Kenpo/Kempo Roll Call

[Pacificshore]

Ahh seems that I'm a bit on the late side

 

At any rate, I was first involved in Chinese Kenpo which is where I got my first rank. It was more along the Okinawan lines when it came to kata. We had all the pinan katas, a version of Bassai, Kusanku, and other Okinawa forms. We also learned some animal forms which I don't recall where they all came from. My instructor and his instructor came up by way of the Ron Alo lineage through Chow.

 

I an currently with Professor Chow's Kara-Ho Kempo which is under the guidance of Grandmaster Sam Kuoha. I find this version of Kempo more along the Chinese lines as the katas are completely different from my other style of Kempo. The self defense techinques however tend to be similar, with the addition of 2 and 3 man techniques. Kara-Ho is a more traditional system as compared to say Parker's system of Kenpo.

[Jbone1]

Some insightful things on here. I think i"m gonna get into the Kenpo limb of the tree in our school. I'm learning a form performed by Master Tatum on the Panther productions tape. Black Belt form 6, it's cool but I should learn the basics first. I can do the movements but I need to hit the roots.

 

I love the hand techniques I mean my hands wore sore after practicing the form numerous times because of the changing of hand weapons so often. It's great and I love it.

 

I want to know about Steve Sanders and Donnie Williams. One of these guys Bruce Lee claimed to have the fastest hands he ever seen.

[TheDevilAside]

American Kenpo...

 

My lineage is.. uh... I'll get back to you on that

[delta1]

American Kenpo...

 

My lineage is.. uh... I'll get back to you on that

 

We tend not to be too concerned with our lineage, as the family tree starts with Mr. Parker not that long ago. And tracing the roots of AK is not only impossible, but leads to many debates that are better left to the pseudo historians on the American Kenpo forums elsewhere!

[P.A.L]

are there any common katas between Kempo and shuri-te?

[Shorin Ryuu]

A lot. Yesterday, my instructor and I were just talking about the way we saw a Kyoshi in our system do Gojushiho and remarked that one of the moves may have been the way it's actually done in Oyata's system(or was it Odo's? It was one of them). This Kyoshi was actually the first (and perhaps only?) non-Kenpo practitioner asked to be a member of their high-ranking board since he was that close-in with them. I wish I remember what the name of it was, but basically, a permanent association of high ranking kenpo practitioners for the purpose of sharing the arts. He respectfully declined, but the point is, they do share a lot of kata.

 

For example, some traditional Okinawan karate kata in Ryukyu kenpo are the Naihanchi, the Pinan kata, Seisan, Passai, Kusanku, Gojushiho...there are others, but the list goes one (varying from style to style). My instructor went so far as to say that some Ryukyu kenpo stuff was basically Shorin Ryu because a lot of instructors were the same and the close sharing of kata. The names of styles aren't too important, but the point is that they are extremely close in practice and theory.

[Sauzin]

But again the above answer only applies to Okinawan Kenpo's. Not George Dilman's, American Kenpo, or any of the Chinese Arts. These arts share no similar kata's with Shorin-ryu or other Shuri-te systems except for George Dilman's Kenpo who's kata bears some resemblance to issinryu's (a blend of go-ju and shorin-ryu) but really they are so different in the way he performs them that they really shouldn't be associated. Dilman doesn't exactly focus on kata fundamentals except for how it applies to pressure points, and that’s only about 10% of what is to be gained from a Shorin-ryu kata. Really when you're talking Shuri-te and Kenpo styles other then Nakamura's lineage then you're talking aples and oranges. Maybe even apples and zucchini.

[gojuchad]

I trained kenpo for a few months and really liked it unfortunately the school went under, I now train goju and love it but best of luck to all of you kenpo people

[delta1]

But again the above answer only applies to Okinawan Kenpo's. Not George Dilman's, American Kenpo, or any of the Chinese Arts. These arts share no similar kata's with Shorin-ryu or other Shuri-te systems except for George Dilman's Kenpo who's kata bears some resemblance to issinryu's (a blend of go-ju and shorin-ryu) but really they are so different in the way he performs them that they really shouldn't be associated.

 

I see your point, however I think you are looking at this very superficially. True enough the systems use different kata/forms, and they emphasize different things. But much of the basics and movements are a lot alike. It is the differences that we want to talk about- not because one is better, but because we can learn from each others different perspectives. The same goes for talking to stylists who are radically different, which is the reason a lot of us come here to a mixed forum. But because of the similarities, however many or few, in the Kempo family of systems, some of us think it can be a special bennifit to talk directly to each other.

[Sauzin]

I see your point, however I think you are looking at this very superficially. True enough the systems use different kata/forms, and they emphasize different things. But much of the basics and movements are a lot alike. It is the differences that we want to talk about- not because one is better, but because we can learn from each others different perspectives. The same goes for talking to stylists who are radically different, which is the reason a lot of us come here to a mixed forum. But because of the similarities, however many or few, in the Kempo family of systems, some of us think it can be a special bennifit to talk directly to each other.

I respect that, really I do. I see the point of forums for things such as comparative arts and discussing similarities and differences. But there is one thing I don't think the martial arts community really understands. The only thing connecting most of the different Kenpo styles out there is a name. Basics and movements are not a lot alike. Not any more then what you would see if you compared any two random martial arts. You can find similarities anywhere but these different Kenpo styles come from completely different roots. It's similar to taking UFC, Goju-ryu, and Tai chi then renaming them Mixed Kenpo, Traditional Kenpo, and Slow Kenpo and then calling them a family. I'm sorry but they aren't. Maybe you need to get a forum together and talk directly to figure this out, but reality has it you'd find more similarities if you went to the comparative arts forum.