Ed Parker's American Kenpo

HISTORY OF KENPO

Historically, kenpo, as kenpo jiu-jitsu, was introduced into the Hawaiian Islands by James M. Mitose at the beginning of World War II.  As taught by Mitose, kenpo emphasized the attacking of vital anatomical areas by punching, striking, chopping, thrusting and poking.  It also employed throws, locks and takedowns.  Kenpo teaches how to maneuver so that the opponent unwittingly places himself in a precarious and vulnerable position.

Mitose taught William K. S. Chow, who had also studied Chinese Kung Fu concepts from his father.  It was Chow who Americanized kenpo by adapting Mitose's aproach to the American environment.  Edmund K. Parker, a Hawaii native and disciple of Chow, greatly revised the old methods to cope with modern day fighting situations.  While Parker's teachings retain a traditional flavor, he has contributed practical, realistic, applicable concepts and principles.

Parker, recognizing the need for an updated approach to the martial arts, experimented with more logical and practical means of combating modern methods of fighting and thus emerged with his own interpetation of the art.  To reach his conclusions, he analyzed combative predicaments from the viewpoints of the attacker, the defender, and, uniquely, the bystander or spectator.  From these observations, Parker disproved theories and concepts which had earlier been considered combat effective.  His greatest insights came by studying himself on film in reverse.

Parker then systematized and categorized all the basic kenpo elements into a logical order of progress for step-by-step instruction.  Eventually, he conceived one of the most in-depth and sophisticated training manuals for instructors to date.  It gives a clear, precise and through understanding of what kenpo entails, with every move within this system methodically and scientifically thought out.  Kenpo basics fall into eight categories: stances, blocks, parries, punches, strikes, finger techniques, kicks and foot maneuvers.  The system is divided into three major divisions with relative subdivisions: basice (including forms); self-defense (divided into methods of attack and methods of training for an attack, both of which are further subdivided); and freestyle (tournament and street, with the former subdivided into light contact and full contact).

Unique to this style are Parker's teaching methods wherein he parallels the moves of the martial arts with the study of music or the alphabet.  Each move learned, for example, whether offensive or defensive, can be considered an "alphabet of motion."  When these are combined they form "words of motion."  combinations of these then form "sentences of motion" and so on, allowing a kenpo pracioner to draw upon a large "vocabulary of motion."