Of course we know that is completely true, it’s blatantly obvious, and not only do I agree with you but any American Kenpoist who understands their art would also agree with you.  Nobody ever claimed that the person was going to stand there while they were hitting them, as they do in practice; because that isn’t the way the system is designed to work. When we execute a technique, we’re not trying to show how we’re going to hit someone and what would happen, we ‘re learning position, targets, proper weapons, application of rules and principles and showing specific motions to display what the technique is designed to teach us.

As Senior Grand Master Ed Parker used to say, learning Kenpo is like learning a language. He used to call it “The A-B-Cs of motion”. When you learn a language, you begin by learning individual letters and individual words. Then, when you have learned some words, you begin to learn word groupings (which words can go together and be grammatically correct), which you build up into sentences (collections of word groupings) and finally a conversation (a collection of sentences, responding to the words and sentences used by the other parties in the conversation).

How people teach martial arts varies, but American Kenpo is taught in much the same way. Your letters are your stances, blocks, strikes, foot maneuvers and kicks, such as a jab, inward block, front kick, hand sword, stance change etc linked together for a pre determined attack. When you enter a school, you will begin by being taught these moves in isolation, much as when you being to learn a language, then you are taught small words and the meaning of those words. Just as learning single words help to build up your pronunciation skills, so learning a piece of motion in isolation helps to improve your confidence, balance, targeting, breathing and other fundamentals.

Once you have learned some basic moves, you move onto small combinations, analogous to our word groups. These are small groups of moves that fit well together, from there we then move onto practicing a whole sentence. When learning language this is typically something simple such as “Can I have a loaf of bread please?”. The sentence is grammatically correct, shows correct word groupings (for example you’re not asking for a loaf of cheese), but it’s not something you’d necessarily walk into a store and actually say. However, practicing sentences like these helps to cement the language into your mind, helps you with timing and pronunciation, helps you with grammar and generally aids your intermediate learning.

The American Kenpo technique is comparable to these words and sentences. That is to say, it is practiced as it is, against a ‘dummy’, to help you learn combinations of moves, timing, distancing, human anatomy and physiology, body mechanics, the limits of your own strength etc., as well as to cement the moves into your mind. What is remembering the sentence structure of a language so that it can be called instantly to mind and used is the same as what is called ‘muscle memory’ in martial arts; that is practicing a move so many times that it’s execution becomes natural and almost without thought.

To summarize, just as our language student would rarely walk up to a counter and say “I would like to buy a loaf of bread please!”, neither would our Kenpo student approach a self defense situation by attempting to execute an entire technique on a person who would just stand there. No, rather, our language student would use the skills that they had learned to have a conversation with the shop keeper; maybe they have to ask the price, maybe the shopkeeper suggests an alternative, maybe a greeting is exchanged—the nature of the conversation is unpredictable, just as a self defense situation is unpredictable.

A trained Kenpoist realizes this and approaches the self defense situation in the same way as the conversation, not by trying to use something pre-prescribed but by responding to the other person, using appropriate responses to motion just as the language student uses appropriate responses to language. Just because the language student began his studies by practicing phrases, he is no less able to have a conversation in a language than our Kenpoist is able to fight, though he practiced his techniques against a compliant dummy.

The important point is that the training is simply a means to an end, it is the abilities of the student once they leave the dojo that counts, and what happens outside is dependent on what happens on the mat. As we like to say, ”fights are not won on the street, the are won in the dojo”.

The second point to this argument is statements along the lines of “Well, Kenpo wouldn’t work against ground fighter because I’d do this, this and this and once I had him in my mount position I’d apply this particular choke and then you’d be dead the end.”…or something along those lines.

Let me first say that I have complete respect for the MMA fighting sports, it’s promoters, and the participating athlete’s, I would like to make it clear that of course I am in favor of the sportive practice and technical refinement of all athletes, whatever their specialty may be, as well as good nutrition, avoidance of addictions and unhealthy habits. however these arguments seem to be due to the popularity of these MMA sports fighting events. As the MMA has evolved so have the fighters. In the early MMA’s people fought with distinctly different styles, but over time it has emerged that grappling, wrestling and jiu-jitsu style arts are often more successful in the octagon then karate, kung fu, TKD and similar hand and foot based arts (although it has to be said that striking seems to be making a comeback in more recent MMA events) .

However, this in turn, has lead some to the believe that the “ground arts” must be the best fighting systems in the World. Because, the MMA sport is the best test of any martial arts effectiveness, and if The ground arts rule the octagon, then the ground arts must rule the World, right? Well no, not really.

Whether you believe this or not is a matter of personal opinion, and all styles have benefits and should be respected, but like anything it’s about using the right tool for the job. Yes, submission fighting works well in MMA events. Yes, in MMA events a lot of stand up fighters have been defeated by ground fighters and yes, there are many ground fighters like the Gracies who are phenomenal martial artists.

However, American Kenpo was not designed to be a ring art. These MMA events, no matter how ‘no holds barred’ have an audience, they have timed rounds, rules, referees, they have career fighters (who know in advance the abilities of their opponent and their weaknesses), they have prize money, and ring girls…at the end of the day it is a sport like any other, and MMA fighters are sportsmen. Its fighters are full time athletes in full time training. They have the time to spend hours on end every day rolling on a mat in the ultimate pursuit of there goals.

I’d like to also point out that if you attempt to go to the ground deliberately in a street fight you’re likely to find someone will come and kick you in the face, ribs or stomp on your head and body. Making the choice to take a street fight to the ground on purpose and assuming the only person that you have to worry about is the one under you or on top of you could be a very painful or deadly choice for you and those you wish to protect.

The point is this is not what American Kenpo training is about.
In American Kenpo we are training for REAL life situations to defeat the skilled as well as the generally unskilled brawlers or drunks who decide to assault us in the bar or street, mug us in a car parking lot, road rage or wherever. The people we are training to fight are going to be fighting on instinct alone as well as trained technique but there are NO RULES, NO BACK UP, and YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY KNOW.

My goal as an instructor is to teach my students about anatomy and physiology, balance, physics, speed, timing, combat logic, power, environmental and situational awareness as well as common sense so that they can keep themselves and their families safe on the streets.

On a final note, I have been doing American Kenpo for many years now. I have trained with a lot of peers, I have trained a lot of my own students and I have met a lot of other instructors and students from other school’s and clubs, including those who work as; security gaurds, bouncers, body guards, police, secret service and military members. I have heard a lot of well trained Kenpo people report on encounters that they have had, and in every case they have managed to fight well and not sustain any life threatening injuries (and this has sometimes been when they have been outnumbered).

So, as I always like to say “Kenpo works”.  I’ve been in situations when self-defense is called for. I’ve been in situations having to save the physical safety of myself, a family member or a friend. I, for one, have no reason to doubt the system. 
If the system is not working for you……I suggest you dig deeper and figure out why.

If you stop trying to figure out what’s missing and start learning how to understand it’s process and begin to analyze it properly you will find that Kenpo does work!

One of the first steps in the process starts by learning a set of basics, labeled as such; stances, maneuvers, blocks, parries, punches, strikes and kicks and understanding the natural body mechanics and path used to execute them. Each basic is first learned phonetically and then through the understanding of application they become fluid, so as to create continuous motion. When learning the basics we see each single move has a specific path or mechanical motion. Single basics can be employed on a path, multiple basics can be employ on a single path in succession, multiple basics on multiple paths in succession or multiple basics on multiple paths at the same time also referred to as “ with “. The basics are taught in order of their importance and then how difficult they are to perform correctly.

Stances are placed first because our ability to effectively defend ourselves greatly relies on our ability to establish a strong base that will give strength and brace to our blocks, parries, and strikes. We begin by learning our main stance, the Neutral bow, from there we see all other stances are (frozen) transitions. Stances effect all three zones; height, width, and depth and when employed can help us create the power that we need to move block or strike. When we learn our stances we see that; weight distribution, body alignment, body positioning and posture are all very important factors in establishing a strong, settled but yet movable base.

Next we will look at foot maneuvers. When we understand that the purpose of a maneuver is to move our Neutral bow from one position to another using economy of motion as well as maintaining our base and brace on an attacking opponent, their great importance becomes apparent . Maneuvers can be employed for defense as well as offense, moving the body out of harms way as well as to create power to counter. Foot maneuvers are designed to move us different distance, the stance distance is unique to each individual student, there are quarter, half, and full stance maneuvers and can be combined to achieve greater distances while staying on line as well as moving us of line utilizing the eight angles of attack or, “the 90‘s and 45‘s“.

Next we look at blocks and parries, blocks and parries are what we use to defend ourselves from weapons moving into our outer rim at different zones or points of entry. The definition of a block is to redirect a weapon in motion “without” intent to harm. The parry is a subcategory of blocking because it is also used for defense, the definition of a parry is to ride a weapon in motion. The block and the parry are examples of opposites, a block is executed as it moves away from the body and redirects the weapon. A parry is executed on the return to the body and is usually done with a foot maneuver, moving the body and allowing the weapon to stay on it’s path. It is also important to realize that each of these do much more than just defend against the employed weapon they also cancel or hesitate other possible weapons by controlling; the height, width, and depth zones of our opponent.

Once we have established our base with our stances, learn to move out of harms way with our foot maneuvers, and defend and control with our blocks and parries, it is now time to learn our offensive motion. This leads us to the Strike category and includes the use of arms and legs. First let us look at the use of the arms, we have; finger techniques, open hand weapon formations, closed hand weapon formations, wrist, forearm and elbow strikes. Next we have the leg strikes or kicks. Kicks employ the use of the ball, blade, heel, instep, shin, calf and knee. Both the arms and the legs are employed on all eight angles of attack.

In closing it is important to practice you basics isolated in the air so that you can perfect the proper mechanics and path of each basic. When running your techniques, set’s, and forms your mechanics and execution of the basics should not change, so focus on proper execution always, but NEVER use a strike in a reality situation that you have not trained or conditioned!

Ed Parker

“The Jiu-Jitsu that I created was designed to give the weak ones a chance to face the heavy and strong. It was so successful that they decided to create a sportive version of it. I would like to make it clear that of course I am in favor of the sportive practice and technical refinement of all athletes, whatever their specialty may be, as well as good nutrition, sexual control, avoidance of addictions and unhealthy habits. The problem lies in the creation of a sport-oriented Jiu-Jitsu, based on rules and time limits, which benefits the heavier, stronger, and more athletic individuals. The primary objective of Jiu-Jitsu is to empower the weak who, for not having the physical attributes, are often intimidated. My Jiu-Jitsu is an art of self-defense in which rules and time limits are unacceptable. These are the reasons for which I can’t support events that reflect an anti Jiu-Jitsu.”

Helio Gracie

“Intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments, and is yet willing to learn more.”

Ed Parker

“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

Bruce Lee

Technique – method, system, practice, modus operandi, procedure, skill
Kenpo technique – Kenpo techniques are groups of basic moves arranged in a pre-determined defense against a pre-determined attack to illustrate; targets, proper weapons and application of principles and position recognition.

First, a set based system is some what deceptive, first of all the sets we do in kenpo are to practice or drill proper mechanics of specific motion, upper or lower body, in the air and not on a body. It is to isolate upper or lower body motion to become more proficient at those specific skills.

If you now add a second person it no longer is a set of basics it becomes a series of strikes and counters between two partners. Under definition these are really a continues series of techniques, not a set of basics. This is why the two man set, create by James Lee not Ed Parker, is in reality a technique set or counter flow drill.

Anytime that you are given a method or a procedure to counter an attack it becomes a technique, So when given ideas on how to move you are being shown a technique.

Sometimes I hear kenpoist say that they laugh when people think they can easily pull off techniques in reality situations. First, nothing that works is easy, it takes a lot of hard work to achieve any skill. Second, if you focus on the technique as a whole against a certain situation then you might be correct, but when you realize a technique consist of smaller techniques that each show an effective counter for a specific position, then you must realize that the technique is the key to effectively learning; body position, targets, and the most effective strike or strikes.

The very fact that there are many variables in a reality situation is why the techniques will always work and is the reason for the 3 phase concept, in the ebb and flow of physical engagement you will find your self in many positions. If you have trained correctly you will begin to become aware of body positions, possible attacks, as well as targets and proper weapons.
It could be you our your opponent that moves, what is important is that you have spontaneous knowledge of the body positions you find yourself in utilizing the eight angles of attack and footwork (floor patterns). Kenpo techniques put you in every possible position, and give you knowledge of what to do from that position.

All techniques have three parts; entry, base and follow up. In application we can mix and match these three parts as the position requires. To see all positions I must look at all views of a technique; attacker, defender, and bystander and the dummy roll must be done correctly. Without the techniques to help you see and understand these positions it would take a greater amount of time to grow in spontaneous ability, you as a student with no knowledge of body position would have to figure out on your own what worked best depending on the situation, slowing the growth process.

The reason I believe that many advanced students enjoy the sets are because they drill in and hone your physical skills, as all drills do. We all use drills to focus on a specific skill or motion that we are trying to improve in our students or ourselves. Having the position training already due to training the techniques and then using the drills or sets to refine the motion used in each position moves us past memory into a spontaneous muscle response know as muscle memory.

This is the way SGM Parker put the system together because it is the process that we must all go through to learn, this is the method used in all of our schools at all levels, because it is the most successful academic process. 1) Teach the technique or method 2) Drill sets to hone a specific skill
3) Observe the developed ability to use proper technique or method for the specific situation (Test).

In closing, the evolution that must occur is not in the design of the system, but in the students understanding of the system. Kenpo gives examples of; every way you can naturally move your body, every way you can strike with a weapon, every position you can be in, all within the laws of physics. So if we stop looking for what is missing and start focusing on what there is to learn, we will see that the only thing that was really missing was us.

First of all let us look at the definition of system, system a way of proceeding: a method or set of procedures for achieving a goal. Once you understand the word system you realize Parker Kenpo is more than just the sum of the; basics, techniques, forms, and the rules, principles, concepts, and theories that govern them. The manner in which Master Parker arranged the techniques and forms where with a purpose and there are only two reasons to change the order in which Master Parker arranged them in, neither of which benefit the growth of the student.

The design of the system as it was organized is to help students build a strong base and then effectively add knowledge and the mental and physical ability to apply the information. Placing techniques in related groups may show that an instructor understands relations or perhaps just remembered what their instructor taught them, but in doing so they have neutralized the effectiveness of the process of growth that the system is designed to produce.

No one who has studied Parker Kenpo would change the order of the Forms because we know that they build on each other in a process that helps us build proficiency both mentally and physically. As we learn each form the techniques taught in that belt group give us the application of the rules, principals, concepts, opposite and reverse motion taught in that group of forms. An analogy that might help would be building a house. When building a house one must first start with a strong foundation, once the foundation is finished you frame the walls, once the walls are complete then it’s time for the roof. All three share similarities but serve very different purposes, if we try to build them in any other order it would not be sound.

In the Kenpo system after completing the beginner level material you have gained the knowledge of all the motion that you will ever use. The basic’s such as; stances, blocks, parries, punches, strikes, finger techniques, kicks, and foot maneuvers. You begin to understand range, timing, targets, weapons, and basic hand and foot patterns the foundation of Kenpo if you will. As you move through the levels the system shows you different application of the motion you begin to incorporate your weak side, you begin to learn the different methods of execution such as; thrusting, hammering, snapping, hooking, raking, slicing, and whipping, you begin to learn how to change your timing and range, etc. As you learn the principles and rules in the forms and burn in the motion, the technique teaches you the application of those principles and rules.

In Kenpo each group of techniques show you something you learned in the past with a different application, something from the present information, and a taste of what is to come. So you can see that if the material was arranged in any other manner it will not have the same effect. However don’t take my word for it just look at the web of knowledge that Master Parker used to describe his system, with the strict instructions not to change the order or add to it, and if someone changes the system in any way they do not understand it as Ed Parker wanted them to.

So why would someone change the order, well there are many reasons; to self promote, lack of understanding, fear, power, the reason doesn’t really matter but the problem is always the same it hurts the students growth and the growth of Kenpo. The 32 technique list can be found anywhere on the internet or in a school that teaches pure kenpo. The techniques should be taught together in the groupings that Master Parker put them in. As Instructors of Kenpo it is important to teach Kenpo the way Master Parker intended us to, pure with the understanding of what was created, not an attempt to restructure something that doesn’t need it.

Remember it should be our goal to advance our students past where we have come not hold them back, this is how we will have students that Master Parker would be proud of and the art of Kenpo will stay pure and strong through the future generations of those who will study and then teach Ed Parkers American Kenpo.

Kenpo is a progressive system not in the way that we must change it, 20 years after Master Parkers death he is still eons ahead of his time. No, Kenpo is progressive or as I like to say a process because it changes all those who study it.

Black Belt or Black Belt Excellence

Black Belt: Requires completing the minimum requirements to achieve the Black Belt in the quickest and easiest way possible without necessarily expanding your potential. Requires the minimum required attention and energy level.

Result: a beautiful Black Belt to wear around your waist.

Black Belt Excellence: Requires completing  the requirements to your highest level possible and taking every moment, as if it is the last moment, you have to train. It means committing yourself to create an unprecedented future and limitless possibilities as a Black Belt — not only in Martial Arts, but in life.

Result: A beautiful experience that will allow you to live a life worth living.

The choice is yours……………………………………

You start training to become a Black Belt the day you step on the floor as a white belt. Your training all the way to your Black Belt exam is a mirror of your life. everything in your life is only a important as you make it. There are opportunities everywhere in your life that allow you to make decisions, to take them, or ignore them. There are moments to take advantage of and there are moments to waste, moments to obey all negative thoughts, or to fight them and do the right thing. The right thing is to give your all at any given moment. The right thing is to demonstrate an attitude of respect, honor and indomitable spirit during all practices of Black Belt training or your life.

Remember a Black Belt is a white belt that gave his/her all (100%) and did not give up.

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