Ed Parker Kenpo Karate Is Definitely Overweight–But There Might Be A Cure!
I walked into my first American Kenpo Karate dojo back in 1967. This was the Rod Martin variation of Tracys Kenpo, which was an offshoot of Ed Parker Kenpo Karate. Therein is the first problem with American Kenpo.
It grew too fast. In the orient teachers didn’t teach until they had a minimum of a decade of experience, had studied under a variety of teachers and had learned a variety of martial arts styles. We were borning senseis every three years, which is how long it took to make a black belt back then.
Of course, there is also the question of which version of kenpo is the true kenpo? Ed Parker, you see, made five different kenpos. If you learned an earlier style, is it now considered…not quite kenpo?
And, this bring us to the fact that there are variations on the variations. There are people who have evolved combat kenpo and tournament kenpo and MMA kenpo, and so on. It seems there are as many kenpos as there are people studying it.
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I first became aware of this phenomena, too many versions, while putting together Monkey Boxing, which, in one sense, is my variation of kenpo, or at least as close as I can come to a kenpo. I had studied my a version of the variation of the art way back when, then I picked up Larry Tatum Kenpo, and I had come across some of the kenpo connection material, then I came across rather massive instruction books on Olympic kenpo, and I believe I had two other variations of the art.
As I went through the endless strings of techniques I saw how the changes were sometimes small, and sometimes large, but always special to the person making the changes. Now, to be honest, every art should be a manifestation of the individual, and kenpo does seem suited to this. Still, it would be nice to have a specific set of techniques, and maybe a list of exact concepts that would standardize the kenpo field before individual martial arts instructors expanded it with their own variations.
In the final analysis, I boiled the techniques of five complete arts, with a couple or three partial arts, down to 40 specific techniques. I am sure there will be some who shake their heads at this. After all, how can one summate over 500 techniques, and all the evolutions thereof, with but 40 techniques?
Well, I offer no excuse, I merely advise the reader to try his own hand at collecting sufficient versions that you might have a complete viewpoint of the art. Then, start organizing the information. It will be hard, a number nine headache, but you might find yourself a true master of American Kenpo Karate.
Al Case, arguably the greatest martial art writer of all time (nearly 2 million words in print), is at <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link/2970873']);” href=”http://www.monstermartialart.com”>Monster Martial art</a>. You can see his forty technique version of <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link/2970873']);” href=”http://www.monstermartialart.com/Matrix_Kung_Fu.html”>American Kenpo Karate</a> there. Make sure you pick up his free book on Matrixing. 1
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Paul Mills, president and founder of the American Kenpo Karate International Association and protégé of the late Ed Parker, teaching and demonstrating at the bi-annual AKKI Martial Arts camp in Las Vegas, NV. More videos located at www.akki.com. paul mills kenpo, parker kenpo, akki kenpo, american kenpo, mills kenpo, ed parker, kenpo karate
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