 Back in 2018, we did three episodes based on the history of American Kempo. They're the origin of, the evolution of, and then history on the Kempo crest. Now we've gotten a lot more viewers since then. So what we're doing now is now it's the end of the year. Things are kind of wrapping up and we're putting our efforts into next year's video topics. We are re-releasing all three Kempo videos in one video here. So for those of you who have not seen it yet, here you go. Here's all three episodes, easy access. Now for those of you who have already seen it, we've added additional information and you can find those timecode marks below in the description. So thank you all so much for your support. Keep an eye out for 2021. We've got several more history of topics in the works and we can't wait to get into our material and see what next year has to bring. Thank you so much and enjoy the presentation. The origin of American Kempo. This topic hits a little close to home for me because this is my art that I've trained in for 25 years. Now there are many different styles of Kempo out there, each with their own unique characteristics. Established in the 1950s by senior grandmaster Ed Parker, American Kempo is an amalgam of martial arts with roots going back to Japan and China, as well as elements that are custom tailored for American street fighting. In this video, we're going to take a look at where the seeds of inspiration began and how Mr. Parker went about crafting the system that became a science of motion. Kempo Karate has a long history of various Japanese, Okinawan and Chinese roots. This video is going to explore specifically the type of Kempo that was brought to the United States and developed into Ed Parker's American Kempo system. Ed Parker does touch upon some of Kempo's historical development in his Infinite Insights book series, which can be found in the description below. This story begins with a man named James M. Matosi. James Matosi was born to Japanese parents in Kona, Hawaii in 1916. Just shy of age four, Matosi was taken back to Japan to receive a formal education in upbringing. It was during this time growing up there that he studied and learned the family system of Chuanfa, or Chinese Kempo. Matosi's ancestors had continually modified and grew the system to include a balance of religion and humanities along with the fighting art. This family Kempo system is sometimes referred to as Koshoreyu, or Old Pine Tree style. Matosi's style featured strong kicks and linear techniques. In 1936, Matosi returned to Hawaii and began teaching his family Kempo, which he sometimes referred to as Kempo Jujitsu. Ed Parker had once stated that he believed Matosi had modified the name so that the general public understood it was a fighting art. As the name Kempo was not familiar at the time, however, Jujitsu was. One of Matosi's most prominent students was a man named William K. S. Chow. Chow had various martial arts training growing up, including the background in boxing, Jujitsu, and karate. He trained under his Chinese-born father and eventually under James Matosi. This is where Ed Parker believed the seeds of the modern system of American Kempo were planted. James Matosi taught linear techniques and takedowns, while Chow's father had taught him many circular movements. Having grown up on the streets of Honolulu and in constant street fights, Chow saw value in merging the two ideals together and into a system designed for American street fighting. He began to modify and grow this art into what he ultimately called Karahou Kempo. Now before going any further, let's talk about the name. There is a lot of confusion regarding the difference between Kempo and Kempo. Going back to the Chinese root word of Chuanfa, this translates into fist law. When Chuanfa is translated into Japanese, it becomes Kempo. However, in the rules of Kanji, when a character ends with N, it is pronounced with the N sound, except when followed by another character that starts with P. In that instance, the N will make an M sound. This would mean that Kempo is technically spelled with an N, but should be pronounced with an M. Through romanization, it is sometimes spelled Kempo, but we are at the point where translation errors have created two ways to spell and pronounce the same word. Edmund K. Parker was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1931. He started his martial arts training at the age of 12 when he began to study judo, earning his black belt six years later. He also later trained in boxing and was even an amateur boxing champion. But it was at the age of 16 that his martial arts path took its first major turn. At a church function, Parker met a man named Frank Chao, who was telling everyone about a street fight he had just won against a local bully. Frank Chao had a small build and Parker was doubtful of his claims until Chao demonstrated the techniques he had used to defend himself. Parker was impressed and he became a student of Chao. Having been involved in multiple altercations himself growing up, he constantly asked Chao questions and showed a great desire to truly understand the system. One day, Frank Chao told Parker that he had taught him everything that he could and that he should seek out his brother William, who at this point was a top instructor in Honolulu. Parker sought out William Chao and knew immediately he was on the right path. Chao was quick and exhibited an extreme knowledge of human mechanics and motion. This is where Ed Parker began to develop a deep analysis and critical thinking in the martial arts. In 1949, Ed Parker moved to Provo, Utah to attend Brigham Young University. Two years later, the Korean War broke out and Parker found himself drafted into the Coast Guard. Almost as if fate had planned it, he was stationed in Hawaii where he would be able to continue his training with Chao full-time. When the war ended and Parker was to return to the university, he had made plans with Chao to open Kenpo Karate schools in the mainland USA upon his graduation. The two agreed and Parker returned to Brigham Young University. While he was there, he established the Kenpo Karate Club and began teaching. During this experience, Parker took every question, comment and disagreement and began to rework the Kenpo system, implementing key concepts of motion that Chao had taught him. This was the beginning of the living system that would become American Kenpo Karate. Realizing that modern American fighting needed further development, he began to cultivate the seeds that William Chao had planted. Parker added new concepts, altered existing methods and removed anything he felt was obsolete. He constantly modified his Kenpo and implemented the system of laws and principles that would become the backbone of the art. As his teaching grew in popularity at BYU, the school asked Parker to conduct a basketball half-time karate demo, which proved very successful. Soon, Parker was teaching various students including local law enforcement and even part-time at the local gym. In 1956, Ed Parker graduated from Brigham Young with a bachelor's in sociology and he accepted a job at a new gym in Pasadena, California. However, the deal fell through, so Parker made the choice to open up his first Kenpo Karate school instead and established the Kenpo Karate Association of America. In 1957, Ed Parker authored the Kenpo Creed, which would be recited at just about every Kenpo school from there on out, including today. We even have our own kids recite this in every class. Grandkids, up! Things were going as planned for Parker and anxious to fulfill the promise he had made with William Chow, he flew back to Hawaii to bring him to California and continue with their plans to open more Kenpo schools. Chow, however, no longer wished to leave Hawaii and he gave Ed Parker his blessing and told him to go forth and build his new American Kenpo. One of Ed Parker's first moves was to restructure the KKAA and reform it into the International Kenpo Karate Association with the hopes of a global spread of the art. He reworked the emblem and developed what is today the most iconic image of the American Kenpo Karate system, the IKKA Kenpo Karate Crest. This crest, worn over the heart of each practitioner, is infused with symbolism and tributes. However, we will take a closer look at this in the third part of this three-episode Kenpo series. Ed Parker drove a hard effort forward to spread the art and it wasn't long until Kenpo was becoming a name of its own. He became known among Hollywood talent and actors teaching at different clubs and holding several demonstrations. It was at one of these demonstrations in 1960 that Ed Parker met a man by the name of Elvis Presley. Elvis had held an affinity for martial arts and from that point on the two of them developed a close friendship. Elvis became a prominent representative and brought even more awareness to Kenpo. Throughout his professional career, Ed Parker instructed and worked with many of the Hollywood elite. In 1964, Ed Parker launched the first Long Beach International Karate Championships, a high-end tournament that still exists today. Throughout the 70s and 80s, Ed Parker toured and spread the art of Kenpo across the United States and even branched out internationally. He released several publications and became one of the most notable martial artists in the country. Described as a living force, Ed Parker touched many lives and created the torch of an art that would be passed down from generation to generation. On December 15, 1990, Grandmaster Ed Parker suffered a massive heart attack at the Honolulu Airport after returning home and he passed away. He was 59 years old and the Kenpo community had lost a father. Throughout his life teaching Kenpo, Ed Parker continued to modify and adapt his art. He'd like to take movements apart and put them back together again in different configurations, turning the American Kenpo into an organic and living art. And Ed Parker was always evolving. He would do it spontaneously right there in a class setting, but he was always doing that and he wanted to really get across about tailoring the art to fit the individual. He wanted these to be a template. He didn't want it to be concrete. Quite honestly, I think Ed Parker would only always be changing and always alter. Now he did say follow the general rules and principles. I think when Mr. Parker said that the art should be tailored to the individual and not the other way around, what he was talking about was that rules and principles can be used by an individual differently from other individuals. For instance, you know, I'm 5'5", there's people that are 6'3", you know, bigger, I'm little. There's things that they can do that I can't do. And just because a technique says, well, it needs to be done this way, that it's teaching you a concept and a rule. Borrowing from various Chinese, Okinawan, and Japanese systems, he observed the flow and the patterns of motions and created one of Kenpo's most iconic emblems, universal pattern. The universal pattern is a sophisticated study, as the circles and lines are all intertwined in a way to demonstrate the different paths and methods the human body can move. It may seem simplistic at face value, however, it's easy to see just how volumetric this design is once you realize you're only looking at one plane. In its full form, the universal pattern of motion exists on nine planes, and then you can begin to see just how dynamic it truly is. The universal pattern was just no more than to teach geometry movement, the body movement. Like your body was a marking pen or pencil, and he would use the pattern, he would have it on the uniform, talk about the salutation all the way up where you want your hands like this and you come up like this, you can see the heart. Well the upside down of that is form six, right? So he would use that so you understood the movement that you're to illustrate like a mime and he did tell us that it was infinite. In other words, he himself never reached its potential. What makes American Kenpo different from other styles of self-defense? The signature difference is the scientific method and academics apply to the art. American Kenpo is often called the science of motion or the science of fighting. It analyzes all of the different ways the human body can move and react and it applies a series of principles or laws of how those movements work and how they can be utilized. For example, one of the primary principles of Kenpo is economy of motion. If I had to pick one principle, I would say economy of motion. You know, trying to be as efficient as possible to deliver the effect that you want without wasting energy. Other key principles are point of origin or being able to execute strikes and movements from your current position without having to load or telegraph movements. There are also power principles that dictate the different ways that you can generate power as well as the dimensional zone concepts which studies ways to manipulate a person's height, depth and range along with a zone of obscurity or passive attack outside of an opponent's peripheral vision. Kenpo is very heavy on the academics and it takes years to learn and understand it. Many people often criticize it for being bloated and extraneous. However, if you can dedicate the time to understanding the science behind the art then you can mold the art in many different effective ways. In the words of Mr. Parker you understand the principles that are involved throughout. You understand principles, you now become a mechanic of motion. You become a mechanic of motion. You can dissect it, take it apart, put it together on your own. Okay? Then after a while you're going to try to be an engineer of motion. Another heavily stressed aspect of American Kenpo is the encouragement of students to ask questions. In many traditional forms of martial arts it is considered disrespectful to question an instructor on their teaching as if asking the question why is an insult. William Chow and Ed Parker firmly believe that in order to understand the how it was important to know the why. Kenpo students are encouraged to ask why a technique is done a certain way or to compare it with an alternative method. A Kenpo instructor should be able to answer these questions and give reasons given they understand the principles that are put into place. I've done other arts and I feel like Kenpo is a science-based art. You know, you're studying motion. It's not just, hey, do this because I'm doing it and you're actually allowed to question your instructor and go, well, why would I do that instead of this? Like, you know, I like the rules and principles behind it. Kenpo also breaks away from other karate systems and drops the traditional Japanese words and commands and replace them with new English terms. Ed Parker utilized these new terms as memorization tools for self-defense techniques. For example, maces fist, kimono is shirt grab, talon is a wrist grab, wing is an elbow strike, and much, much more. These terms were often used to describe the essence of a technique. For example, crossing talon means a crossed wrist grab. Lone kimono is someone grabbing your shirt with one hand where twin kimono is a technique based off a double hand grab. The Kenpo syllabus is robust, containing much more curriculum than most other systems. For each bout level, students must learn a set of basics, a list of self-defense techniques, and a kata or form. Basics include strikes, blocks, stances, parries, and foot maneuvers. Katas are separated into two categories, forms and sets. Sets are individual katas that focus on an isolated concept such as blocking or stances. Forms are much more dynamic in that they demonstrate many of Kempo's principles in motion, highlighting and teaching key concepts, and showing how movement and ideas can flow smoothly from one technique to another. American Kempo's self-defense curriculum is one of the system's signature features, and yet also one that receives the most criticism. Each bout level has a series of pre-choreograph scenarios in which a partner comes in with a single attack and a defender executes a sequence of defensive moves and follows it with a series of rapid strikes to vital target areas. These strikes are designed to incapacitate the attacker so that the defender can escape. Many tournaments, demonstrations, and schools will hold a technique line drill in which students line up and take turns performing these techniques on each other. The line drill serves a couple of different purposes. First, it teaches the student how to apply the technique on a human body and understanding how the body will react to certain strikes. It also teaches spontaneous thinking when a person may not react exactly as expected or a particular move didn't work so that the student has to adjust their strategy on the fly. Additionally, it's a major conditioning drill. Those who have trained at a serious Kempo school, especially from a parker disciple, know that it is not light contact. By taking the hits as well as giving them, the Kempo student becomes conditioned and is less shocked later when actually hit. In the classes I studied in, our concept was we wanted to get hit harder in class than we would on the street, so that way it would take away the surprise element of getting hit. Now, this is where the controversy begins. The two most common criticisms are you can't choreograph a fight and no one is going to just stand there while you hit them 20 times. The answer to that is absolutely 100% correct. A fight will never go as choreographed and no one is just going to stand there and let you tap the answer all over them. However, the Kempo techniques are not actually meant to be performed exactly as they are written. I think when people say Kempo is choreographed, they don't realize or they don't understand that the techniques are not designed to be followed as a recipe, but they're designed as teaching tools to teach you the moves and basics and the rules and principles of Kempo. So, yes, I agree, you're not going to be able to do a seven move technique on one person, but you definitely will be able to do pieces of those moves in a circumstance when you need it. It's too choreographed, so is going to school learning how to write. Everything is systematic. You've got to learn the alphabet. So Ed Parker did it in the martial arts. You've got to learn the alphabet of motion. You know, what's funny too is in boxing, they do a thing called shadow boxing to warm up, yes? Nobody ever critiques that. But a Kempo guy or a martial artist on social media does their form. Boy, everybody comes out of the world of work on how they're the best. Not realizing forms and kata is the same as shadow boxing in boxing. You're just doing solo training without a partner. Just giving you the memory of sequence. Each technique sequence is designed to teach specific principles or ideas. One technique will introduce an attack, while another might demonstrate how a power principle can be used. Another may highlight the concept of point of origin, while yet another shows new stance changes. Each self-defense technique teaches nuggets of information that are embedded in a sample sequence to show how they can be used. In reality, none of those sequences are meant to work exactly as they are written. There are actually three phases of Kempo self-defense. The ideal phase, the what if phase, and the formulation phase. So the differences between the ideal is when everything goes according to the way the technique is written, the attack is perfect, your defense was perfect, the timing is executed perfectly, so it's ideal. You get the response that you want it. The what if is, you know, somewhere along that, something changed, they maybe threw in, or they moved their hand to a different position, now you have to alter or change the technique. And then formulation or the freestyle is when you don't know what's coming and then you just have to react and shift from one technique to another. The ideal is to teach them this is the threat, this is what we do. Because in the educational world, this is the word, this is how you pronounce it. Now let's give you a couple more words. Add them to this, you have an now it's a sentence. Once you get into the tune of I've never been in that position before and you start to build up a sense of bravery, it's no longer foreign to you. But if we give you this punch, that punch, this kick, this attack, it's foreign to you. So we teach you all these possible positions in the ideal. Then what if I go to do an elbow and they block me? Well what if we teach you that you find your own solution. And we may fix and give that to you too, hence extensions. And a lot of the extensions are just more additional information to complete categories. If you can do it with your right hand, let's teach you with the left hand for the classroom setting. This is our laboratory by the way. Out in the street, it's on you. There's where the last stage comes in. Grafting, formulation, spontaneous. Just go through it. If I threw this punch, you've seen that before. If I've done that grab, you've seen it before. If I put you in a reverse arm bar, you've seen that before. If I threw a combination, you've seen it before. For most people who don't study Kempo, only usually ever see the ideal phase and judge the system on misplaced choreography without understanding that there is a lot more to it than is not seen at demos or tournaments. Traditionally, karate blackbells are called Dan's and are named by their translation of first Dan, second Dan, and so on. In American Kempo, the word degree is used and each degree actually has a title. Mr. Parker liked to view Kempo as an educational and academic system, so black belt ranks started with junior instructor and worked their way up to senior master. Depending on which curriculum you followed, by the time you reach third to fifth degree, you've been through the entire written curriculum and have completed all of the official testing. From that point on, a person moves up to black belt ranks by teaching, analyzing and implementing new concepts and by contributing back to the art of Kempo. American Kempo karate can be an amazing system to study. However, it also has one of the most polarized communities. When Mr. Parker passed away unexpectedly, he left a major gap in leadership. He had not appointed a successor, and in his absence, many chiefs stepped up to lead the tribe. However, due to Kempo's ever-changing nature and from constant modifications Mr. Parker implemented, each generation of his blackbells had a better version of Kempo than the next. This led to some nasty politics in the system and brought on a lot of, my version is better, sentiments. The politics in American Kempo, unfortunately, are just like the real world. Everyone has their own opinion and if you don't agree with them, then you're not doing Kempo. Politics will always be. If it bothers you, it will. If it don't, that's why they have a delete button on your keyboard. So that reminds me of a joke in 1999 to tell them that's not how Mr. Parker taught. This is really unfortunate because the system can be incredibly flexible as long as you still adhere to the mechanics and principles in the foundation of the art. There are many Kempoists that recognize this and embrace the difference and share different tactics with other practitioners. And in that respect, Kempo has a fantastic sense of brotherhood and camaraderie. But others lose sight of that, and when that clash happens, the politics get ugly and at times become toxic to the Kempo community. American Kempo Karate It's heavy in curriculum. There is a lot to learn and it takes a while to become good at it. But if you find a school that can teach you the science and principles behind it along with critical thinking and application then it can be a highly effective art. I would only encourage anybody listening go to anyone you can that's considered part of that generation that is from the 60s, 70s, 80s and up to 90 that I was a part of. Get them now because they're getting out to the point by bad health or just because they're older or they're retiring. So they may not be around. But we do have a responsibility to groom the next generation correctly. I'd rather have the ability to congratulate a new white belt or a new yellow belt versus someone doing a self promotion. You know, it's like birth, right? Congratulations on your new baby. You know, we need some more birth. So speaking of the different parts of the Kempo curriculum, we've got your forms, your Kempo techniques, you got your spine, you got your basics. That's pretty standard. But there's also a piece of the curriculum that's missing that you don't really see very often anymore. And those are the freestyle techniques. And while some schools still teach them, most seem to have abandoned it. And it's pretty, it's a pretty significant chunk of curriculum big, you know, a lot of material in itself. So with freestyle techniques, you know, basically what they were is they were sequence of combinations of our basics put into different combinations and they were used offensively. You know, in contrast to our self-defense techniques, which are all defensive based, the freestyle techniques were meant to be used in sparring. So they're all advancing and they're all different combinations looking for different entries. And what they were meant for was they were meant to be a bridge between the self-defense techniques and sparring because one of the criticisms we always hear is, oh, you never see these self-defense techniques work in sparring. No, that's not what they are meant for. And the freestyle techniques were kind of a place to bridge ideas because the Kempo techniques teach us principles and how the basics work together. Well, now you take those principles and you put them into an aggressive combat style and then you take that practice and you try to see what you get to work in sparring. So it definitely had its place in their curriculum. Personally speaking, I only saw the first few combinations back in like 94, 93, 94. Our school had them for a little bit. So maybe for the first year we trained a little bit in the first couple of belt levels, but then my instructor dropped them. And honestly, I didn't give them a whole lot of thought until many, many years later and I realized, oh yeah, I wonder how to do freestyle techniques. So that's something I'm doing a little bit more of a deep dive into, but they were an interesting part of the curriculum if you look at it at a certain perspective. So the way these sequences work is they're all they're combinations of letters and numbers and each letter and number corresponds to a very specific basic move. And, you know, our techniques teach us specific principles, you know, like how to cancel an opponent's height, how to check zones and stuff like that. Well, so that's applied here. So for the example, sequence B1A, that's the first freestyle technique we learned. B stands for the base maneuver, which is the starting maneuver that we apply in our system. And, you know, generally speaking, you're in your fighting position, you take your lead hand, you kind of check and you pull down the opponent's lead hand and what that does is, simultaneously, you're canceling their height, width and depth. And that's what the principles teach you. And from there, so that's what B stands for, that's the base maneuver, the hand check and pull down. So the techniques will build off of that. The one means base switch. So we're not stepping forward, we're not moving, we're an in-place switch stance. And then the A, the lower case A, stands for a punch to the face. So B1A means we're doing that base maneuver, the pull down check, we're doing an in-place switch and doing a reverse punch to the face. That's the first one, B1A. In contrast, B1B, which is the next one, lower case B stands for a punch to the ribs instead of the face. So where B1A is check, rotate, punch to the face. B1B is check, rotate, punch to the ribs. So it's kind of teaching you the constant that you can go higher or low. Then we have the number. Again, the number is the stance used. So where one is an in-place switch, two would be a push drag. And so on. So each number that goes up is a different foot maneuver. You've got cross maneuvers, or crossovers you've got slide-ups. So they all build upon each other. So again, for example, so B2A would be B, that base maneuver, grabbing the arm and checking them down so you cancel the height, width and depth. Two is going to be the push drag. So we're not doing that in-place switch. We're doing the push drag and then the punch to the face. And then naturally speaking, B2B would be the same thing. Check, push drag, punch to the ribs. So basically it's a very simple concept. So each letter and number corresponds to a basic. Now where it gets confusing is, and I'm not going to lie, it can get pretty complicated as you advance up in the belts because you've got a certain, you know, handful of sequences for each belt level. Once you get up with like the blues and the greens, the sequences get long and I'm not going to lie. It looks like somebody sneezed while typing. And, you know, you look at it like what does that mean? Because you've got Ks, you've got other stuff in there, but honestly what it is, is once you learn the base maneuver, you're only adding a little module at a time, module at a time. So by the time you get to these later techniques, the later sequences, these others should be second natures and should be smooth. And the truth of the matter is it's just like the self-defense techniques. They're not written in stone. It's not saying you have to do this base maneuver, you have to do the push drag, you have to do the punch. It's showing you the relationship of the basics, how you can use them in an offensive manner in sparring. So by the time you get to the higher sequences, you should be able to snap a hat reaction and do any combination that feels natural, applying the rules of the techniques and the principles, but now you're using your basics in an aggressive manner for sparring. So I'm taking it upon myself. This is kind of my personal study right now is, I'm going to dig deep. I have all the material. I'm going to try to learn them on my own and then see how I can apply them sparring and judge for myself was it justified and removing the freestyle techniques from, from multiple curriculums or is it kind of a missing gem that people are missing out on. So that's my personal experience. I'm going to try to do an experiment, take these and see how I can apply them to my own sparring. I will say for the record that B1A, the check down punch, I've used that many, many times in sparring very effectively. And I've even done variations where you check down with lead hand and snap to a back fist. So I do know at least at the root level, the information is good. So that's going to be my fun project to expand on that and see what I can play with. But for those of you who are not familiar or who might be familiar with the Kempl system, this was just a little bit of part of the curriculum. You don't see very often anymore, but it also addresses again the criticism where people go, oh, you never see these techniques applied in sparring. You don't because there's a reason. They're not meant for sparring. They're rules, they're teaching tools. The freestyle techniques again were a bridge to connect principles and basics to real life combat and then try to find the middle ground where you can practice them and break them down into bite size pieces. So that's freestyle techniques on the part two. Last week, we took a look at the origin of American Kempo Karate. That included the summary of how Senior Grandmaster Ed Parker took Chinese and Japanese influences, modified them heavily and developed his own system of self-defense. So let's take a tour of some of the larger variations of the art and examine the evolution of American Kempo Karate. In the previous video, we took a look at the origin of American Kempo and how Ed Parker learned a system of self-defense and then modified it to address American street fighting. I encourage watching that episode first if you haven't already, and there is a link in the description below. In this episode, we're going to build on that and take a look at this young system and how it evolved over the past 60 years. Now as I've said in previous videos, American Kempo has a very fractured community. There is a great divide between different organizations which often result in some nasty politics. Many of those politics and disagreements stem from the changes in the system we're going to be going over today. Now with that being said, the intention of this video is not to take any sides, discuss those politics, or to point any fingers at who may or may not be doing Kempo correctly. Our goal today is to explore the system of American Kempo and the stages it developed over the life of Ed Parker and some of the directions it has branched off to today. To summarize, a man by the name of James Matosi brought his family's customized style of Karate from Japan to Hawaii where one of his top students, William K. S. Chow, took it, blended it with his family's Chinese art background and created what he called Karaho Kempo. Hawaiian born Edmund K. Parker trained hard under Chow and with his blessing took the system and over his lifetime modified it into a systematic art emphasizing a scientific mindset and teaching it as a study of body mechanics. Mr. Parker was like a bigger than life person, his energy when, I don't know if you've ever been in the same room as him, but when he walked into the room it was like just an energy that you can't describe. You knew that there was something special about him that you didn't want to test or try. I actually have felt him do some stuff on me and even up as he got into his later fifties and close to his passing, he was still moving pretty good. He still moves very fast, very powerful very explosive. It was impressive to see it was scary to be on the other end of it hoping that he was going to have good control because things were coming to you fast and hard. American Kempo teaches its students an array of basics which includes strikes and maneuvers as well as a whole curriculum of principles and laws of motion. These principles are then put into a series of example self-defense sequences. Caught us, or forms, are also taught to teach a student a deeper study of those principles and how the mechanics of the system can flow together. These principles along with extensive sparring and freestyle tactics create an extremely robust self-defense system. It had been in quite a few street altercations that he could kind of see what worked, what didn't work and so it was cool to know that it was a battle-tested art. It wasn't just something that was given to you and said, do this and this is why. Ed Parker also believed in allowing his students to adapt the art for themselves and encouraged open thinking and contributions to the system as long as they adhere to the underlying principles. He wanted to tell people that no matter how you look at things you're going to find your strong points. I don't want to say it's complex but it is sophisticated to the point where it's not an ordinary practice because Ed Parker knew that some of the components of what we taught were going to be situations against a skilled fighter not just someone who's just throwing a punch kick or coming up on you and he also wanted you to find solutions. This opened the door for Kempo to become an organic community art. As a fun side note, for those of you who are familiar with Adriano and Burato he and his brother Joe were both top students under William Chow at the time Ed Parker began to train with them. Adriano would later go on to become one of the founders of Kajuganbo, a martial art with a mixture of karate, judo and jujitsu, Kempo and boxing. Although it took a very different path than Ed Parker did, it's interesting to think of how many arts today stem from the same roots. Ed Parker began teaching at Bringham Young University and eventually opened up his first Kempo school in 1956 in Pasadena, California. The Kempo he taught at this time was to ride from the system he had learned from Chow. Chow had also taught him advanced motion and Ed Parker took this information and began to restructure the art. He modified techniques, made additions and deleted anything he felt was obsolete. Students were encouraged to ask questions and he would modify the art based on his own experiences and that of a student. To Ed Parker, understanding why a technique was used was just as important as learning how to perform it. Based on the fact that we are allowed to question our instructor, growing up when I was doing traditional karate and taekwondo and I used to hear people say, when my instructor used to say, jump! You say, how high? I say, that's a lie. When my instructor said jump, I jump. If you wanted me to go higher, he'd say it higher. You never questioned your instructor. One of the first things I learned in American Kempo was to ask questions. You need to know the why. Why are you doing this? And that to me is superior because understanding it makes it so much easier for you to relate to it. In 1960, he released a book called Kempo Karate, Law of the Fist and the Empty Hand. This book was a fantastic guide for those training in the art at the time. It is loaded with instruction on traditions and etiquette, conditioning drills both mental and physical, the study of human anatomy, basic strikes and his entire curriculum of self-defense techniques. It is interesting to note that throughout this entire book, he refers to the system as Kempo Karate, not yet calling it American Kempo. As the system grew through the years, it was referred to by many names, such as original Kempo, traditional Kempo, Chinese Kempo, Ed Parker's Kempo and eventually American Kempo. Some of the distinct features of this version of Kempo that differ from today are the belt ranks and the organization of self-defense techniques. In this curriculum, there are only three belt colors, white, brown and black. Reds received brown stripes during promotion, brown belts received black stripes and black belts received red stripes, which red often represents the color of mastery. Ed Parker also created the KKAA or the Kempo Karate Association of America, as well as starting the Long Beach International Karate Championships in 1964. This event drew martial artists from all over the world and still exists today. The emblem for the IKC can be seen in full color representing all the belt colors of Kempo Karate at that time. The self-defense portion was composed of 62 techniques grouped together based on the attacks, such as tackles, grabs, punches, weapon attacks, and so on. This would be the basis of what would become the web of knowledge, or the way techniques would be categorized based upon the way a person was attacked. Each technique was broken up into modular steps and were simply referred to as 32A, 32B, 32C, and so on. As Ed Parker's system of self-defense grew, he wanted to spread out and open more schools to introduce Kempo Karate to more of the American population. In doing so, however, he understood that the system would need to be modified and he wanted to put together on paper a standard curriculum that would be taught at each Kempo school, keeping dojos unified and the quality of teaching consistent. Now, here is where the first major split of American Kempo occurred and also the source of much of the bad blood and politics that still linger today. Two of Mr. Parker's senior students were Alan Jim Tracy. They had connections on both sides and stemmed to some of the ugliest Kempo politics that still remained. Regardless of what happened, the Tracy brothers did not want to go the same path as Ed Parker and they parted ways. Al Tracy led the family in their own Kempo schools based heavily on the art they learned from Ed Parker. They kept many of the traditions and structure of the system as they grew and opened a very successful chain of schools that could still be found across the country today. Ed Parker dropped a modular breakdown eventually creating fuller and longer defense sequences of the traditions. If I was teaching like five swords, I'd go, okay, this is called Technique One block drop. Technique Two, Technique Three. So you had A, B, C, D, all this alphabet breakdown which we went into base technique and then the extension. So there wasn't more techniques, they just broke down more and named them with a letter attachment. The Tracy system of Kempo is one of the most widely known sister schools today with a successful competitive history and widespread reach across America. It's also generally accepted that the Tracy's took over the KKAA while Ed Parker created the International Kempo Karate Association during his effort to spread his art overseas. The two styles continued to diverge as Ed Parker continued to modify and change the system while the Tracy's embraced what they call original Kempo and claim a closer tradition to William Chow. In any case, despite any he said she said sentiments, it is unfortunate that the animosity remains today. On October 31st, 2017, Great Grandmaster Al Tracy passed away. Both families have lost a father and perhaps one day the anger can be put aside and new allegiance is formed. I think we have to praise them for really getting out out there in the beginning with the franchises. Ed Parker defined his system differently what he was starting a blueprint the 50s, the 60s and it was a fighting system too as a lot of it was on fighting. Mr. Tracy passed away recently so we would only hope that his legacy would go through his people as we would with Mr. Parker and those people. As Ed Parker sought to spread his art across the country he knew he needed a regimented, fully documented system that could be given to each school to use as their curriculum. With the help of his senior students and his son, Ed Parker put together a series of American Kempo manuals that laid out all of the basics, kattas and techniques to be taught. This first manual was released in 1970 and it bore some major changes and other self-defense techniques were dropped in favor of new sequences that would demonstrate how basics and principles work together. A new lexicon was developed in favor of the previous number system and the terminology and the technique name served as a memorization tool for the practitioner. For example, Talon meant wrist grab and Ram meant tackle attempt. A technique named obscure wing meant delivering an elbow strike outside of your opponent's peripheral vision. Additionally, Ed Parker added four more belt colors to the rank in order to promote to the next rank, students had to complete 32 self-defense techniques a set of basics and a kata. Once the techniques were completed at green belt the student then had to learn extensions for the first 32 orange belt techniques. This rank was sometimes referred to as green orange. Upon completion of the extensions they were promoted to brown belt and at this point three kattas known as forms four, five and six were required in order to achieve a black belt rank. This system is often referred to as the 32 tech manual and such manuals are hard to come by today existing only in the hands of those who receive them originally. One of the challenges of the system is that many felt it was a lot of material for students to master at each belt level. This was fine for those who devoted themselves but as Ed Parker wanted to appeal to a wider population he noticed that many students were getting discouraged earlier in their training. He added the rank of yellow belt which consisted of the first ten techniques of orange. This allowed the student to get a good taste of the system and achieve their first rank earlier and give them a sense of accomplishment and motivation to go forward. In the early 1980s Ed Parker released the second manual and the system exploded with new material. Most notably in this version is the distribution of techniques among belt levels. Many schools continued to express concern at the amount of material per belt level. Ed Parker considered dropping the required techniques for per belt from 32 to 16 but decided it was too drastic of a change and he settled on a 24 technique system. Brown belt was divided into three degrees that counted backward, keeping it in line with the Q ranking system of traditional arts. In this new 24 technique system ranking worked as follows. Ten techniques were required for yellow belt then 24 for orange, purple, blue, green, third brown and second brown. As in the first manual, in order to progress from this point students had to learn extensions of previous techniques. Orange belt extensions for the first degree brown belt purple extensions for black belt blue extensions for second degree black belt and green extensions for third degree black belt. At this point, the student had learned the entire curriculum and further promotion was based on teaching and contribution back into the system. This was a lot of new material that was added to the system. As Ed Parker continued to craft the curriculum, many of his senior students created techniques and kadas and brought them to him and upon approval Mr. Parker added them into the system. One of the things he wanted his black belts to do like us is always think on our own. Hence why he had some do thesis. He wanted to see how you thought. Some of the things even Ed Parker did, they weren't his. The kicking set was at Ed Parker's. That was Mr. Kelly's, that was Seabock Tom Kelly's. The staff set was Mr. Chuck Sullivan's. So he allowed his students to help him for the best interest of all to flourish. You know the bottom line is you only have two hands and two feet and it's going to be the same in 10 years, in 20 years. Two hands and two feet. What's really going to change or evolve is your thought process. Ed Parker's students all wore white geese keeping with the traditional karate uniform. In this revision Mr. Parker added the black key to be awarded to students who had reached their brown belt status. This was to distinguish the instructors from the beginning and intermediate levels. Today this black key has become synonymously known with the American Kempo system. Some schools keep with the black and white tradition while others make black uniforms their standard throughout all ranks. Belt knot placement was also to be placed on the left for males and on the right for females. This was a nod to the Chinese idea of Qi being stronger on the left for men and stronger on the right for women. Only instructors were allowed to wear their belt knot in the center representing a balance of energy. This version of American Kempo became deeply rooted and is probably the most common curriculum the system had. In the late 1980s a third and final Kempo manual emerged of Ed Parker's American Kempo system. This third manual featured the 16 technique system that Mr. Parker had considered earlier. This new manual was very similar to the previous 24 system with the main difference line in the distribution of techniques. In this curriculum 10 techniques were required for yellow, then 16 for orange, purple, blue and green and then 20 techniques for the three levels of brown and first degree black belt. This time the previous required extensions were put into place for promotion to second, third, fourth and fifth degree black belt with further promotion coming with time and contribution into the system. Ed Parker passed away on December 15, 1990 right as his manual began distribution. Many schools adopted it while others stuck with the previous manual. With Mr. Parker's passing a major hole occurred in the American Kempo community. He had not appointed a successor and a power vacuum occurred with many senior belts stepping up to lead the system. It was kind of sad to me how when he passed away the organization splintered off and created their own organizations and everyone was kind of doing their own thing and it really just created a void of any one person in leadership and created probably six or seven or eight different Kempo organizations that it's still kind of that way now. As Mr. Parker had continuously changed his system throughout his life each generation of black belts had a different version than the others. Everyone feels like their way is the best way and there's a lot of criticism of you know, well I'm with so and so he does it this way that's how it should be done, not this way. So there's a lot of that, a lot of while you're doing it wrong unfortunately so it's still very fractured and splintered in my opinion. Other schools took a more extreme turn and with their experience with Mr. Parker they put their own spin on it to take Kempo into their own generation and revolution. One of the commonly known offshoots is Kempo Sub-Level 4 created by Dr. Ron Chappelle. Dr. Chappelle took his training with Ed Parker and created a system that focuses on the fine details of human anatomy. The name refers to one of the principles Ed Parker taught in that there are four ranges in hand-to-hand combat. Out of contact range, within contact range, contact penetration and contact manipulation. This last range refers to being close enough to your opponent to manipulate their body not just strike them. Joint locks, throws, takedowns and control techniques are all done from this range. Dr. Chappelle felt that this fourth range had a sub-level to it. It analyzed the idea that utilizing precision strikes and nerve activations along with structural alignment created enhanced effectiveness not just for Kempo but for any close-range art. They're using the delayed sword as a meridian strike from here to here. He just went into the actual infrastructure of the pressure point stuff. So anybody who's into those pressure points, they were just going into their research and it's still under research. Jeff Speekman is one of Mr. Parker's most notable students. He was an ambassador for American Kempo into the film media and starred in well over a dozen films. There isn't a Kempo student alive who hasn't heard of Mr. Speekman or his 1991 film, The Perfect Weapon. Jeff Speekman was a very close student of Mr. Parker and they were working together while the perfect weapon was in production. Mr. Speekman has become a well-known figurehead in the American Kempo community and his organization is home to Jeff Speekman schools all over the world. He has remained a respectable name in Kempo and has continued to carry on the quality of Mr. Parker's teachings. What might be perhaps his most notable achievement that has become widely known in the martial arts world is his Kempo 5.0 system. Kempo 5.0 is a radical modification to Ed Parker's Kempo. He drew inspiration for Mr. Parker in taking an art and modifying it to fit to today's needs. There is no secret that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has become widely popular in America and that MMA has taken a firm hold in the sporting world. Explosive techniques, expert takedowns and a highly effective system of ground fighting has made Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a formidable art. When Mr. Parker first began to craft American Kempo, boxing and judo were popular arts and stand-up fighting was the norm. Now while ground fighting and wrestling has been around for centuries, it wasn't until recent years that the great season of other schools brought Jiu-Jitsu to the mainstream American masses. Realizing this new trend, Jeff Speekman sought to create a new version of Kempo that incorporated it. We came here to tell you about Kempo 5.0, a new system of martial arts that incorporates the last generation of Ed Parker's Kempo with mixed martial art fighting and theory. Now many people often ask me, what does the name Kempo 5.0 mean? Now we took a look at the three Kempo manuals that Mr. Parker put out. These manuals are referred to as American Kempo 32, 24 and 16 tech systems or versions 1, 2 and 3. In the 24 tech manual or version 2 there was a massive curriculum expansion with many new techniques developed by him and his students. Some of these techniques originated for self-defence techniques and were extracted and implemented as self-defense techniques. Kempo kattas or forms are sequences of techniques in the formation to categorize ideas and demonstrate the flow of movement. The act of creating new techniques from the forms created one minor side effect. Students were learning forms that had techniques in them that weren't taught until later belt levels. I myself had questioned this in my early training. When learning the kata that had an unfamiliar technique, I was told I would learn that technique in the next belt level or two. When learning the techniques and continuation of American Kempo, Mr. Speekman created a new manual and restructured the organization of techniques so that they were learned at the same time as the forms. This new manual went out to all Speekman schools bearing the words version 4.0 in reference to being a fourth manual. With Kempo 5.0 Mr. Speekman and his top students have crafted a completely modified version of the American Kempo system. The most notable change is the inclusion of ground fighting. Take downs, locks, submissions, chokes and other Brazilian jujitsu techniques are featured in an effort to teach students how to utilize and defend against ground fighting. Additionally, techniques are now organized by what is called combat models. So that techniques that are based off a similar scenario are grouped together and teach variations of a situation. I like where he's going with the grappling. I like the grappling I myself do jujitsu, a blue belt and so I think it was a good idea to incorporate grappling into Kempo. Which I applaud in that he has the courage to say, you know, we need to change and we need to do things a little bit differently moving into a more modern society that has this to deal with now. So I, you know, tip my hat to him in that way for creating something of his own with a little bit more practicality of learning, not necessarily saying that you want to go to the ground all the time. But God forbid you get taken to the ground, it's better to know what you're doing, what your opponent's trying to do and then to not have that knowledge. It's still Kempo. Kempo uses the Kempo upper body entry and then he goes into the grappling stuff. So God bless him and anybody like Jeff or anyone who's out there keeping the torch burning and carrying on the flame to the generations to come, I applaud them. Mr. Speakman is also a firm believer that a student needs extensive sparring and fighting experience in order to make their self-defense effective. Part of Kempo 5.0 is a rigorous freestyle program called the 5.0 Fighter and has students spar in a complete fight from stand up all the way down to the ground and into chokes and submissions. With the heavy blend of traditional Ed Parker Kempo ground fighting and freestyle sparring, Jeff Speakman's Kempo 5.0 is a very dynamic and unique system. And he's not the only one making the change as many schools across America are now teaching their own blend of Kempo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I have had the fortune of being able to train in a variety of Kempo that includes Tracy Kempo traditional Ed Parker Kempo Jeff Speakman's Kempo 4.0 and 5.0 system as well as a customized Kempo Brazilian Jiu Jitsu hybrid curriculum. They all have something wonderful to offer and have a rich history that continues to grow today. Hopefully one day the different Kempo organizations can put politics aside and come together again to take Ed Parker's science of motion to new and exciting levels. Again one of the things that I'd like to see in the future would be a unified Kempo. You know where we're all together working towards the same goals regardless of you know how many people do things differently. Okay I just wanted to expand a little bit on the difference between the Tracy and the Parker system. And you know for the sake of the video I was taking a very objective stance and trying you know to show a lot of comparison so it's abbreviated. Now outside of this episode I can kind of speak a little more freely about the observations that I have personally seen myself. It's first and foremost the differences I'm going to talk about it definitely there's not a clear line where there's a you know you're in this camp or this camp there's a lot of overlap there's a lot of blurred edges so it's going to vary from school to school these are just my personal observations. So when I first started the first four years of our school was based in Tracy Kempo and that last that fourth year we were also learning Parker Kempo so we had an overlap so I had the unique experience of actually learning both versions side by side and the one thing I will say is we might have had a little bit of a watered down Tracy system because as we mentioned in the episode they've got like 300 plus techniques because they add on combinations we didn't have that many so I'm thinking my instructor might have taken those combinations and put them together as one technique like a Parker system would be or he left them out I'm not really sure so that's one thing right off the bat we had a little bit of a streamlined curriculum and honestly too the arts are more similar than they're different I mean they both share the same roots it's just when you kind of get down to the smaller nuances and details it's kind of just each system's kind of two different approaches to the kind of the same end goal that makes any sense and I also noticed that the Tracy system tended to be a little bit looser on some of the principles than the Parker system did and one example being generally speaking of course the situation as it's presented to you will dictate your response but generally speaking and Kempo, Parker Kempo we don't hit the same target twice in a row in this back to back we do more of a you get a shot the body reacts it opens up another shot you kind of rebound you move around the body where Tracy sometimes will see multiple strikes in the same target again so it's a little bit looser not a big deal both ways can be right it's just it's different ways of looking at it from an academic standpoint now what's interesting is when it comes to the self-defense techniques both the Tracy Kempo side and the Parker Kempo side all have naming conventions for the techniques which is interesting because when they share the roots back to the Kempo that Ed Parker taught back in the 50s and 60s when it was just called Kempo Karate they didn't have names the techniques were just basically defense from a grab defense from a tackle it was just what it was and you can really see some of those similarities in this book so this is actually a very valuable it's old it's from about 1960 publication this is a reprint but if you look in it you can see techniques that are you can see influences of both Parker and Tracy Kempo you can kind of see where they started from because there's techniques in here they're like the beginning of a Parker technique or there's a sequence in here that splits off like you know Tracy does it this way Parker does it this way but you see both influences in the book so it's interesting to see little nuances like that so both Parker and Tracy Kempo stemmed from this curriculum right here that you see in this book this material is pretty much the original Ed Parker Kempo and Tracy just decided to go continue more along these lines and adapt this where Ed Parker kind of restructured and went a whole different direction so same roots different branches so as we demonstrated in the video Ed Parker created a lexicon of words that basically corresponded to either a specific move or a strike or a type of the body so for example anything with the word wing wing corresponds to an elbow mace is a fist sword is a sword hand and so on you know and talon is a grab all sorts of things like that and so that way when you hear the name of a technique so you know crossing talon and delayed sword it gives you a little bit of an inclination to what the technique is going to evolve so if you hear something say twirling wings okay well then that's going to involve elbows Tracy kind of went a little bit the other way they have a lexicon too but the names tend to be a little bit more descriptive and are not as regimented as the Parker lexicon is for example technique 22 in the original curriculum is the defense against a rear hammer lock and Ed Parker Kempo we call that technique locked wing because the arm is bent in the elbow formation and we're also striking immediately with an elbow strike in the Tracy system they call it lock and arm both are correct it's just you see a little bit where one's a little bit more descriptive one is more towards the code word technique 55 is another good example it's a defense against an overhead knife attack and Ed Parker system we call that reigning lance because lance is the word that we use for knife so any technique with the word lance and it tells us that a knife is involved in Tracy the same technique is called whirling thorn so with wings we know that elbows are involved but in Tracy the technique names describe the action a little bit more than just sticking to the lexicon now remember how I just said at the beginning that the freestyle techniques were meant to be a bridge between the self defense techniques inspiring look at technique 38 put him in a neutral fighting stance grab that front hand and we've got freestyle technique B-1B the roots are there if you dig enough now when it comes to the Katas you know in Kappa we've got short form and long forms and many Tracy schools retain that and teach the same forms but I've also noticed that the Tracy system tends to also add what's called universal forms which are a little bit different some Parker schools have it but my experience I've seen it mainly on the Tracy side I've also heard people describe Tracy system as a little bit more linear more driving action kind of similar to the shodokon where Parker is more dynamic to be honest that wasn't my experience I've found the techniques to be very similar to each other I've seen both Tracy and Parker schools ones that will spar ones that don't so I've also heard some people say that Tracy tends to produce more fighters where Parker produces more academics in some cases yes but in some cases no like I said it really comes down to the individual school I know fantastic schools that teach academics but they don't spar but I also know Kemple schools that spar all the time and kind of even neglect the academics a little bit so that's going to come down to the individual location so bottom line honestly when it comes down to it the Ed Parker American Kemple system and the Tracy Kemple system they're very similar yes they have their nuances and subtle differences but they have both stem from the same roots and really comes down to which flavor of Kemple you like just two different paths getting to the same destination and I'm really curious if any of you out there who have experienced either Parker or Tracy or both what are differences that you've observed or you're curious to know please leave them in the comments below perhaps one of the most iconic emblems of Ed Parker's American Kanate system is the IKKA crest you've probably seen this everywhere it's a very common symbol associated with American Kemple but it also stands for a lot of different things part of the brotherhood and the community and it's got some really interesting history when we break it down so today we're going to take a quick look at the Kemple patch in the first video in this series the origin of American Kemple explored how Hawaiian born Edmund K. Parker took the style of self-defense taught to him by William K. S. Chow and adapted it for American street fighting William Chow himself was a student of James Matosi and Chow had mixed the hard linear style of Matosi's fighting with the circular Chinese movements his father had taught him as Chow passed the system down to Ed Parker the two of them had discussed taking his new mix and adapted it even further and introducing it to America as a newly structured self-defense system in the second video the evolution of American Kemple we looked at how Mr. Parker continued to adapt this system over the years into a living, organic and community art after his passing his students continued the legacy and took Kemple into their own directions and adaptations of self-defense despite all of the interpretations that Kemple has gone through much of the symbolism still remains the two most prominent icons in the American Kemple system Ed Parker did not want to forget its roots the tiger and the dragon go back into deep Chinese mythology and often represent a balance of energy the two are also often seen entwined in various yin-yang formations to highlight this concept in American Kemple the presence is no less significant the tiger represents a grounded physical strength it has raw power and is dangerous to be trifled with as Mr. Parker describes it in his infinite insights book the tiger represents earthly strength derived during the early stages of learning this is the stage where the individual is more impressed with his own physical prowess the dragon represents a spiritual strength and an achievement of wisdom if the tiger is to power the student first learned in the training then the dragon is a state of enlightenment that comes with experience and seasoning in the art also in Mr. Parker's words the attitude of the dragon is the ultimate goal of Kemple armed with this attitude an individual will not be afraid of the opponent but of what he can do to the opponent thus he turns his back and walks away from an unwarranted conflict confident that he could have been the victor one of the most important lessons that I try to impart on my students is confidence to have the ability to use martial arts doesn't mean that you need to go do it you should have the confidence to walk away from a situation I always tell them the best fight is the one you can avoid this duology is a major component of most Kemple systems and their relationship together is included in Kemple's most iconic emblem the Kemple crest the Kemple crest is the image that Ed Parker and his brother David composed while forming the International Kemple Karate Association or the IKKA previously Mr. Parker had been running the KKA or Kemple Karate Association of America and it was represented by a fist emblem with the art's name for the IKKA Parker wanted an emblem that embodied the philosophy and integrity of the art it stood for a lot of things stood for you know tiger being physical strength the dragon being spiritual strength the shape of the crest was in a certain way that if you betrayed the art they would cut you off with the axe at the bottom and just the way it was shaped and things like that there was a lot of meaning generally if you look at the shape it has the arch on the top which meant that anyone under the top of the roof is protected like family you watch it separate evil spirits okay and there's the axe on the bottom which means if you do something to deface or to wrongdoings if you will or something that's not in the loyal content or embarrassed, humiliate you could get yourself cut off in other words you were asked to leave now that we have the boundary set let's take a look at the inner elements featured in the center of the crest is the circle and the line patterns there are several different ideas first the circle represents a continuous flow as in life having no beginning or end or the perpetual motion of techniques according to Mr. Parker the circle also represents the concept that all moves evolve from a circle and it represents the bond of continuous friendship and also that the circle is the base of our alphabet the lines overlaid onto the circle also represent a few different ideas first it was Mr. Parker's homage to the original 18 hand movements found in the old chinese arts additionally if you imagine yourself standing in the center of the circle the straight and diagonal lines represent the entry lines of attack from an opponent as well as the paths of movements a practitioner can step to Kempo is also an art that mixes both linear and circular movements and techniques and one of the principles of the system stem from the concept of how they can cancel each other out generally speaking a linear attack can be countered by a circular motion and a circular attack can be cut short by a linear action also residing in the crest are both the tiger and the dragon still representing strength and wisdom their placement is as such the tiger stemming from earthly strength is positioned at the bottom with the dragon placed above the essence of a higher learning as the tiger and dragon are present to retain the yin and yang balance of the art and in respect of Kempo's chinese roots so is the chinese lettering on either side of the crest this is a nod of respect and remembrance to Kempo's early roots the script on the left reads the dragon and the tiger and the text on the right is law of the fist and the empty hand there's the chinese elements to the side which stood for the law of the fist spirit of the tiger and the dragon those Ed Parker was very respectful to the chinese and they had high regard for him that's why he used the chinese lettering in there tiger on the bottom dragon on the top tiger stood for earthly strength most of us have that physical tenaciousness if we tap into not quitting and we give you those physical skills which empowers their mind now we have courage and bravery because I did the i can attitude concept of the dragon is to look down at the tiger and say calm down be calm think before you respond so the dragon is really that spiritual side we hope that you have within yourself empathy, sympathy mindfulness finally we have the colors the color is white like the art whose foundation is out of the beginning student and the crests walls are black as the art is shaped by those who become proficient in it the circle is gray symbolic of the brain often referred to as gray matter and is the combination of both black and white showing that wisdom is being both an experienced martial artist and a student the red lettering of Kempo Karate represents small increments of mastery that are added to the professorship of black belt ranks the color breakdown of the tiger is more dynamic as the tiger represents the early and raw strength of the students it bears the early rank colors of white, yellow and orange the dragon representing the higher wisdom and mastery of the art is colored in red however the dragon never forgets its roots and retains the lower rank colors in trace in the case of the patch that is worn on the uniform it is typically red with yellow fins however in more elaborate illustrations the dragon is composed of many colors including all the belt rank colors of the system showing that even as a master the dragon can call upon all experience and never be too arrogant to go back to any level all of the symbolism is immortalized within the IKKA or Kempo crest and it is worn as a patch over the practitioner's heart this was the definitive icon of Kempo for many years these factors of Ed Parker's patch have a lot in the beginning that meant a life lesson and it went over the heart was the art gotta have it in your heart okay which meant it's life long that's the easy way of saying it a more somber variation of this patch occurred upon the passing of Mr. Parker in 1990 Frank Trejo one of Mr. Parker's most senior students and also a man who took the tournament scene by storm began wearing a black and white version of the crest that was Frank Trejo's patch him and one of his black belts was one of the first UFC fighters by the way Zane Frazier they're the ones that did that for their group what that stood for was Frank said that the color was taken away Ed Parker was the flame he was the life when the life of Ed Parker was taken it took the life out of the patch but not the art so he wanted people to remember that life is precious and that it's up to us to treasure life and learn from those lives that we lose Trejo and a few others wore this black and white version of the patch for many years and shows the love they had for Mr. Parker and how they mourned him after his passing as mentioned in previous videos the politics of Kempo are volatile and between legal disputes over who was allowed to wear the crest and the result of different organizations splitting off to teach their own Kempo many new crests emerged that retained the root imagery of the IKKA crest while adding their own flair and personalization a quick google search of Kempo crest will show you just how many variations there are it meant a lot to me when Mr. Parker was alive as to what it stood for and what it meant and then when he passed away everyone created their own crest and kind of did their own thing it's interesting enough that you can see all these different designs and all the different people who have patches I usually like to ask people tell me about your patch and what it means and you'll get all kinds of interpretations and they're quite interesting I had a couple of different crests that I have here was when I had my schools in Orlando and kind of put my own logo in the shape of the Kempo patch and now the logo I have on some of my other geese is a little adaptation of it we still have the tiger and the dragon being above the tiger to represent spiritual strength is more important than physical strength so we modified it just so we wouldn't be involved in that as to who could wear it who couldn't wear it so and then be involved in that we just kind of modified it a little bit and came up with our own my patch, the perimeter stands for bloodline in our bloodline so our lineage directly goes right most of the generations that we have in the CKF were all generations directly to Ed Parker it would be the first, second or even to the last being myself who helped me with my patch design was Ed Parker Jr David Hepler and David Stanley David Stanley being the step-brother to Elvis being the fact that he worked with Elvis for a couple years so I took that personality and we put TCB that people in Kempo should take care of the business take care of family, take care of community help the weak those kind of things also there's two lightning bolts on the top which means the ones that above was the relationship that he had with Elvis because EP, Ed Parker and Elvis Presley are gone from above looking down we'll keep the spirit of the two alive take care of the business and in a nutshell that's what it is now the clock if you look at the center of it is multi-dimensional where if you look at it you can see it's multi-dimensional because Kempo's a multi-dimensional system so we put that there we also put in the tiger and the dragon in balance not one over the other we felt like yin and yang you need balance both tiger and dragon so in our patch you have balance so in a simple layout there it is that's what our patch is all about personally I think it's a testament to show how powerful his teachings were they keep and honor elements of his teaching while adding their own meaningful symbolism as they take the art into the future one example of this is a community effort to come together and create a new American Kempo crest also called the Kempo Solidarity Crest or the Unity Crest that stands for a strong brotherhood and a new era of cooperation composed by many so that not a single person can claim rights to it and it is free for Kempo practitioners to bear and represent their art as they wish and this patch became available to the Kempo community and I chose to accept it it's a modern American Kempo crest and it's supposed to solidify Kempo a lot of people that I've talked to have actually accepted it and are going to be wearing it as well so this is not just the history of Kempo in it but a lot of the rules and principles there was a group of Kempoists that got together to try to come up with a solution to the problem that was happening in our community and I know Ed Parker Jr was one of the supporters for the crest and he really liked it it still has the Chinese writing to represent the origin of American Kempo it still kept the dragon and the tiger and the empty hand and the fist the patch is placed in a specific location for a reason, the shape on top is actually Mr. Parker's original school in California that was designed outside his school Interior elements such as the compass rose are to honor Mr. Parker's days in the Coast Guard as well as an homage to the fist used in Mr. Parker's original KKAA emblem the flame stands for many things such as the idea that it burns within each practitioner in the three levels of advanced achievement instructor, professor and master it is placed within the white background of the triangle to remind the practitioner of where they started and while it touches the bottom of the triangle it never reaches the top to show a strong foundation and an effort to reach mastery it's a very dynamic and intricate design and I definitely recommend taking a further look at it the link for the website is in the description below it goes into further breakdown of the crest as well as the mission of the Brotherhood once again, the crest is free for use and for any of you who wish to wear a physical patch all you have to do is contact and request one and this concludes our three part Kemple series if you have not yet seen the first two episodes and are interested in the art and how it began and evolved those links are also in the description below Mr. Parker has left an unmistakable mark on the development of martial arts in the United States that spread internationally what started as an area of personal study exploded into a widespread culture of self-defense education and the science of motion Mr. Parker brought martial arts to a new level in the American media he taught American royalty brought notable names into the spotlight and left the legacy of the disciples that are taking Kemple into new and exciting directions today he was the powerful tiger that resided here as an earthly force until he descended above as the dragon watching down on us with all of his wisdom as martial artists we strive to reach perfection while never forgetting our roots only when we achieve that can we too be the dragon so that's today's look at the IKKA patch hope you liked it and enjoyed it I enjoyed the symbolism behind it and I enjoy seeing how the community has embraced it and taken it in different directions and as we continue to do these videos and look at other arts, we're going to break down the other symbols and emblems of their arts as well because part of it is the martial art and it's symbolic and they have meaning so we will go into further in depth reviews of those as well so for this subject, I want to talk about forms and this is when I made these episodes it wasn't quite in the minds of the forms as I am now it's been a couple years since I've done these my history with Arkata is a little bit complicated our school changed so much where one instructor changed curriculum multiple times we changed locations, we changed instructors our school went through so many changes that sometimes our forms were there and they weren't so when I first started we learned the forms, we just kind of memorized them and they were just part of the curriculum we didn't really question it later another instructor came in and broke them down and taught us more information about the forms they disappeared then they came back but bottom line, the reason I want to bring this up is because Kempo forms tend to be very very different than a lot of other martial arts and I'm finding myself intrigued and doing more of a deeper study now I'm actually putting more effort into my forms and katas now than I ever did because I want to understand more now that I've discovered there's actually quite a bit of information embedded and if you're interested in Bunkai at all, Kempo Katas and Kempo forms will give you a wealth of interior to work with so our forms are broken up into two basic categories you have your dictionary forms and you have your encyclopedia forms and the dictionary forms are the first four forms that you learn in Kempo which is short form one, long form one short form two, long form two and the reason they're called definition forms are dictionary forms because what they do is they're actually taking basics and they're all composed of small motions and basics whereas the later forms, the encyclopedia forms are a lot more dynamic and they explore more thematic and more themes in relation to each other this is more of a teaching tool and teaching basics in motion so Kempo forms all teach the same basic three ideas one you show the rules and principles of motion two, you demonstrate that everything has an opposite in reverse and three we show these by giving an example and sometimes when you look at Kempo this spreads out to the whole Kempo system everything has an opposite in reverse and sometimes they're spread across or you might learn a motion in a form but the reverse or the opposite of that you might find in a technique later so that's actually where it really gets fun to start to look at the relationship again it's all academic and this is the academics and the bunkais for you but trying to find everything complete like the references is quite the treasure hunt another thing to note about dictionary forms is all the dictionary forms, the first four forms all start from a horse stance whereas all the later forms start from a natural stance so short form one is the first form is a white belt and it teaches a few different things one, it teaches you your primary blocks, you're up, you're in, you're out and you're down a block and you're playing it moving versus when you first learn the blocks you're stationary, now we're traveling and we're also traveling on the four main lines front, back, side to side so you're 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock or 6 o'clock or 9 o'clock that's the travel and the form also focuses specifically on the power principle of torque, that's the only power principle at play right now, again you're learning basics and this form is the foundation for the next three forms to build on top of it so for example, the next level we learn long form one basically this takes short form one as the foundation and it adds to it so for example, we're still traveling on the same lines 12, 3, 6 and 9 but the difference now though is with each block we're now applying a counter punch and that is now introducing the four both so now we're seeing a stance change for the first time in our system or at least as a student experiences for the first time we're seeing that in motion and now we're doing block with a counter punch and a stance change it also has little highlighted motions for the deeper studies has hints at what's coming up in the future forms and the cool thing about long form one is any changes it makes either relates directly to the form coming up or refers directly to the form previous like short form one and as an example of that though is short form one technically speaking you do on one side most people teach it and most people practice it you do it on both sides for repetition but academically speaking in an interest of category completion it's not necessary because the second side of short form one is embedded in long form one it's just done at the end when we do in block and exhalations if you really look at it it's short form one but on the reverse so that's what I mean there's links to each one and it builds on top of that and it's kind of cool to do that study and see that relationship between the forms so then that takes us to short form two and again it builds on this and what we're adding in short form two is now we're doing advanced motion so we're short one and long one we're all retreating forms short two and long two are advancing forms and not only we're advancing it's also teaching you strikes now blocks and strikes with the lead hand it's adding the power principles of gravitational marriage and back amass now we're doing our full power principle teaching and it's also teaching us how to move on the diagonal lines versus just straight lines now what's cool interesting about this though is if you were to look at it from an overhead view and look straight down this form never actually crosses the three and nine o'clock lines so while you are facing and moving finally you never quite cross that plane until long form two that's something that's added in long form two and long form two takes this takes this theme even further and it kind of plays and highlights demonstrates more examples of opposites and reverses so like I said it keeps building on each other so these first four forms short one long one short two long two they're all building blocks almost like stories to a building you keep adding on to it and from there those first four floors you've got a really solid foundation and now you've got your motion defined so that the next forms going up explore more essay topics more thematic relationships and these encyclopedia forms kind of really more highlight to show you how the science of the motion and how the system works together so for example we've got short form three short form three is a combination of self defense techniques that are strung together but the theme is these are all techniques based off of grabs and holds so they're showing you how you know if this was a sample scenario people are coming up and grabbing you so it's showing you the flow between one technique to another and how you can transition from one position to another from that basic attack and long form three enhances that as well it builds on that and it actually shows both sides short form three you technically do only on one side long form three is a little bit more inclusive a little bit more complete long form four for anyone who's even familiar with Kempo knows that this is the signature Kempo form it is jam packed for full of information it's all techniques that are based off of punches and kicks so those are strung together there's a lot of study it takes a long time to learn this one properly I personally struggled with this one because it was always on long form I was teaching when our curriculum changed so I had that in the middle of it I had to go back and start over like three times so this form gave me a little bit of grief just because it took me years to get it down for that reason alone but this is the one you see at tournaments perform the most because it's got so much information and it looks the most Kempo of the forms and technically it's also very lengthy to demonstrate so technically there is a short form four but basically it's abbreviated where you're only showing one side of each technique in all of today's that's for tournament purposes it's not taught that way in the curriculum and there's no more short forms at this point going forward they're all full blown forms so form five goes further in form five are all based off self defense techniques that result in takedowns so they're strung together and they show you the relationship of that flow and form six is a combination of techniques that are weapon space, defense against weapons, defense against knives, clubs and guns and those are the core forms and those you'll find in pretty much every single Kempo school that teaches traditional at Parker Kempo technically there's a form seven and eight and there's a little bit of debate and controversy with these forms because some people say that Ed Parker never fully developed them some say his students did there's a lot of conflict of information I've seen footage of Ed Parker teaching at least part of long seven so I know it's at least out there to some degree so you have some schools that won't go past six long seven is a stick form and what's interesting about that though is it basically teaches you techniques and how the dynamic changes when you have a weapon in your hand so it's definitely I think it's worth learning my instructor started teaching me a little bit it was never part of our official curriculum when I saw the first half of it I thought it was really cool I definitely want to go back and learn it some more form eight is kind of the same thing but it's with knives and historically speaking we're not going to get complicated here because historically forms change a little bit like if I remember correctly knives might have originally been in seven I don't really know for sure I'd never really experienced it you can find form eight on YouTube by looking but sometimes there seem to be some variations and there's definitely even more debate whether Ed Parker developed this form or not so you're much more likely to find seven out there eight's a bit of a rare form and if you come across it you know I'm not sure what version you're going to come across but it's out there but in small amounts and I've heard theories and I've heard rumors that the Parker was planning form nine and ten again as far as I'm concerned that's hearsay I was never privy to that information I don't know how valid that is you know a lot of things are said it could be possible you know he passed away while he was still working on the form or working on the system you know he was changing Kemple up to the day he died so who's to say what he had planned and what he still had on the back burner but I just thought this was a really cool study so for anyone who's really interested in forms in Bunkai study at all you're going to find a wealth of information in the Kemple forms they're not just sequences you memorize they take years to break down and even now like 27 years into my training I'm still going back to short form one and learning stuff I didn't know that was there before and how it relates to other techniques so there's absolute wealth of knowledge so if Kata is your thing, if you're interested from an academic point of view of Kata and what they teach you'll have no shortage of information for the Kemple forms so thank you guys so much for watching we really appreciate all of your viewership and all of your support for the channel we're going to be doing this also for Shodokan and Kyokushin so look for those coming up this week and next week and like I said coming up next year we've got a lot more history videos coming and we can't wait to get started right away and dig into it thank you so much hope you guys have a great, safe and happy new year and we will see you soon