What do you think about Kajukenbo?

MJS

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Old Fat Kenpoka said:
Well, Mike:

I have never met a Kajukenbo guy who could not fight. I've met a few Kenpo and Kempo people who could not fight.

Back in the 70's and 80's, there was a Kajukenbo club in the East Bay called "Crazy Dragons". These guys would go to tournaments and fight hard. I lost more matches to these guys than I won. The Crazy Dragons were very aggressive and were pretty willing to throw down in the parking lot outside the tournament if they weren't happy with the way things went. I think they were Gaylord Method, but I'm not sure.

At my Kenpo school, everyone had weekly private lessons (like in the Tracy system). After I got my Black Belt, my instructor was a woman who had trained some Won Hop Kuen Do under Al Dacascos. She was a great Kenpoist and I think her Kaju training helped her quite a bit.

Also had the priviledge of training with a few Kajukenbo practioners who came through our school over the years.

Most recently, one of the guys who trained BJJ up here was a Won Hop Kuen Do Black Belt who used to run his own club up in the Northwest somewhere. He was about 6 inches taller than me, in his 20's, and trained BJJ, or kickboxing, running, weightlifting every day. And there I was...in my early/mid-40's, carry some extra weight, and only exercising 2 or 3 times a week. You can guess the result. :lol:

Thanks for the reply Alan! Its good to hear from some others that have had some exposure to the system.

Mike
 

47MartialMan

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So there are hardly any differences of Shaolin Kenpo, Kempo, Kenpo, other than spelling and lineage? Which seems that all are connected?
 

Old Fat Kenpoka

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47MartialMan said:
So there are hardly any differences of Shaolin Kenpo, Kempo, Kenpo, other than spelling and lineage? Which seems that all are connected?

Looking from the outside, the differences may not seem huge. Looking from the inside, the differences are huge.
 

DavidCC

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Old Fat Kenpoka said:
Looking from the outside, the differences may not seem huge. Looking from the inside, the differences are huge.
Yes, I would agree with that. I think many of the principles and ideas are similar, but how they are taught and learned can be very divergent.
 

Old Fat Kenpoka

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47MartialMan said:
So, they are connected somewhat?

All the systems descended from Chow have some similarities when compared with pure Chinese or pure JKO Karate styles. The similarities and differences are too much too detail here. I suggest you search MartialTalk and some other forums.
 

Danjo

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47MartialMan said:
So there are hardly any differences of Shaolin Kenpo, Kempo, Kenpo, other than spelling and lineage? Which seems that all are connected?
Not exactly connected in any direct sense. Shaolin KeNpo is from Castro who was a direct student of Prof. Chow. Shaolin KeMpo is from Villari (see my previous post.) Which is from Sijo Emperado. Now, Emperado was also a direct student of Prof. Chow, but went in a different direction than either Castro or Parker (who was ALSO a direct student of Prof. Chow). So they all go back to Chow, but then go in quite different directions after that.
 

The Kai

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Actually working with the different systems you can see some of the same techniques. Sometimes applied differently of different foot forward. But the difference can be hugh
 

Goldendragon7

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akja said:
SGM Castro is a Chow student, not a parker student.
Let's tell it like it was...... Sure in the later years he became a student of Chow's but early on.......... he was first a student of Ed Parker's, which is where he received his black belt before changing later.

:asian:
 

Danjo

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Goldendragon7 said:
Let's tell it like it was...... Sure in the later years he became a student of Chow's but early on.......... he was first a student of Ed Parker's, which is where he received his black belt before changing later.

:asian:
Good point. When you go that route, they are all connected. Parker got his 8th degree from Emperado. Cerio, who was Villari's instructor, was promoted to 9th by Parker etc. So there was a lot of cross ranking/recognition etc.
 

James Kovacich

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Goldendragon7 said:
Let's tell it like it was...... Sure in the later years he became a student of Chow's but early on.......... he was first a student of Ed Parker's, which is where he received his black belt before changing later.

:asian:
My bad. :asian:
 

Goldendragon7

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Danjo said:
Parker got his 8th degree from Emperado.
Not exactly. Ed Parker never asked for any "promotions or rank" from anyone. He did however receive many various "acknowledgements or rank resignations" from several different organizations and instructors.

Many of these he never mentioned for good reason. Many "bestowed" these ranks on him for his numerous accomplishments to the martial arts and to be able to show some sort of connection to him. He was more than happy to "stand alone" on his own accomplishments and innovations. He accepted most of these out or respect not out of need.

Today,there are those that can't wait to display all their different "ranks" and promotions that they have "collected" from anyone and everyone that would give them some sort of attention or acknowledgements.

Danjo said:
Cerio, who was Villari's instructor, was promoted to 9th by Parker etc.
No, he was give a cross-rank acknowledgement for the rank he already claimed he had. Parker never "promoted" him at all. He was supposed to join the IKKA and learn the material but this never happened, and after a short period of time the relationship ended.

:asian:
 

Danjo

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Goldendragon7 said:
Not exactly. Ed Parker never asked for any "promotions or rank" from anyone. He did however receive many various "acknowledgements or rank resignations" from several different organizations and instructors.

Many of these he never mentioned for good reason. Many "bestowed" these ranks on him for his numerous accomplishments to the martial arts and to be able to show some sort of connection to him. He was more than happy to "stand alone" on his own accomplishments and innovations. He accepted most of these out or respect not out of need.

Today,there are those that can't wait to display all their different "ranks" and promotions that they have "collected" from anyone and everyone that would give them some sort of attention or acknowledgements.


No, he was give a cross-rank acknowledgement for the rank he already claimed he had. Parker never "promoted" him at all. He was supposed to join the IKKA and learn the material but this never happened, and after a short period of time the relationship ended.

:asian:
Hmmmm. That's interesting because it goes against everything written abouit him and his promotions. Also, Cerio was not claiming the 9th until Parker gave it to him in their mutual art of "American Kenpo" according to the Cerio people. What's usually written is that Parker was promoted by Chow to 1st degree so that he could teach on the mainland. There is much speculation on whether his 3rd from Chow was real or forged due to the fact that Chow claimed he didn't talk to Parker after giving him a 1st degree black. The story then goes that Parker, in 1964, went from 3rd to 6th in a hotel room in Long Beach before the tournement because that would be the rank suitable for one hosting the tournement. His 8th has always been reported as having come from Emperado. Where he got the rest of his ranks I don't know. But if these facts are all wrong, by all means post the actual history here.
 

dsp921

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Danjo said:
Hmmmm. That's interesting because it goes against everything written abouit him and his promotions. Also, Cerio was not claiming the 9th until Parker gave it to him in their mutual art of "American Kenpo" according to the Cerio people.
Actually, the art is listed as "Kenpo Karate" on the certificate, not "American Kenpo". There was no claim to 9th prior to this promotion.
 

Danjo

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dsp921 said:
Actually, the art is listed as "Kenpo Karate" on the certificate, not "American Kenpo". There was no claim to 9th prior to this promotion.
Thanks for the correction.
 

dsp921

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Connected? Sure. Common lineage? Not really, there are points in the lineages that are common between two or more, but the entire lineage is not the same. And at each branch point in the family tree there were changes made, so the systems are very different.
 

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