Doc
Senior Master
Mr. Parker discussed this with many, but found the concept so intellectually demanding, few in the commercial arena were interested. What he did was when he initially attempted to introduce the concept, he built them around a formulaic approach designed to encourage "sparring" in the schools, and thus support his tournament(s). Personal students like Dennis Conatser know, and understand them as the "Freestyle Formulas.". The so-called scholarly old masters of the movies were few and far between.
and,yet, alive and well in California it seems
Were the A.O.D.'s crerated by Mr.Parker or yourself as a continuation of his work?
As hard as it may seem to fathom, in the old days Parker's Kenpo Schools had a rep of not producing tournament fighters. You couldn't even put a team together out of one school.
Chuck Sullivan, (Steve Sanders Instructor) running the Inglewood school on LaBrea and Century with guys like John Henderson, emphasized hard nosed sparring. Tom Kelly, also at the Santa Monica School pushed the physicality of free sparring, producing young guns like Rick Carthew. There were others like Steve LaBounty, Ralph Castellanos, Brian Strain, etc and later came Bob White who set the gold standard for continued excellence and class out of his school in Costa Mesa.
The "Freestyle Formulas" were intended to infuse some of that material, but fell short with most choosing to teach a more simplistic approach, that was actually more in line with the idea and rules of open tournament competition.
In my teaching, I returned to the original goals of the concept, began reformulating them accordingly, and changed the name to something more appropriate to their application. They may be used limitedly for some sparring, but they encompass a more "street perspective" to the concept and contain elements that would not be allowed in competition.
Absolutely sir. I've been writing the SL-4 material since the seventies. Initially with Ed Parker's input and guidance. It is VERY time consuming and difficult, and clearly there is much that cannot be written down persé, but exist within the frame work of the material to be deciphered by knowledgeable students. Mr. Parker recognized the difficulty but was also committed to the expansion process of his other material. I took the notes and kept them.
Thus, the inflexibility of techniques which I designed from the ground up to contain all that is necessary to be functional, even with minor variances in attacks. Long term results, function, and an archiving of the information are the paramount goals, over quick skills that dissipate just as quickly.
Oddly enough, it doesn't take any longer to learn for a dedicated student, but requires a higher level of instruction. This why expansion has always been difficult for us. We don't care about the money or size of the group, over and above the preservation of the high standards of the art out of respect to Mr. Parker. But few are qualified to teach the material, and we do not assimilate ranks or experience. Everyone starts from, and are taught from the beginning with an evaluation of basic skills and an understanding of the proper methodologies for long term success, and the maintenance of the information. Mr. Parker is the progenitor and was a genius. We like to think the method, along with the information we teach proves he was smarter than most know.
