 Kempo will never work because no one's going to stand there and let you hit them 20 times. And you never see any Kempo techniques to use in MMA. These are two of the most common reasons I hear people say Kempo sucks. Today I'm going to tell you why those answers are correct and why we do Kempo anyway. So as a disclaimer, for the purpose of today's episode, I am specifically referring to Ed Parker's American Kempo and any of its derivative arts that still retain the general structure. I've been through about five distinct versions of it through the past 27 years. I'm not going to go into my background history in this episode. I've already done that. And for anyone interested, there is a link in the video description. OK, look, I know not everyone is going to like Kempo, and that's fine. But if you're one of those who said that Kempo sucks because a person's not going to stand there all day so you can hit them, or because you have never seen anyone pull off five swords in a real fight or a cage match, then my goal today is to have you leave this video with a new appreciation of the art or at least a different perspective of it. Interestingly enough, today's episode was inspired by an almost unrelated question by one of our Patreon members. Timothy Korowski recently asked me if I think Kata has a purpose, and if so, what is its place within modern American Kempo? I think we can attempt to break two boards with one punch today on this one. Now, both criticisms of Kempo are correct because these remarks are based on an assumption of what Kempo self-defense is. Kempo was broken out into basics, kata slash forms, self-defense techniques, and sparring. Basics are our individual moves, such as blocks, kicks, punches, foot maneuvers. Katas are our forms, which you see many martial arts have. Self-defense techniques are kind of unique to Kempo in that these are our basics arranged by belt level and preconceived choreograph sequences. And depending on what curriculum you're working on, there can be 10 per belt, there can be 16, 24, or 32, that varies. But these are individual sequences that are taught as techniques and self-defense techniques. We're going to get back to that in a minute. Also, there are three phases each of our techniques in Kempo. And there's where a lot of I think the confusion comes from is we've got the ideal phase. The ideal phase is assuming everything goes perfect, every move works exactly how you intended it to, and the bad guy reacts how you want them to. We all know that doesn't happen that way. Something always goes wrong. But for the basis of learning technique, that's the first phase we learn it in. Once a student has learned the motion and learned what the technique teaches, we then go into the second phase called the what if phase. The what if phase posits, well, what if they do this instead of this? Or what if they don't react the same way? Or what if you miss? They get the student to think about Plan B, Plan C, Plan D. Where can you go from there? What can you rely on? How can you adapt to the situation? And the third phase is formulation. So basically, once a student understands what the technique is teaching and how to apply it in sequence, and then how to overcome any potential obstacles or anything that goes wrong, you go into the free form in which a person attacks you and you should be able to construct your own combination and own reactions based on what you've learned and how you've learned to apply them and what the situation dictates. So those are the three main phases of Kempo. And the problem, though, is a lot of the criticism for these techniques is that most people who have not experienced the art have only seen the first phase. They've only seen the ideal phase. You see it in technical lines. You see the tournaments. You see it in demonstrations. So people look at that and be like, oh, well, that's never going to work. You're not wrong, but you're seeing a demonstration version of it. However, these techniques are not meant to be memorized and taken verbatim onto the street and applied in those exact situations. The best way to consider them is thinking them as mini-katas. They are meant to teach you individual concepts. There are certain principles that are introduced. There are certain combinations and relationship of techniques that are in there. They're actually just teaching tools, more or less a recipe of different variables and opportunities you have in specific situations. I also want to thank one of our viewers and good friend, Michael Morris. He found an Ed Parker quote that sums us up perfectly. You see, none of the things that we show you might be ever used in a sequence that we show it to you. One of these days, you might use movement number three out of technique number 20 and bring it together with movement number two out of technique number two. And you may be able to create your own sequence of movements because that's what the situation calls for at the moment. So what does he mean by that? Well, you know, let's demonstrate by what a technique teaches. And for that, I'm going to need a wipeout. Let me see. This specimen will do. The very first technique we learn for wipeout is called delayed sword. You step back, you block the arm, knock away from the body, front kick the groin, land, chop the neck. It's actually setting up the foundation for a lot of different lessons that the techniques teach. So for example, every single capital technique teaches the same three things at the beginning. One, he grabs. So the first thing I'm doing is what I do. I step back. I'm getting my foundation, my base. So you always establish your base. That's the first thing that's what this technique is teaching us, we establish our base. Next we have to use, we have to neutralize the attack. Neutralize the threat. I'm gonna block, knock the arm away. There's a nice radial nerve that runs up the arm right here. And it's also one thing it teaches. We're showing a new striking point. You hit someone hard there, it should feel like a little jolt of electricity going up the arm. Two, so we neutralize the attack. Three, we have to cancel the body zone. There's height, width, and depth. How far he can reach, how wide he can turn, how tall he can stand. So for all of our techniques, we have to establish our foundation, neutralize the attack, and then cancel one of the body zones. I step back, I establish my base, I neutralize the attack, and when I kick, what's the natural reaction when a person gets kicked in the groin? So they come forward. I've now lowered his height. At this position, him dropping like this, that takes away his ability to kick. And of course I'll land here and land with my strike. To look at it further, you know the reason we're doing it we're ending with a hand sword is also this. He grabs, I step back, I block, I kick, and I'm landing. So he bends forward, I'm landing at the chop. Well one, I'm also learning contouring. I know from this contact here where his body is, I don't have to guess. I can follow it down, track it to his neck. And also I'm using the sword hand because it fits nicely right here in the collarline. Yes, I could do a backrest, I could do a punch, I can crawl in the cross, I can do whatever I wanted. Right off the bat, the white belt is learning for the first technique. They're learning how to get their balance. How to do it with a first block. How to do the first strike. They're learning the nerve zone already. They're learning the concept of contouring. They're learning for the weapons, they're learning the hand sword. So that's a lot for just the very first lesson. And when you really break it down, and of course I'm sure I've got a lot of people saying well you forgot this, you forgot this, you forgot this. Yes, because you could spend years breaking these techniques down. And once you start to understand them, you start to see how they relate to each other. There's another technique. Some schools teach it, some schools don't. It was removed from a curriculum. I personally like it. So this technique is called intellectual parter. But it's based off a front kick, front right kick, right to my midsection. He's coming with that hard front kick. And the idea here is we step back and we're gonna establish our base, but now my block, instead of doing an upper block to the arm, I'm gonna block his leg. So he comes in, I'm gonna inside block and catch it. What did that do? That opened his stance up a little bit. So we landed that position. Well, I need to cancel his own. Bop, groin's right there. What would happen? His head comes forward, land, and get that snapping back fist. That's a delayed sword. He'd block, kick, chop, come with the kick. Block, kick, chop. It's a delayed sword flipped upside down. So it's showing you the reverse. In Kempo, every move has an opposite and reverse motion. And sometimes you'll see in techniques, sometimes you'll find them in forms. Those ideas are everywhere. So when you learn the whole curriculum, you actually start to see an example of every single move, every attack, every strike, every block, every combination, flip, flop, reverse, back and forth. So that way you understand the motion. So it's not about memorizing the sequence. It's about understanding it, breaking it down, and being able to rebuild your own based on the rules and principles that they teach. With over 150 techniques, you could spend your full martial arts lifetime exploring and always finding new things. 27 years later, and I'm still discovering new ideas and wipeout techniques. And personally, I find that exciting. Kempo is not, okay, I memorized this technique. Now I'm ready for the next one. And 150 techniques later, it's time for a black belt. No. This curriculum sheet, this is not Kempo. Kempo is recognizing positions and understanding the relationship between your basics and combinations. So Tim asked me how I feel, how caught this fit within today's American martial arts. Using Kempo as an example here, here is how I can best explain it and hopefully provide at least a new perspective for those skeptics out there. It's like learning a new language. First, you learn words. You learn your vocabulary. And in the case of martial arts in Kempo, your vocabulary and your words are your basics, such as your foot maneuvers, your blocks, your strikes, your kicks, your chops, your directions, et cetera. Those are your vocabulary, your words. Then you learn the grammar, which are the rules of language, or in Kempo, concepts and body principles. You got body dimension, you got control, power generation, purposeful compliance, angle of incidence, et cetera, there's a whole list. Those are your grammatical rules. So you've got your vocabulary and you have your grammar. Then you practice them together in sample sentences to demonstrate how the vocabulary and grammar work together. Those would be the Kempo self-defense techniques. Think of them as sample sentences. You're not expected to memorize these sentences exactly and use them exactly, but they're designed to teach you how the words and rules work together so that you can learn to read and write your own sentences. When it comes to forms or kata, they're like the essays in the language. They're a longer form literature that highlights specific ideas and topics, but they're own mini-thesis. And it's actually kind of funny because our forms are actually broken down into dictionary forms and encyclopedia forms. We'll get into that in a different video. Then comes sparring. Sparring is kind of like learning how to speak a language fluently. You know the words, you know the grammar, you now put them together to try your own sentences and you see if you can hold a friendly conversation. Now when it comes to real life fighting, well, hopefully you understand language at this point well enough to win a debate. That's also why it's not common to see full Kemple sequences done in a real situation or even in sparring. What you will notice, however, if you're familiar with the art is the timing of certain footwork, positional checks, contouring strikes and some familiar striking combinations. So does Kemple work? Well, it absolutely can. I have several Kemple brothers and sisters that I know that have used it to defend themselves. I even myself have used it a couple of times to defuse situations. I've used techniques, those of you who are familiar with crossing talent, I've done it from sitting positions, I've done it in real life and I've actually done it in different jiu-jitsu settings. I even taught a seminar recently using this technique as an example in different ways to apply it in different situations. So if you are a Patreon member, it is available for our Black Belt members on our site. It's the full seminar. If not, please be sure to check out our Patreon page to take a look at it. Now, if you still don't like Kemple, then that's fair enough and no hard feelings. I'm not trying to sell you so much as I'm trying to offer a different perspective on the art and why so many choose to spend a lifetime in it. If you can find a good Kemple school that can break the art down and teach it at this modular level, then trust me, you will have a lot of good stuff to work with and even blend into your existing training if you have experience elsewhere. And unfortunately, there are a lot of Kemple schools out there that don't teach GR in the level it needs to be taught at and only reinforces the assumptions such as what we talked about today. Also beware of the Kemple school that never spars. Sparring, in my opinion, is critical. If you're teaching self-defense, you need sparring, you need to put these ideas up against a resisting partner. And beware of the Kemple school that badmouts other arts and refuses to acknowledge other effective disciplines. This is why a lot of Kemple schools are now implementing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling into the curriculum because the Kempleists who scoffed at the concept is likely to spend a lot of involuntary time on the floor. So to quote Ed Parker again, we're not trying to make robots out of you, we're trying to make individuals out of you and that is what Kemple is all about, making the art suit you. So thank you again to Tim and Michael for your contributions to this episode. This is a topic that we're working on expanding for a future seminar and I hope we're able to at least provide a tiny nugget of appreciation for the art today. I'd love to hear your comments below. Please be polite, please be civil, share them, we can have a constructive conversation and we'll see you next time. Thank you guys for watching. Understand the principles that are involved throughout. You understand principles, you're now become a mechanic of motion. You become a mechanic of motion, you can dice it, take it apart, put it together on your own, okay? Then after a while, you're gonna try to be an engineer of motion.