My most recent martial arts instructor, Mr. William Kongaika, asked me to compare some of the other martial arts I’ve studied with American Kenpo.  While I’m flattered to be asked, I feel like one of the five blind Chinese asked to describe the elephant.  Their description largely depends on which part of the elephant they were touching.  I am a neophyte in American Kenpo with about seven or eight month’s instruction.  I am in no way qualified to pass judgment on Mr. Ed Parker’s style.  I can write about what I’ve experienced and some assumptions I’ve made, but warn the reader that many of the conclusions could be made from faulty assumptions on my part. Let the reader beware.

I’ve spent approximately 35 years in the martial arts.  I hold dan ranks in Okinawa Kenpo Karate and Kobudo as well as Shorinryu.  As a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel, I’ve had the opportunity to be exposed to many art forms and a few bone fide Masters.  Okinawan Kenpo Karate and Kobudo (traditional weapons) was my passion for years.  I knew Master Odo, worked out with him on several occasions and visited with him in Okinawa many times.  He was a man of small stature, almost scary countenance with his large head and emaciated body.  But put him in a gi and give him a bo (or any of the other kobudo weapons) and you knew you were in the presence of genius.

I studied Judo with one of the old school legends on Okinawa, Tamake Sensei in 1970.  I studied Aikido in Japan, Thailand and America.  I dabbled in Shotokan, Isshinryu, and Kajukenbo.  I even spent a very uncomfortable year studying Tae Kwon Do because I was stationed with the Army in Georgia and there was nothing else available.  I’ve had the pleasure of working out with the founder of Namiryu Aikijujitsu, Mr. James Williams and his sensei, Mr. Don Anjier, Master of Yanagiryu Aikijujitsu.  I’m sure I’ve studied under other styles over the years, but that is enough to establish that I’m familiar with many of the Okinawan and Japanese arts.  The above just lends credence to the assumption that I’m a perpetual student of martial arts.  Let’s move on to my stilted view of American Kenpo.

My first impressions of American Kenpo were both positive and negative.  The positive comes from Mr. Ed Parker.  He is a legend in martial arts.  Anyone who bought Black Belt magazine in the 70’s knows his name.  The Long Beach Invitational, Elvis, Bruce Lee, all are inexorably tied to Mr. Parker.  The negative is that Mr. Parker’s system was not a “traditional” martial art.  It wasn’t even Japanese.  The roots are said to be Chinese and Hawaiian.  How good could that be to a Japanese traditionalist?  Additionally, Mr. Parker is accused of making up his own style.  His was not a style that has been handed down from generation to generation with the techniques standing the test of time.  From a traditionalist’s point of view, making up you own system is the acme of arrogance.  So I entered Max Dojo in Diamond Bar, CA with some trepidation. 

I had not worked out in the arts for five years due to an injury sustained in the Namiryu Aikijujitsu dojo.  I had gotten way out of shape.  I had put on thirty too many pounds and scared my wife and doctor with what they believed was a stroke.  I needed to change my life style.  Treadmills and free weights bore me, so it was time to get back into a dojo.  I saw Mr. Kongaika’s sign while traveling down the 60 Freeway in the San Gabriel valley.  From my days in Hawaii, we had mutual friends in Mr. Parker’s Kenpo.  From these friends and the fact that Mr. Kongaika was LDS, I took a leap of faith.  It was a propitious leap.  I landed in a system and a dojo that both intrigues and stimulates me.  I did not learn until much later that Mr. Kongaika was Mr. Ed Parker’s son in law.  By the time I learned that, it didn’t make any difference, I knew I had found myself a real sensei.

The similarities between Mr. Parker’s system and the “traditional” styles of Okinawa and Japan are obvious.  Here are a few:

	Traditional	American Kenpo
Workout area	Dojo	Dojo
Name of Art	Karate	Kenpo Karate
Punches	Seikan (lunge)	Stepping forward Lunge
	Uraken (back fist)	Back fist
	Nukite (knife tip)	Spear
	Shuto (knife hand)	Knife hand
	Kumada (bear claw)	Palm Heel
Blocks	Gedan barai (down block)	Downward block
	Jodan age-uke (upward)	High block
	Chudan Soto uke (inward middle block)	Inside block
	Chudan Uchi-uke (outward middle block)	Outside block
Kicks	Mae-geri (front kick)	Front ball kick
	Yoko kekomi (side thrust)	Knife Edge Kick
	Mawashi-geri (round)	Round Kick
	Ushiro-geri (back)	Back Kick

 

 Mr. Kongaika’s firmly rooted stances and solid foundation would make a Shotokan shihan happy. Initially an Okinawan traditionalist feels right at home in the Max dojo.  Then the differences emerge.

 The first difference is hand speed.  While the neophyte is exposed to techniques slowly and encouraged to practice them over and over until they become second nature, the hand speed which even the lower belts execute is compelling.  These are not the large and “flowery” moves of some styles of kung fu.  Hand motion is trimmed of all fat.  Circles are small and compact.  Excess is trimmed.  The power is generated by speed, breath control and correct body positioning.  While such is the keystone of the Japanese systems as well, American Kenpo is not the linear art of the Japanese.  The movements and the techniques are applied in a dynamic sphere.  The practitioner’s movements are predicated on the situation and the situation is expected to change. 

American Kenpo appears to have borrowed concepts and techniques from many different styles and blended them into a unique execution. An experienced eye can see nigajo and kotegashi from aikido or center of gravity drops from aikijujitsu as well as the obvious borrowing of words and technique from Okinawa and Japanese karate.  Additionally, the opponent is distracted by the non striking hand making pops on the gi and kiai-like expulsions of breath at critical junctures.  It is quite amazing to watch and quite difficult for the traditionalist to imitate.

Another dynamic that strikes the neophyte is how quickly a new comer picks up the basics.  In the short time I’ve been in Max Dojo, I’ve been impressed with how quickly a beginner with no previous training in the martial arts becomes comfortable and fairly proficient in such a short time.  This is not the traditional approach.  Laborious rote repeating of punches and blocks and kicks corrected by slaps of a shinai (kendo bamboo practice sword) or jo (short staff) to various parts of the body are the preferred method of teaching neophytes in a traditional dojo.  And heaven help the beginner who asks a question.  Max Dojo moves the beginner through techniques and combinations and “hands on” attacks very early.  And questions are actually encouraged.  Angles of attack, slipping inside a punch or kick, meeting a blow in order to defeat it are all advanced techniques in a traditional Japanese dojo, not taught to beginners and maybe not taught to all black belts.  At Max Dojo even the rankest beginners are exposed to the concepts.  The learning process is vastly accelerated in the American Kenpo system. 

Many of the stances are the same.  Some are very different.  The biggest difference is the neutral bow.  This is not found in any traditional systems, but is the main stay of American Kenpo.  It is a cross between the front stance (zenkusa dachi) and side stance (kibi dachi).   It is uncomfortable to learn at first and the straight forward and straight back movements negate the use of the traditional half moon (hangetsu dachi) steps of the Japanese styles.

The most striking difference between the traditional nihon systems and American Karate is forms or katas.  In the Japanese styles, kata is the soul of the system.  It is the way the art is passed on from generation to generation.  Gichen Funakoshi, an Okinawan and the founder of the Japanese style, Shotokan, was said to demand at least three years on each kata.  He is purported to have banished his two top students because he found them sparring. 

In the forward of his book Best Karate, Comprehensive, Masatoshi Nakayama (ninth dan Shotokan and founder of the Japan Karate Association) states, “If karate is practiced solely as a fighting technique, this is cause for regret.  The fundamental techniques have been developed and perfected through long years of study and practice, but to make any effective use of these techniques, the spiritual aspect of this art of self-defense must be recognized and must play the predominant role.  It is gratifying to me to see that there are those who understand this, who know that karate-do is a purely Oriental martial art, and who train with the proper respect.”  In the Nakayama sensei’s use of the word “karate-do” we find the apogee of differences between the styles and maybe even a hint at the arrogance that Mr. Parker may have found in his day from the established styles.

The influence of zen on the traditional fighting arts of Japan can not be overstated.  Most Japanese arts have dropped the “martial” ending “jitsu” from their titles and adopted the “do” or “way” instead.  Aikijujitsu has become Aikido.  Jujitsu has become Judo.   Karate-jitsu has become Karate-do.  The path to enlightenment; the betterment of the practitioner; the way; have all become more important than the combat.  The contrast in American Kenpo is striking.  The American Kenpoist will undoubtedly become more confident, more disciplined, and maybe a better citizen from his study of Mr. Parker’s system, but these appear to be by-products.  Mr. Parker’s American Kenpo is “jitsu” in its purest form.  The combatives are the system. 

When entering Max Dojo your view is dominated by murals on the wall.  They bear strange names such as Delayed Sword, Alternating Maces, and Sword of Destruction.  The names are tied to each belt.  The beginning belt has 12 such names.  The rest all have 24.  There are a lot of names.  The traditionalist’s first assumption is that these are names of katas.  But there are too many.  The Okinawan and Japanese arts have no more than 13 or 15 katas per system.  Even if you add in Kobudo (the weapons) there would be only another ten or twelve maximum.  The murals in Max Dojo have over 100 on the wall. 

Fortunately, the names describe combative techniques and not katas.  The closest thing from the Japanese arts would be “ippon kumite” or one step sparring.  The strange names describe counter techniques to an opponent’s attack.  If the heart and soul of the Japanese arts is kata, then the center of American Kenpo are the combative techniques.

American Kenpo does have forms.  They start simple and then progress into very detailed and complex adaptations of the combative techniques on the murals.  Everything comes back to the combat.  As a result one of the frustrations any gaijin (foreigner) feels in studying a Japanese or Okinawan fighting art is alleviated.  It is the frustration with “bunkai”.

Bunkai is the meaning behind a kata.  For example, the naihanchi in Okinawan arts or tekki in Shotokan are katas performed in a side to side manner because you are supposed to be fighting on a rice paddy dike.  Kusanku (kanku in Shotokan) is for sighting on a raised oriental bridge.  Pasai (basai in Shotokan) is for fighting in a dark room.  All have specific movements tailored to the locale of the kata.  Traditionally, the neophyte is taught how to make the moves, but receives little training until much later at what he or she is actually supposed to be accomplishing. 

Kusanku commences with an X block from the horse stance in front and up high with open hands.  Much later you are told it is to stop an over head strike.  But if you listen closely, the oriental students are told in Japanese that it is to grasp the lapel of the attacker in preparation for a “hanaka jima” (naked choke) to assist in a throw.  Why the dual and secretive meaning from one group of students to another.  Protection of the family secrets perhaps?  Condescension toward non oriental students?  I have no answers.  I just know it is frustrating.  

American Kenpo is different.  There is an explanation for everything.  Not only did Mr. Parker think this system out in a thorough manner, he was able to explain the moves and the method in terms any American could understand and hopefully duplicate (ergo the strange names on the murals).  And quite contrary to the traditional arts, Mr. Parker seems to have encouraged change.  Even the neophytes are encouraged to “adjust” to the situation.  In American Kenpo the combative techniques at the heart of the system are not sacrosanct. 

Walking away from a combative situation appears to be the aim of the system.  A mantra might be, “if it works, use it; if it doesn’t, throw it away”.  The central theme of American Kenpo appears to be survival.  If you want to be a better person, go to church.  If you want to survive an attack, get into Max Dojo.  The pure honesty of American Kenpo’s approach is refreshing.

In summary, let me say that Max Dojo and American Kenpo is like any other martial art.  The instructor makes the dojo.  Many instructors can execute techniques flawlessly.  Many are exceptional teachers.  But very few can do both.  Fewer still can do both well.  Mr. Kongaika does both well. 

Then, I’d say that my hat is off to Mr. Ed Parker.  I can only imagine the condescension and ostracism he faced from the “established oriental” leaders of styles in his day.  But he persevered and devised an art that can be taught to anyone.  His principles and concepts are written down for all to see.   His system is as complex or as simple as the student chooses to make it.  He has borrowed techniques and concepts from other styles and systems and made them his own with one stipulation.  They have to work.   Most importantly for me, American Kenpo has stood the test of time.