How to Make Kenpo Karate Perfect

Are there Too Many Kenpo Techniques?

I wrote the following comment on a forum where I had posed a question concerning Kenpo having too many techniques. Thought it deserved a reprint here, because it goes to the heart of Matrixing. You can find the original article here…

https://alcase.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/ed-parker-finally-speaks-on-too-many-kenpo-techniques-2/

150 Kenpo Techniques matrixed

I wrote a dictionary of Martial Arts. You can find it somewhere on the net if you google ’Matrixing Technical dictionary.’

The thing that actually got me started on this thing of too many techniques for Kenpo is this simple fact: When you line up the techniques in your system they are taught a) out of order, and b) they’re are missing techniques. This has turned out to be an absolute, and this is why it takes people so many years to maser the martial arts. The first time I wrote out a list of techniques, in order and no missing pieces, the result on the students were astounding. It wasn’t even a combat sequence, it was just stand up grab arts, and there were only forty of them, but suddenly the guys were free styling like they had years of experience. The learning curve went out the roof, so I started doing it to everything, and the same results were evident in every art I had. The conclusion was this: if the art is in order, with no missing pieces, the learning curve can be up to ten times faster. The lack was in polish, but if the student stuck with it, the polish happened within a couple of months. So even that was transformed. Anyway, I started the martial arts back in 1967. and in that time I have never seen an art with all the pieces and in the right order. It just doesn’t happen. But if they did, I speak from personal experience, the result is an art that functions on a conceptual level, and is much faster and easier to learn.

Have a great work out!

Al from monstermartialarts.com

BTW ~ the special two courses for the price of one will be over on the first of January. Go to MonsterMartialArts.com, pick out any course, order it, then pick out another course of equal value, and email me (aganzul@gmail.com) and let me know. You’ll get that second course for free!

MonsterMartialArts.com came into existence in 2002. The first Matrix course (Matrix Karate) was introduced in 2007.

The Five Kenpos of Edmund Parker

How Many Versions of Kenpo Karate were there?

The first Kenpo of Ed Parker was actually Okinawan Karate. One can see the forms in the string of techniques in his first book. Forms were actually not taught, except, I believe, for Naihanchi and maybe one or two others.

Three part series analysis 150 kenpo techniques

The second version was a blend of Karate and jujitsu. This version was originally taught in a small temple in Japan.

The third Kenpo of Mr. Parker was actually created by James Wing Woo, a kung Fu stylist who taught Ed’s class, and helped him write a book while he lived in Pasadena. This was the version of kenpo from which many of the forms were originated.

The fourth kenpo was a reworking and renaming of the 3rd version.

The fifth and final Kenpo was created by Ed Parker to replace the earlier styles of Kenpo. He was proud of the fact that it actually wasn’t kenpo anymore.

Now, this all stated, one has to ask why there were so many styles. The answer is simple, Ed was trying to simplify and make sense out of the mess.

The fact of the matter is that the martial arts are random sequences of motions. This causes the art to be hard to learn, and hard to apply. It is simply hard to memorize to the point of intuition so much data.

Ed was trying to simplify and make sense out of the thing so that students could learn faster (among other reasons).

Unfortunately, he failed.

He came close, but his efforts were still comprised of random sequences of motion.

Each method he designed or compiled or whatever was built upon the ashes of the previous, tried to include new concepts and theories he had come across, and does not make summation of kenpo, or the martial arts.

Was he wrong for doing what he did? Not at all. His work was ground breaking and innovative, he just lacked the logic and perspective to bring it all together.

Does it mean that the kenpo you are studying is wrong?

Nope.

For Kenpo is a manifestation of knowledge, and each person contains the knowledge in his own unique way.

Though Ed failed to make the art a science, it is still an art, and it is still whatever people make it.

About the Author: Al Case began kenpo in 1967. He has just written a three volume series scientifically analyzing 150 kenpo techniques called, ‘How to Create Kenpo Karate.’

Publishing Matrixing Kenpo Series!

Matrixing Kenpo: The Truth of History

I’ve been working on this for months.
I broke out my first book,
made images of all the techniques,
and matrixed the thing.

New Matrixing Book on Kenpo Karate! Click on the Cover!

Did you know that there are scientific principles
that can be applied to Kenpo?

For instance,
just to name one,
you can analyze a technique
by distance.
Does the distance collapse during the technique,
from kick to punch to knee to elbow?
Or does it start using the distances in the wrong sequence?

And,
here is something to think about,
because a lot of people will say,
‘Oh, I knew that!’
Whether they ever thought about it before,
they will except the truth of it,
make it their own,
and shuffle me off.
They can’t have somebody telling them something,
they can’t learn.
So,
here is the key,
do you know what to apply the principle of distance to a technique?
And when to ignore it?
Yes,
it sounds funny,
because matrixing is a science,
but you have to know when to apply science,
and when to put it aside.

Anyway,
There are three books in the series.
The first one has a short section on history,
so you can understand something
from the matrixing viewpoint,
about what went on in the minds
of Mitose, Chow and Parker.

Then it has a large section on techniques.
Analyzing them,
matrixing them,
using scientific principles to find the truth of the technique.

Now,
a caution,
not everybody will agree with me.
BUT,
that doesn’t matter.
In the mere disagreement,
you will formulate your own ideas.
In other words,
you will really start to think about the truth of Kenpo.

The second and third books will be coming out shortly.
The second one deals with redoing the forms
so they match what is going to happen in the third book.

In the third book
I take all the techniques,
resort,
toss,
tell you why I toss or resort the techniques,
and create a new system,
a Matrix Kenpo.

A system based on scientific principle.

Now,
to be sure,
there is still an IMMENSE amount of work to be done.

Here’s the thing,
I don’t solve the problem of Kenpo,
I ask the questions that will make you solve it.

Heck,
you’re going to look at something I draw or say,
and you’re going to get,
sad/angry/outraged/laugh…
or lots of other things,
and you’re going to think.

Does that really work for Al?
Is that really a proper matrix?
What about doing it this way?
Why didn’t Al think of that?

And,
the answer,
because everybody is unique,
everybody has their own way,
everybody,
in spite of their adherence to a system or belief,
has uniqueness about them,
and this uniqueness will always come to the surface,
if the art is presented right.

And I’ve done my best to present Kenpo right.

Did I succeed?
I don’t know,
you tell me.
Here’s the link…

https://www.createspace.com/4820815

Now this is to createspace.
Amazon should be up any second,
likewise Kindle.
So do a google,
or do a search on Amazon or kindle,
if it’s not up
it should be shortly.

Now,
just to let you know,
kindle is a bit rough.
They have trouble with pictures,
so if you get kindle,
be aware that every once in a while
you’ll have a picture
appearing a paragraph or two out of place.

And,
that brings us to one last thing.
Which system of Kenpo am I analyzing?
Well,
on one hand,
it doesn’t matter,
there are similarities between all kenpo systems.
But,
the system I learned
was descended from the Tracy Brothers.
Two of the Tracy’s learned from Parker
the third from Chow.
They claim to teach from Chow,
but…who knows?
`I learned it back in 67,
so whatever,
it is was back in a turbulent period,
and there will be a rawness to it,
and a purity,
and a lot of other things.

Anyway,
if you could hit the like button,
twitter it,
or spread the word somehow,
it would help.

Okay,
you guys and gals have a super work out,
and I’ll talk to you next…

Al

https://www.createspace.com/4820815