American Kenpo Karate May Be Overweight And Unwieldy!
It grew much too fast. In the east instructors 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 3 years, which is how long it took to bring a student to black belt back then.
Of course, there is also the problem of which kenpo is the true kenpo? Ed Parker, you see, developed five different kenpos. If you learned an earlier version, is it now considered…less than kenpo?
And, this bring us to the fact that there are variations of the versions. There are senseis who have created combat kenpo and tournament kenpo and MMA kenpo, and so on. It seems there are as many types of kenpo as there are people practicing it.
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 number of techniques I saw how the changes were sometimes small, and sometimes large, but always tailored by the person making the changes. Now, to be honest, every art should be a creation of the individual, and kenpo does seem suited to this. Still, it would be nice to have an exact set of applications, and maybe a list of exact concepts that would standardize the kenpo art 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 set himself or herself the task of collecting sufficient versions that you might have a complete viewpoint of the art. Then, start organizing the overwhelming glut of knowledge. It will be a hard task, a number nine headache, but you might end up a true master of American Kenpo Karate.
Al Case, the greatest martial arts writer of all time (almost 2,000,000 words in print), is at Monster Martial Arts. You can see his forty technique variation of American Kenpo Karate there. Make sure you get his free book on Matrixing. 1
Generation And Usage Of Martial Arts Chi Power Through The Circular Flux Of Energy
Look, let me set things up a little better for this piece. The body is a machine, north and south terminals, and the ability to turn energy within it, and this is the chi phenomena. Unfortunately, there is so much mystical bushwah, and people are locked into certain ways of thought concerning their bodies, that they miss this simplicity.
This idea, though misunderstood, is spread throughout the martial arts, and accounts for a variety of other occurrences, too. In karate chi development depends upon sinking a strong stance–you must bolt the motor down, you know–and analyze how to use circular motion in the snap of the hips, the turn of the wrist, and so on. The problem is that people keep insisting that Karate is a linear martial art when it isn’t.
Karate is linear like a cam; a cam is a rotating part which slides a linear extension in a machine. In karate the hips rotate and drive the arm, which, because the elbow, is not truly linear anyway, creates a complex of turning, rotating, spinning parts to make a punch (or block or kick or whatever) with. Look at an illustration of a cam and see how it resembles an arm or leg.
This concept of straight lines being delivered through round motion becomes more easily understood through kung fu chi based systems. Classic shaolin has jumps and whirls and locks onto the planet which perfectly illustrate the concept I am talking about. Unfortunately, the basics in kung fu aren’t detailed enough to raise but a rare person to a high level level, and Karate doesn’t develop itself as a circular method…the love of power (as false as it is) corrupts, you see.
The easiest art to see this circular flux of energy as the manifestation of proper machine theory is Tai Chi. Unfortunately, people have latched on to doing Tai Chi for the health and sensation reasoning, and people end up asking is Tai Chi a martial art, and missing the point of reality that is necessary to a proper martial art, and which changes a martial art into a machine based energy flux creator. I know, it sounds significant, but I am just trying to get my point across with enough specific verbiage.
Now, the best art for power internal martial arts style, is pa kua. The whole darn thing is an energy flux, though one must realize that the purpose of walking is to ground your each and every step, and to keep the machine running even while in motion. Get that concept, and even the mysteries of pa kua chang should resolve fairly easily.
Okay, that’s the skinny, Minny…you sink the weight and fix the body/machine and swirl the energy inside the body, much the same as you would swirl water inside a container. This has been done in virtually every martial art that has ever existed, though it has been made mystical and confusing. It really isn’t difficult, however, though if you really want to understand the notion of martial arts chi power you need to matrix your art, and matrix your body, then the stuff happens naturally and without much thought.
You can find out more about Martial Arts Chi Power and Matrixing at Monster Martial Arts. Pick up a free ebook while you’re at Monster Martial Arts. 2
He Was Crazy…And He Studied Korean Karate With Me.
He had tied parachute webbing across the insides of his car because he felt that that material was best for holding his car together on the inside. He had fire extinguishers fastened to every surface on the inside of his car. He had a dial on his dashboard to give extra power to his tail lights, and he turned it whenever he faced away from the sun so that drivers behind him could see when he braked.
This was just the surface of Mud Car, though. The most impressive thing that Mud Car did was commit to memory the times of all the stop lights in the whole town of San Jose. He could travel across that large town without ever having to stop for a light.
Unfortunately, when it came to the karate, he was just as crazy. He couldn’t stretch his limbs, couldn’t control what his body was going to do, and, because of this lack of control, it hurt to work out with him. Just being in his presence you could feel the firecrackers in his mind exploding into the universe.
One day he interrupted the instructor to complain about a pain in his leg. “It doesn’t hurt me that much, but it keeps nagging at me, do you know how to make the pain in my leg go away?” My instructor looked at me with murder in his eyes, I suppose he didn’t want to look at Mud Car because he would kill him, and he blurted, “Hit your leg with a lead pipe…that’ll make the pain go away.”
I suppose the ability to drive other people insane is the deciding point in this matter of whether a person is goofy or not. Because of this Mud Car never made it to Black Belt. He just didn’t have the mental maturity that is the mark of a black belt.
One day, however, a new instructor came to the school, and Mud Car was promoted to Black Belt within a month…and then he left the school. He had achieved his goal, and that was all he wanted, and the new instructor knew that was the best and most efficient way to get rid of Mud Car. Yet, I missed Mud Car.
He was crazy, but so is the guy who attacks you on the street, so if you could last a session with Mud Car without getting injured, you knew your art was effective. Furthermore, there was a shift of standard here, for Mud Car was promoted because he could drive people nuts, not because he was good. Finally, I think that is where the True Art started disappearing…schools, even schools like Tae Kwon Do or Kenpo or classical karate, did not administer soothing discipline to the insane, they just promoted them to get rid of them.
If you want to go crazy through the martial arts…drop on by Punch ‘Em Out. If you want to go sane through the martial arts…try Monster Martial Arts. 2
