EndlessDave

No, black belts registering as lethal weapons is not real. Furthermore, those same restrictions that you mentioned above apply to everyone, not just trained fighters. Check out https://www.useofforce.us for an unofficial (but very informative) rundown of self defense laws in the US.

I never said my school trains poorly. I think it trains quite well. I wouldn't still be there otherwise, would I? Useoforce, yes that's the sort of "grappling" we do in my studio. There are few full body holds or mounted positions, but there are lots of wrist holds to maintain striking range or takedowns followed my strikes to a grounded opponent. And also, I think that there is such a thing as "street oriented" and I think Nick Cerio's Kenpo is it. It's not street oriented because it does eye gouges or kicks to the knee (and we DO do those, but we do the regular old punch to the face far more often); it's street oriented because we practice defenses against attacks like headlocks, bear hugs, and lapel grabs in addition to straight punches and kicks. We also do self defense against knife, gun, and club attacks. Most of these techniques are fairly useless in a ring, but they'll help you if an unskilled attacker comes at you on the street. Edit: Oh! And The Perfect Weapon is a great cheesy action flick, and its intent is to show off kenpo. It's actually dedicated to the ed parker. That said, however, I think it does a poor job most of the job of showing off kenpo, mostly because the camera tends to move around a lot in such a way as to make it hard to follow exactly what's happening. Parkerlineage, you might actually recognize a few of the techniques he does though. It's cool when you can name the technique you see on the screen to your buddies. Check it out!

I'd just like to add that Nick Cerio's Kenpo is a (mostly) striking art that is heavily heavily focused on practical self defense. If that's what you're looking for, NCK will guide you to it. Also, Shihan Clement (who owns and operates the Canada location) is currently the highest ranking NCK practicioner. Just a little tidbit of info. Good luck!

I've been doing Nick Cerio's Kenpo for a while now (related to Ed Parker's). My school has never been involved in any tournaments. The focus is on practical self defense, so we perform techniques such as eye gouges and breaks fairly often. NCK is a composite of techniques mostly from karate, ju jutsu, and K.S. Chow's kenpo. It consists mostly of hand techniques, and of its few kicks almost none are higher than the solar plexus (the two basic kicks are front kick to the solar plexus and rising instep kick to the groin). Its self defense techniques as defenses against a variety of techniques from your basic punches to bear hugs, headlocks, and wrist and lapel grabs. The difference between kenpo and kempo, as far as I have read, is fairly insignificant. It is ultimately just a spelling difference (there is, I am told, a particular japanese character that normally stands for an N sound, but when followed by a P sound becomes an M sound - so both are pronounced "kempo"). I have read that schools that use the "kenpo" spelling are usually modern self defense oriented systems (like mine) while schools that use the spelling "kempo" are usually more traditional systems. I've never been able to verify that myself though. As far as a kickboxer versus a kenpo student? I hate to see this, but it depends on a lot, mostly the two martial artists and the context. In the ring, a kickboxer would probably win most of the time. The rules are set up to favor him, and the purpose of the encounter more closely match the kickboxer's training (winning in the ring, rather than self defense). On the street, I'd say the kickboxer still has a pretty big advantage, mostly because most sport martial artists train physically a lot more, and also because someone who did ONLY kenpo as their martial art would have trouble defending against tough kicks. Kenpo (NCK at least) is mostly designed as a self defense system, and its techniques more often than not have an unskilled attacker in mind. My 2 cents.

I've been assisting my instructor with the younger kids' classes at my school for the last three years or so, so I have a lot of experience in how to do deal with karate re: little kids. Most of my students are around the ages of 8 - 10. In my opinion, I think you should have broken them up. While it is possible to learn much about oneself in a street fight, kids that young really don't have anything to learn about yet. As his older brother, you are a role model to him; your influence is strong on him. After stopping the fight, THEN you should have talked to him and gave him the "fighting is bad, but if you HAVE to fight, then this is the way to do it..." speech. You shouldn't encourage your little brother to just fight for a couple reasons. At his age he's not particularly likely to get hurt in a street fight, but as he gets older the fights get steadily more dangerous, especially as younger and younger kids these days are carrying weapons like baseball bats or knives. It's also not unheard of for even kids to organize "jump mobs" after a fight - fighting could get your little bro in serious trouble if he doesn't understand what "self defense" means. The law gets increasingly more strict about fighting as people get older as well. Just remember all that.