American Kenpo Karate Is A Wonderful Art...but There Is Something Wrong With It
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It grew much too quickly. In the east senseis didn't instruct until they had a minimum of a decade of experience, had studied under a variety of masters and had learned a variety of martial arts styles. We were creating 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 version of kenpo is the true kenpo? Ed Parker, you see, created five different kenpos. If you learned an earlier variation, is it now considered...not quite 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 techniques I saw how the changes were sometimes small, and sometimes large, but always unique to the person making the changes. Now, to be sure, every art should be an expression of the individual, and kenpo does seem suited to this. Still, it would be nice to have a specific set of concepts, and maybe a list of techniques that would standardize the kenpo field before individual martial arts masters expanded it with their own variations.
In response to this overwhelming amount of data, 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 students of the art who shake their heads at this. After all, how can one condense over 500 techniques, and all the evolutions thereof, into just forty 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.
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