History of Kenpo SPECIAL EDITION | ART OF ONE DOJO

back in 2018 we did three episodes based on the history of american kenpo they are the origin of the evolution of and then history on the temple crest now we've gotten a lot more viewers since then so what we're doing now is now at the end of the year things are kind of wrapping up and we're putting our efforts into next year's video topics we are re-releasing all three kenpo videos in one video here so for those of you who have not seen it yet here you go here's all three episodes easy access now for those of you who have already seen it we've added additional information and you can find those time code marks below in the description so thank you all so much for your support keep an eye out for 2021 we've got several more history of um topics in the works and we can't wait to get into our material and see what next year has to bring thank you so much and enjoy the presentation the origin of american kenpo this topic hits a little close to home for me because this is my art that i've trained in for 25 years now there are many different styles of kenpo out there each with their own unique characteristics established in the 1950s by senior grandmaster ed parker american kenpo is an amalgam of martial arts with roots going back to japan and china as well as elements that are custom tailored for american street fighting in this video we're going to take a look at where the seeds of inspiration began and how mr parker went about crafting the system that became a science of motion kenpo karate has a long history of various japanese okinawan and chinese roots this video is going to explore specifically the type of kenpo that was brought to the united states and developed into ed parker's american kenpo system ed parker does touch upon some of kenpo's historical development in his infinite insights book series which can be found in the description below this story begins with a man named james m matosi james potosi was born to japanese parents in kona hawaii in 1916. just shy of age four matosi was taken back to japan to receive a formal education and upbringing it was during this time growing up there that he studied and learned the family system of chuan pha or chinese kempo mitosi's ancestors had continually modified and grew the system to include a balance of religion and humanities along with the fighting art this family kenpo system is sometimes referred to as koshoreu or old pine tree style mitosis style featured strong kicks and linear techniques in 1936 potosi returned to hawaii and began teaching his family kempo which he sometimes referred to as kenpo jiu-jitsu ed parker had once stated that he believed matosi had modified the name so that the general public understood it was a fighting art as the name kempo was not familiar at the time however jiu jitsu was one of matosi's most prominent students was a man named william k s chao chao had various martial arts training growing up including the background in boxing jiu jitsu and karate he trained under his chinese born father and eventually under james matosi this is where ed parker believed the seeds of the modern system of american kenpo were planted james potosi taught linear techniques and takedowns while chow's father had taught him many circular movements having grown up on the streets of honolulu and in constant street fights chao saw value in merging the two ideals together and into a system designed for american street fighting he began to modify and grow this art into what he ultimately called kairoho kempo now before going any further let's talk about the name there is a lot of confusion regarding the difference between kenpo and kempo going back to the chinese root word of chonfa this translates into fist law when chuanfa is translated into japanese it becomes kenpo however in the rules of kanji when a character ends with n it is pronounced with the n sound except when followed by another character that starts with p in that instance the n will make an m sound this would mean that kenpo is technically spelled with an n but should be pronounced with an m through romanization it is sometimes spelled kempo but we are at the point where translation errors have created two ways to spell and pronounce the same word edmund k parker was born in honolulu hawaii in 1931. he started his martial arts training at the age of 12 when he began to study judo earning his black belt six years later he also later trained in boxing and was even an amateur boxing champion but it was at the age of 16 that his martial arts path took its first major turn at a church function parker met a man named frank chow who's telling everyone about a street fight he had just won against the local bully frank ciao had a small build and parker was doubtful of his claims until chow demonstrated the techniques he had used to defend himself parker was impressed and he became a student of chao having been involved in multiple altercations himself growing up he constantly asked chow questions and showed a great desire to truly understand the system one day frank ciao told parker that he had taught him everything that he could and that he should seek out his brother william who at this point was a top instructor in honolulu parker sought out william chow and knew immediately he was on the right path chao was quick and exhibited an extreme knowledge of human mechanics and motion this is where ed parker began to develop a deep analysis and critical thinking in the martial arts in 1949 ed parker moved to provo utah to attend brigham young university two years later the korean war broke out and parker found himself drafted into the coast guard almost as if fate had planned it he was stationed in hawaii where he would be able to continue his training with zhao full time when the war ended and parker was to return to university he had made plans with chao to open kenpo karate schools in the mainland usa upon his graduation the two agreed and parker returned to brigham young university while he was there he established the kenpo karate club and began teaching during this experience parker took every question comment and disagreement and began to rework the kenpo system implementing key concepts of motion that ciao had taught him this was the beginning of the living system that would become american kenpo karate two things number one great humor and probably the most the fastest individual i have ever encountered in front of you and you knew when he was in a room he was dynamic he was it was like a gun exploding realizing that modern american fighting needed further development he began to cultivate the seeds that william chow had planted parker added new concepts altered existing methods and removed anything he felt was obsolete he constantly modified his tempo and implemented the system of laws and principles that would become the backbone of the art as his teaching grew in popularity at byu the school asked parker to conduct a basketball halftime karate demo which proved very successful soon parker was teaching various students including local law enforcement and even part-time at the local gym in 1956 ed parker graduated from brigham young with a bachelor's in sociology and he accepted a job at a new gym in pasadena california however the deal fell through so parker made the choice to open up his first kenpo karate school instead and established the kempo karate association of america in 1957 ed parker authored the kenpo creed which would be recited at just about every kenpo school from there on out including today we even have our own kids recite this in every class things were going as planned for parker and anxious to fulfill the promise he had made with william chow he flew back to hawaii to bring him to california and continue with their plans to open more kenpo schools chow however no longer wished to leave hawaii and he gave ed parker his blessing and told him to go forth and build his new american kenpo one of ed parker's first moves was to restructure the kkaa and reform it into the international kenpo karate association with the hopes of a global spread of the art he reworked the emblem and developed what is today the most iconic image of the american kenpo karate system the ikka kempo karate crest this crest worn over the heart of each practitioner is infused with symbolism and tributes however we will take a closer look at this in the third part of this three episode kempo series ed parker drove a hard effort forward to spread the art and it wasn't long until kempo was becoming a name of its own he became known among hollywood talent and actors teaching at different clubs and holding several demonstrations it was at one of these demonstrations in 1960 that ed parker met a man by the name of elvis presley elvis had held an affinity for martial arts and from that point on the two of them developed a close friendship elvis became a prominent representative and brought even more awareness to kempo throughout his professional career ed parker instructed and worked with many of the hollywood elite in 1964 ed parker launched the first long beach international karate championships a high-end tournament that still exists today throughout the 70s and 80s ed parker toured and spread the art of kenpo across the united states and even branched out internationally he released several publications and became one of the most notable martial artists in the country described as a living force ed parker touched many lives and created the torch of an art that would be passed down from generation to generation on december 15 1990 grand master ed parker suffered a massive heart attack at the honolulu airport after returning home and he passed away he was 59 years old and the kenpo community had lost the father throughout his life teaching kenpo ed parker continued to modify and adapt his art he'd like to take movements apart and put them back together again in different configurations turning the american kenpo into an organic and living art and ed parker was always uh evolving he would do it spontaneously right there in in a class setting but he was always doing that and he wanted to really get across about tailoring the art to fit the individual he wanted these to be a template he didn't want it to be concrete quite honestly i think ed parker would always always be changing and always alter now he did say follow the general rules and principles i think um when mr parker said that the art should be tailored to the individual and not the other way around what he was talking about was that rules and principles can be used by an individual differently from other individuals for instance you know i'm 5'5 there's people that are three you know bigger i'm little there's things that they can do that i can't do and just because the technique says well it needs to be done this way that it's teaching you a concept and a rule borrowing from various chinese okinawan and japanese systems he observed the flow and the patterns of motions and created one of kenpo's most iconic emblems universal pattern the universal pattern is a sophisticated study as the circles and lines are all intertwined in a way to demonstrate the different paths and methods the human body can move it may seem simplistic at face value however it's easy to see just how volumetric this design is once you realize you're only looking at one plane in its full form the universal pattern of motion exists on nine planes and then you can begin to see just how dynamic it truly is the universal pattern was just no more than to teach geometry movement the body movement like your body was a marking pen or pencil and he would use the pattern he would have it on the uniform talk about the salutation all the way up where you want your hands like this and you come up like this you can see the heart well the upside down of that is form six right so he would use that so you understood the movement that you're to illustrate like a mime and he did tell us that it was infinite in other words he himself never reached its potential what makes american kenpo different from other styles of self-defense the signature difference is the scientific method and academics apply to the art american kenpo is often called the science of motion or the science of fighting it analyzes all the different ways the human body can move and react and it applies a series of principles or laws of how those movements work and how they can be utilized for example one of the primary principles of kenpo is economy of motion if i had to pick one principle i would say economy emotion you know trying to be as efficient as possible to deliver the effect that you want without wasting energy other key principles are point of origin or being able to execute strikes and movements from your current position without having to load or telegraph movements there are also power principles that dictate the different ways the body can generate power as well as the dimensional zone concept which studies ways to manipulate a person's height depth and range along with a zone of obscurity or passive attack outside of an opponent's peripheral vision kenpo is very heavy on the academics and it takes years to learn and understand it many people often criticize it for being bloated and extraneous however if you can dedicate the time to understanding the science behind the art then you can mold the art in many different effective ways in the words of mr parker understand the principles that are involved throughout you understand principles you now become a mechanic of motion you become a mechanical motion you can dissect to take it apart put it together on your own okay and after a while you're going to try to be an engineer emotion another heavily stressed aspect of american kenpo is the encouragement of students to ask questions in many traditional forms of martial arts it is considered disrespectful to question an instructor on their teaching as if asking the question why is an insult william chow and ed parker firmly believe that in order to understand the how it was important to know the why kempo students are encouraged to ask why a technique is done a certain way or to compare it with an alternative method a kenpo instructor should be able to answer these questions and give reasons given they understand the principles that are put into place i've done other arts and i feel like kenpo is a science-based art you know you're studying motion it's not just hey do this because i'm doing it and you're actually allowed to question your instructor and go well why would i do that instead of this like you know i like the rules and principles behind it kenpo also breaks away from other karate systems and drops the traditional japanese words and commands and replace them with new english terms ed parker utilized these new terms as memorization tools for self-defense techniques for example mace's fist kimono is shirt grab talon is a wrist grab wing is an elbow strike and much much more these terms were often used to describe the essence of a technique for example crossing talon means a crossed wrist grab lone kimono is someone grabbing your shirt with one hand or twin kimono is a technique based off a double hand grab the kenpo syllabus is robust containing much more curriculum than most other systems for each belt level students must learn a set of basics a list of self-defense techniques and a kata or form basics include strikes blocks stances parries and foot maneuvers katas are separated into two categories forms and sets sets are individual katas that focus on an isolated concept such as blocking or stances forms are much more dynamic in that they demonstrate many of kenpo's principles in motion highlighting and teaching key concepts and showing how movement and ideas can flow smoothly from one technique to another american kenpo's self-defense curriculum is one of the system's signature features and yet also one that receives the most criticism each belt level has a series of pre-choreographed scenarios in which a partner comes in with a single attack and the defender executes a sequence of defensive moves and follows it with a series of rapid strikes to vital target areas these strikes are designed to incapacitate the attacker so that the defender can escape many tournaments demonstrations and schools will hold a technique line drill in which students line up and take turns performing these techniques on each other the line drill serves a couple of different purposes first it teaches the student how to apply the technique on a human body and understanding how the body will react to certain strikes it also teaches spontaneous thinking when a person may not react exactly as expected or a particular move didn't work so that the student has to adjust their strategy on the fly additionally it's a major conditioning drill those who have trained at a serious kenpo school especially from a parker disciple know that it is not light contact by taking the hits as well as giving them the kenpo student becomes conditioned and is less shocked later when actually hit in the classes i studied in our concept was we wanted to get hit harder in class than we would on the street so that way it would take away the surprise element of getting hit now this is where the controversy begins the two most common criticisms are you can't choreograph a fight and no one is going to just stand there while you hit them 20 times the answer to that is absolutely 100 correct a fight will never go as choreographed and no one is just going to stand there and let you tap the ants all over them however the kenpo techniques are not actually meant to be performed exactly as they are written i think when people say kempo is choreographed they don't realize or they don't understand that the techniques are not designed to be followed as a recipe but they're designed as teaching tools to teach you the moves and basics and the rules and principles of tempo so yes i agree you're not going to be able to do a seven move you know technique on one person but you'll definitely be able to do pieces of those moves in a circumstance when you need it it's too choreographed so is going to school learning how to write everything is systematic got to learn the alphabet so ed parker did it in the martial arts got to learn the alphabet emotion you know what's funny too is in boxing they do a thing called shadow boxing to warm up yes nobody ever critiques that but a kenpo guy or a martial artist on social media does their form boy everybody comes out of the woodwork on how they're the best not realizing forms and kata is the same as shadowboxing in boxing you're just doing solo training without a partner just giving you the memory of sequence each technique sequence is designed to teach specific principles or ideas one technique will introduce an attack while another might demonstrate how a power principle can be used another may highlight the concept of point of origin while yet another shows new stance changes each self-defense technique teaches nuggets of information that are embedded in a sample sequence to show how they can be used in reality none of those sequences are meant to work exactly as they are written there are actually three phases of kenpo self-defense the ideal phase the what if phase in the formulation phase so the differences between the ideal is when everything goes according to the way the technique is written the attack is perfect your defense was perfect the timing is executed perfectly so it's ideal you get the response that you want it the what if is you know somewhere along that something change they maybe threw in or they move their hand to a different position now you have to alter or change the technique and then formulation or the freestyle is when you don't know what's coming and then you just have to react and shift from one technique to another the ideal is to teach them this is the threat this is what we do because in the educational world this is the word this is how you pronounce it now let's give you a couple more words add them to this you have a now it's a sentence once you get into the tune of i've never been in that position before and you start to build up a sense of bravery it's no longer foreign to you but if we give you this punch that punch this kick this attack it's no longer foreign to you so we teach you all these possible positions in the ideal then what if i go to do an elbow and they block me well what if we teach you that you find your own solution and we may fix and give that to you too hence extensions and a lot of the extensions are just more additional information to complete categories if you can do it with your right hand let's teach you with the left hand for the classroom setting this is our laboratory by the way out in the street it's on you there's where the last stage comes in grafting formulation spontaneous just go through it if i through this punch you've seen that before if i've done that grab you've seen it before if i put you in a reverse arm bar you've seen that before if i threw a combination you've seen it before for most people who don't study kenpo only usually ever see the ideal phase and judge a system on misplaced choreography without understanding that there is a lot more to it that is not seen at demos or tournaments traditionally karate black belts are called dans and are named by their translation of first dance second dan and so on in american kenpo the word degree is used and each degree actually has a title mr parker liked to view kenpo as an educational and academic system so black belt ranks started with junior instructor and worked their way up to senior master depending on which curriculum you followed by the time you reach third to fifth degree you've been through the entire written curriculum and have completed all the official testing from that point on a person moves up to blackboard ranks by teaching analyzing and implementing new concepts and by contributing back to the art of kenpo american kenpo karate can be an amazing system to study however it also has one of the most polarized communities when mr parker passed away unexpectedly he left a major gap in leadership he had not appointed a successor and in his absence many chiefs stepped up to lead the tribe however due to kempo's ever-changing nature and from constant modifications mr parker implemented each generation of its black belts had a different version of kempo than the next this led to some nasty politics of the system and brought on a lot of my version as better sentiments the politics in american kenpo unfortunately are just like the real world you know everyone has their own opinion and if you don't agree with them then you're not doing tempo politics will always be if it bothers you it will if it don't that's why they have a delete button on your on your uh keyboard so that reminds me of a joke about how many chem quiz does it take to change a light bulb 100. one to do it 99 to tell them that's not how mr parker taught him this is really unfortunate because the system can be incredibly flexible as long as you still adhere to the mechanics and principles in the foundation of the art there are many campbells that recognize this and embrace the difference and share different tactics with other practitioners and in that respect kempo has a fantastic sense of brotherhood and camaraderie but others lose sight of that and when that clash happens the politics get ugly and at times becomes toxic to the kenpo community american kenpo karate it's heavy in curriculum there is a lot to learn and it takes a while to become good at it but if you find a school that can teach you the science and principles behind it along with critical thinking and application then it can be a highly effective art i would only encourage anybody listening go to anyone you can that's considered part of that generation that is from the 60s 70s 80s and up till 90 that i was a part of get them now because they're getting up to the point we're losing them either by bad health or just because they're older or they're retiring so they may not be around but we do have a responsibility to groom the next generation correctly i'd rather have the ability to congratulate a new white belt or a new yellow belt versus someone doing a self-promotion you know we need it's like birth right congratulations on your new baby you know we need some more birth so speaking of the different parts of the chemical curriculum you know we've got your forms you've got your your chemical techniques you got your sparring you've got your basics that's pretty standard but there's also piece of the curriculum that's missing that you don't really see very often anymore and those are the freestyle techniques and while some schools still teach them most seem to have abandoned it and it's pretty it's a pretty significant chunk of curriculum big you know a lot of material in itself so with freestyle techniques you know basically what they were is they were sequence of combinations of our basics put into different combinations and they were used offensively you know in contrast to our self-defense techniques which are all defensive based the freestyle techniques were meant to be used in sparring so they're they're all advancing and they're all different combinations looking for different entries and what they were meant for was they were meant to be a bridge between the self-defense techniques and sparring because one of the criticisms we always hear is oh you never see these self-defense techniques work inspiring no that's not what they were meant for and the freestyle techniques were kind of a place to bridge ideas because the kenpo techniques teach us principles and how the basics work together well now you take those principles and you put them into an aggressive combat style and then you take that practice you try to see what you get to work in sparring so it definitely had its place in their curriculum personally speaking i only saw the first few combinations back in like 94 93 94. our school had them for a little bit so we maybe for the first year we trained a little bit in the first couple belt levels but then my instructor dropped them and honestly i didn't give them a whole lot of thought until many many years later and i realized oh yeah i wonder what happened to the freestyle techniques so that's something i'm doing a little bit more of a deep dive into but they were um an interesting part of the curriculum if you look at it as a certain perspective so the way these sequences work is they're all um they're combinations of letters and numbers and each letter and number corresponds to a very specific basic move and you know our techniques teach us specific principles you know like how to cancel an opponent's height how to check zones and stuff like that well so that's applied here so for the example sequence b1a that's the first freestyle technique we learned b stands for the base maneuver which is the starting maneuver that we apply in our system and you know generally speaking you're in your fighting position you take your lead hand you kind of check and you pull down the opponent's lead hand and what that does is simultaneously you're canceling their height width and depth and that's what the principle is teaching you and then from there so that's what b stands for that's the base maneuver the hand check and pull down so the techniques will build off of that the one means in place switch so we're not changing we're not stepping forward we're not moving we're an in-place switch stance and then the a the lower case a stands for our punch to the face so b1a means we're doing that bass maneuver the pull-down check we're doing an in-place switch and doing a reverse punch to the face that's the first one b1a in contrast b1b which is the next one lowercase b stands for a punch of the ribs instead of the face so where b1a is check rotate punch the face b1b is check rotate punch the ribs so it's kind of teaching the constant though you can go higher or low then we have the number again the number is the stance used so where one is an in-place switch two would be a push drag so and so on so each number that goes up it's a different foot maneuver you've got cross maneuvers or crossovers you've got slide-ups so um they all build upon each other so again for example so b2a would be b that bass maneuver grabbing the arm and checking them down so you cancel the height with depth two is going to be the push drag so we're not doing that in place switch we're doing the push rack and then the punch to the face and then naturally speaking b2b would be the same thing check push drag punch the ribs so basically it's a very simple concept so each letter and number corresponds to a basic now where it gets confusion is and i'm not going to lie it can get pretty complicated as you advance up in the bells because there's you've got a certain you know handful of sequences for each belt level once you get up to like the blues and the greens the sequences get long and i'm not going to lie it looks like somebody sneezed while typing and you know you look at like uh what does that mean because you got k's you've got other stuff in there but honestly what it is is once you learn the bass maneuver you're only adding a little module at a time module at a time so by the time you get to these later techniques the later sequences you these others should be second nature and it should be smooth and the truth of the matter is it's just like the self-defense techniques they're not written in stone it's not saying you have to do this base mover you have to push it you have to punch it's showing you the relationship with the basics how you can use them in a defensive manner and sparring so by the time you get to the higher sequences you should be able to a snap of the hat reaction and do any combination that feels natural applying the rules of the techniques and the principles but now you're using your basics in an aggressive manner for sparring so i'm taking it upon myself this is kind of my personal study right now is i'm going to dig deep i have all the material i'm going to try to learn them on my own and then see how i can apply inspiring and judge for myself was it justified in removing the freestyle techniques from from campbell curriculums or is it kind of a missing gem that people are missing out on so that's my personal experience i'm going to try to do an experiment take these and see how i can apply them to my own sparring uh i will say for for the record that b1a the check down punch i've used that many many times since borrowing very effectively and i've even done variations where you check down with lead hand and snap to a back fist so i do know at least at the root level the information is good so that's gonna be my fun project to expand on that and see what i can play with but for those of you who are not familiar or who might not be familiar with the kenpo system this was just a little bit part of the curriculum you don't see very often anymore but it also addresses again the criticism where people go oh you never see these techniques applied in sparring you don't because there's a reason they're not meant for sparring their rules their teaching tools the the the freestyle techniques again were a bridge to connect principles and basics to real-life combat and then try to find the middle ground where you can practice them and break them down into bite-sized pieces so that's freestyle techniques on to part two last week we took a look at the origin of american kenpo karate that included the summary of how senior grandmaster ed parker took chinese and japanese influences modified them heavily and developed his own system of self-defense so let's take a tour of some of the larger variations of the art and examine the evolution of american kenpo karate in the previous video we took a look at the origin of american kenpo and how ed parker learned a system of self-defense and then modified it to address american street fighting i encourage watching that episode first if you haven't already and there is a link in the description below in this episode we're going to build on that and take a look at this young system and how it evolved over the past 60 years now as i've said in previous videos american kenpo has a very fractured community there is a great divide between different organizations which often result in some nasty politics many of those politics and disagreements stem from the changes in the system we're going to be going over today now with that being said the intention of this video is not to take any sides discuss those politics or to point any fingers that who may or may not be doing temple correctly our goal today is to explore the system of american kenpo and the stages it developed over the life of ed parker and some of the directions it has branched off to today to summarize a man by the name of james matosi brought his family's customized style of karate from japan to hawaii where one of his top students william k s chao took it blended it with his family's chinese art background and created what he called karaho kempo hawaiian born edmond k parker trained hard under chow and with his blessing took this system and over his lifetime modified it into a systematic art emphasizing a scientific mindset and teaching it as a study of body mechanics mr parker was like a bigger than life person his energy when i don't know if you've ever been in the same room as him but when he walked into the room it was like just an energy that you can't describe you knew that there was something special about him that you didn't want to you know test or try i actually have felt him do some stuff on me and even up as he got into his you know later 50s and close to his passing he was still moving you know pretty good he still moves very fast very powerful very explosive it was impressive to see you know it was scary to be on the other end of it hoping that he was going to you know have good control because things were coming at you fast and hard american kenpo teaches its students an array of basics which include strikes and maneuvers as well as a whole curriculum of principles and laws of motion these principles are then put into a series of example self-defense sequences katas or forms are also taught to teach a student a deeper study of those principles and how the mechanics of the system can flow together these principles along with extensive sparring and freestyle tactics create an extremely robust self-defense system but he had been in quite a few you know street altercations that he can kind of see what worked what didn't work and uh you know so it was it was cool to know that it was a battle tested at art it wasn't just something that you know was given to you and said do this and this is why ed parker also believed in allowing his students to adapt the art for themselves and encouraged open thinking and contributions to the system as long as they adhere to the underlying principles he wanted to tell people is no matter how you look at things you're going to find your strong points i don't want to say it's complex but it is sophisticated to the point where it's not an ordinary practice because ed parker knew that some of the components of what we taught were going to be situations against a skilled fighter not just someone who's just throwing a punch kick or you know coming up on you and he also wanted you to find solutions this opened the door for kempo to become an organic community art as a fun side note for those of you who are familiar with adriano imberrato he and his brother joe were both top students under william chow at the time ed parker began to train with them adriano would later go on to become one of the founders of kajugenbo a martial art with a mixture of karate judo and jiu jitsu kenpo and boxing although it took a very different path than ed parker did it's interesting to think of how many arts today stem from the same roots ed parker began teaching at brigham young university and eventually opened up his first kenpo school in 1956 in pasadena california the kempo he taught at this time was derived from the system he had learned from chow chow had also taught him advanced motion and ed parker took this information and began to restructure the art he modified techniques made additions and deleted anything he felt was obsolete students were encouraged to ask questions and he would modify the art based on his own experiences and that of a student's to ed parker understanding why a technique was used was just as important as learning how to perform it based on the fact that we are allowed to question our instructor and uh you know growing up when i was doing traditional karate and taekwondo and i used to hear people say you know when my instructor used to say jump you say how high i said that's that's a lie i said well my instructor said jump i jumped if you wanted me to go higher he'd stayed higher you never questioned your instructor i said and you know one of the first things i learned in american kenpo was to ask questions you know you need to know the why why are you doing this why would we do that instead of this and that to me is superior because understanding it makes it so much easier for you to relate to it in 1960 he released a book called kempo karate law of the fist and the empty hand this book was a fantastic guide for those training in the art at the time it is loaded with instruction on traditions and etiquette conditioning drills both mental and physical the study of human anatomy basic strikes and his entire curriculum of self-defense techniques it is interesting to note that throughout this entire book he refers to the system as kenpo karate not yet calling it american kenpo as the system grew through the years it was referred to by many names such as original kenpo traditional campo chinese kenpo ed parker's kenpo and eventually american kenpo some of the distinct features of this version of kenpo that differ from today are the belt ranks and the organization of self-defense techniques in this curriculum there were only three belt colors white brown and black white belts received brown stripes during promotion brown belts received black stripes and black belts received red stripes which red often represents the color of mastery ed parker also created the kkaa or the kempo karate association of america as well as starting the long beach international karate championships in 1964. this event drew martial artists from all over the world and still exists today the emblem for the ikc can be seen in full color representing all the belt colors of kenpo karate at that time the self-defense portion was composed of 62 techniques grouped together based on the attacks such as tackles grabs punches weapon attacks and so on this would be the basis of what would become the web of knowledge or the way techniques would be categorized based upon the way a person was attacked each technique was broken up into modular steps and were simply referred to as 32a 32b 32c and so on as ed parker's system of self-defense grew he wanted to spread out and open more schools and introduce kempo karate to more of the american population in doing so however he understood that the system would need to be modified and he wanted to put together on paper a standard curriculum that would be taught at each kenpo school keeping dojo's unified and the quality of teaching consistent now here is where the first major split of american kenpo occurred and also the source of much of the bad blood and politics that still lingered today two of mr parker's senior students were al and jim tracy much of what occurred between them is subject for debate with accusations on both sides and stamina to some of the ugliest kenpo politics that still remain regardless of what happened the tracy brothers did not want to go the same path as ed parker and they parted ways al tracy led the family in their own kenpo schools based heavily on the art they learned from ed parker they kept many of the traditions and structure of the system as they grew and opened a very successful chain of schools that could still be found across the country today ed parker dropped the modular breakdown eventually creating fuller and longer defense sequences while the tracy's kept the shorter combinations if i was teaching like five swords like okay lesson this is called technique one block drop technique two technique three so you had a b c d all this alphabet breakdown which we went into base technique and then the extension so there wasn't more techniques they just broke down more and named him with a letter attachment the tracy system of kempo is one of the most widely known sister schools today with a successful competitive history and widespread reach across america it is also generally accepted that the tracy's took over the kkaa while ed parker created the international kenpo karate association during his effort to spread his art overseas the two styles continued to diverge as ed parker continued to modify and change his system while the tracy's embraced what they call original kenpo and claim a closer tradition to william chow in any case despite any he said she said sentiments it is unfortunate that the animosity remains today on october 31st 2017 great grandmaster al tracy passed away both families have lost a father and perhaps one day the anger can be put aside and new allegiance is formed i think we have to praise them for really getting out there in the beginning with the franchises ed parker defined his system differently what he was starting to blueprint the 50s the 60s it was a fighting system too so a lot of it was on fighting mr tracy passed away recently so we would only hope that his legacy is passed on through his people as we would with mr parker and those people as ed parker sought to spread his art across the country he knew he needed a regimented fully documented system that could be given to each school to use as their curriculum with the help of his senior students and his son ed parker put together a series of american kenpo manuals that laid out all the basics katas and techniques to be taught this first manual was released in 1970 and it bore some major changes from what he taught in the 60s first the modular self-defense techniques were dropped in favor of new sequences that would demonstrate how basics and principles work together a new lexicon was developed in favor of the previous number system and the terminology in the technique name served as a memorization tool for the practitioner for example talon meant wrist grab and ram meant a tackle attempt a technique named obscure wing meant delivering an elbow strike outside of your opponent's peripheral vision additionally ed parker added four more belt colors to the rank and divided the 128 defense sequences among them in order to promote to the next rank students had to complete 32 self-defense techniques a set of basics and a kata once the techniques were completed at greenbelt the student then had to learn extensions for the first 32 orange belt techniques this rank was sometimes referred to as green orange upon completion of the extensions they were promoted to brown belt and at this point three katas known as forms four five and six were required in order to achieve a black belt rank this system is often referred to as the 32 tech manual and such manuals are hard to come by today existing only in the hands of those who received them originally one of the challenges of the system is that many felt it was a lot of material for students to master at each belt level this was fine for those who devoted themselves but as ed parker wanted to appeal to a wider population he noticed that many students were getting discouraged early in their training he added the rank of yellow belt which consisted of the first 10 techniques of orange this allowed the student to get a good taste of the system and achieve their first rank earlier and give them a sense of accomplishment and motivation to go forward in the early 1980s ed parker released the second manual and the system exploded with new material most notably in this version is the distribution of techniques among belt levels many schools continue to express concern at the amount of material per belt level ed parker considered dropping the required techniques for her belt from 32 to 16 but decided it was too drastic of a change and he settled on a 24 technique system brown belt was divided into three degrees that counted backward keeping it in line with the q ranking system of traditional arts in this new 24 technique system ranking worked as follows 10 techniques were required for yellow belt then 24 for orange purple blue green third brown and second brown as in the first manual in order to progress from this point students had to learn extensions of previous techniques orange melt extensions for the first degree brown belt purple extensions for black belt blue extensions for second degree black belt and green extensions for third degree black belt at this point the student had learned the entire curriculum and further promotion was based on teaching and contribution back into the system this was a lot of new material that was added to the system as ed parker continued to craft the curriculum many of his senior students created techniques and katas and brought them to him and upon approval mr parker added them into the system one of the things he wanted his black belts to do like us is always think on our own hence why he had some do thesis he wanted to see how you thought some of the things even ed parker did they weren't his the kicking set wasn't ed parker's that was mr kelly's that was cboc tom kelly's uh the staff set was mr chuck sullivan's so he allowed his students to help him for the best interest of all to flourish you know the bottom line is you only have two hands and two feet and it's going to be the same in 10 years and 20 years two hands and two feet what's really going to change or evolve is your thought process ed parker students all wore white geese keeping with the traditional karate uniform in this revision mr parker added the blackie to be awarded to students who had reached their brown belt status this was to distinguish the instructors from the beginning and intermediate levels today this black key has become synonymously known with the american kenpo system some schools keep with the black and white tradition while others make black uniforms they're standard throughout all ranks belt knot placement was also to be placed on the left for males and on the right for females this was a nod to the chinese idea of qi being stronger on the left for men and stronger on the right for women only instructors were allowed to wear their belt knot in the center representing a balance of energy this version of american kenpo became deeply rooted and is probably the most common curriculum the system had in the late 1980s a third and final kempo manual emerged of ed parker's american kenpo system this third manual featured the 16 technique system that mr parker had considered earlier this new manual was very similar to the previous 24 system with the main difference line in the distribution of techniques in this curriculum 10 techniques were required for yellow then 16 for orange purple blue and green and then 20 techniques for the three levels of brown and first degree black belt this time the previous required extensions were put into place for promotion to second third fourth and fifth degree black belt with further promotion coming with time and contribution into the system ed parker passed away on december 15 1990 writer's manual began distribution many schools adopted it while others stuck with the previous manual with mr parker's passing a major hole occurred in the american kenpo community he had not appointed a successor and a power vacuum occurred with many senior belts stepping up to lead the system it was kind of sad to me how when he passed away the organization splintered off and created their own organizations and everyone was kind of doing their own thing and it really just created a void of any one person in leadership and created probably six or seven or eight different kenpo organizations that it's still kind of that way now as mr parker had continuously changed his system throughout his life each generation of black belts had a different version than the others everyone feels like their way is the best way and there's a lot of criticism of you know well i'm with so and so he does it this way that's how it should be done not this way so there's a lot of that a lot of well you're doing it wrong unfortunately so it's still very fractured and splintered in my opinion other schools took a more extreme turn and with their experience with mr parker they put their own spin on it to take kenpo into their own generation and revolution one of the commonly known offshoots is kenpo sub-level 4 created by dr ron chappelle dr chappelle took his training with ed parker and created a system that focuses on the fine details of human anatomy the name refers to one of the principles ed parker taught and that there are four ranges in hand-to-hand combat out of contact range within contact range contact penetration and contact manipulation this last range refers to being close enough to your opponent to manipulate their body not just strike them joint locks throws takedowns and control techniques are all done from this range dr chappelle felt that this fourth range had a sub-level to it it analyzed the idea that utilizing precision strikes and nerve activations along with structural alignment created enhanced effectiveness not just for tempo but for any close range art they're using the delayed sword as a meridian strike from here to here he just went into the actual infrastructure of the pressure point stuff so anybody who's into those pressure points they were just going into their their research and it's still under research jeff speakman is one of mr parker's most notable students he was an ambassador for american kenpo into the film media and starred in well over a dozen films there isn't a kenpo student alive who hasn't heard of mr speakman or his 1991 film the perfect weapon jeff speakman was a very close student of mr parker and they were working together while the perfect weapon was in production mr speakman has become a well-known figurehead in the american kenpo community and his organization is home to just pikmin schools all over the world he has remained a respectable name in kempo and has continued to carry on the quality of mr parker's teachings what might be perhaps his most notable achievement and definitely one that's become widely known in the martial arts world is his kenpo 5.0 system kenpo 5.0 is a radical modification to ed parker's kenpo he drew inspiration from mr parker in taking an art and modifying it to fit today's needs there is no secret that brazilian jiu jitsu has become widely popular in america and that mma has taken a firm hold in the sporting world explosive techniques expert takedowns and a highly effective system of ground fighting has made brazilian jiu-jitsu a formidable art when mr parker first began to craft american kenpo boxing and judo were popular arts and stand-up fighting was the norm now while ground fighting and wrestling has been around for centuries it wasn't until recent years that the gracies and other schools brought jiu-jitsu to the mainstream american masses realizing this new trend just speakman sought to create a new version of kenpo that incorporated it we came here to tell you about kempo 5.0 a new system of martial arts that incorporates the last generation of ed parker's kenpo with mixed martial art fighting in theory now many people often ask me what does the name kenpo 5.0 mean now we took a look at the three kenpo manuals that mr parker put out these manuals are referred to as american kenpo 32 24 and 16 tech systems or versions 1 2 and 3. in the 24 tech manual or version 2 there was a massive curriculum expansion with many new techniques developed by him and his students some of these techniques originated from movements and principles outlined in the katas and were extracted and implemented as self-defense techniques kempo katas or forms are sequences of techniques in the formation to categorize ideas and demonstrate the flow of movement the act of creating new techniques from the forms created one minor side effect students were learning forms that had techniques in them that weren't taught until later belt levels i myself had questioned this in my early training when learning the kata that had an unfamiliar technique i was told i would learn that technique in the next belt level or two in his teachings and continuation of american kenpo mr speakman created a new manual and restructured the organization of techniques so that they were learned at the same time as the forums this new manual went out to all speakman schools bearing the words version 4.0 in reference to being a fourth manual with kempo 5.0 mr speakman and his top students have crafted a completely modified version of the american kenpo system the most notable change is the inclusion of ground fighting takedowns locks submissions chokes and other brazilian jiu jitsu techniques are featured in an effort to teach students how to utilize and defend against ground fighting additionally techniques are now organized by what is called combat models so that techniques that are based off a similar scenario are grouped together and teach variations of a situation i like where he's going with the grappling i like the grappling i myself do jiu jitsu a blue belt and so i think it was a good idea to incorporate grappling into kenpo which i applaud in that he has the courage to say you know we need to change and we need to do things a little bit differently moving into a more modern society that has this to deal with now so i you know tip my hat to him in that way for creating something of his own with a little bit more practicality of learning not necessarily saying that you want to go to the ground all the time but god forbid you get taken to the ground it's better to know what you're doing what your opponent is trying to doing than to not have that knowledge it's stole kempo so he uses the kenpo upper body entry and then he goes into the grappling stuff so god bless him and anybody like jeff or anyone who's out there keeping the torch burning and carrying on the flame to the generations to come i applaud them mr speakman is also a firm believer that a student needs extensive sparring and fighting experience in order to make their self-defense effective part of kenpo 5.0 is a rigorous freestyle program called the 5-0 fighter and has students spar in a complete fight from stand-up all the way down to the ground and into chokes and submissions with the heavy blend of traditional ed parker kenpo ground fighting and freestyle sparring jeff speakman's kenpo 5.0 is a very dynamic and unique system and he's not the only one making the change as many schools across america are now teaching their own blend of kenpo and brazilian jiu jitsu i have had the fortune of being able to train in a variety of kenpo that includes tracy kempo traditional at parker kenpo just beakman's kenpo 4.0 and 5.0 system as well as a customized kenpo brazilian jiu-jitsu hybrid curriculum they all have something wonderful to offer and have a rich history that continues to grow today hopefully one day the different kenpo organizations can put politics aside and come together again to take ed parker's science of motion to new and exciting levels again one of the things that i'd like to see in the future would be a unified kenpo you know where we're all together working towards the same goals regardless of you know how many people do things differently okay i just wanted to expand a little bit on the difference between the tracy and the parker system and for the sake of the video i was taking a very objective stance and try and you know show a lot of comparison so it's abbreviated now outside of this episode i can kind of speak a little more freely about the observations that i have personally seen myself first and foremost the differences i'm going to talk about it definitely there's not a clear line where there's a you know you're in this camp or this camp there's a lot of overlap there's a lot of blurred edges so again it's going to vary from school to school these are just my personal observations so when i first started the first four years of our school was based in tracy kempo and that last that fourth year we were also learning parker campbell so we had an overlap so i had the unique experience of actually learning both versions side by side and the one thing i will say is we might have had a little bit of a watered down tracy system because as we mentioned in the episode they've got like 300 plus techniques because they add on combinations we didn't have that many so i'm thinking my instructor might have taken those combinations and put them together as one technique like like a parker system would be or he left them out i'm not really sure so that's one thing right off the bat we had a little bit of a streamlined curriculum and honestly too the arts are more similar than they're different i mean they they both share the same roots it's just when you kind of get down to the smaller nuances and details it's kind of just to each system's kind of two different approaches to the kind of the same end goal if that makes any sense and i also noticed that the tracy system tended to be a little bit looser on some of the principles than the parker system did and one example being generally speaking of course the situation as it's presented to you will dictate your response but generally speaking and kenpo parker campo we don't hit the same target twice in a row in this back to back we do more of a you get a shot the body reacts it opens up another shot you kind of rebound you move around the body where tracy sometimes will see multiple strikes to the same target again so it's a little bit looser not a big deal both both ways can be right it's just it's different ways of looking at it from an academic standpoint now what's interesting is when it comes to the self-defense techniques both the tracy kenpo side and the parker kenpo side all have naming conventions for their techniques which is interesting because when they share the roots back to the temple that ed parker taught back in the 50s and 60s when it was just called kempo karate they didn't have names those techniques were just basically defense from a grab difference from a tackle it was just what it was and you can really see some of those similarities in this book so this is actually a very valuable book it's old it's from about 1960 publication this is a reprint but if you look in it you can see techniques that are you can see influences of both parker and tracy kempel you can kind of see where they started from because there's techniques in here that like the beginning of a parker technique or there's a sequence in here that splits off like you know tracy does it this way parker is this way but you see both influences in the book so it's interesting to see little nuances like that so both parker and tracy kemple stemmed from this curriculum right here that you see in this book this material is pretty much the original ed parker kempo and tracy just decided to go continue more along these lines and adapt this where ed parker kind of restructured and went a whole different direction so same roots different branches so as we demonstrated in the video ed parker created a lexicon of words that basically corresponded to either a specific move or a strike or a type of the body so for example anything with the word wing wing corresponds to an elbow mace is a fist sword is a sword hand and so on you know and talon is a grab all sorts of things like that and so that way when you hear the name of a technique so you know crossing talon and delayed sword it gives you a little bit of an inclination as to what the technique is going to evolve so if you hear something say twirling wings okay well then that's going to involve elbows tracy kind of went a little bit the other way they have a lexicon too but the names tend to be a little bit more descriptive and are not as regimented as the parker lexicon is for example technique 22 in the original curriculum is the defense against a rear hammer lock and ed parker kempo we call that technique locked wing because the arm is bent in the elbow formation and we're also striking immediately with an elbow strike in the tracy system they call it lock and arm both are correct it's just you see a little bit where one's a little bit more descriptive one is more towards the code word technique 55 is another good example it's a defense against an overhead knife attack an ed parker system we call that reigning lance because lance is the word that we use for knife so any technique with the word lance in it tells us that a knife is involved in tracy the same technique is called whirling thorn so with wings we know that elbows are involved but in tracy the technique names describe the action a little bit more than just sticking to the lexicon now remember how i just said at the beginning that the freestyle techniques were meant to be a bridge between the self-defense techniques and sparring look at technique 38 put him in a neutral fighting stance and have him grab that front hand and we've got freestyle technique b1b the roots are there if you dig enough now when it comes to the katas you know in kenpo we've got short form on long forms and many tracy schools retain that and teach the same forms but i've also noticed that the tracy system tends to also add what's called universal forms which are a little bit different some parker schools have it but i've my experience i've seen it mainly on the tracy side i've also heard people describe tracy system as a little bit more linear more driving action kind of similar to shotokan where parker's more you know more dynamic to be honest that wasn't my experience you know i i found the techniques to be very similar to each other um i've seen both tracy and parker schools ones that will spar ones that don't so i've also heard some you know people say that tracy tends to produce more fighters where parker produces more academics in some cases yes but in some cases no like i said it really comes down to the individual school i know fantastic schools that teach academics but they don't spar but i also know campbell schools that spar all the time and kind of even neglect the academics a little bit so that's going to come down to the individual location so bottom line honestly when it comes down to it the ed parker american kenpo system and the tracy campbell system they're very similar yes they have their nuances and subtle differences but they have both stem from the same roots and really comes down to which flavor of kenpo you like it's just two different paths getting to the same destination and i'm really curious of any of you out there who have experience in either parker or tracy or both what are differences that you've observed i'm curious to know please leave them in the comments below perhaps one of the most iconic emblems of ed parker's american karate system is the ikka crest you've probably seen this everywhere it's a very common symbol associated with american kenpo but it also stands for a lot of different things part of the brotherhood and the community and it's got some really interesting history when we break it down so today we're going to take a quick look at the kenpo patch in the first video in this series the origin of american kenpo we explored how hawaiian-born edmond k parker took the style of self-defense taught to him by william chaos chow and adapted it for american street fighting william chao himself was a student of james matosi and chao had mixed the hard linear style of mitosis fighting with the circular chinese movements his father had taught him as chao passed the system down to ed parker the two of them had discussed taking this new mix and adapted it even further and introduced it to america as a newly structured self-defense system in the second video the evolution of american kenpo we looked at how mr parker continued to adapt this system over the years into a living organic and community art after his passing his students continued the legacy and took kempo into their own directions and adaptations of self-defense despite all of the interpretations that kempo has gone through much of the symbolism still remains the two most prominent icons in the american kenpo system have to be the tiger and the dragon while kempo is a modern art ed parker did not want to forget its roots the tiger and the dragon go back into deep chinese mythology and often represent a balance of energy the two are also often seen entwined in various yin yang formations to highlight this concept in american kenpo the presence is no less significant the tiger represents a grounded physical strength it has raw power and is dangerous to be trifled with as mr parker describes it in his infinite insights book the tiger represents earthly strength derived during the early stages of learning this is the stage where the individual is more impressed with his own physical prowess the dragon represents a spiritual strength and an achievement of wisdom if the tiger is the power the student first learns in the training then the dragon is a state of enlightenment that comes with experience and seasoning in the art also in mr parker's words the attitude of the dragon is the ultimate goal of kempo armed with his attitude an individual will not be afraid of the opponent but of what he can do to the opponent thus he turns his back and walks away from an unwarranted conflict confident that he could have been the victor one of the most important lessons that i try to impart on my students is you know confidence to to have the ability to use martial arts doesn't mean that you need to go do it you know you should have the confidence to walk away from a situation i always tell them you know the best fight is the one you can avoid this duology is a major component of most kenpo systems and their relationship together is included in kempo's most iconic emblem the kenpo crests the kenpo crest is the image that ed parker and his brother david compose while forming the international kempo karate association or the ikka previously mr parker had been running the kkaa or kempo karate association of america and it was represented by a fist emblem with the arts name for the ikka parker wanted an emblem that embodied the philosophy and integrity of the art it stood for a lot of things stood for you know the tiger being physical strength the dragon being spiritual strength the shape of the crest was in a certain way that if you betrayed the art they would cut you off with the axe at the bottom and just the way it was shaped and things like that there was a lot of meaning generally if you look at the shape it has the arch on the top which meant your anyone under the top of the roof is protected like family you watch it the arks on the side is to give out evil and separate evil spirits okay and there's the axe on the bottom which means if you do something to deface or to wrongdoings if you will or something that's not in a loyal content or embarrass humiliate you could get yourself cut off in other words you were asked to leave now that we have the boundary set let's take a look at the inner elements featured in the center of the crest is the circle and the line patterns these represent several different ideas first the circle represents a continuous flow as in life having no beginning or end or the perpetual motion of techniques according to mr parker the circle also represents the concept that all moves evolve from a circle and it represents the bond of continuous friendship and also that the circle is the base of our alphabet the lines overlaid onto the circle also represent a few different ideas first it was mr parker's homage to the original 18 hand movements found in the old chinese arts additionally if you imagine yourself standing in the center of the circle the straight and diagonal lines represent the entry lines of attack from an opponent as well as the paths of movements a practitioner can step to kempo is also an art that mixes both linear and circular movements and techniques and one of the principles of the system stem from the concept of how they can cancel each other out generally speaking a linear attack can be countered by a circular motion and a circular attack can be cut short by linear action also residing in the crests are both the tiger and the dragon still representing strength and wisdom their placement is as such the tiger stemming from earthly strength is positioned at the bottom with the dragon placed above the essence of a higher learning as the tiger and dragon are present to retain the yin and yang balance of the art and in respect of kempo's chinese roots so is the chinese lettering on either side of the crest this is a nod of respect and remembrance to kempo's early roots the script on the left reads spirit of the dragon and the tiger and the text on the right is law of the fist and the empty hands there's the chinese elements to the side which stood for the law of the fist spirit of the tiger and the dragon those ed parker was very uh respectful to the chinese and they had high regard for him that's why i used the chinese lettering in there tiger on the bottom dragon on the top tiger stood for earthly strength most of us have that physical tenaciousness if we tap into not quitting and we give you those physical skills which empowers their mind now we have courage and bravery because i did the i can attitude concept of the dragon is to look down at the tiger and say calm down be calm think before you respond so the dragon is really that spiritual side we hope that you have within yourself empathy sympathy mindfulness finally we have the colors the interior foundation is white like the art whose foundation is out of the beginning student and the crest walls are black as the art is shaped by those who become proficient in it the circle is gray symbolic of the brain often referred to as gray matter and is the combination of both black and white showing that wisdom is being both an experienced martial artist and a student the red lettering of kempo karate represents small increments of mastery that are added to the professorship of black belt ranks the color breakdown of the tiger and the dragon is a little more dynamic as the tiger represents the early and raw strength of the students it bears the early rank colors of white yellow and orange the dragon representing the higher wisdom and mastery of the art is colored in red however the dragon never forgets its roots and retains the lower rank colors and trace in the case of the patch that is worn on the uniform is typically red with yellow fins however in more elaborate illustrations the dragon is composed of many colors including all the belt ring colors of the system showing that even as a master the dragon can call upon all experience and never be too arrogant to go back to any level all of the symbolism is immortalized within the ikka or kempo crest and it is worn as a patch over the practitioner's heart this was the definitive icon of kempo for many years these factors of of ed parker's patch have a lot in the beginning that meant a life lesson and it went over the heart was the art got to have it in your heart okay which meant it's lifelong that's that's that's the easy way of saying it a more somber variation of this patch occurred upon the passing of mr parker in 1990. frank trejo one of mr parker's most senior students and also a man who took the tournament scene by storm began wearing a black and white version of the crest that was frank trio's patch um him and one of his black belts who was one of one of the first ufc fighters by the way zane frazier they're the ones that did that for their group what that stood for was frank said that the color was taken away he was the ed parker was the flame he was the life when the life of ed parker was taken it took the life out of the patch but not the art so he wanted people to remember that life is precious and that it's up to us to treasure life and learn from those lives that we lose mr trejo and a few others wore this black and white version of the patch for many years and shows the love they had for mr parker and how they mourn him after his passing as mentioned in previous videos the politics of kenpo are volatile and between legal disputes over who was allowed to wear the crest and the result of different organizations splitting off to teach their own kenpo many new crests emerge that retain the root imagery of the ikka crest while adding their own flair and personalization a quick google search of kenpo crest will show you just how many variations there are it meant a lot to me when mr parker was alive as to what it stood for and what it meant and then you know when he passed away it kind of everyone created their own crest and kind of did their own thing it's interesting enough that you could see all these different designs and all the different people who have patches i usually like to ask people tell me about your patch and what it means and you'll get all kinds of uh interpretations and they're quite interesting i had a couple different crests this one that i have here was when i had my schools in orlando and kind of put my own logo in the shape of the tempo patch and now the logo i have on some of my other geese is a little adaptation of it we still have the tiger and the drag and the drag and being above the tiger to represent spiritual strength is more important than physical strength so we modified it just so we wouldn't be involved in that as to who could wear it who couldn't wear it so rather than be involved in that we just kind of modified it a little bit and came up with our own my patch the red out perimeter stands for bloodline in our bloodline so our language directly goes right most of the generations that we have in the ckf were all generations directly to ed parker let it be the first second or even to the last being myself who helped me with my patch design was ed parker jr david hepler and david stanley david stanley being the stepbrother to elvis david hepler being the fact that he worked with elvis for a couple years so i took that personality and we put tcb that people on kempo should take care of the business take care of family take care of community help the week those kind of things also there's two lightning bolts on the top which means the ones that above was the relationship he had with it with elvis because ep ed parker and elvis presley are gone from above looking down will keep the spirit of the two alive take care of the business and in a nutshell that's what it is now the clock if you look at the center of it is multi-dimensional where if you look at it you can see it's multi-dimensional because kemp was a multi-dimensional system okay so we put that there we also put in the tiger and the dragon in balance not one over the other we felt like yin and yang you need balance both tiger and dragon so in our patch you have balance so in a simple layout there it is that's what our patch is all about personally i think it's a testament to show how powerful his teachings were they keep and honor elements of his teaching while adding their own meaningful symbolism as they take the art into the future one example of this is a community effort to come together and create a new american kenpo crest also called the kenpo solidarity crest or the unity crest that stands for a strong brotherhood and a new era of cooperation this new crest was composed by many so that not a single person can claim rights to it and it is free for kenpo practitioners to bear and represent their art as they wish and this patch became available to the kempo community and i chose to accept it it's a modern american kenpo crest and it's supposed to solidify kenpo um a lot of people that i've talked to have actually accepted it and are going to be wearing it as well so this is not just the history of kenpo in it but it's got a lot of the rules and principles is there was a group of campos that got together to try to come up with a solution to the problem that was happening in our community and i know ed parker jr was one of the supporters for the crest and he really liked it it still has the chinese writing um to represent the origin of american kenpo it still kept the dragon and the tiger and the empty hand and the fist everything on the patch is placed in a specific location for a reason the shape on top is actually mr parker's original school in california that was the sign outside his school interior elements such as the compass rose are to honor mr parker's days in the coast guard as well as an homage to the fist used in mr parker's original kkaa emblem the flame stands for many things such as the idea that it burns within each practitioner in the three levels of advanced achievement instructor professor and master it is placed within the white background of the triangle to remind the practitioner of where they started and while it touches the bottom of the triangle it never reaches the top to show a strong foundation and an effort to reach mastery it's a very dynamic and intricate design and i definitely recommend taking a further look at it the link for the website is in the description below it goes into further breakdown of the crest as well as the mission of the brotherhood once again the crest is free for use and for any of you who wish to wear a physical patch all you have to do is contact epax and request one and this concludes our three part kenpo series if you have not yet seen the first two episodes and are interested in the art and how it began and evolved those links are also in the description below mr parker has left an unmistakable mark on the development of martial arts in the united states that spread internationally what started as an area of personal study exploded into a widespread culture of self-defense education and the science of motion mr parker brought martial arts to a new level in the mainstream american media he taught american royalty brought notable names into the spotlight and left a legacy of disciples that are taking kempo into new and exciting directions today he was the powerful tiger that resided here as an earthly force until he descended above as the dragon watching down on us with all of his wisdom as martial artists we strive to reach perfection while never forgetting our roots only when we achieve that can we too be the dragon [Music] so that's today's look at the ikka patch hope you liked it and enjoyed it i enjoyed the symbolism behind it and i enjoy seeing how the community has embraced it and taken in different directions so and as we continue to do these videos and look at other arts we're going to break down the other symbols and emblems of their arts as well because part of it is martial art and it's symbolic and they have meaning so we will go into further in-depth reviews of those as well okay so for this subject i want to talk about forms and this is when i made these episodes i wasn't quite in the minds of the forums as i am now you know it's been a couple years since i've done these my history arcata is a little bit complicated um our school changed so much where you know one instructor changed curriculum multiple times we changed locations we changed instructors our school went through so many changes that sometimes our forms were there and they weren't so when i first started we learned the forms we just kind of memorized them and they were just part of the curriculum we didn't really question it later another instructor came in and broke them down and taught us more information about the forms then they disappeared then they came back but bottom line the reason i want to bring this up is because campbell forms tend to be very very different than a lot of other martial arts and i'm finding myself intrigued and doing more of a deeper study now i'm actually putting more effort into my forums and contests now than i ever did because i want to understand more now that i've discovered there's actually quite a bit of information embedded and if you're interested in bunkai at all kempo katas and kenpo forums will give you a wealth of material to work with so our forms are broken up into two basic categories you have your dictionary forms and you have your encyclopedia forms and the dictionary forms are the first four forms that you learn in tempo which is short form one long form one short form two long form two and the reason they're called definition forms or dictionary forms is because what they do is they're actually taking basics and they're all composed of small motions and basics whereas the later forms the encyclopedia forms are a lot more dynamic and they explore more thematic more themes in relation to each other this is more of a teaching tool and teaching the basics in motion so campbell forums all teach the same basic three ideas one you show the rules and principles of motion two you demonstrate that everything has an opposite in reverse and three we show these by giving an example and sometimes when you look at kepler this spreads out to the whole chemical system everything has an opposite reverse and sometimes they're spread across so you might learn a technique or you might learn emotion in a form but the reverse or the opposite of that you might find in the technique later so that's actually where it really gets fun to start to look at the relationship again it's all academic and this is the academics and the bunkai is for you but trying to find everything complete like the references is quite the treasure hunt another thing to note about dictionary forms is all the dictionary forms the first four forms all start from a horse stance whereas all the later forms start from a natural stance so show up form one is the first form that we learned as a white belt and it teaches a few different things one it teaches you your your primary blocks you're up you're in you're out in your downward block and you're playing it moving versus you know when you first run the blocks you're stationary now we're traveling and we're also traveling on the four main lines front back side to side so you know you're 12 o'clock or three o'clock or six o'clock or nine o'clock that's the travel and the forum also focuses specifically on the power principle of torque it's the only power principle at play right now again you're learning basics and this form is the foundation for the next three forms to build on top of it so for example the next bet level we learned long form one and basically this takes short form one is foundation and it adds to it so for example we're still traveling on the same lines twelve three six and nine but the difference now though is with each block we're now applying a counter punch and that is now introducing the four bow so now we're seeing a stance change for the first time in our system or at least as a student experiences for the first time we're seeing that in motion so now we're doing block with the counter punch and the stance change it also has little highlighted motions for the deeper studies has hints at what's coming up in the future forms and the cool thing about long form one is any changes it makes either relates directly to the form coming up or it refers directly to the form previous like short form one and as an example of that though is short form one technically speaking you do on one side most people teach it and most people practice it you do it on both sides for repetition but academically speaking in an interest of category completion it's not necessary because the second side of short form one is embedded in long form one it's just done at the end when we're doing blocking isolations if you really look at it it's short form one but on the reverse so that's what i mean there's links to each one and it builds on top of that and it's kind of cool to do that study and see that relationship between the forms so then that takes us to short form two and again it builds on this and what we're adding in short form too is now we're doing advanced motion so we're short one and long one we're all retrieving forms short two and long two are advancing forms and not only we're advancing it's also teaching you strikes now blocks and strikes with the lead hand it's adding the power principles of gravitational marriage and back of mass now we're doing our full power principle teaching and it's also teaching us how to move on the diagonal lines versus just straight lines now what's interesting about this though is if you were to look at it from an overhead view and look straight down this form never actually crosses the three and nine o'clock line so while you are facing and moving diagonally you never quite cross that plane until long form two that's something that's added in long form too and long form two takes takes this theme even further and it kind of plays and highlights demonstrates more examples of opposition reverses so like i said it keeps building on each other so these first four forms short one long one short two long two they're all building blocks they're almost like stories to a building you keep adding on to it and from there those first four floors you've got a really solid foundation and now you've got your motion defined so that the next form is going up explore more essay topics more thematic relationships and these encyclopedia forms kind of really more highlight to show you how the science and the motion and how the system works together so for example we've got short form three short form three is a combination of self defense techniques that are strung together but the theme is these are all techniques based off of grabs and holds so they're showing you how you know if this was a a sample scenario people are coming up and grabbing you so it's showing you the flow between one technique to another and how you can transition from one position to another from that basic attack and long form three enhances that as well it builds on that and it actually shows both sides because short form three technically the only one side long form three is a little bit more inclusive a little bit more complete long form four for anyone who's even familiar with kenpo knows that this is the signature kenpo form it is jam-packed full of information it's all techniques that are based off of punches and kicks so those are strung together there's a lot of study it takes a long time to learn this one properly i personally struggled with this one because it was always on long form i was teaching when our curriculum changed so i had in the middle of it i had to go back and start over like three times so this this form gave me a little bit of grief just because it took me years to get it down for that reason alone but you this is the one you see at tournaments perform the most because it's got so much information and it looks the most kenpo of the forms and technically it's also very lengthy to to demonstrate so technically you you there is a short form for um but it's basically it's abbreviated where you're only showing one side of each technique and it alternates that's for tournament purposes it's not taught that way in the curriculum and there's no more short forms at this point going forward they're all full-blown forms so form five goes further in form five are all based off self-defense techniques that result in takedowns so they're strung together and they show you the relationship of that flow and form six is a combination of techniques that are weapons based defense against weapons defense against knives clubs and guns and those are the core forms and those you'll find in pretty much every single kenpo school that teaches traditional at parker kenpo technically there's a form seven and eight and there's a little bit of debate and controversy with these forms because some people say that ed parker never fully developed them some say his students did there's a lot of conflict of information i've seen footage of ed parker teaching at least part of long seven so i know it's at least out there to some degree so you have some schools that won't go past six long seven is a stick form and what's interesting about that though is it basically teaches you techniques and how the dynamic changes when you have a weapon in your hand so it's definitely i think it's worth learning my instructor started teaching me it a little bit it was never part of our official curriculum when i saw the first half of it i thought it was really cool i definitely want to go back and learn it some more form eight it's kind of the same thing but it's with knives and historically speaking we're not going to get complicated here because historically forms change a little bit like i i if i remember correctly knives might have originally been in seven i don't really know for sure i never really experienced it um you can find form eight on youtube by looking but sometimes there seems to be some variations and there's definitely even more debate whether ed parker developed this form or not so you're much more likely to find seven out there eight's a bit of a rare form and if you come across it you know i'm not sure what version you're gonna come across but it's it's out there but in small amounts and i've heard theories and i've heard rumors that the parker was planning for nine and ten again as far as i'm concerned that's hearsay i was never privy to that information i don't know how valid that is you know a lot of things are said it could be possible you know he passed away while he was still working on the forum or working on the system you know he was changing kenpo up to the day he died so who's to say what he had planned and what he still had on the back burner but i just thought this was a really cool study so for anyone who's really interested in forms in bunkai study at all you're going to find a wealth of information in the kenpo forums they're not just sequences you memorize they take years to break down and even now like 27 years into my training i'm still going back to short form one and learning stuff i didn't know that was there before and how it relates to other techniques so there's there's an absolute wealth of knowledge so if kata is your thing if you're interested from an academic point of view of cotton and what they teach you'll have no shortage of information for the kenpo forums so thank you guys so much for watching we really appreciate all of your viewership and all of your support for the channel we're going to be doing this also for shotokan and kyokushin so look for those coming up and this week and next week and uh like i said coming up next year we got a lot more history videos coming and we can't wait to uh get you know get right started right away and dig into it thank you so much hope you guys have a great safe and happy new year and we will see you soon [Applause] you

Channel: Art of One Dojo

Views: 88,210

Keywords: ART OF ONE DOJO, Martial Artists, american kenpo, kenpo, ed parker kenpo, american kempo, Tracy kenpo, kenpo crest, jeff speakman, speakman kenpo, kenpo 5.0, kenpo karate, american kenpo karate

Id: GBpP332d_gA

Length: 82min 49sec (4969 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020