Silly Kempo

[SUGREF]

Ok, ambition is to be a tai chi boxer. At my school we do full contact fighting (aswell as the usual pushing hands mallarky) but that is only once a week. I have a few mates who hang around the gym at weekends for some sparring sessions. However, they are mostly Kempo/Karate/kick Boxing guys who have this really weird way of fightin'. It is like way different fighting with these guys. I know adapting to your oponent is all important, but with Kepmo rules and hence techniques (only from what I have seen - no expert), I find it really hard to use my techniques against this rapid glove flicking, high kicking stuff. I rarely do these spining back kicks cos if I ever did that in tai chi, I would be dumped on my ass before I could say 'I can see my house from here......'

I feel really incompetent with these guys.

I was always told that the mark of a good boxer is that she or he can take on ANYONE.

God help me if I ever spar against a grappler :D


What am I to do (swords not an option. Although......

'He who says nothing, consents' JP Sartre

[Jockwurst]

Well if you are so blown away by the Kempo guys and grapplers then I suggest that you ditch Tai Chi and start doing Kempo and grappling.

[Jockwurst]

Jockwurst is correct.


Sorry, I just couldnt resist!

[STUDD WILSON]

STUDD is correct!

[JWTAYLOR]

What rules are you referring to?
Are you talking about tournament point sparring, or harder contact sparring?

JWT

If you pr!ck us, do we not bleed? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that the villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. MOV

[WongFeHung]

When I did kempo,25 yrs ago (Tracy's not villari) the rules for sparring were as follows; hard contact to the body, most of the kicks were waist down,you can go to the face but try not to contact,(the ever present backfist) groin is a target, so are legs, takedowns, sweeps, grabbing by the hair,and gi -all good. I am instituting this in my school as well.

[straight blast]

Would your instructor dump these guys on their a**ses? If the answer is yes, then keep training what you're doing. You've already said that you're not a master, so keep training 'til you are.
A Karate question.
Many years ago I trained Kempo Karate. I've also seen Kenpo Karate. What's the difference? I'm sure it's more than just the letters. I've wanted to know the answer to this for years, someone PLEASE enlighten me!

"Pain is merely weakness leaving the body"

[Johnny Hot Shot]

Do a search. Same same.

"Life's a great Adventure, Mate"
Jacko Jackson

[Richie]

I sorry dude, but I think that 98% of kempo is GARBAGE. I think you just need more sparring experience. Once you have been fighting for a while, you can see the big holes in Kempo's armor.

[rogue]

Side note on spinning back kicks.

The more combat oriented styles teach the spinning back kick as a counter, not an attack. Good and practicle in the right situation.

"Americans don't have the courage to come here," Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban


There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change; it is, 'To use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.' Patton

[straight blast]

Trust me man, after 2 1/2 years of Muay Thai I know what parts of my Kempo repertoire work. Truth be told, not much. But I certainly am no expert in Kempo. I learned more in 6 months in Muay Thai than I did in 2 years of Kempo.

"Pain is merely weakness leaving the body"

[SUGREF]

Thanks for your comments lads.

The rules that they were going by was more point sparring orientated, hence quick jabbing punches and the use of assorted high kicks. They don't seem to be into the whole take-down-by-the-hair routine or, how can I describe it?, holding opponent's kicks to sweep the other leg, or as I said before, just dump them on their ass and laugh at their silliness. The prob was that I am not used to this type of fighting. I guess I should be though. What I am more used to is using [just for illustrative purposes] rolling thunder punching and low attacks to the legs until within comfortable take down distance and see what happens. Sounds very messy, I know, but whatever works I guess.

By the way, I am not dissin Kempo or anything. Just an unusual experience, that's all

'He who says nothing, consents' JP Sartre

[WongFeHung]

As you cansee from my post, there is kenpo, and there is kenpo. In the seventies, kenpo was more blood and guts type of fighting (not big on finesse, but alot of heart)There were men like Jay Will, Steve Sanders,etc who carved out the kenpo niche. Later on as the system became fragmented through franchise and commercialization, it became a mere shadow of what it once was. Old school methods taught by Parker's and Tracy's were overshadowed by the belt factories. For example, when I was in Kenpo, we had to learn 30 self-defense techniques for each belt level,250-350 for Black Belt. Villari's kempo has 28 for Black Belt-which is far less than rank beginner in old style kenpo. I'm not saying that more is better, and there are alot of fluff and fodder techniques, but the level of expertise, coordination, movement,and time spent in basics and fundamentals speaks for itself. Classes were drilling, self-defense, and sparring-that's it. You can't judge kenpo by one school, you have to look at different schools and their lineages. Chow-Parker/Castro,Tracy's, and then all the others came later. Villari studied under Nick Cerio, broke away and formed his own system, and then his group split and there are now hundreds of offshoots.