"THE KICK"

If you are one of our video students you could possibly be missing one of the finer moments of the Art. The "Ceremonial KICK for Promotion". Mr. Parker would always preface the promotional KICK with the phrase, "We know you can 'dish it out' .... now we'll find out if you can take it."

I haven't the faintest idea where the KICK started, it was there from the first promotion, I witnessed, even before I myself was promoted to One Tip, which was the predecessor of the Orange Belt.

Every time you went up another belt level you got kicked in the gut by Mr. Parker as part of the promotional ceremony. Later it became your instructor as well as Mr. Parker. In time it became every Black belt who was present at the ceremony regardless of whether they knew you or not. Mr. LeRoux is fond of telling of his promotion to Brown Belt, when over a dozen Black belts were present, over half of them unknown to him and weighing collectively over half a ton.

As to the KICK itself, it isn't meant to injure anyone or even hurt them. If you don't know my distinction between hurt and injury I'll reiterate it briefly. Basically, a hurt goes away in a short time, you rub it or shake-it-off and it's gone, An injury requires professional medical attention, x-rays, a cast, stitches or other medicinal procedure and it's with you for a while. The KICK isn't supposed to create either effect. It's "Ceremonial". It starts out very, very light in the Yellow and Orange Belt range. It gets a little stronger for Purple and Blue Belt. By Green the thought is that the student is progressing and has been hit enough times to know how to deal with a stout shot. It's solid but that's all. At Brown Belt you had better know how to breath and Kiai. Fair warning and a practice shot for timing is always given. There are no surprises, at least there aren't supposed to be, although I must admit, I have seen some pretty astonished looks but the warning was always given.

The kick is the only thing I can think of that we can't give you on video but if ever we are in your part of the world and you would like it, in keeping with tradition, we'll be happy to give it to you. Don't laugh, you would be surprised how many people wish to test in person because they know the KICK will be included and they feel the promotion without the KICK, is incomplete.

There are many stories I could tell about the Ceremonial KICK but space prohibits. However, I will pass this one along. Sometime in the mid-sixties one of my Black belts came to me and told me he had heard some of the students talking about the KICK and that they thought it was barbaric and should be eliminated from the ceremony. He said he agreed. He didn't see the value of it at all. What did it produce? What was it's real purpose? How did it benefit the student?

I try always to accommodate the wishes of the majority, so without further hesitation I put it to a secret-ballot vote, of the advanced class, most of which still had several KICKS coming for future promotions. I wanted to spare them what they saw as an unpleasant prospect, if that's how they truly felt. As for myself, I would have hated to see it go away and I had no intention of forgoing it myself, upon any further promotions by Mr. Parker but I still wanted to do right by my own students.

We distributed small squares of paper and passed pens around until all had voted. A Yes, to continue and No, to abolish. The vote came in at seventeen to one... YES. I didn't tell anyone specifically why I had the vote, I just thanked them and went on with business as usual. Later, I asked the man who had brought it up, what he thought. "I was wrong", he said. I told him if he didn't want the KICK he didn't have to have it. He said, "No, I was wrong, period, I'm sorry I brought it up, forget it". ..... The KICK stayed.

Somewhere between the time I began this article and when this issue was finished, a couple more KICKS went down. While we were in New York we did the Ceremonial KICK for two of our video students, who were promoted long distance. They wanted the only part they missed. We explained that it wasn't an absolute necessity but they both insisted, so naturally, we were happy to accommodate.

Catching a photo of the KICK isn't the easiest thing to do and thanks to Doug Wheeler 2nd Dan, Kenpo we got some good ones. Below, Vic is delivering the KICK to Reggie Hamilton, who joined us in N.Y. from Thomasville, North, Carolina. It was taken just a beat before it landed but you can tell, Reggie is ready.

The shot on the right is Jeff Blay, owner and "Fearless Leader" of J.K. Kenpo in Schenectady, New York. This photo was caught just a beat after the KICK actually landed. It's a little hard to see, but Jeff is airborne and on his way toward the "catcher" behind him. Oh, did I mention the kick for Black Belt is just a little bit stronger than for the lower belts?

My only regret is that my ankle can't look the way I'd like it to. The right ankle simply doesn't bend that way any more, ever since I sprained the hell out of it on Crazy George, back in the early sixties. Fortunately it still flexes enough to get good penetration, it just doesn't look as pretty as it once did. If you want to see perfect ankle configuration, check out the photo at the beginning of this article. Notice the flawless form and structure of Mr. Parker's ankle and foot, when he delivered his kick for my Seventh Degree in September of 1981. That was a GREAT KICK. It stayed with me for a long time. Too bad the hair didn't.