Referencing / Indexing

[Dana Sheets]

One of the interesting concepts I took away from camp was the idea of "referencing" or "indexing" This is something both Roy & Dave and Wes talked about in their excellent sessions.

Roy & Dave
With gun in hand you use the seam of your pants as a reference point for where to press your palm heel to put the gun in a safe but ready position as you approach a subject from behind to search them or take a weapon from them while they're standing in a compliant posture.

Wes
When doing a cross body parry with stepping of the line you touch the shoulder. This keeps you from pushing your block outside your body. When Wes did his templates there were a number of such reference touches using one's own body for parry, strike, and control techniques. BTW - Wes is really one of the better martial artists I've met at seminar. As one person wrote of him, his memory for martial arts knowlege, forms, and principles is a bit "spooky." And many thanks to Greg for being his meat puppet!

Back on topic...
This is akin to what I think Kanei Uechi was trying to do back in the day when he added the fingertings in the elbow crook before the circle block. He was trying to make a physical reference for a certain posture position.

In the shoken scooping block I was always told to circle past the knee. And I've suggested to more than one student who having trouble keeping their blocks away from their face to do circle blocks wearing a baseball cap. Not perfect - but gets them moving away.

So I'm curious if other folks have found places to put referencing in their training and I'll go over

[CANDANeh]

Interesting stuff...Cap sounds good if Blue Jay cap used

Elbow to hip with arm parallel to floor & fingers extended helps reference the "block" moving away from body as the "blocking" arm just brushes past the finger tips.

[Dana Sheets]

The other part of the training Wes showed was patterns. In Uechi we generally have few set patterns beyond what is in our pre-arranged kumite and our kata.

Other systems have developed multiple pattern sets that once learned can be varied and used as a spring board for non-pre-arranged work.

This is connect to that arm-rubbing flow drills thread that is still waiting for the winds of inspiration to blow my way.

However the flow drills and patterns from FMA can be combined with the Uechi kata, hojo-undo, and basic good impacting, seizing, and balance displacement maneuvers to create good Uechi patterns.

I actually like the idea of the 26 templates or "alphabet" set I read about on the PT site. Mayhap I will use that to come up with a little something.

A is for...



happy training,
-d

[AAAhmed46]

Can you explain this a little more? Can you explaining indexing in more layman terms?

[Dana Sheets]

I'll give it a shot but someone else might do it better.

When a police officer pulls someone over for a traffic ticket they have no idea what kind of person they just stopped. That person may be a threat. In order to keep an officer's weapon at the ready the ones in Washington, DC are supposed to put their hand on the butt of their gun as they approach the car. This way they are one move, instead of two moves away from drawing their weapons. Always putting your hand on the butt of your gun is a reference point for how you are supposed to approach a traffic stop if you are an LEO in DC.

When I did judo there is a throw that required you to turn your head with your body as you pulled someone in front of you. (Tai Otoshi) My teacher always told us to "read the watch on your wrist" as we did the throw. That visual reference point kept the head moving and turning with the shoulders and the hips.

So "indexing" or "referencing" is putting in a physical pneumonic, a little physical reminder into a routine of some kind.

So if you have the gun pointed at the ground and don't want to shoot your foot off, you press your palm heed against your hip. This points the barrel of the gun away from your foot and gives your body something solid to hold onto doing while your brain is busy thinking of other stuff. The palm heel agains your hip (or the seam of your pants) becomes the index or the reference.