For many sir, the lines between martial training for practicality, and for art/fun are blurred. Artistically the study of weapons can be a fascinating pursuit where practitioners play out fantasies of defending themselves against “ninja warriors,” and experts in blade arts ad nausea. This for those in some of the Ed Parker Lineage is very much contrary to his teachings.
The absence of any significant writing on the application of any weapons should be a major clue to his feelings on the subject. Either Parker didnÂ’t feel it was needed in the general curriculum, or he was keeping it a secret, or perhaps he planned to introduce it later. The truth is somewhat ambiguous in that he felt differently at different times albeit for different reasons, none related to self-defense applications.
In the beginning, he believed weapons training in America were unnecessary, with the exception of self-defense techniques for the occasional weapons based assault. This is documented historically in what he taught when he first arrived on the mainland, bringing the Chow influenced perspective which too, was also devoid of weapons.
As time went on and tournament competition grew, students found the traditionalist dominating the newly formed “weapons kata” divisions, and “kenpo stylists” experiencing increasing frustration also from being forced to compete in either “hard” or “soft” divisions, fitting in neither there as well.
These complaints reached Parker who instituted the “medium” (or Kenpo/Kajukenbo) division between the hard and soft forms divisions at his International Karate Championships, with other tournament promoters across the country following suit of the progenitor tournament promoter. After all, Kenpo stylists considered this “their” tournament.
When similar complaints regarding weapons reached Mr. Parker, he responded by starting work on a series of “club sets.” I watched him work on holding the weapons in various configurations in either and both hands and took notes. The “Knife Set” was already in existence at this time as Parker experimented with what he felt was the only modern street weapon other than a firearm. I was given the terminology and a brief demonstration of the terms, and told to “… don’t worry about it cause you won’t need it.”
Ultimately Parker decided against the general dissemination of any of this information and produced no writings on either subject. The only written work on weapons is Mr. Parker’s rare “Nunchaku Book.” This was produced during the Bruce Lee Kung Fu movie craze where he (Lee), introduced the weapon to the public and Parker using his good business sense, responded once again to the pressure of the students and created an almost lost “Nunchaku Set.” By the time the book was finished many states, including California where we lived, had made mere possession of them, a felony.
From a practical standpoint, Parker knew weapons training did not fit his philosophy for his Evolving American Kenpo (sans karate), but it was very lucrative and fit well his “Ed Parker Kenpo Karate” business model with its many extensions, and multiple versions of each set and ever more complex forms based on motion.
As a side note “Form 6” is a weapons disarm form, but Mr. Parker never generally taught any of the principles that would make the form functional on any level. I myself commented on the first move that had your hand sliding “under the blade” to get to the other side for a seize.
When we began research work on weapons attacks, he surmised that although there is a small amount of validity in the “study the weapon to understand how to defend against it” school of thought, it simply didn’t apply to his philosophy and the statistics bare him out.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics over the years has been very telling. Bludgeon assaults are not the “stick” type attacks associated with martial weapons, but instead are usually much heavier and unwieldy objects of various shapes, from ashtrays, Coke bottle, to wood 2X4’s. So much so that in SL-4 we were obliged to define a “storm” as a “bludgeon” rather than a light easily dexterous “stick,” which changes the dynamics of defense tremendously as Mr. Parker noted.
As for blade attacks, other than the “movie overhead stab” variety, other assaults of bladed weapons were statistically non-existent. Mr. Parker was right, but confused students by giving them what they asked for, leading them to surmise it had significant validity, and occupied a place in his personal philosophy. They didn’t.
Those who choose the “artistic path” are following a personal philosophy that they feel has validity. There is nothing wrong with that. For My Parker Lineage however, we have so much to learn in proper body mechanics, the idea of adding truly non-essential weapons without the proper foundation makes no sense. That, coupled with the unlikely attack by a hooded ninja at the supermarket, make this path impractical for the law enforcement, and professional students we attract.
As a 30-year street law enforcement agent/officer/deputy, I’ve been attacked once by a knife and never by a stick. “Who would have thunk it!”
