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Salle Green LLC a center for Asian martial arts
Snake Fist Karate |
SNAKE FIST KARATE
A different way to use your hands and feet designed and taught for adults – our
program is limited to adults and older teenagers.
A SIMPLE SYSTEM
Snake Fist Karate has 4 belts (or levels) in its basic system:
Yellow
– an introductory level that gives you basic fighting skills
Blue
– a middle level that broadens your skill set
Green
– an advanced level with a full range of skills
Black
– a seasoned martial artist able to teach the next generation
This is a simplified system that teaches useful skills from your first lesson.
We emphasize a minimum number of skills to learn, but each one should be
learned well so that you can use it if needed.
Unlike some systems that require 300 to 400 skills, our system
through the first rank of Black Belt requires mastery of 59 total techniques:
Yellow Belt – 21 skills
Blue Belt – 17 additional skills
Green Belt – 13 additional skills
Black Belt – 8 additional skills
The punching, blocking, and kicking techniques we teach have been selected as
being easy to learn and practical – techniques that you could apply if you had
to, not just techniques that look good in the school.
MODERN TRAINING
Our training sessions are designed to challenge both your body and your mind.
We include footwork, weight training and other types of conditioning,
instruction in techniques, structured drills, and controlled sparring to
introduce you to using these techniques.
We emphasize smooth, relaxed, and effective movement using your whole body.
We stress managing your energy and focusing that energy to deliver
powerful strikes.
WEAPONS
Because our system is designed for practical self-defense, we also include
useful weapons at each belt level.
These include the pocket stick, bo (staff), and throwing weapons.
OUR FOCUS
We focus on you, the student, not on rituals, national flags, religious beliefs,
or cultural values from other countries.
Compared to many martial arts schools you will find that we are impressed
by your performance and learning, not by ours.
We treat you like an adult because you are one.
And we focus on the actual meaning of the martial arts – self-mastery in
crisis conditions.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE ME TO GET A BLACK BELT?
We also focus on learning, not on accumulating belt levels.
Belts are a symbol of knowledge and skill, not the actual knowledge and
skill. We want you to be a life long
martial arts learner, and the rank comes naturally when you can actually apply
the skills.
WHAT IS THIS SNAKE FIST THING?
Modern karate descends in part from Chinese martial arts.
These arts have long combined the imagined characteristics of various animals,
including the tiger, crane, leopard, and dragon into the design of fighting
systems. One of the animals
commonly modelled was the snake. The
term fist is related to the ancient Chinese boxing heritage of the broader art
of karate.
Like most martial arts taught today, Snake Fist Karate is a recently designed
system, developed by Brett Ernst. Its roots lie in the
American Kenpo tradition of Ed Parker.
But we maintain the characteristics of the snake systems in smooth
movement, rapid transfer of energy, and the use of evasion and the opponent’s
energy to defeat attack.
Snake Fist is a fighting art that you can do as a life-long activity regardless
of your age or physical condition.
Our instructors emphasize good body mechanics, efficient movement, and energy
use in a system that builds your physical abilities in all forms of activity,
and at the same time gives you fighting skills for when you need them.
SO WHY IS A FENCING SCHOOL TEACHING MARTIAL ARTS?
We think it is a natural partnership.
Medieval European combat systems, from which modern fencing descends,
included swords, a wide variety of polearms, daggers, and a range of unarmed
grappling and wrestling techniques. Into the 1600s Fencing Masters were
expected to be expert in a range of 5 or more weapons, and to understand how to
transition from the blade to wrestling. As late as the early 1900s the
variety of arms taught by Fencing Masters included the
bayonet and the cane, as well as the foil,
dueling sword, and sabre.
Salle Green started teaching the cane in 2006 based on this shared heritage.
The cane is also used in Savate and in a variety of Asian martial arts.
From there it was a natural progression to develop our ability to teach Asian
sword systems, and then other Asian weapons.
Unlike most martial arts programs, we have always felt that weapons
logically came first in a fighter’s education – who would discard a weapon in
hand to fight with fists and kicks? The
last step in the evolution has been to add an empty handed system to complement
our Asian weapons study.
OUR INSTRUCTORS
Our instructors are certified Black Belts in Snake Fist Karate.
They continue to develop their own skills to meet the higher ranks of the
system, so they understand the challenges you face.
And they have worked since 2009 to develop interesting and
challenging lessons using modern concepts of sports instruction.
You will always be taught directly by a Black Belt.
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| Walter Green 3rd Dan Black Belt |
Michelle Black 2nd Dan Black Belt |