Good interviews for Kempo people

I've been listening some of the Martial Arts Lineage Project podcasts and there are two with Kempo instructors.

The first was with Senior Grandmaster George Pesare, the man who brought Kempo to the East Coast.  Grandmaster Pesare was Nick Cerio's Kempo instructor and the first person to promote Cerio to Black Belt. A lot of good "no shit, I was there" history in this interview.

The second was with Shihan John James. Shihan James was a personal student of the late Grandmaster Nick Cerio and was one of the people selected by Cerio to be on the Board of Directors of Cerio's Kenpo after Cerio's death in 1998.  I exchanged several emails with Shihan James around that time.  He was always polite and very much a gentleman of the old school.  That came across in this interview.

I recommend listening to them both.

Best Martial Arts School Westborough

That's right folks! Best of Westborough Martial Arts Instruction for 2011 was MetroWest Martial Arts and Wellness!

A clear choice, and not just because I am one of the instructors there. :-)

MetroWest Martial Arts & Wellness Reopening!

MetroWest Martial Arts and Wellness has been closed down for several months as it moves to a much better location.

That move is almost complete! There was a delay while the local building inspectors did their work, but construction is now underway and the school will be reopening soon!

The new location is 74 Otis Street, Westborough, MA 01581.

I, for one, am looking forward to getting back to teaching and studying with the other instructors at MetroWest Martial Arts.

For more details, check out the MetroWest Martial Arts Facebook page.

Really old school Kempo

I picked up a copy of Dr. Bruce Clayton's book, Shotokan's Secret: Expanded Edition. This books dives into the roots of Japanese Karate, Okinawan Karate. This "history of Shotokan" book doesn't even mention Gichin Funakoshi until page 140!

However, this is a Kempo blog, not a Shotokan blog, so bringing things back to the topic at hand, is the short passage on Okinawan Kempo on page 136.

"For the record, we also see a fourth kind of karate in Japan and Okinawa, usually labeled kempo. "Kenpo" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese "chuan fa' kanji. Kenpo is originally kung fu in a Japanese uniform, but in recent years it has mixed in liberal amounts of other martial arts."

This quote was in a section on the three main, distinct schools of Okinawan Karate (Naha-te, Shuri-te and the arts based on ChotokuKyan).

Personally, I like Dr. Clayton's description of Kempo, even though he gives in a fairly dismissive and offhand matter. It does actually describe the early history of Kempo in the United States, and in particular, the martial arts melting pot of Hawaii in the 1950s and 1960s.

Traditional martial arts weapons

I was giving the topic of traditional martial arts weapons some pondering, and I decided that a traditional Kempo weapon would be the machete. Your basic, traditional sugar cane cutting tool.

Butterfly Swords

I picked up a set of practice Butterfly Swords, steel ones, not the lightweight aluminum ones.

These are really fun! They come in pairs, one for each hand, and are pretty heavy for their size. Using them is an upper body workout in itself!

They are not a common weapon system in most martial arts. They come from a Southern Kung Fu tradition. I've only seen reference to them in Hung Gar and Wing Chun. Here is a Wing Chun form I found.

Shaolin Kempo technique archive

I'm remiss in plugging a very good site that has taken the great effort of collecting and publishing the techniques of Shaolin Kempo. It's the Kempo Info site.

It really is a great resource, but personally I can't watch some of the videos of the Black Belt forms. IMHO, some of the forms are being performed as hard style karate forms, instead of more flowing Kung Fu forms. They just look wrong to me.

Back to teaching

I haven't been teaching very much the past couple of months. I was taking another class that met on the same night I usually teach.

Tonight, it's back to my regular class and I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoy teaching and it's a great way to refine your technique as well.

Recent Black Belt Test

MetroWest Martial Arts and Wellness in Westborough, MA recently held another Black Belt test.

I was one of the people giving the test. It's only been three years since my last test, so I'm good for awhile. :-)

The test went well and the folks going for Shodan & Nidan really shined.

In case any of my dear readers are still spreading that myth about belts slowly getting dirtier over time until the advanced students belts were black, here is the true history of using colored belts for ranking.

Basics, basics & more basics

If you are a martial arts instructor, and just don't know what you are going to cover in your next class, here is a good suggestion.

Basics, basics and then more basics.

The basics are the core, the foundation you build more advanced techniques from.

You get more power from a good punch thrown from a solid stance than you do from a good punch made while off balance (OK, you Drunken Monkey stylists are an exception, but then you practice a lot to do that).

Practice, practice and more practice. You want to be able to hit that nerve bundle with that Leopard Paw strike in a fight, then you have to practice punching over, and over again.

There are all sorts of cool and fun drills to do to keep things interesting, but it all comes back to the basics.

Customizing Kempo

One of the basic principles of teaching Kempo is that Kempo changes to fit the student.

This doesn't mean you don't have to learn the basics. It means that as an instructor, you should modify techniques you teach to fit the student.

A petite female who weighs 110 pounds soaking wet is going to have a different fighting style than a 200 pound man a foot or more taller.

There are differences beyond the obvious size and weight difference. They have a very different center of balance. The man will generally have much more upper body strength. Then there is overall social conditioning that the different genders gets.

You want to successfully teach women and young girls in your school, you will need to understand these differences and be able to adjust your teaching style for each different kind of student you have.

Sixth Law of Kempo

Law of No Block

Kempo emphasizes economy of movement and economy of time. Kempo's no block principle teaches to avoid being struck by a punch or kick, you should move your body out of harm's way. As one of my old Saber coaches use to tell me, "It's all about controlling timing and distance."

In other words, a block is a wasted move because it does not stop your opponent from attacking again with their free limbs. It is much better to move out of the way and simultaneously counterattack.

This is a fairly complex concept to implement correctly. So I teach beginners to block.:-) Once they have a better understanding of the art, I introduce this concept.

Kempo has multiple systems of just blocks, but note that the more advanced onces involve traps, redirects and body movement (Next time you watch a Master do one of the blocking systems, pay attention to the movement of their spine.)

Fifth Law of Kempo

Law of Kicking

Kempo's mandate to kick low is based on logic. A roundhouse kick and spinning reverse crescent kick to the head maybe flashy and impressive, but such maneuvers take longer to execute because your legs has to travel farther. They also expose your groin to your opponent's kick.

Kicking high requires superior balance and focus, you should practice your leg techniques high, and deliver them low for self-defense. Kicking low to the legs, executing a "pillar attack" can break your opponent's balance and legs.

As I tell my students, when your opponent is on the ground is the best time to kick them in the head.

Fourth Law of Kempo

Law of Targets

You are not going to break your knuckles punching an attacker's temple. A kick to the groin will not fracture your instep. A knife hand strike to the throat will hurt the throat more than your hand.

Kempo teaches you to choose your targets in order to maximize damage to your opponent while minimizing damage to yourself.