 Kempo 5.0 is a hybrid version of American Kempo established by Master Jeff Speakman and it fuses together traditional stand-up fighting with a grappling system. Master Speakman rose to fame with the martial arts classic film The Perfect Weapon and he has continued forward as a prominent figure teaching seminars and growing his system Kempo. Now we caught up with Mr. Speakman at one of his seminar tours here in South Florida to talk to him about more about what Kempo 5.0 is and what it's like teaching in the current martial landscape. Can you give us a quick summary of what Kempo 5.0 is? Yes it's Kempo's answer to how to use your Kempo on the ground so it incorporates a huge amount of what you or I would look at and see as Jujitsu or as MMA and then that is incorporated into what we do. So from the view from 10,000 feet it's gonna look like oh okay Monday Wednesday Friday you guys do Kempo Tuesday Thursday you do Jujitsu but that really isn't accurate because there are things that we do down in there that they don't do because they're a sport and we're an art so they have rules and we have none. So the short version is what I did what we did collectively all of us is we sort of learned what your rules were which now we know what you don't do and then we try to take advantage of that little window of opportunity like protecting the groin for example forever I've had this conversation with MMA guys and some of some note that you know they go you know you can't kick to the groin when why do you do that and I said we were here from 1953 you're the ones that took it out so I so I get it I understand that but you're the one that took it out we didn't bring it in. So at what point did you decide that it was worth starting over from scratch rather than just tweaking the current structures? Well that the answer to that question is actually very very long it's a long process let me put it this way you will be very hard-pressed to find another person who's more grateful to the Gracie and Machado family than me or everybody who's in my organization because you shoved it down our throat you know you you brought the harsh reality of what you do and to arts like older Kempo who had no answer for once you're down there what do you do their answer was well we don't do that and and my answer that is whether you want to or not you're gonna do that you know you're what are what are the real threat what's the real probability that you or I are gonna go to the ground in a street altercation given how popular that is now throw on that that I'm six foot two fifty two so who are you gonna want to stand up and duke it out with me because you don't know who I am or you want to take me to ground take all my striking away and then try to maul me down there so the chance in my opinion is far greater than fifty percent that if I or someone like me winds up in a street altercation and you have that skill set your first goal is to get me off my feet that's your first job and if you're even moderate that you don't even have to be very good you're gonna be successful you know that this is really my bigger message of the Kempo world we got to stop saying we don't do that you would never be able to take me down I just poke him in the eye or I'd bite him you won't you won't the argument that I want to make for the rest of the Kempo world to reflect on is we got to get rid of the idea that I don't need to learn that unless you really don't care about the effectiveness of the art you don't care about how Ed Parker affected your life or my life or the life in the world of the martial art I care deeply about that and he did by the way ask all of us us being his black belt to continue to modify and change the art over time to make sure it doesn't become irrelevant you know big words now that statement's got to be 40 years old right so you think about that 40 years ago he saw this coming you know and everyone that I know that knew him they all in one way or another say the same thing which is if he were alive today he would have addressed absolutely he would have addressed the issue now would it look exactly like what we do sort of kind of like we do nothing like what we do who knows but I believe completely that because I knew him very well I referred as Parker at Parker is the Einstein of martial arts I really do think he was that brilliant and the thing that made Einstein and people like him so amazing which you read about their life is they're able to look at the same thing everybody else is looking at and see something completely different and that's what made them amazing in their world and that is the definition of who Ed Parker was and what he did he he was able to look at this and and bring the science and the physics he Americanized it by bringing the science into these ancient Chinese fighting techniques now we took that and yes we took it further we brought in the application of Newtonian physics and the the mass and acceleration through time and space and action Rick but but he was already doing all that we just took it down here on the ground so we like you a Kempo guy you talk about checking a line of entry with a strike or a positional check or whatever well we do the same thing laying on the ground so it is a Kempo ground system that when you stand back like this it looks like jiu-jitsu or MMA but it really isn't it's a Kempo ground system okay so now that you've got Kempo 5.0 and you tell yourself what's ready how did you go about releasing it into the wild wow it was a if you use the term grassroots now I had a seminar here where I was able to share and ask and exchange these ideas with people many of them knew me I knew them from many many years ago but most of them have never had a 5.0 seminar with me when they had seminars with me as pre 5.0 so now I was able to talk to them and say this is what is needed this is how we think and this is what took us from here to there and then they can in turn ask me questions and then they can think about it but I'm not trying to get you to leave that guy or girl and come with me it isn't my game I don't need to do that but I am very much involved in the game of evolving Kempo and getting the message out which is we are doing exactly what had Parker asked us to do and the fact that you're not may make you angry or may make you not like me or whatever I'm good with that what is it like teaching the people who have never seen Kempo before versus Kempo veterans yeah but big big difference there it is so much easier teaching people who never did Kempo before there's a natural and understandable resistance from that because you do have a connection to whether it's your system or your instructor or your fellow students or black belts or what have you and and certainly of course I understand that but the necessity to change is very clear when you started teaching seminars did you get a lot of pushback from the Kempo community yes and no that's very much an individual personality kind of assessment if we go back to the first days when it first came out of what I was doing keeping in mind that I on every step of every way I went to the Kempo senior person that I attached myself to after Mr. Parker died died who Steve was Steve Lubbani he's now transitioned to the other side as well but I went to Steve Lubbani with every single thing when I did my first videos on this I see he was the first one to see them and I got in he's a very very disciplined old school very much and I got nothing but praise and encouragement from him on every step whenever I wanted to test for another degree in black belt I went to Lou Angel who taught me first and I went to Steve Lubbani in Kempo what is some advice you can offer for anyone looking for a Kempo instructor you will learn a lot about that instructor by looking at the students not the instructor that's what I encourage everybody to do because you could be wowed by the talents and speed of somebody who's really amazing at what they do but I'm not impressed by you I'm impressed by what you can do to help other people and that is the difference if I may between martial fighting and martial art right martial fighting is I must cause someone to fall from myself to advance very important we need that we do it we have our own system of competition called 50 fighter so it's not like I'm not in that game I'm in that game but I have an in perspective because the important thing is not who you can hurt but who you can help though if you want to be a martial artist you would actually sacrifice something of yourself to help someone else rise above as opposed to you causing them to fall so you can rise above and if I think if we use that as a template of how to be in the world of how to choose to be a martial artist over a martial fighter that it's not about the let me put it this way the lowest common denominator that we share as martial artists is that we can beat somebody up is it necessary absolutely so yes the application the street application of the arts is absolutely imperative but it is not the end game the end game is to enlighten yourself and to raise your own personal vibration so you can help to raise the vibration of other people around you what's the value of that because then when you die and you're going to you have actually made a difference you've made the world a better place because you were here and that is what makes you special or makes you a jerk so people are always asking me where they can find a Kemple 5.0 school because they don't always have them located near them can you tell us about your online Kemple 5.0 program you bet big deal that's has been a game changer so and that is we took our entire system put in agonizing detail teaching every one of the 145 techniques putting every set and every kata clearly slowly explain everything on video that video is on the website just speak and dot com you and any of the plus 5000 students around the world have access to that 24 seven anywhere in the world on any device so you can be having lunch in Italy pull up your cell phone and go to just speak and dot com and pull up the technique you can't quite remember you can sit there and watch it then I wrote all of them which you can print the written version and have an accumulative journal if you wish and though that's also right now available to you in Spanish also being translated into French Flemish and German but because of that we created a thing called the online university which you just brought up anybody can anywhere in the world now can go to just speak and dot com click on the online university and be directly connected with Jenny Kuiper who runs that part of the world anywhere in the world you can now study Kemple 5.0 through her through this online portal and she archives all of her classes so you could be in Dubai you can be in any time zone in the world you want and just watch those lessons as they become available to you you can test online but only through purple belt when you go to blue or above so for us at the blue then green then brown and then black when you go to blue or above you must physically travel to a school somewhere in the world and it might be a long journey might not everybody wants to go to Las Vegas I live in Las Vegas so come and study at my school and test there if you want once you're in the 5.0 family all of the schools around the world at your home so you belong to the online academy but next month you're going to go to Sydney Australia on a vacation or visit a family or whatever call the school David Geo Manco that we have in Sydney and go train with them for free because once you're a part of my family you're welcome everywhere in the world where we have a school you want to come and be a part of that energy that I'm talking about and come join us become part of the 5.0 solution and you will be welcomed and we can have a wonderful life together if you don't want to play by that game if you're here for rank if you have jumped rank this is a real big problem so much of the Kemple world is using are using black belt diplomas as a currency you come into my association and you're a third I'll give you a fourth who are you to get you can't do that except it's happening everywhere and it gets worse there are people at jump rank I personally know people who are 50 degree black belt then went to this other association that day they got an eighth degree black belt what happened to six and seven and if you follow Mr. Parker's direction there's a five year minimum between each belt from fifth and above so you just jumped 10 or 15 years now do you have the right to do that yes but here's the other question how do you think that makes me and all of my black belts around the world feel nobody gets a free pass on my home nobody for one reason I didn't I didn't take this is a tenth and that I just got after 45 years and my eighth ninth tenth seventh all the way down the line that was a test I got out in line with my students in front of a board of 12 to 15 of the senior black belts from every different style all the way around the world and there was only one person that I would accept a 10th degree black belt from and that was from Benny or Kitas so I was so thrilled when he immediately said yes it would be an honor I would love to do that and we're chatting about this and he said not only are you the first 10th degree black belt I've ever promoted which I had no idea he said you will be the last and I was really rocked by that and once again what an honor to have that and I understand it I I get how important it is and I I respect it and I love it I just love it now I will spend the rest of my life in martial arts trying to live up to the great honor that he gave me the last point I would like to make for everybody who's watching him by the way thank you so much for what you've done for me and for 5-0 in the past that the interviews we've done in the past I'm telling you it's been an avalanche of people really responding so positively to what you've done so my gratitude for helping me to do that but the last thing I would like to say is is the the single most common cause of death around the world is birth and and because you're born because there's a beginning there's gonna be an end so the conversation we should be having is what are you gonna do with your billion to billion and a half heartbeats what are you doing to help the common good my choice is to do it through the world of the martial arts it's really about the love and the friendship that we dearly have for one another I love my black belt and I know they love me and that is number one a distant second is the karate so these are lessons of how to be a better human and that is what I would like people to reflect on a great big thank you the master's speakman for taking a moment to speak with us and sharing his experience with Campbell 5.0 now if you want a more detailed look at the camp of 5.0 system they click right here you'll learn about how he went about building the system as well as the fighting structure with the camp of 5.0 fighter program