chalambok

Krabi-Krabong, though centuries old, had an early and unique view of what is currently called the Tachy-Psyche Effect. The Tachy-Psyche Effect is a kind of mesmerization that occurs under extreme stress, such as in mortal combat, i.e. gun battles or knife fights. The fighter becomes fixated upon a visual point of stimulus and seems to have tunnel vision. This is actually our raptor vision (a remnant from our early evolutionary, predator stages) coming into play, where we focus much like a predator intent upon our victim to the exclusion of everything else. This causes a lack of outside perception. As martial artists this is usually when the action begins to play out slowly. This can be a good thing when you are attacking, but must be taught out for defensive purposes. The ONLY way to break this effect is to change one's horizontal plane of vision, by moving up and down. An added advantage of this action is that the vertical movement compounds the force and weight of your blow. In Krabi-Krabong, which emphasizes vertical movements with every step (a killer to the thighs), it is not unusual for a beginning student to be knocked to the ground by a more advanced practitioner. To do this effectively and with speed, you must keep your feet pointing forward, your shoulders straight and your body over your hips. Any break from this form will cause you to slow down, much like a TaeKwonDo practitioner trying to run full speed while kicking. Hard to do, although you will see some Krabi-Krabong 'instructors' turning almost completely sideways with their strikes. They have a hard time gaining speed either forward or backwards. I have a picture made in 1850 in Japan of a then-famous swordmaster demonstrating his style, and his feet are pointing straight forward, approximately 13" apart (a distance Ajarn Samai Masamarn emphasized almost every day), his knees bent slightly to add his weight to his strike, the shoulders straight and the body over the hips. Some truisms are constant in all the war arts. One of the most feared aspects of Krabi-Krabong is the speed of the multiple-strike, continuously relentless attack. To do Krabi-Krabong properly you should be able to run forward or backward at almost your full speed while swinging your weapons. Defensively, we don't try to block the strike so much as we try to upset the opponent's timing and momentum. To practice, just walk forward much like your graduation walk, remember? Step, slide, step, slide. At first do this slowly with a long, deep step to make your thighs burn, and to practice avoiding the Tache-Psyche Effect. If you can, draw two lines on the floor approximately 13 inches apart and keep your feet outside these at all times. With practice you will be able to do this quite quickly, and you will soon find that when you keep your body, hips, feet in proper position you can either close on or withdraw from almost any opponent very quickly; unless, of course, they have been practicing good form too. Chok di - Chalambok