Japanese Karate Sensei Reacts To KENPO SPARRING For The First Time! 

I thought Kenpo Karate was going to be similar to Japanese Karate, but I was totally wrong! 🥋FREE TRIAL｜Online Group Lesson🥋 Program Details: karateintokyo.com/ Any questions or concerns? → Email me at ynkaratedojo@gmail.com I relieve my pain & soar with this massage gun! hey.hydragun.com/Yusuke Thank you for always enjoying our videos! I really appreciate it if you could support the channel🙏 www.paypal.com/paypalme/karateintokyo

I practiced Kenpo for nearly a decade, in 3 different lineages, and still occasionally review the training from time to time. Kenpo as it is practiced in the US is a complicated mess of Karate, kung Fu, street fighting, and western martial arts. There are a whole bunch of different sub-styles and lineages. Each lineage has added and changed things, so it is a very diverse art. Some are very karate focused, others focus on different aspects. I think the easiest way to think of Kenpo is that it is American Chinese-Karate.

This looks like the Jeff Speakman 5.0 style of kenpo interesting how many different branches of kenpo there are these days

"It's the guy that comes out in the end that really counts." -Ed Parker Kenpo in my opinion is meant to blend in and counter with offensive and defensive strikes using whatever means necessary to overwhelm and defeat the opponent. Ed Parker was a realist being a street fighter himself but also understood the application of science and physics applied through bodily motion. Kenpo is very karate and very kung fu at the technical level and very jeet kun do on the artistic level...

This is Jeff Speakman's Kenpo 5.0, which combines Ed Parker's American Kenpo (Speakman was a direct student of Grand Master Parker) with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Most American Kenpo schools do standard point karate sparring for sport and free sparring for more realistic practice of the techniques. The difference between Kenpo 5.0 sparring and MMA is that in MMA, the match is over when someone taps, but in Kenpo 5.0 sparring a submission is like, 3 points and then the fighters reset and continue going until the round is over. You can find examples of standard American Kenpo sparring (competitively) on my channel if you want, I have videos going all the way back to when I was a yellow belt.

Yusuke should check out the RU-vid channel Art of One Dojo. The host, Dan, is an American Kenpo instructor and very well versed in the history of other martial arts

I studied Kajukenbo when I was younger. Ka=tang soo do karate, Ju=kodokan judo, Ken=kenpo, and Bo= Chinese boxing/Kung fu. Like others here have said it's a hybrid martial art system. Thanks for the great content.

I'd consider Kenpo/Kempo a part of Karate history. Some okinawan Ryus call themselves Okinawa Kenpo Karate. Most of the Kenpo styles I've seen seem to have lot of chinese Quan Fa influence.

Seems they've upgraded their sparring methods. These guys are fighting more like daido juku / kudo method.

Have have been teaching Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu for 15+ years and own my own school in CA. Because Kenpo uses many strikes that are not allowed in most sparing we use Shootfighting as our form of sparing because it evolves striking, takedown, and grappling. Which is the most realistic fight simulator. Vary similar to MMA.

Jeff Speakman is the master of this branch. I practice kenpo 5.0 and I like that. Thanks Master Speakman.

I was trained in Wado Ryu in the early-mid '70s in England, we had some locking/throwing/groundwork techniques as part of the style, Kempo then was understood to be two parts Karate one part Judo but, in this it appears to have more types of Jujitsu techniques.

Ed Parker studied chinesse kenpo and he made a lot of changes to the art. And it continues to adapt and change. i really wish there was a kenpo school close to my home. I never did shotokan like he does......but shurtie kenpo jitsu and Te, shotokan, aikido/judo, tang soo do in it and we did things different from how karate dojo waku does them.

When we did sparring in my Kenpo my instructor always encouraged take downs but he gave you 3 seconds to finish the fight or he'd stand you back up. Otherwise the rules were no elbows or knees against the lower belt ranks. Sometimes we'd do situation sparring. One fighter has their back against the wall or he'd give you a super small sparring ring to fight in. It was a ton of fun and really helped avoid it being just more kickboxing

Interesting thumbnail choice! My karate instructor’s Shodan certificate was signed by three people, two of whom are in the thumbnail...Ed Parker and Elvis Presley. Bill “Superfoot” Wallace was the third signature.

I can't speak for other western nations regarding mixing martial arts. Here in the UK, when I started training, classes were usually taught in schools or community centres, where they could only fit one class a week around other uses for the room. If you wanted to train more often, it meant adding another style of karate, kickboxing or judo, for example.

Keep following up on Kenpo. I'll say this again, you have to see Larry Tatum apply the self defense techniques, defenses against punches, kicks grabs tackles. It's wildy different than anything You've ever seen in Japan and Okinawa. traditionalists either feel liberated and amazed by seeing it, or disgusted and freaked out. It's where the Okinawan, Chinese and jujutsu influences meet and Larry Tatum has a better demonstration on video of it than any other person on this planet.

My kenpo teacher always told me to keep my hands centred, but when there are hook punches involved, it can help if you keep your arms slightly to the sides of you face (directly in front of your shoulders rather than on the centre line) for quick blocking. Since I started training in shotokan (4 years ago), I noticed they were able to hit me down the centre more easily, but I was able to hit them from the side with hooks more easily. It's hard to say that one is "better" than the other.

This is Sensei Seth’s background. I’m sure he’s talked about the difference between Kenpo and Kempo. I’d love to see you two discuss the dynamic between Kempo & Shotokan along with American & Japanese karate in general

In the ‘60s and ‘70s American Kenpo Karate held some of the biggest Karate Tournaments in the U.S.. Their rules were similar to typical Karate tournament rules.

I’m glad I came across this video. I’m a 2nd Dan in Taekwondo, and recently started Ed Parker style kenpo. It’s not an easy transition, the stances may as well be opposite. For example, a hard front stance in TKD vs a soft “bow” stance in kenpo. 15 years of my feet pointing one way is hard to correct. It’s fun as hell and I love the instructor though so we’ll see how it goes!

I studied TKD/ITF and Kenpo. 3 Dan TKD and 2 Dan Kenpo and even in my Army service from 80-90s used these two systems for defense hand to hand. TKD for distance and Kenpo for up close and ground.

I was a personal student of Ed Parker for over 10 years until he passed away. Much of his last version is unseen.

Alot of stuff we're taught in kenpo can be very violent. There's a move where you crush your opponents head between your elbow and knee, but we obviously don't do that in sparring because people have to go to work the next day etc, although accidents do happen. I found that sparring usually turns into a kick-boxing scenario in kenpo and it's sort of like boxing with the hands, karate with the legs. Some kenpo schools differ. Some stick to the forms and sets, some have a little groundwork and stick sets thown in. It's like a mix of Japanese Karate with the linear movements, but has circular movements like Kung Fu. Sometimes it can get too bogged down in the system. Like you do delayed sword for a right punch and shielding hammer for a left punch, but if you keep practicing one figre-of-eight technique, you can defend yourself against any attack above the belt.

I’ve been in kempo for 5 years an yeah there are many styles where I’m at they let you choose your kind of style. There’s karate, takedowns an we practice kickboxing

I took kenpo in the early 1980s. The way they dance, hold their hands, engage, etc. is all about the same. These fighters do seem to dive more than we did (we did more strikes to legs for takedowns and were never supposed to lose vision of opponent) but the end result is about the same. We also got in trouble if we did wide hooks or anything else that took too long or landed soft (so not much jabbing and hooks, lots of tight center mass strikes with first two knuckles and follow through, kicks all with snap, balance, and vision). Another difference is we did not like to wrestle and all of our close quarter moves were geared toward creating separation for punches, kicks, and elbows. We had a professional kick boxer who joined the class and he said kenpo had a lot more discipline and precision, which helped him, especially on the defensive side. We were hammered with the idea that kenpo was just for self-defense in life threatening situations and for winning by any means necessary (except no landing head blows or breaking joints in sparring/tournaments), so most of our heavy strikes were attack replies in which we rerouted the attacking body part to take down opponent defenses, which is some of what I'm seeing in this sparring also. Because of this nature we had to be careful not to break each other's joints and internal organs, because there are a lot of sawhorse elbow/knee breakers and elbows to floor pinned gut/head. So the fights always looked pretty ugly at tournaments with us mostly blocking until opponents became tired and dropped defenses or annoyed and tried to land an audacious blow, for which we were basically programmed with a bunch of quick, full force return strikes.

Watching sparring to understand kenpo is like watching Bobby Mason to learn swimming.

Kempo 5.0 is a mix of Goju/Kompo and Jiu Jitsu, Ed Parker added street fighting to Kempo when he moved to Hawaii and now Jeff Speakman trained in Brazillian JJ and combined it with Kempo.

While my school never participated in sparring, my instructor, Robert Wallace (originally Robert Ray) placed a lot of importance on what he called spontaneous Kenpo. Part of the building we used had a former bar in it that still had all the furnishings including the bar counter and a few tables. At least once a month he’d take us in there and have us simulate being attacked in a bar. One of us would be the one attacked and anywhere from 2 to 8 students would be the attackers and anything would be allowed, even throwing one student at another to tangle him or her up. The only constant was that the “attackee” was not allowed to start with any kind of weapon. If you managed to take a weapon off of one of your attackers then you could use it any way you wanted. You could also use any of the furnishings (kick a bar stool in into an attacker, use an ashtray off a table, or even the table itself). The idea was to use the principles Ed Parker developed & taught in as realistic manner as possible without seriously injuring anyone (I did break a finger once when I foolishly blocked a kick with an open hand and more than once I came home with several bruises but nothing worse).

Kenpo has as many styles with as many differences as karate does. To my knowledge American Kenpo is based in Kung Fu more than karate, but was heavily influenced by the presence of non standard karate in the martial arts scene through the likes of Bill superfoot Wallace, Benny the jet, and chuck norris during the golden age of competitive karate and kickboxing in America. The school in the video is an Albuquerque branch (where “master ken” films actually) of Jeff Speakmans Kenpo 5.0, a very practical style of kenpo. Jeff has gone out of his way to keep the style up to date, and he himself has good form videos out there, as well as a few fight scenes.

I studied in a Karate school that flew both the Shotokan style flag and the Kenpo style flag. I understand it to be a soft style of karate, where Shotokan is hard. A strike blocks a strike, vese a parry (or deflection of the strike.) blocks a strike. You get a lot of checking or trapping of front arm to make openings for strike, there iss a lot of opening the opponents up through deflection to find the optimum strikes. The idea behind their distance is that, they have the ability to engange in a slightly longer distance because of a few sliding principles when kicking, and the goal is to maneuver around your opponent's defenses, inflict as much damage as you can, then get out of that pocket (to use a boxing term) and back to a relatively safe distance. I dont think the was a great example of kenpo

I studied Kenpo for many years. American Kenpo has always been about evolution. At it's core it was always more of a self-defense martial art. Katas were a very small part of what we were instructed. We had several-dozens of self-defense techniques that we had to learn for promotions. When Brazilian Jiu Jitsu hit the scene it exposed a very big hole in many martial arts. I know many Kenpo practitioners recognized this and worked to incorporate it into their style.

In the style of kenpo I taught had a mix of hard and soft styles. Kung fu is an influence in this style. Kenpo is pretty brutal as far as it's focus which is disabling an opponent either through bone breaking or targeting specific organs. Kenpo is always changing and adapting thus some of the ground techniques which in this video appear to be bjj based.

In full contact sparring, like in most of the traditional martial arts, the practitioners deviate from the original art they study and spar utilizing forms of boxing and kickboxing which shows no resemblance to the art they actually practice/study. That has been the paradox of the majority of traditional arts which have added full contact sparring to their repertoire.

I have studied Kenpo in the UK now for over 42 years. As I and my fellow students came up through the ranks we were always told the history of the attachment of Karate to Kenpo was a way of getting people to understand Kenpo was an actual martial art. Apparently people were not able to associate the name Kenpo with the more common arts around at the time, hence Kenpo became Kenpo Karate. I do also recall Kenpo being attached to Kung Fu as well, ergo Kenpo Kung Fu was also advertised for a short time in the late 70's. Thank you Sensei for the most respectful way you approach Kenpo and other martial arts.

These guys are with Jeff SPEAKMAN’s Kenpo 5.0. It’s Mr Speakmans Kenpo system that has ground work now.

You are a very special person with a distinguished view of the world of martial arts and your channel is very wonderful. Thank you for these outstanding videos i think it's kenpo 5.0

Kempo if like a first cousin, you may share one or two grandparents, you have a parent in common, but in the end, it is a different line of descension. It will become a family of its own over the years and eventually forget where it came from in a few more generations.

The main principle of kenpo is self-defense, & quite often the attack is in the defence. A simple example of this is elongating a block into an eye-strike.

5.0 Fighting is a different animal than "point fighting" it is two minutes of an all out brawl (controlled)where anything goes. Ground, kicks, boxing, brawling, I fought in two tournaments in Vegas, and they were all challenging. The clinch simply means its time to go to the ground. You have to know how to defend against any kick and the punches, and know what the hell to do on the ground. Criticize it all you want, but at some point get on the mat and test your might.

Kenpo is always evolving, which i believe was one the voté ideas E. Parker had, nothing weird to finally see grappling involved. Sensei, i would love to ser your reaction to Kudo Daido Juku, it's a Gendai Budo and one of it's roots is Shotokan Karate since it comes from Kyokushin and Judo, actually i'm practicing both, Shotokan and Kudo.

I think Hawaiian Kenpo as taught by the Pit Master, to be the most effective kenpo sryle , his fighters include Chuck Liddell and Glover Texiera , who are excellent martial artists in or out of the ring

I have taught wrestling and submission wrestling in multiple Karate schools under a shared space agreement. I have taught Karate students grappling and some Karate students after their classes came to mine as well. What I've learned and heard by speaking to Karate instructors is that some have embraced grappling because they have said that Karate in a way is an incomplete system. Also, some have said they want their students to be well rounded, and some realize grappling and BJJ is big business. If they don't offer it or have it available, students will go elsewhere.

There’s a RU-vid channel art of one dojo his specialty is American Kenpo

I came from traditional JKA shotokan and my son is a kempo fighter. Kempo is a good, strong martial arts. Speaking between us, the katas are not so precise than in karate, but they are tough guys and very good fighters. On highest level they need to cross-train with BJJ and K1. There are parallel competing in pointing-fight system, in submission and in full-kempo. You see this full-kempo in the video. It is a complex system, I like it very well.

In a fight, people resort to basics. When I use Kenpo in sparring and street, I use a lot of stomach kicks

I do a branch of Hawaiian Kenpo. And I would probably say that my style puts some more emphasis on the karate side of it all. Meaning the terms we use, kihon, katas, sparring, and overall style is more technically on the karate side. However, we still do practice other techniques and ideas from various styles. As well as emphasizing branching out to other styles and making your karate style your.own. as they say, you can't improve your style if the only style being practiced against is the same.

This looks like a new format of Kenpo, known as Kenpo 5.0. Kenpo 5.0 was founded by Jeff Speakman. Jeff Speakman studied under both Ed Parker, and Larry Tatum.

I think this is the style that chuck lidell came from 😎

I think that Kepo Karate is like a Descendent of traditional Japanese Karate but I don’t consider it karate, btw this is coming from a Kenpo Karate student still learning.

Training in kenpo, it teaches you to be fluent, able to adapt/change style, technique in a situation as it presents itself Always space to modify every movement as needed, not locked into a specific way of execution or movement At least that is what I took/learned from it. I studied for 7 years, long ago, and chose it because I appreciated that it is a constantly evolving form on a personal level. I was in control and not locked into traditional aspects I viewed it as more freeform and my personal teacher pushed my ability to interpret his teaching. Kinda hard for me to explain

First, in my opinion, based on things I have read about the founder, Mr.Parker, he was a boxer, so it is incorporated into the system. But this, like most "sparring" , is sport, not "self defense", per se. I often hesr and read, "...traditional martial arts don't work, yet, whenever I offer to strike someone in the throat with a shuto, they refuse, because they could be injured, which leads to me stating, "Then, tradition does work!" My thought process is, can you use your art against someone not using the same art, or just plain street violence? This is where different weights, heights, skill levels, attributes, etc, have to be addressed according to an individual's level of skill. MMA, Tournaments, "dojo sparring", are all bound by rules, restrained power, and few techniques. Years ago, when I sparred in tournaments, I was disqualified for using traditional sweeps, and throws in Shotokan Karate, along with punches and kicks, which, to me, was using my art, applying its principles, not changing to "suit parameters", which don't get mentioned.....until you start using them, even at karate based, or sponsored "Open Tournament, where any style can be used. I was disqualified again, when I started learning Chinese martial art, and used trapping, whipping kicks, and blending in my Shotokan, when the opposition presented an "opportunity" to respond with it. I was taught control, and could throw full speed/power techniques, and stop contact within less than an inch. My Sensei taught me, if you cannot control your own body, what's the point of learning an art? You can't do anything if you're out of control. In 20-plus years of security work, I never "pulled a punch" despite what current "reality based" instructors insist you will do, if you use traditional control. What do others think....🤔

2nd Degree Brown Belt in American Kenpo here. In my dojo, when we spar, we don't train straight punches or kicks to the face until Black Belt. All sparring strikes to the head are aimed at the sides so hook punches and roundhouse kicks are 95% of the offense aimed at the head. Black Belts, and Brown Belts to a certain degree, are expected to have the control to strike straight to the face without hurting our sparring partners. But 90% of the time, the good fighters just use kickboxing. You might see a sweep, throw, or take down occasionally, but it's rare unless you're in Kenpo 5.0 or another variation of Kenpo that does a lot of judo/ju-jitsu/bjj cross-training. Sometimes you'll see a knee or elbow strike, but those are rare too, and never allowed to the head.

believe it or not in your last sparring video you preformed text book JKD towards the end and it looked and functioned great. You had the side stance with one blocking arm bent and down palm turned towards opponent to block kicks..groin...low centre line and one up guarding centre line and head. You moved back with timing to evade with your weight on your back leg acting like spring and then shot forward with your lead punch exactly like Bruce Lee did to Dan in the black in white video of them sparring. Bravo

3rd degree black belt in Kenpo... check out the self defense techniques of the kenpo curriculum. I actually found tgem to be the best part of kenpo.

This is a sparring match from San Antonio Texas in 2018. It is a Jeff Speakman 5.0 Kenpo school I currently attend and was present at this match. Shinigami the Reaper MMA is correct on all accounts he stated. Another difference in our sparring is no straight punches directly to the head. Which is why you see the rounded ridge hand (not a hook punch) in the match. Ground work is intergraded into the the training to defend against BJJ. Our style is geared more to self-defense.

It's looks like kudo without the big throws but it's still empty hand and there isn't anything they do or any of us do that hasn't t been done before, all the styles are covered except the likes of individualistic stuff like capoera and their application in kata may be different but it's all be been done in other styles, there's only so many techniques the motion of the human body will allow, it's the rule set and permitted application within that art that makes things look like style is different, but karate just means empty hand and it's all empty hand.

Kempo is closer to kungfu than Karate in my personal opinion having trained in it for over 10 years, kempo is a mixture and always evolving.

In my experience with Kenpo and shotokan karate , the purpose of sparring and point sparring is to be able to get off the line first and score the first point which translates into being able to use those techniques in a self-defense situation.

I'm currently taking ed parker's kenpo karate. And our head teacher referenced it as an art of chinese origins.

Jeff Speakman the main actor in "The Perfect Weapon" has his own system of American Kenpo called Kenpo 5.0 and in his style he has incorperated limited grappling work and how to defend against grappling and ground attacks.

It's a mix of Shaolin Kung fu and Karate we use both linear and circular motions and rely on multiple strikes I have trained in Kenpo since the 70's you need to see the techniques to see the difference that is where it shows.

From what I've seen Kenpo is a bunch of different combinations... and they have names for those combos like "Delayed Sword" or "Attacking Mace"... reminds me of Japanese RPG games like "Tales of Berseria".

In answer to the question about Kenpo being defined as Karate, Kenpo tends to be considered more around the lines of Japanese-style Kung Fu, with many experts contentiously arguing that it evolved from the Kung-Fu style of Quan Fa. Modern Kenpo also contains a lot of strikes and hand/arm motions commons found in Wing Chun. Kenpo-Karate by comparison is exactly what it describes: It is Kenpo mixed with the heavier, deeper stances found Japanese Karate styles such as Shotokan and Wado-Ryu. In my (admittedly very limited experience) these Japanese Karate influences tend to be featured more in the self-defence drills than in sparring. These include powerful straight punches and heavy front kicks. There’s also Okinawan Kenpo which incorporates elements more commonly found in Okinawan Karate styles such as the “coat-hanger” heavy lariat. In addition, there is also Nippon (military) Kenpo that is designed specifically for integration with Aikijujutsu and uses the same open-handed ready stance. I have a TKD background and am currently learning Aiki-Kenpo-Jujutsu. I’ve got to tell you, it’s a big difference. My TKD background gives my kicks decent form and natural crispness but there’s also a lot of moves in TKD which don’t translate well, especially given that my current style teaches both Kenpo-Karate and Kenpo-Kickboxing as a combined set. Most of my classmates are former Karatekas (Shorinji-Ryu) so they seem to transition into it better than I. For example, a TKD spinning back-kick isn’t very useful against a Karate/Kenpo fighter. They can just dodge and counter-punch. Other moves, like the twisting kick, work really well however BECAUSE they’re not common. Like everything in life, I guess, it’s a trade-off. 😅

5.0 sparring is vastly different than most American Kenpo sparring. Many different methods and approaches to sparring (tournament or point sparring, or 'fight" sparring).

"Kenpo" comes from Hawii. Ed Parker , a brown belt in Kenpo JuJitsu and a black belt in Judo came to mainland USA ( California) and changed it to his style. His original style had heavy Chinese influence, because it was called Chaun Fa. When he ran out of material he started " degrees" he tested in front of his blackbelts who named him Grandmaster. He stole ideas from a Chinese friend who he abandonded in California, and copywrote them. The problem with kenpo is they have like 200 self defense techniques, but you can not ise them wjile sparing

This is NOT pure Kenpo Karate. This had some grappling added to it which is not a tested part of Kenpo Karate. Now most of us encouraging grappling to make a study well rounded, but it is not a part of our normal curried in the purest sense. The boxing is very easy to explain. Our founder Ed Parker was a boxer and included boxing in his Karate form. Much of this is because it is how Americans fight. If two Americans get in a fight they will most likely fight like a boxer or will throw a sucker punch. Kenpo was designed specifically for that. I'm a Kenpo Karate Instructor (I teach for free at my church when Covid is not stopping us). I did take a few other martial arts though to be rounded. Thank you for the review.

I have practiced Kenpo for many years and you are correct that Kenpo Sparring is very similar to kickboxing. We use the same type of strikes. However, my instructions would always preach "Distance, Timing, Balance." how to control them and we would try to Insert Kenpo Techniques into our sparring to see how they would function in a realistic fight.

You’re watching Jeff Speakmans Kenpo 5.0. Which he added jujitsu and other styles to keep it well rounded. I train in an Ed Parker system and we haven’t done alot of jujitsu in our sparring like this. The way we train has all of the same blocks, kicks, and punches as shotokan but has more round movements instead of all linear.

That was not Ed Parker's Kenpo. That is Jeff Speakman's Kenpo 5.0. I trained with Frank Trejo and he always said the 2 major bases of Kenpo were boxing and Judo. Mr. Trejo was asked to bring a fighter to UFC1, Zane Frazier. We trained from his garage back then because people involved in sport karate back then did not have an interest in much more than light point sparring. We were working MT, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, Kick Boxing, and Boxing to get well rounded. Mr. Trejo did not see a need to reinvent the wheel as Kenpo was not intended to be trained in the way most did at this time. Mr. Parker never intended Kenpo to be taught as most did. He ALWAYS said that learning Kenpo was like learning a language and it was intended to show you moves in context. Back then the way in which most Kenpo schools trained lacked realistic sparring. Back then not many people felt a need since they had a belief they were just going to rattle off one of the list of 256 techniques as taught in the ideal phase. Check out New Gladiators. That was a film from the time when Kenpo was as Parker taught.

I’m a big advocate of mixing martial arts but mastering those style and enhance your main martial art

Kenpo has loads of Karate in it, but it is a hybrid art of Linear Japanese Karate strikes and Circular Chinese/wing chun/kung fu style strikes. Old school Kenpo is also still very popular and we compete in alot of "Point Fighting" competitions.

I studied kenpo back in 1990-1997. Never learned any ground techniques. It wasn’t Ed Parker’s version or Kempo either. I was told it was Chinese Kenpo. I was young, 13-20 years old. Maybe it has evolved. Idk.

This sparring is pretty similar to how we sometimes spar. Sometimes we do stand up with takedowns to jiu jitsu. Sometimes it’s just stand up fighting. This particular style seemed more akin to to kick boxing. We will take more of a sideways stance a lot of times with the lead hand up for blocking and punching, trail had guarding the body. This particular style didn’t seem to do many blocks with counter attacks, but I think these guys would all be very fun to spar with.

This is Kenpo 5.0 under Jeff Speakman. Also called 5.0 Fighter

Sensei Nagano, The American Kenpo System connects to Karate in a few different ways. First, is the 1933 public Kenpo Karate Dojo in Hawaii of Thomas Shigeru Miyashiro who had learned Kenpo Karate from a Mr. Kuniyoshi and who was aided by Mizuho Mutsu and Higashionna Kamesuke, students of Choki Motobu (though Mizuho Mutsu is said to have trained with Funakoshi as well) they visited Hawaii for 5 months in 1933, staying with Thomas Miyashiro while touring the islands giving Kenpo Karate demonstrations. They also spread some books on Kenpo Karate to Hawaii. Particularly Mizuho Mutsu's book and one of Choki Motobu's books. Their influence on Hawaiian Kenpo Karate is little known but was tremendous. Around the same time their were several Chinese Ken Fat (Chuan Fa/Kenpo) masters teaching in Hawaii associated with the Chee Kong Tong HQ on the island of Maui. A half-Chinese, Half-Hawaiian street fighter named William Chow combined his previous Chinese Kenpo training with the Ryukyuan Kenpo Karate that was now public in Hawaii and mixed it even further by developing counter techniques to Danzan Ryu Jujutsu which its self was a blend of many different cultures martial arts. William Chow taught many who went on to found or head different systems of Martial Arts. One of his more famous students was Edmund K. Parker Senior, the founder of American Kenpo. He had a previous background in Judo (Black Belt) and Boxing (father was a boxing commissioner) he learned this more street focused Kenpo from William Chow in Hawaii. When he eventually moved to California. A family friend named Ming Lum introduced him to many of the top Chinese Kenpo masters in California, several of whom were enforcers for the Tongs in California. He learned from greats such as Lau Bun and shared knowledge with so many others including Bruce Lee. With each bit of knowledge gained he transformed and modified the Kenpo he was teaching to better fit the mode of fighting prevalent on the American streets. The system Senior Grandmaster Parker developed was rather vast compared to some Karate styles who work with a limited number of basics (Kihon). American Kenpo is designed to be a system from which each black belt student develops their own individual/tailored style. I hope this helps you understand what your looking at Sensei Nagano, these days their are multiple versions of American Kenpo with some people focused on tournament kumite and others on adding ground grappling to better deal with the popularity of BJJ in America. You could say within the branches of the American Kenpo tree is a little something for everyone's needs and wants.

Did one of those guys just pull deep half guard?? How in-depth is their grappling? I was NOT disappointed by their groundwork at all.

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This looks a lot like Jeff Speakman's sparring ruleset. I did Larry Tatum kenpo karate for three years and we did have hooks and knees as well, but not as much grappling or low kicks.

I did about 6 months of kenpo in Sacramento in 1979. It was a fight club from day 1. The self defense techniques seemed like a waste of time. The sparring class was street fighting. Good stuff.

This is Jeff Speakman kenpo 5.0. It includes bjj.

American Kenpo also seems to incorporate BJJ elements through the Freestyle Wrestling takedowns and submissions like the Kimura shoulder lock, which positions it closer to MMA. The Japanese equivalent of this would be Aiki-Kenpo-Jujujutsu; that works better again as it mixes at least two forms of Kenpo with Aikijujutsu which means you also get throws, trips and more advanced standing takedowns found in Judo, Aikido and Okinawan Tegumi Wrestling. Again, similar to MMA, especially when some schools also incorporate BJJ into the mix as well. This being said, is any martial art not mixed these days? Even 5-style Karate or 5-style Kung Fu could arguably be considered mixed martial arts since students are learning multiple styles or variations at once.

My personal opinion is that in the west we're influenced by too many different martial arts and because of MMA and Boxing we watch on TV it influences us psychologically. I don't think it's a good thing because then you automatically fall into bad habits that you didn't even learn at the dojo.

I am a taekwondo student and turned black belt when I was 7 I stopped but love the vids man, pls make more!!

In the 90's I paid attention to sparring among intermediate & advanced students of 3 different Kenpo Schools in southern California: American Kenpo; Sam-Pai Kenpo; & Lama Kenpo Karate: and they all sparred very differently (& IMO the Lama Kenpo Karate students sparred the best by far: they actually used what they had been taught consistently, & with good effect, as it was geared for actually fighting by using short combos; the other schools' students had an almost-total disconnect between what they had been taught in their classes & what they did during sparring, perhaps because they were taught long strings of movements to be performed on a 'foe' that stands relatively still after his first attacking motion, which only works in sparring if your first or second move happens to stun your opponent). I also noticed a difference between 'street'-oriented & tournament-oriented sparring; & IMO some students spend far too much of their time practicing with tournament rule adaptations.

Would be great to see a Kudo Daido Juku reaction

Being trained in Muay Thai, this instantly reminded me more of Kickboxing than it did any other form of Martial Arts. It almost felt like watching MMA. Has Kenpo evolved into being formatted specifically FOR MMA?

Kenpo, like all forms of Karate, is derived from Japan. Shotokan is more flashy (circular) whereas Kenpo is just as rigid during training as any other style but during sparing is more fluid like realistic (direct) street fighting. Like a cross between JKD (Chinese) & Krav Maga (Israeli). Kickboxing is a slang term. It can refer to either Muy Thi (Thailand), or a cardio class designed for stay at home moms. Source, myself. -5th° BB Kenpo & TKD (Korean).

This definitely isn’t Ed Parker’s Chop Suey

I started In the early 80s with tae Kwon do.and left it for kenpo in 89.american kenpo is amazing .Ed parker broke it down and made something magical.

Heres my opinion, i studied in kenpo for a few years at a dojo that was not to popular due to the pain being inflicted on one another. But pain was a driving factor to learn and not get hurt in the future. There are different kenpo styles, for style, fighting knowledge, and for real world use. The dojo i went to had students working as bouncers at bars to fine tune techniques that work and didnt work which later changed forms later. While i was deployed i returned home on leave and was invited to my wifes shodokan dojo by the owner who had also studied kenpo and wanted me to give the black belt students a glimps of what a different style would be to fight against...they wernt ready lol, always continue to learn and be humble.

I think this school is a little rare when it comes to sparring. Look for other point sparring in kenpo I think it looks weird and is rare. This school btw would be awesome to train at.

This seems to be a rare form of Kenpo sparring. The different Kenpo schools I studied at over the past 20 years did not have jujitsu type moves in sparring, but was more along the lines of tournament fighting in The Karate Kid (1984). At the school I am studying at now, we do incorporate ground fighting techniques in our self-defense training, but our sparring focuses on punches and kicks.

Just a quick comment about this Kenpo Sir Master Speakman has incorporated BJJ into his style of American kenpo which is why.you are seeing the mma style sparring techniques. KENPO is a street style self defense and therefore he incorporated the jiu-jitsu so his students would know what to do should the get taken to the ground.

As others have stated, this is definitely not standard American Kenpo sparring. Speakman has done a great deal to advance the art of American Kenpo from what EPK or Tracy Kenpo originally envisioned for the art. Introducing BJJ/Newaza to it is a welcome touch.

There is 2 types of sparring. 1 type getting ready for tournament for point sparring. And then type 2 there is just sparring in class to prepare you for fighting. Bruce Lee had a lot to do with og mma before there was mma. Kajukenbo was also one of the first arts of mma started in Hawaii. 5 grand Masters from 5 different arts formed Kajukenbo. KA- Korean Karate JU- Judo & Jujitsu Ken- Kempo Karate Bo- Chinese Kickboxing

My Martial Arts journey started in Kenpo in the US in 1975. We didn’t wear and head protection back then. It has evolved since I trained. Much more Jujitsu techniques now. My JKA days have been modified to more of the Okinawa Shotokan which is a little more similar to this modern Kenpo. Incorporating the grappling and close quarter kumite.

I think "American Kenpo Karate" and even "Kajukenbo" should be considered as "Hybrid Martial Arts" which have a big connection to Karate, but also blend in some other japanese, chinese and western things. On your last "Kenpo"-post I may sounded a bit like I dislike bot American Kenpo and Shotokan, but I am just "Kyokushin -biased". Every Style or Martial Art has "pros" and "cons" and I see a lot of nice things in Shotokan, but also in American Kenpo and Kajukenbo. American Kenpo Karate has in my opinion for example a very nice "beginner form" the "Coordination Set 1", which I often use to show to people who I train more in Kickboxing, so they can try a "Kata" and see if they have fun while doing it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_XkLxXTqi6o.html

“This is a mix of kung-fu-box-brazilian-…gun kata” xD

I've been doing American Kenpo for roughly 3 years and Shaolin Kenpo (actually Karazenpo) for about 5 years. Sometimes it's hard to describe Kenpo. I think I can best say that in almost any well-established Kenpo system you train in, there is a Karate foundation in the beginning and intermediate phases. The new Kenpo practitioner begins with Horse Stances and fundamental Karate blocks- outward, high, in, low. There are some front stances. The early forms, in American and Karazenpo are very Okinawan in influence, this goes for Cerio's Kenpo too. At about the intermediate stage, one uses more geometric and circular techniques which are more Kung Fu influenced. The later forms are more sophisticated and a bit complex. When one says that Kenpo is not Karate, they're not wrong, but I don't think they're totally right. I think, ultimately modern Kenpo found in America utilizes Karate for a foundation- balance, strength, blocking and striking technique. But once one gets more entrenched in Kenpo, it becomes more "Kung Fu ish" using more sophisticated strikes- circular hammer fist, reverse palm heels/circular palms, back two knuckle strikes and other strikes that take more angular trajectories and are nuanced movements of basic Karate strikes- shuto, front punch, palm and the like. In the end, I've always like to deem Kenpo as the merging of Karate and Kung Fu. Can Kenpo be called Karate-- Yes ... AND... NO. It's not strict Karate. It's probably a little more Kung Fu. At the end of the day, Kenpo can probably earn the right of being its own categorical label. Thus, you could say there's Karate, Kung Fu, and Kenpo. We could get away from the dichotomies usually applied in categorizing between Karate and Kung Fu. Another question however-- is Tae Kwon Do a Karate, or something else? So, you could have-- Karate, Kung Fu, Kenpo and Tae Kwon Do. Man, now I've just really muddied up things....