The style is called Chinese Kenpo Karate as originally taught by Parkers studios before they changed the system. Here is a Wikipedia article of the Tracy’s system that I came from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Kenpo and my recent post of my instructor’s Richard “Dick” Willett history in the creation of the American Kenpo Karate Association. As you will discover the style has reinvented itself as it moved from China, Okinawa, Japan, and Hawaii. The part I’ve enjoyed is Tracy’s influence as well as my instructors influence from Joe Lewis.

Here is that post: http://myselfdefenseblog.com/http:/myselfdefenseblog.com/richard-dick-willett-american-kenpo-karate-association/.

Here is more about the Yoshida Clan specifically speaking about Kempo: http://members.tripod.com/hungahungas/Yoshioda.htm

As for what I think about the history and evolution of Kempo/Kenpo - It is good to learn the roots but I’ve always put more stock in what works. I had to learn 240 self-defense techniques and 17 katas in addition to basics as well as sparring to get my first degree black belt… Have I ever used a full technique? No… but I’ve pulled bits an pieces - here and there out of my bag of tricks (an don’t even ask about a kata ).

I’ve often wondered how one would teach a system of fighting effectively but it seems that Krav Maga is successful at just that. I have a friend that has been a brown belt forever and I am going to finally continue his training (just got out of school for my MBA) but he is going to go for the fighting black belt.

Keep up the interesting content Steve - I always enjoy you posts.

John W. Zimmer
MySelfDefenseBlog.com

I don’t know if the guy stole the ball from her but she took care of business! I have always favored elbows and knees (as well as palms) for self-defense because they pack a lot of force (as you aptly demonstrated) and a person is unlikely to get hurt.

I once had a room-mate ask me what to do if he came up against a guy that he could not hurt. My first reaction was to teach him an elbow strike (we had been sparring a lot). A couple of weeks later when he was bouncing at the bar, a guy came up and took the keg he was bringing up to the bar, away from him and threw it aside like it was nothing… my friend tried to knock him out with a punch and it had no affect on the guy. The guy started coming at him and my friend remembered the elbow strikes we had been practicing and did an elbow to the face with his back arm (along with a full body twist) and knocked the guy out cold!

I have never knocked out a guy with a knee but the toughest fight I have been in I had to use knees to keep a wrestler from getting position on me… if not for the knee’s - he would have climbed up from his kneeling position to gain control of the situation (probably won the fight if not for my knees)!

Anyway - great video clip!

John W. Zimmer