What is Kenpo Good For?

Flying Crane

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i could always use a good laugh.

but seriously....
i find many things in kenpo that just are not for me. if others like the system great, but what i find interesting is the very reason i left kenpo was because to my eyes its methodologies did not match the science and logic of actual fighting but yet this is the rally cry and cheer i hear from kenpo guys on why kenpo is so great.
i often hear "well it depends on your instructor and the lineage" "our kenpo is not like those other systems of kenpo" but i see common traits that run though every version of the style. even the masters of kenpo exhibit these traits. to give the most common is the "dance of death" the endless combination of strikes and kicks to a non moving non responsive attacker. some may try to defend it and reason it out, they will find an argument in its favor. but it doesnt adhere to logic or fight science.

i will admit i have seen some youtube clips of kenpo that shows that kenpo has repurposed and reinvented itself and now looks like MMA. but if a style has abandoned its training methodologies and adopted the training of MMA then it makes it rather difficult to argue its still kenpo. it certainly would not be the art of Chow. Parker or Castro.
I have similar feelings, having trained in the Tracy lineage. May I ask in which lineage did you train?
 

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