She also liked the takedowns. Her favorite one was where you grabbed your opponent’s shoulders and put one leg behind his legs and then you twist your opponent’s shoulders so that he trips over your leg.

Maria remembered how she was able to make this move work on all of the other students in class. That day they all called her “Take down Maria.” It was the same day that she got a new stripe on her belt because she remembered all of her techniques.

At this moment the bully really came forward to try to push Maria down into the dirt. Maria has worked with all the other kids in her Kenpo class so often that she got really good at knowing when her attacker really charged forward. She could see how the attacker’s legs started to look more “springy.” Almost like somebody who starts to run a race. She could see how her attackers face changed. She knew that this time the boy was really going to hit her hard. As the boy’s arms almost hit Maria again, Maria quickly guided the boy’s arms out of the way, grabbed his shoulders, pulled in his elbows against his own body, and pulled the boy to the ground. She couldn’t help but think about the lesson she had when Master Williams showed her how to make her moves more powerful by using all of her body weight.

“If you try to pull your opponent down to the ground, you can use GRAVITATIONAL MARRIAGE. That means that you can drop your body weight down at the same time that you pull with your arms, and the two forces come together.” (that’s why it is called gravitational marriage, because you use gravity, and you put gravity and your own move together, like they are getting married).

The boy was now lying on the ground. He really didn’t know what happened. “What did you do that for?” the boy cried. Maria didn’t answer. She knew that sometimes it was best not to say anything. This was one of those times. “You pushed me in the dirt and mess up my clothes!” Maria knew that it wouldn’t be a good idea to taunt the boy now. If she did they would be enemies forever. She just said: “I am sorry, but I had no choice, I hope you’re all right.” The boy started to calm down and he walked away embarrassed, and Maria walked away too. “Wow, she thought, I’m sure going to thank Master Williams for all the Kenpo he taught me, even when I wasn’t paying attention so much in class, he is always nice to me. I think I am going to thank him by trying even harder and getting my black belt one day! He would be very proud of me.”

This story was written by Sascha Williams. Mr. Williams was a student of Mr. Ed Parker. Mr. Parker was the founder of American Kenpo Karate. Mr. Williams also wrote a book for children called “Kenpo Karate for Young Students.” It has many pictures of different Kenpo moves. Go to Teen Central and from there, go to Meet the Masters, you can then link to his web site.