The Leopard is the third animal in the Kenpo system; it marks the final stage of the student or beginner level. The Leopard combines the aggression and discipline of the Tiger with the defense and spontaneity of the Crane.
The extremes of fiery day and purple night resolve into the smooth reflection of the moon in a simple temple garden pond. The pond is as quiet as a pool of mercury and perfectly mirrors its surroundings. Padded feet softly stalk the temple garden and burning blue eyes reflect the shadows of the night. Cat and bird become a single creature, fang and claw join talon and wing to become that composite stylist, the Leopard. Ferocity and rationality are married by blinding speed.
The intense gaze of a Leopard reflected into our own as he drinks from a smooth pool of blue water.
The Leopard fights form a close-cat stance with hands in half-fist forms. He is concave in the torso with the hands circling out and back over one another, with the palms facing down.
The physical characteristics of the Leopard embody elements of extreme acceleration, physical power, and balance. Without extreme speed and acceleration, the Leopard stylist would be unable to synthesize the aggressive power of the Tiger with the rationality of the Crane. The Leopard requires time to evaluate, but at the same time, literally, must be able to intentionally move and develop a situation.
Both aggressive speed and appropriate response are required of the Leopard; these are the separate attributes of the Tiger and Crane, respectively. The way in which the Leopard combines these apparently antithetical elements of unconscious aggression and thoughtful analysis is varied. First, the leopard makes use of body-braking. Body-braking is a technique in which the Leopard uses his own or his opponent's body (or limbs) as a springboard for his next movement. Rather than locking a block out, the blocking hand (arm, etc.) rebounds into the next motion. Time is saved by not having to first extend a strike or block, lock the muscles to stop it and focus, and then relax the locked muscles in order to recover the striking of blocking limb. Ideally, the motion is continuous and without any one lockout focus, continuously rebounding from opponent and himself in a flurry of continuously pressuring strikes. While no one single strike may be intended to stop the opponent, the cumulative effect of such a jack-hammer pressure accomplishes this. In order to maintain such a style of attack, an extremely strong physical constitution is necessary. And, without an intuitive sense of balance, no such attacking flurries could be long maintained.
The Leopard obtains his power from the speed of his strike more than from its total committed weight. Remember that impact, power, or momentum is the product of mass and speed. Since the Leopard tends not to massively commit whole body weight to his strikes, he must make up for this potential loss in power by increasing the speed of the strike. The Leopard's favorite phrase is: "Speed kills."
In general, the movements of the Leopard are short and choppy, with only a few low kicks. The Leopard stylist works on getting a "snap" feeling to all motions regardless of whether or not body-braking is being used. Shoulder rolls, torso twists, and wrist snaps all contribute to that last significant bit of acceleration which distinguishes the strikes of the Leopard from those of the Crane and Tiger.
In combat the Leopard also works the angles, front left and right forty-five degree angles being preferred; evading, rather than confronting the attack while maintaining constant pressure gain both time and security for the Leopard. Also, the Leopard makes extreme use of "Sticking-Hands" (Chi Sao) techniques of trapping. Tactile awareness is another aspect of the Leopard's tremendous speed. Rather than relying solely on visual perceptual clues, the Leopard begins to "listen" with his other senses. Touch awareness, tactile sensitivity, is the first of these to be developed after visual. As the Leopard is almost necessarily an in-fighter, physical contact is unavoidable. And, the Leopard learns to read the status of his opponent by retaining this contact, sticking and running with the opponent. Not only may shifts in balance be read through this touch awareness, but changes in intent as well. No amount of verbalization convey the lessons to be learned in close sparring and simple sticking hands exercises. Attacking or defending limbs are briefly immobilized or trapped by the Leopard and actually augment the power base of his response. Onslaughts are redirected utilizing defensive sticking hand skills which have this potential offensive result. The Leopard stalks his opponent on the basis of these perceptual clues, and when the listening indicates an opening, this stalk is at an end.
Overall, the Leopard combines the rigidly predetermined conceptualization of the Tiger (who sees everything as "black" or "white") with the rationality of the Crane. Where the Crane might hesitate, and be lost, through over thinking, the Leopard cannot; his rationality allows only for a spontaneous response to an unexpected development with a rigidly pre-determined technique. Both the pure robot-mechanics of the Tiger and the Pure rationalism of the Crane are dangerous by themselves; each may lead to one sort of destruction or futility, respectively. But the Leopard combines discipline with a creative intelligence. Such a combination allows him to respond with the speed acquired from disciplined practice, but his intelligence allows him to pick the appropriate technique and then improvise as necessary. Improvise with speed because the Leopard does not make utterly new techniques, but only recombines those he already knows. The Leopard is the smartest of the cats, but is still a cat, which means aggression and agile power.
The intangible components of the Leopard's style are several, some of which have already shown their tangible sides in the preceding paragraph. Listening, Mind-Like-Water, and the Specious-Present comprise these interrelated intangible elements. Listening means to sense with more than any one or two senses (eyes and ears being the most common); listening means to hear with more even that all the five senses. Listening is the mental counterpart of the whole body commitment ideal of the physical level. The listening sense is the product of the mind and all the senses, visceral, somatic, and external. Only when the listening mind is like a perfectly smooth pool of clear water can it accurately reflect the world as it is. Any bit of anxiety or anticipation causes ripples in our pool, and the reflection is distorted. Mind-Like-Water means that the ideal listener has so mastered his fear that there are no perceptual distortions; he is calm under fire. Such a calm in the midst of strife provides no room for anxious anticipation and an incorrect reading of a developing situation. For example, many on the sidelines see others sparring, and say to themselves: "Why that person is not fast at all; I could easily defeat him." Then they find themselves sparring with that same person and find that his speed and skill have dramatically increased over that which they observed from the sidelines. The point is that this is the same person with the same speed and skill, the only difference is that rather than calmly observing, he who was the spectator is now engaged and his anxiety causes his previously perceived slow opponent to now appear to be more effective than he really is. There are ripples in the water.
While the Leopard gains speed by the methods of body-braking, snap-striking, angles, pressuring, and accurately listening, there is yet another factor accounting for his speed. This can be called the Leopard's sense of a "Specious-Present". This is a difficult and a somewhat mysterious concept to develop. This is a time sense which incorporates the intensity of the Tiger with the presentness of the Crane. The present may be thought of as that dimensionless instant of time which separates past and future. The Leopard, as an ideal, seeks to add dimension to this instantaneous present , to stretch his time sense such that the conventions of past, present, and future come to be seen as naive abstractions. All there is is the NOW;there is no reality to the rest. An entire life is more than the accumulation of an infinite series of NOWS, it is a single NOW. Accurate listening allows the Leopard to actually respond to strike before his opponent initiates it. The more that the NOW can be stretched to encompass, the more mystical and effective the Leopard stylist. Even on a less eerie level, the better the Leopard can predict and subsequently frustrate possible future events, attacks...whatever, the more it will appear that he has moved impossibly fast.
