 Hey guys, I tried the stream just a couple of seconds ago. I'm trying to see if this works Thought we do something a little bit different today in doing a topic on American Kemplocrate a discussion and Figured to be a good opportunity to do a live stream. I'm having a little bit of some technical difficulties So I'm not sure if my microphone is working. So if you guys can hear me. Hi. Hi Bill Taylor Can you hear me? Is my microphone working? So, okay, I'm having a little bit of issues here with my mic I'm not sure if it's working or not. I might have to try this again. Oh, you can't hear me. Okay. Good. You guys hear me Awesome. Thank you. So yeah, I figured today would just be a good Moment just to have some live discussions talked by the American Kempo mainly I get a lot of questions about You know why it's taught a certain way Comparisons other systems where to learn it different different applications of it and it's been a topic on our channel for a while. So Just thought this be a good time to do some questioning answering I'm just gonna give it a couple minutes for people to get in here But I'm just to kind of do a little bit of a rundown. We're gonna go through basically my personal journey right now is I've been in Kempo for 28 years various different versions of it I've my school has changed my instructors change the stories on the channel quite a bit But the result of that was I saw a lot of different versions of Kempo But I didn't get to spend a lot of time in one set version to go really really deep in the layers Like a lot of my brethren have I know a lot of Kempo friends who have spent their lifetimes in the art and They know it very very well with the connective tissues and how this technique compares that technique And where my experience is a little bit more of a lateral experience I have seen this version this version of Kempo 5.0 MMA hybrid So my experience is a little bit different. So my personal quest lately has been to dive back into my material I've collected all my old manuals all the old DVDs. I've have I got several different video series from different instructors And I have been doing a self exploration just to kind of get all my information one place and put together Kempo system that fits for me and In doing so I am going and learning a lot of the academic stuff I had not learned previously or I learned but it would I learned like a so long ago because the other the challenge I had was I've been teaching or I had been teaching children for several years and Unfortunately, you know, we only kind of focused on the earlier belt levels Though the later half of the system is material I haven't worked on in probably 10 years or so so I've been doing this fun exploration going back and forth to Kind of reconnect myself with the system and in doing so there's a lot of connective layers I'm seeing a lot of areas where people might be questioning the system or a lot of the misconceptions come from and How we can address that so that's going to be today's topic So we're going to run down through a bunch of different things Basically talk and we're going to talk about the basics some of the principles the there's a clock model that's really really important and I think helps greatly and Then we're going to start going into the techniques and the techniques the self-defense technique sequences is where much of the criticism comes from so I think that would definitely be a good thing to talk about and discuss So first off about do we have any questions from anybody? Any particular misconceptions or things that they've heard about Kempo or concerns? David Beck would ask which are your favorite Kempo systems my least favorite not trying to certify And I understand if you don't want to just question say, you know, that's actually a really good question And let me good. Let me start off by with this What I don't want this to be is a bash into the system I know there's gonna be some people who are gonna be like oh Kempo sucks. It doesn't work, you know It's a different experience for everyone Unfortunately, there are a lot of schools out there that don't teach it properly and I think that can be said by a lot of different martial arts, but My personal favorite Kempo systems are the ed Parker American Kempo and Kempo 5.0 I had a pretty good experience in both of them and I think they mix incredibly well together I feel that 5.0 builds off of the Parker Kempo very very well Other than that though, I did Tracy Kempo for about four years and I liked it But again, according to my personal experience, I like the Parker stuff better I found it a little bit more more of a It is something I'm discovering now is the park system is a little bit more of an organic complete system in terms of the academic side but Tracy Kempo does have a lot of a lot of benefits to it as well and Kempo MMA hybrids, I think are pretty good. I think it's really important to implement grappling into Kempo So so then what is the proper way to teach Kempo? Well, the proper way to teach Kempo is you need an instructor and this is my first instructor wasn't this so much But my second instructor was you need an instructor who Understands that it's more than just getting the black belt and just memorizing the list of techniques and just doing those movements You have to really understand what those techniques those techniques are teaching what the kathar are teaching and again This probably goes with any other karate system But if you're just imitating sequences and you're going to look at the self-defense move and say like, okay A person's going to throw a punch at me I'm going to do step one step two step three step four It's a five and you're just going to memorize that and take that out to the street in a real situation It's not going to work so well for you because that's not what it's designed for Each technique is really a lesson and the best way I can describe it is Think of every self-defense technique as a mini kata. There's a lot of bunkai that goes into it and our kata or something else all together but um So let's start off with okay, let's start off with um, just the basics Or actually no a lot of the criticism The top comments I ever hear about Kempo was one a person's never going to stand there and let you hit them 20 times That is accurate I think two is people say as well. How come I never seen Kempo sparring once he gets to a sparring mode on MMA mode It looks like kickboxing and anything else. We're going to come back to that. We're going to talk about the sparring So we're going to break things down the basics principles the techniques forms the sparring And let's get right down to the basics. Um, the basics of Kempo We have a lot. We have a variety of punches kicks blocks elbow strikes knees foot maneuvers and You know, pretty much any kick you see in taekwondo is in the Kempo system pretty much any punch you see in any karate system Or most striking arts is in the Kempo system. Are they our primary basics? No, but they are there so that you can at least learn them and become familiar with them And it's the best analogy is you've got a toolbox and I'm sure you guys have all heard the expression You know when all you have is a hammer the world looks like a nail Kempo kind of takes the opposite approaches. Well, we're going to give you a hammer We're going to give you a wrench. We're going to give you a screwdriver You might not need every tool. There's even some weird tools. You might not eat every tool But if you ever come ever come across a situation You have it available and at least maybe you're familiar with it or if you're encountering someone who knows a different art Maybe you're familiar with it so Kempo the curriculum could be very overwhelming To those who have not trained in it before who are stepping into it for the first time The manuals are thick. There is a lot a lot of academic material And I think that turns a lot of people off But if you're not intimidated by it You learn to realize that it can actually be beneficial in various Forms of your training at the beginning you want to learn the basics So learn all your kicks learn your foot maneuvers learn your stances and you have a set list per belt level The next thing comes with that are like you got your stances that go along with that too Then you've got your principles and the principles are Is really what makes Kempo Kempo because like I said, you know, we've got the same basics You know, we got the same punches and kicks as karate and taekwondo So what makes Kempo different all the rules that we follow those, you know, we go by there's certain things we can do to a technique We've got different rules Every self-defense technique has to do the first same three things Establish your foundation neutralize the attack and cancel the body zone whether the height with or depth or multiple There's certain applications. There's you know, always keep your hands above theirs You know when you're moving up the circle certain maneuvers that are always in place and that cohesive Rule set is what defines Kempo and once you learn all the basics And then once you have all the principles Those start to make a lot more sense and you realize how flexible it really can be and you can start doing a lot of free form and free style so So yeah, so that is what I would say would be the proper way to teach Kempo the proper way to teach Kempo and the proper way to learn Kempo is to really spend time understanding the principles and learning each individual piece at a fundamental level and Keeping that mind is that whatever you're showing when you're showing a sequence that sequence is not law It's the book work version and the best way I can describe it as you're learning the brand new language And I've used this analogy before in videos, but you're learning the brand new language So you learn the vocabulary. You just learn words. So you learn Spanish you learn your colors You learn your your foods you learn your directions And our basics are our words, you know a punch is a word a kick is a word a block is a word Then you learn principles, which is the grammatical structure of the system the different rules of how words can work together So our Kempo sequences are sample sentences. So when you're learning Spanish, you're going to learn, you know, where is the library? You know, you're going to learn a sample sentence that teaches you how words and the grammar work together to make a concept and It's the same thing here is the self-defense sequence you learn does not mean that's the sequence You're going to go use out in the street It's just teaching you how the basics and the principles work together in a given situation And you'll find it as you learn multiple multiple techniques that they start to relate to each other They share a lot in common They're a part of groupings family relations And the whole point of that is it might not be a move that you're going to use necessarily or a technique That's going to work on a street There's actually a few techniques that you would never use in the situation Why are they taught? Because there's a corresponding idea and that technique that relates to something else you learned earlier Maybe it's the reverse of something. Maybe it's a complementary of something. Maybe it teaches you a different block showing Oh, shoot. If you step this way, well now you can still do this technique, but with this application So that's a lot of it. So understanding that Is I think one of the hardest hurdles to overcome for people who don't know Kempo That's how Kempo works and it may seem complicated But when you really spend some time and get down into it, it can make a lot of sense It doesn't work for everybody and which is fine because that's why we have a thousand different martial arts systems You find what works for you It even helps with understanding other languages, you know, that's actually a good that's actually a good point Learning other arts. I think If you're training in the martial art, I always think it's beneficial to learn at least a little bit of some other Martial arts because you get some other flavors I think you should learn some grappling presenting digits You learn a traditional karate system learn kung fu learn our knees learn other stuff and because You can find contrasting ideas, but you can also find a lot of overlapping when I started doing judo and jujitsu I was amazed at how much overlap there was even though the system is completely different. I had a major Learning curve starting because it was so different than Kempo but ed parker put judo concepts in the Kempo and by Learning judo and jujitsu I started to be able to realize where those concepts were and then it actually opened up a lot of opportunities to mix and match So I think that is actually a great a great point is you learn like if you're learning the language learn other languages as well So master speakman took 5.0 to the next level ground physics and maneuvering is extremely important Um, I absolutely agree with that and we're going to come back to 5.0 in just a little bit I I love what mr. Speakman has done with 5.0. I did train a 5.0 my instructor became a just speaking school for a few years. So we had a I got to run through his original curriculum about once like all the way through once And it's actually very different now than when I learned it. I was back in 2006 seven eight ish And it's he's completely revamped since then it's getting better every day But we're going to come back to that But he's actually that's actually a good a good thing to bring up because the Kempo 5.0 He changes a lot and he adds a lot of ground stuff in there a lot of ground techniques And he's changed a lot of the techniques sequences up But even though the sequences might become considerably different the principles are still there It's still Kempo because it's still following the same grammar different words or no same words same grammar You're just using different sentences. So it's a different approach and it's very um competition and fight heavy Which I like a lot too because it's a little bit more pressure tested than your typical school But you know, we can come back to 5.0 a little bit later Um, there's a lot of people. Okay. So people are asking about Nick stereo and other Kempo credit systems There's a lot of other systems out there. I know of Nick stereo. I never personally met him. I have not trained in this particular style I know there's a lot of variations Larry Tatum gets brought up a lot Larry Tatum teaches traditional apartment Kempo, but I have not met him or traded him I have watched some of his clips. I do have his app And I watch his techniques and there's I see some slight differences, but the same thing the principles are all there So as far as comparing one Kempo system to another You can get into a lot of different debates about that, but Other a lot if they come from the same Ed Parker system, you can still see a lot of the same Commonalities their techniques might be different their forms might be different But a lot of the same principles are still intact. And again, that's where I emphasize Where the heart of Kempo is is in the rules and principles So, uh, so because we have our basics, so we you know, you if you look at each belt level, you'll see Depending on what manually pull up you'll pull up a manual and there'll be a whole list of basics And you know, even as a white belt you're looking like wow, that's a lot of stuff It is a lot of stuff It's but it's because we're trying to familiarize you with all the different possible ways a person can move You got your principles that we talked about I want to bring up the clock principle and this one is a big one for me because this helps me learn and As we've done this channel and as I've explored other arts I've realized that most arts don't use this concept And I have talked to other martial artists and I've asked them about it and they're like no It's not something we use the clock principle. Basically, you know, you see it in the military, you know And it means that 12 o'clock right in front of you we Base our coordination off of imagine you're standing in the middle of a circle on the floor 12 o'clock is in front of you six o'clock's behind you and you've got three o'clock nine o'clock And you've got your diagonal in your corners This is huge at least it was for me because all the sequences all the self-defense techniques all the kathas will refer to this And it actually really helps to visualize where you're supposed to stand when you're learning the technique You know, you're told, you know step back to six o'clock with your left foot and deliver an inward block Well, what's nice about this though is once you understand that clock principle once you understand your basics once you understand your principles It's actually a lot easier to learn a technique like in theory Someone could just tell you a technique and you be should be able to learn it because if you know how What the moves are you know where the stands it's just start to fall in the place So the clock principle, I think is really really huge It's utilized to a great extent and it's semi unique to the kenpo system. I haven't seen too many other systems use it and To make it a little bit more complicated Not only is there a clock on the ground, but also visualize a clock that's vertical So like if you want to if you're going to bring your hand straight up Well, that's 12 o'clock on your vertical clock You don't see that reference as much as you do the regular clock principle But it is it is a concept to keep aware of And I've got I've got a whole series of books that you know, there's so much literature on kenpo Like this is a great book series. It's from leil assert They're really hard to find right now. They're out of print. So I had to find these on ebay I had a viewer show me a link in uk where to get them from but they break down the system to an incredible level Larry Tatum's work is excellent. There's a bunch of Books by ken herman and e-pack that go into the kenpo forms that are really really good The wet lakes kenpo companion. There's a ton of great books out there So they can elaborate all on these principles and the clocks a lot further But I think if you can master the basics and if you can master the principles or understand the principles and learn that clock Principle you're on a very very good foundation to start piecing together a very solid kenpo curriculum for yourself So what what weapons does kenpo cover? um This is an interesting question There's there's a few weapons that we defend against and i'm going to be honest and this might ruffle some feathers This is one of the areas i feel kenpo was weaker and again it goes school by school But curriculum wise there's a few techniques that address knives and guns and clubs the club techniques I think are pretty decent the gun and knife techniques were never my favorite. I find them Very complicated. They teach some ideas and concepts But I would never try to use any one of them in a real situation because they're very complicated But they're more teaching tools um I Again, this is for my own personal experience. There's a lot of schools out there that will teach better techniques But I think if you're going to defend against weapons If you're going to defend against weapons, you need to do something a little bit more tactical and practical for that aspect If you want to train weapons common the most common weapon that kenpo kenpo tend to train in is the r&d 6 to collie 6 That seems to be a favorite. Just speakman made it very very popular with the perfect weapon All our schools had at least Supplemental classes for and that seems to be the natural progression So kenpo and our knees seem to go very well together because once that stick is in your hand A lot of the basics you've got your stick techniques and concepts and the stick fighting rules But when you mix them with the kenpo techniques, it's an interesting mix So a lot of kenpo practitioners will tend to mix that together As far as other weapons, it's just what people tend to throw in nun chucks are popular Both staff is in there a little bit Sometimes you'll see people bring other weapons like the sigh or the comma Weapons are not really a huge focus in kenpo, but they are there for those who want to explore that aspect of it Do you think that the kenpo gun and knife techniques are irresponsible dangers to teach people? I think they're terrible Again, I think they're okay To teach in class as long as it's made very clear what they're teaching I would never recommend doing a full knife sequence in the streets But they'll teach things like, you know, you know, if you're gonna get you're gonna get cut with a knife situation That's just let's be honest. There is no perfect weapon defense knives and guns are incredibly dangerous And it'll just teach concepts about where the step, you know, if you're gonna cut how to shield yourself, you know You know, you want you want you rather get cut on the outside of your arm versus the inside of your arm Things for that nature. Excuse me Um, so that's probably a topic we can dive into a little bit deeper And I'm sure I'm gonna have a lot of kenpoists who are watching this are gonna disagree with me And that's fine me personally. I'm not a fan of the knife and gun techniques As they are I think there's some good nuggets and information you could pull out of there But it goes back to being taught that there's concepts that you can extract and there's reasons that we do certain things Not necessarily. Hey, this is a recipe to copy exactly and apply it in a real life situation. So I think that Can be its own topic altogether Um So, yeah, that's that's how I feel about the one again if you're gonna do weapons I would I would suggest supplement that with another art, you know Add in krav maga add in a grappling art those handle weapons a little bit more At least a supplement because you can take what the kenpo teaches the little the ideas and concepts and mix it with more More application drills and I think you're in a better situation there And as far as and if you're going to learn weapons again, um, just seek out a weapon Or if you want to learn our knees learn our knee sticks if you want to learn nunchucks You know go to that weapons are kind of more of a personal choice. Did I have experience? And again, this is my own personal experience. I'm speaking from I might not I'm not speaking for everyone out there But okay, so basically you've got your clock principle. You've got your basics and you've got your your normal principles from there I think training becomes a lot easier and we have our self-defense techniques and this is where the biggest controversy comes from and It's funny because people will be like, oh, how can we never see techniques used in sparring Well, one they're not meant for sparring but two you do see them sometimes are parts of them There's a lot of techniques and depending on what system Which version of a parking couple you're training with it's usually around 150 or four give or take a few There's there's techniques that have moved and changed um, the Kemple self techniques self-defense techniques are again are designed to Be sample scenarios so you can see the concepts and you can see the basics in an application. It's a sample sentence and there's about Depends on what curriculum if you're on the older the older official curriculum the old 24s there were 24 techniques per belt level It originally that was 32 There's also 16 technique bridges. It doesn't really matter. There's a lot And it's going to take you years to go through them all And it might seem repetitive like when I was younger I didn't like I started at 14 years old. I wanted to punch and kick and spar that you know I was a teenager. That's what I was interested in. I learned the techniques I thought they were cool and my instructor taught us some principles But we didn't really get into the meat of it as to why they are so sometimes I got to a point where like Oh, we're learning this technique is just like this one. Why are we doing it again? It's so repetitive as I got older and when that instructor left and I didn't have a school for two years I did a lot of self exploration I started to explore why Different schools taught techniques differently and that's where I really learned where the principles come into play A technique can be done a thousand different ways You know, you take five swords and you go to one Kemple school They're going to teach it one way you go to 10 of the schools There's going to be different different 10 different variations and that's fine because that's what taught me like, okay It's not so ridden. It's not written in stone. It's a sample and there's a lot of ideas you can extract from it There's a lot of different ways you can use it. Okay. I'll use five swords for example This is a technique. It's one of the more famous Kemple techniques person throws a round punch You step in with the belt, you know with a block to the arm You're going to chop to the throat palm heel strike uppercut chop chop depends on the version It's a complicated sequence. Does it work in sparring? Not the greatest and I'll get back to that but It's teaching a lot of different concepts. It's teaching you how to cut the you know using the line to cut a circle They're coming at you with a round attack a round punch attack You're coming in with a straight block. It teaches you fitted weapons You're setting yourself up for other strikes and you see pieces of five swords You'll see its counterparts reverse motions other pieces and other techniques showing you how it can blend The reason I don't think it works in sparring as well It's because typically when you're sparring in class You're fighting someone who's experienced and I found that when you're sparring someone Who has some fighting experience these wild round punches aren't that common, you know There's more jabs and crosses and maybe there's a hook But it doesn't really work against the hook so much because they're too quick and too tight a round punch I've noticed comes more from people who aren't as experienced in fighting that might be throwing wild haymakers What'll work in that situation? I believe that it would Um, but that being said I have used five swords in sparring but in completely different ways I've used them against kicks I was sparring a guy several years ago really good kicks He like taekwondo level brown kicks and hook kicks and he came at me with a spinning hook kick And I actually was able to step in do that same block and instead of doing the chop palm heel strike I did jab cross the same motion So I used the same first three motions of five swords because I had done techniques so much That I recognized just from this position what I was able to do and I just kind of didn't think about it And I flowed with it and I realized later. I'm like I just did five swords, but in a completely different way We have techniques that you know are based off of wrist grabs. I've done one crossing talent I've used this several times. I've used this one in real life never off a wrist grab off a shirt grab I've been able to pin the hands and come in and do an arm arm with it and it's worked beautifully So once you can break the mold or break the the conception that techniques have to be done A specific way in that that's rule that that's the law Get past that and realize they're just ideas. They're teaching you individual concepts and free forms and recognizing the position so that after you've learned 150 techniques The the position start to feel very familiar and then you start getting this flow And when you really understand how they relate to each other Then the grafting comes into play and grafting is when you take you know Part of this technique and part of this technique can merge them together and start making your own freestyle combinations When you get to that point it starts to become spontaneous. That's when kemple really really starts to work well for you So let's see what else we have here. There should be a movie by ed parker thoughts on that I would agree with that. I think a biography film would be great We have the perfect weapon which was you know in production when ed parker passed away and he was behind it with just beakman Other than that though, there's another movie an independent film by david stanley called protecting the king Ed larry tatum plays at parker in it. So he plays a role But I agree. There should be a documentary or at least a biography film about ed parker would be fascinating Yes, thank you. I'm wearing the luroso auto shirt. Thanks for noticing Can four can a forum strike be effective? I think forum strikes can be incredibly effective We have a lot of them in kempo. We just did a video recently about um, karate chops You know, the does the karate chop really work and we talked about the break your stun. That's taught We do have that with the forearm a forum strike across the break yield plexus here or the the vagus nerve can be incredibly effective It's usually taught as a tactical strike There are forum strikes to the body that I have seen in real life and I have felt that are very effective So yes, I think forum strikes can be incredibly effective And it's really definitely a close-up weapon and especially if you get some body momentum behind it It can be a very impactful strike So Do we have any questions about techniques so far? Any particular concerns or because here's what I'm actually loving Working with the people I work with, you know, I'll we'll be practicing the technique And somebody else will ask a question. Well, how can we do the technique this way? And they'll be like, oh, well, that's just because it's this technique, but it's flipped over You know in in our white belt level and the white belt is a very good curriculum to look at this as Is we've got sister techniques right off the bat We've got the late sword which is based off of basically a straight attack someone's coming into a grab push or punch You step back you block you knock the arm away You throw a front kick to the groin you land with a chop to the side of the neck Simple basic technique for the beginner to learn Two techniques later we have sword of destruction, which is very similar But it's awful right a right round attack. So we step back We do an outward block instead of an inward block We do the same snapping front kick then we land with a chop But this time the chop is coming inward versus the other chop was outward So at face value, you're like, it's the same technique But what's the difference? Well, they're almost mirror image of each other One is showing an outward block one is showing an inward block one is showing an outward chop One is showing an inward chop. So right away and in the straight punch versus the round punch So right there you get the idea of The idea is how you can alter them and how the same concepts can work And also how every move and every every constant has an opposite and reverse And once you start to piece that together it starts to open a lot of doors In the same belt level we have our depends off you're in the curriculum It's been removed from some curriculums, but intellectual departure person comes in with a front kick You're going to step back through a downward inward block kick to the groin Come back with a snapping back fist if you really look at it and break it down And I we did it in another video you start to see you look at it You're like, huh, that's the late sword, but now it's upside down You know, we're using the lower half of our body So once you start to open up your perception on that and start to realize that a lot of techniques are the same as other techniques But they're either flipped they're upside down They're rearranged or they're what ifs of each other then it starts to get exciting And that's where your free flow and your grafting and your spontaneity starts to come from And since I've been doing this for the past year or two this re-exploration I have found an increased flow. I'm not thinking as much when I do a technique And when I'm inspiring parts of these techniques are coming out sparring, you know We've got deflecting hammer downward with front kick downward block Deflect the kick away check the front arm came with an elbow strike. That's working sparring, you know And we're not repairing traps have been working the sparring ideas are starting to free flow so And the techniques are taught in three different phases There's the ideal phase and this is where everybody gets hung up on I do believe this is the source of much of the criticism of kenpo Is that people see a demo these technique lines you go to trade shows you do these demonstrations Where there's a whole line of people and they do these flashy fancy techniques on each other and the person standing there Yes When you're seeing it at a demonstration, it's exactly that it's a demonstration When you do these technical lines in class what you're doing is you're learning the ideal phase It's basically that's saying that everything goes right everything goes perfect. They react exactly how you want them to react to This is how their reaction should be It never works out that way But now you're applying these techniques on a body You're feeling what it feels like to strike a person and try to get those reactions It's also good for the other person to get conditioned and take a hit And learn how to react eventually you start doing the what is and This book especially these books I was just brought up earlier every technique it teaches you it has a whole list of Well, what if they step with this leg? What if they step with this hand? What if they don't step towards you? What if you know you step back or what if they kick instead of punch it puts in so many variables in there That you have to think of oh, how okay? How would I adjust the technique if something goes wrong because something's going to go wrong or what if you only do part of the technique? and Eventually you get to phase three which is the formulation phases once you understand the principles once you understand What is teaching and you start to get that free flow? Somebody grabs you somebody comes to push you they pinch you they they push you they they want to bring the physical They want to fight that you're not so much trying to memorize techniques and try to remember what to do You're going to react and you're going to you're going to recognize positions and you're going to Do what feels natural in that moment and it's all going to kind of come together to some sort of a free form reaction Sword and hammer is a perfect beginner technique as well. I do like that technique. It's very simple and um, it teaches a lot teaches the obscure zone It teaches, you know gravitational marriage like every single technique Has a list of things it teaches. There's there's no technique in there that's just frivolous It even might be just a particular grab and it's funny because you'll see Larry Tatum and a lot of other instructors They'll teach technique and they'll even come out and say is look this technique does not work out in the street It's not really meant. It's not very practical But we're showing this motion this motion this motion this motion This is why we're doing it because it's either completing the concept that's somewhere else in the system Or it's teaching you a particular position that you haven't seen before. There's always something new in there What do I think about hybrid arts? I study trailer foot, but this curriculum includes Kempo self defense techniques, but with kung fu strikes I think that's a wonderful idea. I personally like hybrid teaching Um, I do think that you should find a base art like if you're just starting off in the martial arts I don't recommend doing five at once pick one to start with boxing bjj karate Kempo kung fu pick a base art That really speaks to you that you like the overall Culture of it the structure of it. You kind of like it feels right You'll know what if it feels right and then once you get used to once you start to build a good foundation Start learning tidbits of other arts start bringing them in a little bit And then you'll start to see those complements or you'll start to see what differs and you'll I think it really helps martial artists become much more well-rounded when they start to see what other arts are doing And implement them together and that's how a lot of arts formed, you know, we got kyo kushin It was gojuru and a shodokan mixed together with new concepts You know, you've got a lot of arts And I think that's how we grow and I think that's why mma is so great today It's because you have those martial artists a lot of the mma fighters grew up in an art and they went and trained You know, they added bjj. They added boxing. They added judo moi tai that mix once you start to do the hybrid You start to get a lot of good stuff put together and then you find what works for you You find your own particular combination And this goes with Kempo 2 is you've got that big toolbox. You're never going to use every tool in the box You're going to you're going to have to learn a thousand techniques But you're probably going to pick five out of your favorite or five that you're good at That's going to be your go-to and I think that's pretty natural for most arts And a lot of arts are broken down that way like wing chung is a very simplified art But it's the same thing. They're like they're going to focus on very specific basics that you can resort to And there's a lot of arts like that. So I think hybrids work well And again in my judo training and judo training. I am finding that it blends with Kempo Perfectly even though the idea is there's concepts that threw me The hardest thing I had I had getting used to was doing the shoulder throws turning my back to the opponent Felt so unnatural. I had this natural hang-up on it that I had it took me a while to get used to it I finally got it and it's part of realizing when it's appropriate to do You know, you're not just going to go up to person grab turn your back on them It's going to be in the midst of things. You're going to be grabbing You're going to be moving and if you find that position then you can do the throw But the concepts are there and there's been several times in judo class where if something went wrong The Kempo came out, you know, I'll shoot that didn't that take down didn't work. I did the counter grab and I did the buckle So yeah, you're going to start to see where things mix. So I I do advocate hybrids I do say that it's beneficial to learn a base art and then start mixing other arts and on top of that Too many what ifs If coast and warrior says too many what ifs That's an interesting question or interesting comment. Are there too many what ifs? Yes, there are because in a real life situation, there's too many variables You can't possibly plan for everything. There are too many what ifs So if you get into the mindset of practicing where you have to be a little bit fluid You know, you've got your reactions in mind. You've got your muscle memory Muscle memory does come into play because sometimes they're just going to react without even thinking about it But things are going to happen And I think part of what makes a really good martial artist is being aware Try to observe what threats are what possibilities are as best as you can and just react the best that you can and um Yeah, there's there's a what if on everything because nothing is ever going to go as expected No technique is ever going to work exactly as it's taught No bad guys going to respond exactly as they should there's people you can kick them in the groin and they're not going to react You can punch them in the face and break the nose They might not react or might not phase them as much as you would hope it would So yes, there are too many what ifs in general And all we can do is prepare ourselves for as many variables as possible And hopefully if we're in a situation like that that we're prepared enough We recognize enough of a situation where we can do something to get out of it Since you mentioned mixed martial arts, do you feel they are becoming a martial art? We're going to come back to this. This is actually a topic. I'm exploring for a future video But the short answer is I do think we're on the path to that Excuse me Mixed martial arts right now are still in what you'd call the embryonic stage Is a lot of people are bringing their own mixes, but we're starting to see trends And I think what we're seeing in sport aspect of it I think we'll eventually start working this way down maybe 10 20 years from now It might be its own art because they're they're plucking specific techniques And you're seeing a lot of the same combinations I do believe that eventually that could branch out to be its own flavor of a martial art There's always mixed martial arts because you can actually ask the question Well, what is Kempo is technically mixed martial art? It's got karate in it. It's got kung fu in it It's got boxing. It's got judo But it's not the same as in the MMA gym that will train For multiple different disciplines for a competition or a ring, but excuse me But yes, I do believe that eventually it could become its own martial art So, all right, let's go into the I think we've covered the techniques quite a bit Oh and one thing I wanted to do bring up with the techniques is there's something called the equation formula And this was something I wasn't I was taught again. I was a teenager There's I had selective listening when I was 14 years old that we all The technique the concept was taught to us the the equation formula basically the eight different things you could do a technique So I think this is very very important as well. So you've got your basics. You got your principles You've got your techniques your understanding this flexibility The equation formula Teaches you eight different things you could do a technique to make it work The first thing is you can alter a weapon or you can alter a target. So you a delayed sword Oh, you know what? It's a good example. It's five swords that that instead of doing The block off of a round punch and following up with the chop and the palm hill strike Well, I altered it. I didn't I didn't I did the block But like, you know what the chop and the palm hill aren't going to work so well So I did a jab and a cross that worked. I altered my weapon to the technique So you can alter your weapons. You can alter the techniques in your targets You can prefix and you can suffix those are two other things. So you can add moves before you can add moves after So, you know, you can do a technique. It doesn't have to be exactly A, b, c, d you can put moves in the in the beginning you can move moves at the end You can also insert but moves in the middle. Oh, you're you're transitioning Well, maybe I can clip them with a hammer fist or maybe I can get a slip an elbow in there You can insert techniques. You can also rearrange. So and you'll see this too A lot of techniques in Kemple as you go up you're learning you're like Oh, okay. Well, that was just a late sword. But now we rearrange the order It teaches you that it doesn't have to be in that set order. You can rearrange techniques You could delete stuff. So maybe you might not have to do that strike Or maybe you feel like you're sufficient and doing just the first two moves you can delete the rest You can adjust your range And this is a good example. We have a technique and this goes on along with the forearm comment We had before there's a technique called thundering hammers person comes in with the punch You do a block and you're going to shuffle in and do a forearm strike to the body Lower body growing if you can with the ideas, hopefully you bend them over cancel their height zone We have another technique later called flashing wings, which Is basically thundering hammers is the same technique, but it's close range and it's using elbows And but it's got very very similar mechanics So you can always adjust your range and there's a lot of techniques to call for a kick But they say well if you're too close for a kick shoot a knee strike Or if it's supposed to be an e-strike we'll fire a kick you can adjust your range And the final thing is you can regulate regulate your speed regulate your power based on the reaction that you want Once you have all that in mind and you realize Temple is nothing more than a bunch of Legos Then once you learn how the pieces fit together and you view in each each Technique is its own little play set that you've built Well, then you can build anything you want after that because now you know how the pieces fit now You know how to build what you want you want to build a car Well, you don't have to build the way you did in the kit make your own car with your own pieces Now you know how it works So in a nutshell, I feel that that's how chempo techniques should be taught and should be understood It should be practiced is that they are so much more flexible than what people think at face value People see a technique line. They go they'll never work that looks great looks fancy They're just sitting there slapping themselves guys never going to react right because they're seeing only the beginning Bookwork phase of it the rest of the phases you see in the classroom at a good school And that's the other thing too is there are a lot of chempo schools that don't teach that way And I think that's very very unfortunate. I was unfortunately part of one at the beginning I have a lot of respect for my second instructor who opened me up to a lot of this And I found out a lot of this through my own exploration when there was two years the school was closed And I was investigating different schools and I was getting frustrated because I'm like This one teaches different to this one and like everyone had their own techniques differently and it got to the point. I went Why and when I realized and I started reading to and hearing them talk about the principles the principles were constant The rules were constant. It doesn't matter the order. It doesn't matter the sequence It doesn't matter if you choose to do a hammering Fist or if you want to do a chop or if you want to do a finger poke If you understand what reaction you're supposed to get if you're understanding the mechanics And then that free cell starts to come into play. It's gonna it's gonna work. It's gonna be good for you MMA shouldn't become its own art. It might stunt the growth of the sport and the athletes I don't think it's going to stunt the growth of the athletes I think it's just become it's going to become its own thing and you're always going to have mixes But I do think because we're seeing gyms MMA gyms rising up And most of those gyms will teach primarily boxing moi tai bjj And maybe some other striking art and you're starting to see that same flavor. So I think as a sport There's always going to be a wide mix But MMA as we're starting to see it I think we'll eventually branch off into something that could become its own flavor its own specific Blend because there's there's a lot of commonalities you see in a lot of athletes I mean, you've got athletes that come in to have kung fu You don't typically find that in the MMA gym, but I think what we're seeing as a standard curriculum taught in a gym setting I do I can see that becoming its own art eventually down the line Does kenpo have the clinch? We've got versions of the clinch and a lot of techniques can be based off the clinch again It's recognizing the position just being from 5.0 added more of those in there But yes, it does have it and it's got different ways to get through it. It's different and this is where I do I advocate people to learn bjj learn to grapple in there because if you are caught in a clinch or someone who knows how to grapple You better know what to do real real quick because if you don't react you're going to be on the ground And I think half of defending against a grappling art is to understand and learn a grappling art Again, that's kind of a discussion from the other day as well We've talked that a little bit, but to answer your question. There are some clinches in kenpo. Yes Could it be expanded? Absolutely. And that's where I think mixing other arts can be in there And just speakman has done a wonderful idea of that. He's put a lot of clinches in there Uh, this kenpo f trapping hands. Yes, or we call it sticky hands or Um, my personal favorite is the inward outward parry. You can slip a punch It were an outward parry and do this trap that works for me all the time. I've used it in real life I've used it sparring. We have a lot of techniques with it I think there's a lot and if you watch on frank trejo The late and great frank trejo. He did some seminars for kenpo sticky hands Great concepts very different than wing chung sticky hands. You know, it's it's a it's a lot more limb destruction It's a little bit more rigid like Like chi-sao is more flowing and riding with it kenpo sticky hands is more It's got somebody in there, but it's more about oh, I'm going to ride it and I'm going to break And I'm going to come in here and do a strike. So it's a it's a lot more aggressive And more limb destruction focus, but yes, there absolutely is trapping hands or or sticky hands in kenpo I'm a personal fan of it and that's kind of what I use like I said, I've had I've had someone grab me. I've used I've filled the story before and in the comments, but Years back. I was actually at a karate tournament and there was a guy in the bleachers in front of me and he was Constantly trying to start something. He was turned around. He was he was you wouldn't leave me alone And at one point he grabbed my shirt This is where I used that technique crossing talents where you know, it's normally taught off a wrist grab We grab my shirt. Well, I did the counter grab. So I almost kind of simulated my wrist I instead of just grabbing my wrist I kind of I trapped his hand came up underneath slipped down and got his arm bar And forced him down face first into the bleachers and I held him there until he stopped So that's a little bit kind of an example of what our traffic hands would be is they grab you they touch you You pin and you secure and then you start to use their the mechanics You start to contour in somebody you get arm bars you get breaks um If it was a standing technique as it's taught you're supposed to get them in that arm bar and start elbowing and destroying their face You're gonna have to you know, obviously the situation didn't call for that But yes, we do have the traffic hand concepts in there and you're gonna find a lot of nuggets and this is what's interesting is like ed parker And this gets political a lot of people say oh, he stole this you stole that he wasn't really this I don't buy into a lot of that it's conjecture A lot of these accusations happened and these stories happened before I was even born So I don't like to get involved in the he said she said of the ed parker Uh controversies because I wasn't there. I wasn't a part of it All I know is what I've seen in his seminars on videos and what in the material taught I love his thinking. I've read some of his books I think he's got a great methodological approach to his his techniques there's a lot of academics and You have to know where to separate the academics from the application because they support each other But there are they are two different aspects of it But ed parker took a lot of different ideas and put them into kempo And sometimes it's a study all by itself to kind of go find those nuggets Like I said, there's kung fu in there There is boxing our our neutral finding stance is closest to a boxing stance in the karate stance And there's definitely judo techniques that I'm learning we're in there more than I thought So the ideas are there and if you really want to get tricky with this in this parts A lot of people think this is dumb I find it frustrating, but I can see why We have our principles. We have our rules Well, every now and then a technique or one of our kata's breaks that principle it breaks the rule And It's there for you to ask why they want you to catch it And question it because there's a reason it's being broken And for a really quick example in one of our forums um Actually in some of our forums but in short form two we've got uh One of our rules is if we're going to punch with our back hand So we've got our front hand run our neutral our neutral stance 50 58 on our legs You know our 45 degrees center lines facing away from the opponent hands are up very similar to a boxing stance If we're going to punch their right our front hand We stand at that that neutral bow if we're going to turn and punch with our rear hand We need to pivot into a forward bow which looks a lot like a forward stance in traditional karate And the reason is that's where the rotational power is coming from It's also giving my body more of a bracing angle and also the reach if I stand in my neutral position You know my my two hands they don't have they don't have the same reach So you've got to pivot to equal that out. Well, that's basically a rule One of our principles is if you're going to strike with your rear hand you have to rotate into your forward bow Well in one of our forums short form two There is a rear hand punch, but we don't pivot And that bothered me. I was like well, why not because They want you to question that and in that particular instance in that particular kata They're demonstrating a different power principle of body mass how you can generate power with your body mass So it's intentionally not having rotation in there So you're focusing on this one other aspect, but it kind of triggers like once you start to really understand it You go, wait a minute. That's not right. Why just we're breaking a rule here Why are we breaking that rule and that I know a lot of people don't like that And I can understand that I find it frustrating sometimes because it's there's a lot of techniques I learned as a kid that I didn't catch those things and I'm catching now but Once you start to develop that awareness you start to pick up on those little details You start to go, okay. I see what he's doing. I see why I see why we're doing this um, so yeah Is there a certain technique that I love I have a few favorites um One of my favorites it's funny because I hated it as the kid was crossing talent The one where they they grabbed you on the wrist you pin you counter grab you step in You did arm bar. I used to hate that technique. It's it's complicated to learn as a beginner And it's really hard to teach the kids because there's a lot of mechanics in there But now it's one of my favorites because I've used it in judo. I've used it in randori I I was when I just started my first year into jujitsu I was grappling another judo guy. We were doing randori and I was trying to judo take downs and he was better than me He had more experience. I was getting dropped. I was getting dropped I was getting dropped and we were in the clinch actually and I just got frustrated and I stripped his hand down Came up underneath. I got the same kind of grab and I did crossing talent That's one of my go-to moves. I love it. I've taught seminars on it It's one of my favorite ones. It's the one I use in real life Um, I like I like shielding hammer a lot. I like thundering hammers There's a lot of techniques I do love or pieces of them and as I'm revisiting I'm starting to love more of them and techniques. I thought were absolutely ridiculous I'm starting to see the value in them now because now I understand the context a little bit better So yeah, I have a lot of favorites and that list of favorites is actually growing The intellectual departure the one I talked about they throw a front kick and you step back and do a downward number block You do a back kick to the groin snapping back fist I have a modified version of that that I use in sparring all the time It works fairly well the guys I spar with they expect it now So I don't land as many shots as I used to but I find it very effective So yeah, I find that I'm having techniques for I'm finding favorite pieces to take out of and use in my own mix So that is basically techniques in a nutshell. I think I've kind of rambled on that enough. Are there any specific questions? Okay, all right. Marisol is asking what is your opinion on forms seven and eight? Let me revisit this when we come back to the forms because actually let's do the forms now Kempo forms or katas are different than what you find in other styles. They I have a lot of kung fu and chinese influence in them Actually, some of our earlier forms short one and long one. I do believe come from other kung fu styles I don't know firsthand which style they are and what the original version was But I do know that parker took old old old chinese forms and built off of them Um We've got forms and we have sets and I want to go back to this language thing because it's funny I always looked at Kempo's language and when you read at parker's books, he describes Kempo's language too The our katas Are broken up into three different categories You have our sets which are basically shorter kata. So you've got like your strike set your block set your stance set your kick set They are isolated concepts. The whole point of a set is it's isolating one specific highlight Oh, we're going to do blocks So we do the whole thing from a horse stance because you're locking out your lower half We're not worried about the lower half. We're doing just our basic rudimentary blocks Later there's a stance set two where you put you know motion to it and you start to implement your lower body, but striking set um kicking set it's it's taking a specific concept and just focusing on one isolated idea And you've got our forms, which is long We've got long. Okay. We got short one long one short two long three Sorry short one Short and long one short and long two short and long three and from that point on we've got form four five and six And then sometimes seven and eight Um, the first four which is short one and long one short two and long two are what are called dictionary forms And i'm really sorry i'm not explaining this very well And this is where a lot of people are like, oh, this was stupid and complicated It's really not once you kind of see it laid out broken down But our first four forms they're called dictionary forms because they are simpler And they are literally showing you the definition of something so our very first form short form one Is teaching you some very basic core concepts. It's simple. You're stepping back and you're doing an inward block Stepping back doing an inward block. Oh now we're going to change our line and we're going to do an outward block This form is for the white belt. It teaches how to retreat It's teaching you the four main lines of directions forward back side to side it's implementing our basic blocks into the motion and it's also um demonstrating um Torque, you know, you're twerking with your blocks. You're doing body rotation So there's a lot of very simple ideas whereas long form one builds on that. So you're learning definitions in motion Uh long form one builds on that because now we're going to add a counter strike So now we're adding a punch to this sequence and we're also adding a new stance to the sequence So each form is going to add something else short to starts to introduce the diagonal lines We've got the eight main lines of attacks, you know front back side side and we've got the four diagonals Short to um introduces that long to builds on that. So you've got these first four kata that Basically start here. They stack After that which now you get into the intermediate levels are the It's short three long three and you got then four five and six and up Those forms are a lot more complicated and they're referred to as the encyclopedia forms and these are forms where Techniques are shrunk together. You see a whole sequence of different Kemple techniques put together and blended as as as if it's a um sample fight But there's differences and they're they're organized thematically So like the long short and long three are based off of techniques that or a person's grabbing you or holding you or pushing you They're called dead attacks or semi-dead attacks form four Are Thematically built on techniques that are defending against punches and kicks form five involves techniques that use takedowns form six are self-defense techniques against weapons and it builds on that so There's a lot of study there Especially long form four, which is the kemple form is very complicated to do it properly It took me years because that's where I got stuck That's where my first I was learning that form when my first instructor left And then my the second instructor came in and he revamped it So I started over learning that again then the school closed and then I had dvds to learn from Of course, it was different again Then he came back and opened the school again And now we were doing kemple 5.0 and it was different again So it took me probably two to three years to learn that form because it kept changing And you really need to spend a lot of time with the forms and this is I wish my instructor spent more time on the forms than what we did because i'm finding more value in it now I'm reading more books about it I'm going to seminars about it and now we're starting to see that like with the techniques You know, there's an opposite reverse to everything. Well, that exists in the forms too You know, you learn something in short form one. Well, some of those ideas are coming up on long form six You know, so there's a thread there's a common thread that goes through everything Now to answer your question about form seven and eight this one's I I can't answer this as well as I would like to because I never formally learned them They went through some changes I know at one point or I understand at one point that long form seven used to be a knife form And then later it became a stick form and I know form eight now is a knife form But I don't know if that used to be a stick form I'm not sure where that changed because Just speaking to also teach us stick sets and knife sets and I'm not and I've Watching people do these forms online. I see similarities. So I'm not quite sure what's what they There's a lot of controversy over whether ed parker even made these forms I've I've seen footage of him on youtube teaching some of long seven I'm now. I'm not sure if it's long seven or if it was stick set but long seven basically as I learned it I learned half of it and I'm sorry. I need a little water for a second Long seven is a stick form And it is taking sticks our knee sticks cally sticks and putting them in your hands And you're doing our self-defense techniques with them which I like as a concept because Um, it changes the technique. So five swords now becomes five storms and storms deserve our code word for stick our club So basically teaching you how to use this technique But the difference now is you've got a weapon you have extra range now You can't necessarily cross the same way So it's teaching you how to alter your your techniques to yourself defense techniques based on what you're holding in your hand And I do believe long eight might be so long in similar lines Although I've heard a lot of controversy that eight doesn't really work so well that it there's a lot of potential to cut yourself I've never learned eight. I've never seen it in person. That's a really hard form to find And you I've only ever seen it on youtube and if you look at it on youtube everybody does it different so You'll find that most of the official forms are forms one through six A lot of schools will teach seven only a few schools teach eight I've heard rumors that parker planned a nine into ten. I don't know how true that is I have nothing to substantiate that with I think I could see him doing it. I'm not sure where they would have gone But that's basically what I think of long forms seven and eight is I would like to learn it I would like to finish long seven. I learned half of it once. I thought it was pretty cool I would like to learn the rest of it eight I wouldn't mind seeing it just for the experience of seeing it but Yeah, I like where kempo was going like ed parker was always always changing the system You can look I mean you look at any different generation of manual and it's so different And I think in a way that's great because the principles didn't change It's just the order changed different belt levels changed. We're going to do this now instead of this now My instructor did this so much I would come into class like the last few years he was teaching and he was teaching MMA classes We come in he goes, you know what we're going to do this technique this way to say and he would completely change it The following week would be totally different. So it was hard in a curriculum aspect It was kind of hard to follow along in that but it was easier to see that how flexible and how malleable the material really was I feel like some okay, so the grave tender says I feel like some kempo techniques if tweaked can't be used on the ground I agree 100 and that's actually something I've been kind of playing with in my mind is how would you alter something A lot of a lot of the principles would work on the ground And you you might have to tweak some things to make it work and we actually do have a technique that touches on that concept And counter with danger you get pushed backwards and you land on your back and the person comes in You know, you're going to throw a kick to the groin or yeah kick to the groin Should any strike roll over do back kick this whole sequence to it But when you learn it you're like, oh wait that is aggressive twins, but it's on the ground So it's taking the same concept of you're putting it on the ground And I do think a lot of techniques could be done that way and I think a lot of techniques I've played around with this can be done from a chair I experimented with the kids with this I put them all in chairs and I told them do the late sword You know someone's attacking you from a chair Do the late sword and I they had them do their self defense techniques and modify it from a sitting position So I think yes You understand the basics and you understand these principles once you know the rules You can modify these techniques to so many different scenarios that It's a lot more opening and freeform than a lot of people want to give a credit for if that makes any sense This can't go have shoulder strikes like kung fu has shoulder strikes we We don't do shoulder striking as much as we do like checks and bumps So we will have a lot of scenarios like especially if we're Getting bear hugged or fighting in clothes that we will use our shoulder to bump them up Or like if they're grabbing us when we might bump up to kind of gain a little bit of a space that we shoot an elbow up The is more for gaining space and opening up windows. We don't do striking with our shoulders so much but we use it to Uh disrupt balance and open up other targets The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. You've got that right There is this phrase I like You can practice until you drop, but if you don't understand the logic of the art you haven't learned it or something like that absolutely and this is interesting because My first instructor would tell us that we don't know a technique until we can explain it to someone else Not show it to someone else Explained it someone else like he goes you should be able to call me up on the telephone Explain it to me enough where I can learn it and apply it If you can do that you understand it If if you can't do that well then that's that's secured to go back and be like well, why not? Why don't we're what are the reasons for this and it goes back to the clock principle? You can you can explain somebody step back to six o'clock with your left foot and deliver a right inward hammering block Cat back shoot a front kick the 12 o'clock to the groin land and do an outward chop to the to the neck You can explain that and then you can explain the ideas to that because you're understanding the principles behind it So I absolutely like that if you can't if you can't explain it If you don't understand the logic of it, then you don't know it I'd like to learn that grafted together form that just speakman did in the perfect weapon Good question. This comes up a lot. All right, and the perfect weapon the movie starts off with just speakman doing this Really cool kata. What is that kata people ask all the time? Well From just speakman himself. He said that the kata is it's a mix between form four and six With some isolations in there that he's taken from gojiru because he's actually practiced gojiru first He is I believe he's an eighth or ninth degree in gojiru. He trained that for a long time So in the opening of perfect weapon He is doing a combination blend of long form four long form six with some gojiru isolations in there It looks really cool Sparring let's get into the sparring real quick So why does keppel it's sparring look like any other sparring? Well, it doesn't it doesn't There's a whole set of techniques that aren't taught anymore, which I find very unfortunate ed parker had this whole Freestyle sparring techniques and I've heard that bruce lee worked on this with him It's basically it's supposed to be the bridge between yourself defense techniques and sparring It's that it's that middle piece that missing link where it takes these principles and applies them to your basic punches and kicks Because let's be honest when you are fighting someone in a sparring both of your hands are up You're both engaged It's a very different situation than someone coming up and shoving you or grabbing you or a self-defense situation And we've talked about that in a previous episode about self-defense versus fighting But you're not going to be able to pull off every technique with you know in just a fighting scenario so these um Freestyle techniques were designed to be quick entries get in check them do a point and they work very well I've I've been learning on my own because our schools didn't teach it So I've been working with the wipeout forms the wipeout versions of them and they work quite well And there's simple techniques and what's interesting. You know is once you start to learn those You know They're all based off of you checking off that front hand And if you if you can get the grab you kind of pull them off balance a little bit the cancels their height They're within the depth and it opens up for a strike. So the very first one is check strike It's a very very simple maneuver, but it works The next one builds off that you can either strike to the face or you can strike to the ribs Then there's foot maneuvers and you can add kicks you can add palm hill strikes It becomes a whole combination sequence in itself that once you learn you start to free form a piece together quite easily What I'm noticing though is a lot of these freestyle techniques will put you in positions Where oh now I can do that arm bar from cross the talent or now I can do that wrist grab So I find it very unfortunate that a lot of schools have dropped this It's very hard to find taught these days. You kind of have to seek them out And from the explanation I've heard is does that it was getting to be too much curriculum that a lot of schools Felt it was too much material and there is it's a lot of material Especially when you look at how it's listed because these freestyle techniques they are represented by letters and numbers And you've got so you've got like, you know kb1a kb2a and it gets to be a whole like 15 letters long That's intimidating when you look at it on a sheet of paper But when you learn at it from white belt and then you start to build on it as you go by timing at your brown belt It's not intimidating anymore. It's just it's just different combinations You know, it's no different than shadow boxing where you do a jab cross or let me do a jab cross uppercut It's just combinations But once you understand how the combinations work You can mix them with your techniques and everything starts to coagulate and congeal become a more of a centralized compact system And and let's go let's go back to how can we never see it inspiring what you do There's little things you have to look for you don't see it in MMA as much Because there aren't as many fighters have come there are guys who've got KEMPO in their background But what you're going to see in the KEMPO sparring match that's KEMPO Well, the way that they gauge the distance the way they use their leg checks So you you'll find some of these freestyle shots And there's sometimes Bruce Lee use them in his movies quite a bit So there's a lot of little tidbits and the principles are what you're going to see You're not going to see five swords be broken out in an MMA cage fight. You're just not you're not going to see cross talent You're not going to see a full self defense sequence, but you might see a piece of it here and there You might see a constant you're going to see Stepping off the line you're going to see the way a leg check is done You're going to see a a distance gauge the way kick is done the way hand motion is done You're gonna if you know what to look for it's there so Yeah, I mean everything looks like kickboxing until you know the intricacies of it So, I mean, let's see. I mean, what are the questions do we have? We only point suddenly get we only point sparred in tournaments. Yeah, let me bring that up I started out point sparring. That's the only sparring we did in in our early days And I liked it. Um, I think it's good for a beginner It's not as overwhelming because we sparred we weren't allowed to spar as a white belt once we got our second belt in We were allowed to spar We did nothing but point sparring in the class and I liked it as a beginning because It lets you experiment. It lets you get used to Trying technique. It's sharpening techniques. It's quick bursts. You know, let me get in get out It teaches you distancing and gauging But I do think you need to continue to spar in addition to that is maybe, you know, start with point sparring and build up on that this point sparring is It has its benefits But I do think it's lacking for self-defense purposes I do think you need to be able to go into combinations and be hit and a fight doesn't stop just because one person tapped another person So I think it's wonderful for sport And I think there's a lot of concepts that you can pull out of that But I do believe that resistance sparring and grappling and continuous sparring With semi-hard contact a lot and a lot of people like to go harder than others But I think with decent contact is a good way to go because that conditions you more And you get used to getting hit and you get used to a real fight because a real fight is never going to be I got in I got the point I got out. Oh, I want no It's going to be until somebody goes to the ground knocked out or until someone breaks you up You know, you you want to simulate if you if you're doing it for self-defense purposes and fighting purposes or competition purposes You want to emulate that as close as possible while still being safe What are my thoughts on the tracy's abc variations? I think they're fine. Um, I don't like that They say that they've got 600 techniques when parker's only got 154 because that's not really true Those variations actually came from the parker kenpo taught in the 50s If you look at one of parker's first books, and I think I have one here, actually I do This is like his first book or one of his first books. It's just it's called kenpo krate The law of the fist and of the empty hand This is before it was called american kenpo before it's called at park kenpo was just he called it kenpo krate and The tracy's were students of his when he did these books but if you look in here their sequences there's really basic techniques And going through this book I recognize that a lot of these techniques are the basis of stuff we see in ed parker kenpo now So in the in the 60s, he wanted this he wanted to update his system He wanted to be really kind of wanted to start from scratch kind of rebuild it The tracy's didn't agree with that they wanted to stick with this So they branched off on their own and they built off of this so They're seeing what happened is basically what ed parker did was he took these base techniques And he made longer sequences out of them the tracy's took these base techniques and they added longer sequences to them, but The tracy kenpo would teach you part a first so if you were a wipeout you might learn 30 techniques 40 techniques 50 techniques But what you're really learning is oh you're learning You know What the equivalent of five swords could be would be five swords a so you're learning the first two moves Then b would be the next two moves c would be the next two moves So you're learning them in bite size pieces whereas in a parker kenpo you're going to learn the whole You know eight sequence technique at once, but they'll call it four techniques when it's really one technique in parker. So I don't have a problem with it. It's basically just two ways to learn the same materials It's really the same amount of material except I mean their techniques are different They branched off and they they did their own naming systems. They did their own combinations. So There's there's a lot of overlapping techniques, but the parker techniques and tracy's techniques have a lot of differences Essentially a lot of the same ideas So I think it's fine that they did the abc techniques. It's just understanding that, you know, you know when they claim Oh, we have 600 techniques. No, you've got 600 pieces. It's the same sequence is taught over here. It's just broken down in the smaller bites Let's see The point cell is good for in and out and helps with timing not much of a fan of it But I believe it is beneficial Robert, yeah, I agree with that. It's really good for I think it's great for timing If you can learn point sparring and get in that that precision and timing and then followed up with a continuous combination I think that's that's a great thing to do have both experiences point sparring and continuous sparring question What is Something you could do with the student that is really aggressive or that she sees violence as a second choice in the conflict instead of the last I'm not sure I understand the question What is something you could do with a student that is really aggressive Or that she sees violence as the second choice in the conflict instead of the last choice Well in terms of teaching aggression, I mean Okay, when it comes to teaching techniques I do believe and this is how we talk to is once we learn the sequence Um, you know, you know, you learn it step by step Then you do it in the technique line and then we started applying it harder and harder in the person So in terms of aggressive with the technique, we do you build up on that and you start to condition as far as teaching aggression If I understand your question correctly, I'm not sure that I am Is like when to use the violence as a resort like you know instead of waiting to the last resort as a second resort my My second instructor would teach us that the females have to be a little more aggressive than the males Because if a male gets into a fight with someone Generally speaking Men are larger and fighter and there could be a bias there He because oh you let me put it this way If we did the self-defense technique if somebody attacked us and we put them on the ground He says guys if you've got the guy on the ground you stop hitting them you you back away You stop hitting them you call the police women if you get the guy on the ground You keep hitting him until he stops getting up and then then you go and find help and the whole aspect is that You know, I think women have a little more leeway there in terms of self-defense But it's it's a fine line because it's it's really easy to go overboard and You'll hear an expression in kenpo called over It's over skill versus over kill like a if you do if you are able to pull off a full technique on a person The whole 20 sequence you're probably going to kill them because there are neck breaks and there's there's there's a lot of damage in there But You have to get to a point and realize you only need a couple parts You know, you don't need to keep hitting the person once the threat is done You got to stop You got to get out of there because then if you keep attacking them and they're no longer a threat They're no longer perceived as a threat and the liability starts to shift on to you And this is where we've talked about in the channel that You know, these rules vary from state to state that you really need to know what your local laws are But self-defense is really really tricky and it's whether it's got weapons or not or hand to hand If a person tries to attack you and hurt you you have to do what you have to do But there's a very very razor edge line as to what's too much or what can be considered too much So my recommendation is you do what you have to do to stop the threat and save yourself Get out and go go seek help call the authorities Do not keep pummeling the person that they're on the ground So many fights, but you see this online all the time you not on youtube so much, but like on reddit There's a lot of fight clips and I cannot tell you how many fights end with the person down on the ground Knocked out and the person standing starts kicking them in the head starts beating them No, you can't do that. You do that. You're the aggressor. You're the one who's going to go to jail Because you're probably going to kill that person or or handicapped them You have to know when to stop And I had a viewer once I'm asked me on the channel is kenpo. Why is kenpo the most violent martial art in the world? It's not I mean come on martial arts, you know, they were designed to kill they were designed to defend yourself They were designed for fighting. They have other aspects But ultimately it is to defend yourself against someone trying to hurt you You have to know judgment. You have to know when to stop. You have to know When to keep going every scenario is different every person is going to be different every law is going to be different And I think that judgment is something that goes across the board in all martial arts Not just kenpo not just cross maga or weapons techniques is that That judgment is part of what you have to learn in your mental skills Knowing what's appropriate and what's not and it's it's not always such a clear-cut answer Have I ever met a delusional martial artist all the time all the time? They're out there every art There's there's people who think that what they learn is Is just the perfect thing and that they're they're untouchable and unfortunately it happens all the time We had guys in class back when I was a teenager. We had a guy in class He told me That he knew how to take out how to fight against five different guys because all he had to do was duck when they Punched they'd all knock each other out Okay, let's try that Tell me how that works out. That's the movie logic right there. Um, but yes, there's there's delusional martial artists everywhere and it's Honestly, I think a lot of it comes from being taught properly You mean people get taught certain things and they they latch onto an idea and then they inter will interweave it into their own identity And that's where a lot of the politics come from excuse me Is people Find something they infuse their identity with what they're learning especially in martial art Where you have to put so much of yourself into it that it's hard to admit that something might not work It's really hard to admit that there might be something better or that it's not complete And that there's other options and it's it's so easy to pigeonhole yourself in as one mindset And sometimes people have a hard time breaking out of that All the yeah all the time. So yeah, I've met so many people I've met Campbell people who just think they're the most best fighters in the world and you're just like Okay But again, it's across all martial art. I've seen I've seen BJJ guys, we had we had a kid come in the car school years ago He was learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu and he wanted to spar so he put his pads on that We'd get into sparring position and he would just drop right on his back onto the ground He goes, come on get my guard. I'm like What are you doing? Get up. He's like getting my guard and I'm like if you want me in your guard Put me in it, you know earn it get me there because you do that on the street I Don't work out so well. So yes, unfortunately, there is There are people out there and again, that's where I think a lot of the politics stem from Um, let's see what else So, yeah, I mean the reason I'm doing this topic too is I'm seeing a lot of questions I've been seeing a lot of questions on Kemple lately and there's so much to talk about especially now I'm still like is I'm trying to rediscover it myself and get deeper into the material and I've been working some I'm very fortunate to have some very wonderful people to work with I have a good network right here. My instructor moved away and left in 2015 But we've got a couple local schools since the alex is a really good friend He's welcomed me into his school, you know, mr Sean Kelly is welcomed me into his school. So there's a lot of people who have embraced me And welcomed me in and I feel so fortunate and these are people who know this material and they've spent their lives into the Kemple And they're also exploring other arts and it's just it's just reinforcing the whole thing of you know There doesn't have to be this level of politics We don't have to say mine's better than yours better. We go we get together we share ideas We explore with it. We experiment we take it apart. We put new ideas in that's what martial arts I think should be learn it the way it's taught but then play with it always add to what is well What if I did it this way or what if this happened and then start to freestyle with it? It's I just think that's the healthiest way to approach a martial art any martial art is just to learn it Take it apart and put it back together again and then see how different ways you can put it together And I've been doing a lot of ideas and I want to I've got a lot more Kemple topics coming up And I'm going to be doing some seminars out. I'm got I'm kind of drafting out some Kemple DVD seminars or on-demand seminars that I wanted to work on and I definitely kind of wanted to see What you guys thought what were some of your questions were So I'll go so I'm sorry if I wasn't clear I meant in a conflict I taught always to try to de-escalate conflict walk away with your guard up, but she's more like well I tried Punching it. Yes. I am a firm believer in that if you can de-escalate a conflict Do it and it's it's hard because there's been many times that I've walked away from a fight But I really wanted to hit that person or You know, it's also a part, you know, it's natural to be like I want to see if myself works You know, I've heard that from so many people. Well, I want to see if my martial art works That urge is there, but you have to prevail and you have to realize that Once you cross that line into violence Somebody is likely going to get hurt and there's and if they're hurt seriously, there's going to be legal After my out, it's not worth the fallout. I mean if you can de-escalate it and I don't care what martial art you're in How good of a fighter you are I think de-escalation is the best form of self-defense that you can do because that way everybody walks home safe Since the emmet says I believe that too many put too much on the style these days and fail to take responsibility for their own training To a certain degree I agree with that. I agree with that. It's become a club And you see this a lot. You see this a lot with MMA guys You see this a lot with traditional guys too that they feel that they are in this one click the perfect club And they think everything else is garbage and it's just not the case you can't And again, that's where things get political People get into this one mindset. They learn something they integrate And I think the problem is when you put your identity too much into something when you when You put so much investment into something. It's hard to realize that maybe it doesn't work or maybe it's not perfect Now I don't want to say it doesn't work. Maybe it's not always perfect or maybe there's something else that could work too That's hard for a lot of people. It's hard for me because there's so many times People have shown me something it might I want to be like, well, how's that how I do it? But then that guy stopped like, well, maybe let me see how this works Because maybe it's some ideas that I can implement too. It's just a natural thing to Want to be part of something special be part of something that's not a secret knowledge but You want to be includes included into a concept a club a brotherhood an idea an ideal whatever And it's sometimes it's very hard to peel yourself away from that and we see it a lot in kenpo There's a lot of guys. I mean, I I I want to apologize to say a lot of MMA guys are like that So a lot of kenpo guys a lot of traditional guys are all like, well I've tried to explain to kenpo people too that you need to learn some grappling because You know, the bjj is popular and in a lot of people grapple these days Oh, well, you know, we're a complete system. We know, you know, we can deal with that No, if you have not experienced it and don't understand it, you're not going to deal with it Or you're going to be on the ground If you don't get your first shots in to a Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy who knows how to take you down You better land that first shot because otherwise if you don't understand his grappling He's going to take you down, but this the reverse is true There's so many grapplers I've talked to who think that the ground game is 100 percent everything It's like, well, no, because if you're up against a striker you try taking on the boxer You might be able to do it, but how many punches are you going to eat doing that? So it's yeah, you got to break yourself away from this my way. This way is the right way the only way There's just so many ideas Martial arts have been around thousands of years. There's a reason there's thousands of different styles They all help somebody at some point in time Do they all translate to every situation? No, but that doesn't mean you can't pull ideas from one or another and start mixing them together Do you ever get into sparring and your body executes a perfect technique early in the session without you thinking about it? And we try it again. It just won't come. Oh, yes. Yes, that has happened I Yeah, I'll I'll find myself just going into a technique doing sudden traps stuff I was like, oh, wow, I didn't mean to do that. But yeah, but if I try to set it up It doesn't it doesn't happen um, I did do one of our um a few sequences or a few steps from long form one one of our katas once I had this guy I worked that liked to sneak up behind me and try to you know, try to get cheap shots And one day I was walking down the hallway and uh the corner of my eye I just saw him coming up behind me. He was coming to tag me into kidney And just I didn't even think about it. But from long form one, I stepped off the line of attack I turned with an elbow dropped it deflected it and I had I said to an upper block I held out my back fist right through his nose. I didn't think I didn't even think about it It was just a complete reaction And he was like, whoa, and even I was like, whoa, that was kind of cool I never stopped to think oh short form or long form one teaches us this motion. Let me get off the line of attack I'd done it so many times in the kata. It just just came out And yes, that happens to sparring all the time too. Sometimes techniques just come out And I think that's great because when that happens, I think that's that's when you've reached that level You already understand how things work and you're recognizing it and you can start the freestyle on the fly I think that's when the marsh art really starts to work for you Ray Webb says I find there are fewer schools that teach to Kempo extensions. What are your thoughts? My thoughts on this are mixed Because what the extensions are typically taught are when you reach your first degree black belt and it depends on what curriculum you're learning originally In the 32 technique system, you learned everything by black belt by first degree black belt If I'm not mistaken then when I went to the 24 technique system You started to learn you had your curriculum done by somewhere in the brown belt level and then you had to learn your extensions to get to your Black belt and by the time you have to your third degree black belt you had all your extensions and then later It's it's now fifth degree with the 16 technique system. So once you get to your black belt You go back and you learn extensions So you kind of go back to your your yellow belt material or really orange belt material And you realize okay the technique now has a what if what if you're still standing or what if you do this And there's another sequence that goes on to that And there's a lot of them and you learn a bunch of them per belt level all the way up the fifth degree black belt The extensions. I think they have their use. I've been through them all at one point There's several I love and there's some that I love so much that I just when I do the technique I just put the extension in with it others I don't like at all. Some of them feel really weird This is part of my exploration now. I learned them a long time ago. So I wanted to go back and review them I know a lot of schools don't teach them because they find them extraneous Where I am now is having been through the extensions For a first several years now my gut feeling is I like some of them So for my own personal training, I'm going to keep some of them What I'm finding me that works really well for extensions Is the jujitsu There are so many keppel techniques now when I do the technique. I'm like, oh my god I can do a ipan say an argue from here or I could do the kota gas or I could do an arm lock I could do a takedown. I'm finding that the jujitsu Comments so well that I've been using them as extensions to techniques So what are my feelings on extensions are I feel they're worth learning I don't feel that they need the same emphasis on it is the other techniques. Some of them will Complete like said everything keppo every move every concept every principle has an opposite and reverse Somewhere else it might be in a form. It might be in an extension so I do think it's worth going through it once and seeing them and Keeping what you like and implementing what you like But I don't think they're as critical as the other techniques in the kata's are It I will admit once you get to those levels it starts to feel extraneous And in a way it kind of is but it's still good information But um, let me personally speaking haven't been through it once before I like them But I am preferring using the grappling as an extension. So if you've got a bjj background Oh, yeah, do you do the first couple strikes of keppo and go right into a takedown You'll be fine. Those are your extensions right there. And that's what just speakman does a lot Keppo 5o and I can if you guys would like I could talk a little bit about it Just based on what my experience was but with keppo 5o a lot of the techniques the extensions were taken into a ground The problem I had though was a lot of techniques tried to choreograph The ground stuff and that's a lot harder to choreograph but Going back to same idea is it's not intended for you to pull the same Tenth move sequence off on the ground It's showing you well, you can now do this lock you do this choke you do this submission It's showing you pieces that you can mix the match and I have used them In the randorian sparring and other arts that some some of the stuff I learned in keppo 5o grappling I've used against bjj guys and it's worked And um, I don't have enough experience like if I go up against the bjj guy now I'm getting turned into a pretzel. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna deny that I don't have that background But when we did train with it, we did you know, we did do the bjj stuff in class We did do the 5.0 stuff in class and it does work um 5.0 is interesting because I like it a lot because what just speaking did was and I do believe and there's going to be mixed opinion I believe or 5o Went is where ed parker would have taken it ed parker was always changing his system There's always additions always rearranging always adapting and I do believe 5o is ultimately if he was still around today where he would have wanted it to go It because it updates it, you know, it updates a lot of the ideas A lot of the original keppo techniques Excuse me. We're based off of step through punch You don't see that that much these days It might have been more common, you know back in the 50s, but you know jab crosses are a lot more common in a real fight So just speakman altered a lot of techniques to be based off jab crosses But what changes about that? Well now if you do a technique An ed parker technique that started off. Okay guys doing a step through with a right punch. Okay Well, that means his right leg is going to be forward. Well, if you're doing a technique now that same technique based off of jab cross Well, they're not stepping forward anymore. You're in a completely different position So what he did was he altered the technique to modify that sometimes it still worked sometimes you had to change it We have one technique shielding mace You know ed parking and you slip the punch you do an outward block You strike the kidney and there's a whole sequence you do on the outside of the body Well the kenpo 5o version you're on the inside you're still it was in their center line So it's the same technique, but now it's modified to work on the inside of the body Which I think is amazing because now it's like, okay That just opened my mind is it's the same thing same ideas But you can apply it to different situations hot or cold side of their body And he did a lot of adaptions like that. He grouped things together because with kenpo You have what's called the family related techniques, you know There are certain techniques where they they are all built off the same concept sleeper thundering hammers and Uh dance of death are kind of they're related and one faction is that both all three techniques started through doing a block But your rear hand is down low. Okay. Well one technique shoots a rich hand through the groin Next technique shoots a forearm to the body next technique does that break your stun Well, guess what? It's the same technique, but it's done low middle high zones So that's that's a family grouping and a lot of techniques are family group like that with Jeff speakman he Did that and he when he does he taught a lot of them together Because a lot of the parker curriculums are spread apart. You'll learn one in this belt level Then you'll learn one in this belt level later and then you have to go back. Oh, this is just like this technique A lot of speakman curriculum at least when I went through it He grouped them together. So you would learn them in sequential order and he has uh One sequence where they come in for a tackle. Okay. Well, you're able to catch them before they get their arms around you Well, then the next technique is well, whether they get a little bit closer They get a partial grip the next technique is what they actually get you into the clinch the next technique is okay Now they've gotten you to the ground and you're gonna do this one sweep and now they've gotten you to ground You're gonna do another sweep. So he kept building on that. So I like that a lot I thought that was a very logical evolution for the art all the same principles It's still chempo, but it's now applied in different sequences modified for More modern fighting and there's a heavy emphasis on the ground fighting. So when you do chempo 5o fighting It's not usually point. It is continuous fairly hard contact Sometimes it's hard full contact sparring and it goes to the ground like the fighters stop until one one submits And there are tournaments that will be point based but the points basically are just either tally it up as you go along So it won't be like point stop. It'll be okay. Well, this person scored 40 points this person scored 30 points However, that works um, but no, I think I think chempo 5o is a wonderful system And it's funny because I've got a really good friend. He's one of our viewers too He is training in california right now at a 5o school I trained in 5o 13 years ago 14 years ago And it's so different now like we will talk about techniques and what he's learning now is completely different from what I learned And it's he jokes. It's sometimes they call it 5.1 But just speak been doing the same thing. He's always adapting. He's always updating it And I think that is the natural path of chempo. Chempo should not be static A lot of arts shouldn't be static and ed parker even said to his son one day He goes of 10 years from now people are training chempo the same way. They've not done my art justice It's always about growth and adaptation Robert kane says politics destroy a lot of things they That's the worst thing about the martial arts is the politics will destroy Everything and it prevents productivity. It stops people from working out together There's a lot of chempo seminars that have had guests that would have Talked together, but they won't because they don't want to validate each other's existence. And I think that's really unfortunate I I think there's a lot of Barriers with that that and that's kind of one thing we're trying to do with the channels break those barriers down It's okay to have your system. I think you should love what you do You should be dedicated to what you do But just open up the mind and realize that there's so many ways to do things And when people Come on the channel and it happens a lot when they go chempo sucks. Chempo doesn't work. This would never happen You know, that's their experience I've had guys who I have talked to guys who've been in chempo 20 30 years that hate the system They said it never works No fair enough. There's a lot of reasons why an art's not going to work for you Doesn't mean it's not going to work for me or work for someone else. I've had people tell me Oh, it never worked for you. It's like well, you don't know my experience I'm not making assumptions on your experience And I think that that politics gets really really toxic and especially when you have an art that branches off into different factions That makes it worse So I hope that this at least addressed some concerns with chempo I hope this at least answers some questions And because I get these questions all the time and I just wanted to take a moment to clarify anything that Chempo is a robust system. It is heavy. I am not going to lie. It is Probably one of the more denser curriculum is out there And There's a lot of academic stuff that you're not going to apply in fighting But I think it's worth learning because that just helps you with your freeform a little bit But it's a lifetime to learn And a lot of times people look at it and say that's too much. That's stupid Why not just run these combinations? And those could be valid arguments for certain things, but there is value there so I'm thinking about I might do a seminar about you know breaking this in different pieces of actually how to learn chempo And you know doing a whole series on you know, if you're going to join the chempo system How to learn how to get the most out of it because it really is Really is such a rich system Once you understand it if you've got the right teacher Um, if you're just memorizing sequences, it's not going to work or might not work as well It's it's not just about memorization It's you first you learn the steps learn the grammar learn the vocabulary Learn how they work together then you start to form your own conversations It's just like a language if you're just going to go to spain and you're going to memorize a whole bunch of sentences from a book Are you going to converse very well? No If you can understand what the words are and understand how they work grammatically and you can piece them together in your own conversation It's going to work so much better And I think that's the perfect analogy from martial arts is you have to understand how the parts work together Sensei Emma asks have you a favorite throw or a takedown? Yes, I love the wrist of the the coda gash wrist turns. I love those I love the arm bar takedown that you see in crossing talent and jiu-jitsu We do have something very similar where you can come with an arm break and you can go to the wrist throw takedown Those are probably my two favorite. I'm learning to like the shoulder throws a lot more I did that first like I said, it took me a while to get used to them But now that I'm finally starting to understand the mechanics it's becoming second nature now I'm seeing a lot more areas where I could use it and I am liking it And it's actually funny. My my last instructor actually changed one of our techniques Talked about the extensions. We have a technique called common storm person comes in swinging the club You're going to step and you're going to block the arm punch in the face at the same time Open the shoulder come in with a vertical punch to the chest and back fist But the ending position is the perfect position to get them into an epon say an agi And I had a hard time learning at the time because again the throws weren't natural But now I see the value in it. So I'm starting to get more love for the shoulder throws. But yeah, I love I love the Wrists and elbow takedowns are my favorites My michael olympic he says I'm glad you're enjoying chempo. I'm sorry brother But my head hurts just listening to the curriculum one of the reasons I left karate was because it was death by analysis You're not wrong. You're not wrong. It's Not a small curriculum This is just Teaching material it is a lot But I think it's helpful if you Don't look at the whole curriculum all at once Focus on the white belt and there's a lot of stuff in white belt But spend your time with it, you know, like I said, you study the first 10 techniques If you can look at those first 10 techniques and graph them together and realize Oh, I could take this piece and mix it together if you start that early And you learn the principles as you go Because each belt level will teach you a set level techniques It's a level of basics and you'll have principles being taught in those and you'll learn them in bite size So you're not you're not given this giant binder in your first day and saying go home and study this You get it in smaller pieces. It can be overwhelming. Yes, there is a lot of material I'm not gonna lie and sometimes sometimes it can be too much or can't there is such thing as too much analysis I agree with that. I just think but there's so much there is that you can choose You know, you can learn just the fighting aspect of it You could learn the academic stuff and the more you learn the academic stuff I think it does enhance the application because it just increases your spontaneity and you start to understand it a little bit better But I I think it's fair for people who don't like the system. That's fair As long as there is a valid reason and people who say that oh, it will never work If the if the excuses it'll never work because the person's never going to stand there I know right off the bat. You didn't spend any time in Kempo or you're not understanding what it's taught because you're seeing demonstrations but Would you be willing to contribute to a martial arts self-defense paper possibly it would depend on the topic Go ahead and shoot me a message if you go to our facebook page Shoot me a private message. We can talk about that Oh, I left that for 15 years of study. I got it. I got it. I hope that whatever you went to I hope that you found something better It's not for everybody and I will be the first to admit that there have been times where I've been overwhelmed I've been at this for 28 years and I cannot tell you how many times I get to point like okay. I get it. I understand it and I go to a seminar like I don't know any of this It's common. It's it's it's a lifelong study. It is just like any other topic any other field of study a profession It is a lifelong dedication to be good at it. It's hard, but Because it's hard. It's kind of one thing. It's making it so satisfactory to learn it better the more I learn another nugget the better I feel but Have you talked about how your instructor switched systems? How did that work? What did he have did he have to re rank or recertify? If I wanted to switch systems, how would that work? That is an excellent question and this is going to very Most of the time if you're going from one campus school to another if it's the same type of campus If you're going from a park or to a park school usually they'll let you keep the rank the rank that you're wearing Most of the time depends on the instructor always ask Um, but if the material is different you might hold on to that rank until you work way back up In our case my first instructor was teaching us Tracy Kempo and We did that for about three years and I got up to my red belt, which is the equivalent of Like your third year like your first brown belt level. We've got three brown levels and Once I got that level he made the announcement that he was going to change name of the school He was part of a franchise and he wanted to break away from the franchise and teach his own thing So he became his own school And he said we're going to switch over to ed parker Kempo and me being 17 at the time. I'm like Well, what were we learning? I didn't really know the difference between ed parker and Tracy Kempo So I didn't really understand what would be changing Next thing I know we have a whole new curriculum. You know, we got new forms we got new techniques some of the techniques were familiar with different names, but it was a lot of new material and We were frozen at our belt levels in our particular case We got frozen there for about a year and we were learning new stuff And then he decided, you know what for the one those of us who were close to black belt He let us continue finishing up the Tracy curriculum that he had while we learned the parker curriculum So after about another year of that year or two years of that Oh, we got the training we got the test for our first review black belt So technically my first review black belt was in his version of Tracy Kempo with a heavy mix of parker into it And then we just went on parker from there And then when my sec when he left he sold the school to a previous assistant instructor He came in with and it was actually at that time. It was just speakman Kempo 4.0. It was very very similar but had some adjustments and rearrangements So I just started over from the beginning because like I said, this is where I was training in long four so I just started over And then was working my way up and then he left to go to the army in the school closed for two years That threw me for loops. So the nice I got frozen at that level So I continued with that I found all this material on my own and then I just trained in my garage for two years And I went through the material all the way from white all the way back up the black belt When I got up to the black belt material my instructor came back and I wanted to train with him again And but now he came back with Kempo 5.0. So I started over from white belt again And we did that for a couple years until he finally tested me for my second review black belt Which at that point in time I had been to the I had been to the 5.0 curriculum all the way through once I had been through a Trimmed version of a tracer system and I had been to the Parker system at that point in time And then we just did we did that but then he broke away from a speakman school He became his own school. So he started teaching his own hybrid So at this point in time, I continued training the hybrid stuff that he taught I could train continue training in Parker Kempo and as I learned the Parker stuff He would rank me up that way So my I had to start and stop quite a few times If you're going to go to another Kempo school, the best thing to do is talk to the instructor If it's the same type of Kempo, there's a good chance to let you wear your rank But if they don't then just start over because sometimes Sometimes starting over it could be valuable right now right now 28 28 years later I am going back to my first form my white belt forms. I am learning new things about it I'm reading books. I'm finding threads of ideas that were there that I never realized before I'm starting to see where they connect later So if you have to start over, it's not the end of the world. It's just going to make you better in the long run so But if you're going to go to a new school just talk to them if they make you start over that's that's their policy They might let you hold the rank. It's going to be up to school So I hope to answer that question Any martial arts youtuber that I like and respect. Yeah, I'll so far I mean all the ones we've talked to you skin aga no is amazing. Just see and campus amazing Sensei Seth Dewi Ramsey Um, I see Mike these guys are great. They're doing some wonderful things with channels and there's so many more I actually like when we started this channel. I think jesse was one of the bigger ones and Since then in the past few years We've seen a massive growth and I'm actually really happy to see that martial arts youtube channels have blown up There's a lot of them now They're getting quite large which says that the community is there the material is there and there's so much to talk about Oh my god the hardest part of us doing this channel is actually deciding what topics to do because there's so many good ideas And but we want to do them right so as far as youtubers. I respect that there. I love them I love them all and I hope to keep talking. I love working with sensei Nagano I think he's doing wonderful things with this channel. There's a lot of them I would love to work with but I have a high high level respect for anyone who's doing these martial arts youtube channels because it's Benefiting and building a really strong community and connecting the roots of martial arts and it's not just one art You know, we're seeing people I see a lot of my audience on these other channels too, which means there's a good spread There's so many ideas and that these arts can connect. We don't have to politicize everything Let's learn it all that's that's why we are what we are That's why we're the art of one dojo We're one dojo one global dojo verse, you know, we're all students of the same Same thing we have the same body mechanics. There's just different ways to apply them And that's basically in a nutshell our mission statement I realized that for the rest of us martial arts is kind of elementary compared to how he tests his training on a daily basis Who are you talking to? Oh Our school held a seminar last week where we had a special ops officer demonstrate techniques from the koga police training system He uses techniques daily his life depends on them. Yeah Yeah That's very respectful too is when you have someone who does use this stuff on a daily basis I know a few police officers who have done it as well It's a very different thing you we go to the training a dojo a couple times a week Maybe train at home a little bit It's that's one thing but for someone who has to their profession depends on defending their life That's a whole other level altogether so All right, um, I think I mean you guys have given some great questions I hope that this has provided some insight. I know I threw a lot out there I know there's probably a lot of people watching going. Ah, this is too much. It's it's a ridiculous system Fair enough Like I said, I wanted to kind of spitball here and answer some questions and explain and break down Why can't pull is the way it is and some ways to look at it and what ways that could maybe help make it easier to train in And if the idea is if you guys would like it, we'll start putting together some seminars because I think these could be some We can go into as much deeper invite size pieces But um, I think you go out today. I think you had some great questions guys So I think we're in the stream right here Please feel free to keep on commenting down below and when this this processes and goes live as a regular video Keep the comments going. I'm in there. I'll answer any other questions. I can come across but um I thank you guys so much. I really appreciate your time And I hope I've helped enlighten something or shown a light on the system a little bit and Let's keep on doing what we're doing So thank you guys so much and uh, have a wonderful day