“What are the 10 master key techniques? Why are they master key?”
Those are two very good questions Will.
The 10 master key self-defense techniques in American Kenpo Karate are:
Thundering Hammers
Five Swords
Lone Kimono
Shielding Hammer
Repeating Mace
Intellectual Departure
Locked Wing
Thrusting Salute
Parting Wings
Hooking Wings
In response to your second question, here are a couple of excerpts from my latest book, American Kenpo Mastery: A Guide for Students and Instructors:
“Master key techniques are self-defenses that can be used as base moves and applied in many different situations. Techniques that are similar in nature to the master key technique can then be thought of as altered formulations of the master key technique. By learning to recognize how various movements are interrelated, Kenpoists reduce their reaction time and improve their level of spontaneity when executing their self-defense techniques.”
And later on I note:
“Although the above ten techniques are all considered master key self-defenses, they should not be thought of as necessarily better than the others. Instead, they provide a model to see how many techniques are related to a single technique. The ultimate goal is to be able to use any self-defense technique as a base move and to recognize how other self-defense techniques similarly relate to it.”
