Go Back   Deluxe Martial Arts Forums > Martial Arts > Japanese Martial Arts

Japanese Martial Arts Martial artists can discuss the Japanese Martial Arts with practitioners worldwide.


Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 09-27-2005, 11:12 AM   #1 (permalink)
Registered User
 
danfaggella's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Kingston RI
Posts: 1,089
danfaggella will become famous soon enough
Send a message via AIM to danfaggella
Default american kenpo

what do you think about this art? (practical, flashy, interesting?)
what do you think of Ed Parker? (moron, genius, ect...?)

thanks!
danfaggella is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-27-2005, 12:07 PM   #2 (permalink)
Registered User
 
Kenpodog's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 128
Kenpodog is on a distinguished road
Thumbs up

I like it, but i'm slightly biased.

SGM Ed Parker -- I have never met him, but IMHO he was:
Someone who never stopped improving or refining his art and teaching methods.
__________________
In American Kenpo, questions are answered on the mat
Kenpodog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-27-2005, 03:38 PM   #3 (permalink)
Registered User
 
aseepish's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 1,628
aseepish is a jewel in the roughaseepish is a jewel in the roughaseepish is a jewel in the roughaseepish is a jewel in the rough
Default

American Kenpo (under Larry Tatum's branch), was the first martial art that I studied. I was in it for two and a half years before our school collapsed and our instructor left the city instead of refunding our money. I was a purple belt at the time.

The best thing about Kenpo is the self-defense technique aspect. The simple ones are the best, and even now, 10 years later, a lot of them are still ingrained in me.

What I didn't like about Kenpo was the sparring. It was light/medium contact point sparring, with a break at each point to acknowledge it. There were a few guys at the club who trained full contact (san shou rules), but that was not the typical sparring we did. 99% of the self-defense techniques that I had learned were not fully applicable in a sparring situation. When I moved on to JKD, I found that I had to unlearn a LOT of bad habits.

Kenpo stresses that you do not want to brawl with someone in a real situation, and that the self-defense techniques are what would naturally come into play. In an ideal situation this is true. A young woman from our class was attacked by two guys one night and she put them both in the hospital using the techniques she had learned. But she had been able to take advantage of surprise. If you screw up and lose that element of surprise, then you're in a brawl.

As far as the classes go, they were very traditional - standing in line and punching/kicking in unision. A lot of shouting. That's great for some people, but after the informal atmosphere I've experienced in JKD clubs and MT and BJJ gyms, I can't go back to that kind of class.

Ed Parker's contribution to martial arts in North America was huge. He brought the martial arts into the mainstream, not only through his schools and tournaments (Bruce Lee), but through his celebrity students. The down-side of this (not directly Parker's fault) is that his innovations in commercialization have culminated in today's proliferation of McDojos (of all styles).

Parker's books are very interesting. He was trying to cut out a lot of the mysticism surrounding the martial arts and make them scientific. He deserves a lot of credit for this. His theories of motion (cancellation of an opponent's height, width, and depth) are very interesting indeed.

I think I was very lucky to have started off in Kenpo. Had my school been a successful business I probably would have continued there. But my martial arts road took a different path.
__________________
"It was about that time I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses." -Cortázar
aseepish is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Pre-UFC: Boxing vs. Judo Tom Yum Boxing Discussion Forum 37 04-08-2008 01:24 PM
American Kenpo classes in Houston, Texas jbkenpo Filipino Martial Arts 3 01-01-2004 02:47 PM
American Kenpo - Good, bad? c0bra Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) & BJJ Forum 7 10-04-2003 02:53 AM
Kenpo training in Houston, TX jbkenpo Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) & BJJ Forum 0 07-22-2003 12:13 AM
Kenpo training in Houston,TX jbkenpo Filipino Martial Arts 0 07-22-2003 12:11 AM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:29 PM.

These are the 100 most searched terms
Search Cloud
52 blocks best folding knife best karate style best training songs boxing routine bruce lee diet bruce lee mma bruce lee ufc contender kickboxer contender kickboxing darse choke defend.net deluxe martial arts does bowflex work dwayne johnson workout emin boztepe flicker jab flicker jabs gene simco gracie quotes gym names how to increase flexibility how to slow down your metabolism jammed big toe jammed toe kava maga kickboxing vs muay thai krav maga calgary krav maga mma kubatan kubotan martial art forum martial arts forum martial arts forums muay boran muay thai conditioning muay thai tattoo muay thai tattoos muay thai vs boxing paul vunak rockson gracie roy jones jr workout scared to fight sonny parson stronger punch the contender kickboxer the contender kickboxing tommy carruthers training songs ultimate fighter song ... powered by Simple Search Cloud


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
SEO by vBSEO 3.2.0
Template-Modifications by TMS
© Copyright 1996-2008, Mousel's Self-Defense Academy