I liked the dojo when I first saw it; a small group of people and friends, having fun, and serious about their art.
It is Testing Week the first week of the month. I had tested Monday to go from Orange to Purple. Sifu said that my techniques were good and that I just needed a bit more flow on my forms.
I try to get to the evening classes two to three times a week but with three kids I might not attend any some weeks. Tuesday and Thursday mornings (6am! :eek: ) are the classes I can regularly make. The mornings have another black belt Sifu and I like her teaching as a counterpoint.
I practiced more on Tuesday and came in Thursday again to practice and test again that evening. I and another Orange Belt were greeted with “Are you ready? Cause we’re going to test you hard” from a Red-Black Belt.
What I remember was hearing the usual banter, doing the usual practicing, and just an extra “Let’s do this a little more formally.” We did forms and techniques, and even (this is the extra I like in the her classes) techniques against two or three attackers. I haven’t made time to spar yet in the regular classes, so I like the chance in these classes.
Anyway, at the end she asked us both to stand in a Meditation Stance with our eyes closed. I heard her say “Let’s confer” to the other Red-Black Belt. We waited about two minutes. I thought they were designing a test to attack. We would just hear “Open your eyes” and ‘boom’. But she said open them and kneel and I saw the Purple Belt waiting. I (just like now when I’m writing this) teared up and had to stop from crying.
I’m always too hard on myself and am a perfectionist, so I thought I needed a lot more work. But Sifu said to tell my wife that I “kicked butt” and to tell myself not to be so hard on myself. She told how she was testing for Black (and Larry Tatum was one of her judges!) and ended one of the forms - facing the wrong direction. I heard from my school’s Sifu about another guy who started his Black Belt test and forgot how to do the first (simplest) Kata. So, I’m proud having earned my Purple Belt.
WTG Corner Case!
It took me a year to get Blue, i think. Now I’m green and only a month or so away from 3rd brown.
Are you taking standard American Kenpo, or Tracy’s, or some other Kenpo system? I’m in Tracy’s.
By the way - why don’t you have your kids join with you? My class is mostly kids (Imagine me as Kramer from Sinfeld…attack of the kiddies!) and we have a bunch of families taking it together.
What katas did you do for your belt? I think in our school it was 1 kata for orange, 2 for purple. I totally forget what I did - maybe short 2 and long 2.
I started in November 2004. My son, along with some others in the Early Childhood PTA, had tried it out a few months before. My son is now five and a Green Belt on the children’s scale. It is quite a bit more kids than adults and I like the family/friendly atmosphere. There’s Little Dragons (<6), Junior Dragons (6-10), and Adults. I had always wanted to do a martial art, but nothing before appealed to me. I like it for the grace, self-confidence, and exercise. My experience of other systems and schools showed it more like ‘how aggressive can we be,’ but I hadn’t given them a chance to really show me what they were about.
I’ve heard of Tracy’s System but don’t know any details. How does it differ fom this: My style is Ed Parker’s American Kenpo Karate.[ul][]Yellow Belt - 7 techniques; Star Block[]Orange Belt - 8 more techniques; Short Form 1[]Purple Belt - 8 more techniques; Long Form1 and Kicking Set[]Blue Belt - 8 more techniques; Short Form 2 and Finger Set[]Green Belt - 8 more techniques; Long Form 2 and something[]Brown Belt - 8 more techniques; Short Form 3 and something?[]Red Belt - 16 more techniques; Long Form 3[]Red-Black Belt - 16 more techniques; Staff SetBlack Belt - 21 more techniques; Two Man Set, Personal Form, Thesis[/ul]
Congratulations! Enjoy your victory!
Speak to me of Kenpo.
I know not of this “Kenpo”.
Congratulations! The ‘afterglow’ of a successful martial arts promotion is like nothing else.
Some say, verily, ‘Kenpo’ is “stern man with '80s hairdo.” But I say unto you, neh, for you are an idiot, and I fart in your general direction.
Bodhidharma, the 28th descendant of the original Buddha, found the monks of the Shaolin temple in a state of physical decay and unable to withstand the prolonged periods of meditation which were essential to the practice of Zen Buddhism. Several hundred years later, the practices had evolved due to politic unrest and lawlessness into a martial art, chiefly due to Shaolin monk Ch’ueh Yuen. Traveling and meeting Pai Yu Feng and an old man named Li Ch’eng, they expanded the art into the Tiger, Leopard, Crane, Snake, and Dragon styles along with a set of moral and ethical principles to govern their practice. Some of the myths and practices you saw in the television series Kung Fu came from real practices.
As the art spread and grew it was called Chuan-Fa (Chinese for “fist way”) and called Kenpo (Japanese for “fist law”). Kenpo was practiced and passed down the Mitose family line until James Mitose, who lived in Hawaii in 1940, began teaching publicly. One of his students, William Chow, who also studied martial arts from his own family, took over teaching classes. Chow in turn taught a young Hawaiian named Edmund Parker, who eventually developed Kenpo into the art we know and practice today. Mr. Parker introduced Kenpo in the continental United States in 1955.
American Kenpo is a highly sophisticated Martial Art and is probably the most practical of styles as it is to do with current street fighting. It is based on a rapid succession of strikes in sequential flow, which involves taking advantage of every conceivable natural weapon during the execution of a technique and Directional Harmony whereby all our action moves in the same direction thus re-enforcing the deliver of our strikes.
Kenpo is the combination of ancient fighting techniques and modern scientific principles. An unending flow of motion. A force that can overwhelm any attacker. Every move creates a specific reaction in your opponent; each move leads you to your next. Every strike is a block, every block a strike. This logical and sequential flow of motion is the essence of KENPO KARATE.
[sub]Thank goodness for cut and paste.[/sub]
Congratulaions, Corner Case! (Bows)
[QUOTE=Corner Case]
I’ve heard of Tracy’s System but don’t know any details. How does it differ fom this: My style is Ed Parker’s American Kenpo Karate.[ul][li]Yellow Belt - 7 techniques; Star Block[]Orange Belt - 8 more techniques; Short Form 1[]Purple Belt - 8 more techniques; Long Form1 and Kicking Set[]Blue Belt - 8 more techniques; Short Form 2 and Finger Set[]Green Belt - 8 more techniques; Long Form 2 and something[]Brown Belt - 8 more techniques; Short Form 3 and something?[]Red Belt - 16 more techniques; Long Form 3[]Red-Black Belt - 16 more techniques; Staff Set[]Black Belt - 21 more techniques; Two Man Set, Personal Form, Thesis[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
Al Tracy and his brother either learned kenpo from or with Ed Parker when he was in Los Angeles. Parker, of course, learned it and established his American Kenpo in Haiwaii. The Tracy brothers started their own system, which is considered American Kenpo still but the forms differ from Ed Parker’s.
They Tracy belt system is the same colors, but for adults we have 30 forms per belt except yellow which is 15. We have to do 2 kata for each belt as well and our instructors happen to let us choose which kata to do. I do believe the long/short forms are the same as Ed’s system but I’ve never heard of those others. We do weapon sets too.
Our dojo’s pretty small and we don’t have a separate adult class anymore 
Congratulations again and good luck with blue!!! 
That’s really cool. I remember how it felt moving up the belt ranks. Purple seemed like no longer a beginner and starting to make some real progress.
I did almost 5 years of American Kenpo (Ed Parker > Steve Fox > Gary Garrett) 20 years ago.
Does someone have a link to free video’s of the forms? I knew short and long 1-3 and I’d really like to get them back but get stuck on different pieces. Long 2 and Long 3 were my favorites. Long 2 I can remember about 95% of, but Long 3 I get stuck after the first couple of moves.
Mr. Nackord teaches from his home school in King of Prussia, PA. His site has some good stuff: http://www.nackordkarate.com/Forms.htm Whilst really grateful for what he has there, some of the forms are done quite quickly or to my 20 year old memory a little bit sloppy.
Any recommended sites with videos or descriptions would be appreciated.