EPAK reunification
- Thread starter Old Fat Kenpoka
- Start date
Les
Brown Belt
Just because someone does a technique differently doesn't mean it's wrong.
The techniques should be tailored to the individual, not the other way round. I frequently teach techniques to different students in different ways, but the principles and concepts remain in place.
In my opinion, the only thing you can do 'wrong' in Kenpo is to do nothing. That'll get you hurt for sure.
Les
Brother John
Senior Master
I understand where you are coming from Mike, but there is one big presumption in what you are saying:
1: That what people do or do not argue about on this or any internet medium impacts me or my training in any way.
I wouldn't want to unify Kenpo so that everyone is doing the same thing the same way... just to keep people on the internet from bickering.
I see it as a liability because the diverse ways in which Kenpo has been and is evolving make everyone better. If you were to "Bring everyone together" doing the 'same thing'... who would decide on what that 'thing(s)' would be? To further appease you'd need to drop some very good work that many different people have created/innovated.
You could go with the concept of taking things back to exactly the way things were before Mr. Parker's death. But I'm afraid I agree with my brother Robert on this one... that's an idealistic fantasy. Even then no-one would be able to agree on HOW it was all done. The percieved unity of yesteryear is nice, I'd like to believe in it to... but I don't think it's realistic. PLUS: you'd again have to dump a LOT of very good things that have come about after Mr. Parker's death.
Mr. Parker's students were a fertile ground in which he planted his genious... but now those plants have evolved; even without the original gardener... and the garden is richer for those changes.
Though the gardener is dearly missed. (even he liked to grow things differently across the board.)
Just my thoughts.
Your Brother
John
OP
OP
Old Fat Kenpoka
Master Black Belt
Kenpo people are so frikkin serious!
I started this thread as a parody of the Kenpoists who recently left MartialTalk for another forum because they disagreed with or were offended by something somebody wrote. I was comparing that to the way Kenpoists fragment into associations.
Now, more than 10 years after it was perfectly clear that Kenpo would never have a single (or even a single dozen) organization, you guys are still hashing it out.
Knock it off! Lighten up! Have some fun! Go read posts in the Locker Room Forum!
I started this thread as a parody of the Kenpoists who recently left MartialTalk for another forum because they disagreed with or were offended by something somebody wrote. I was comparing that to the way Kenpoists fragment into associations.
Now, more than 10 years after it was perfectly clear that Kenpo would never have a single (or even a single dozen) organization, you guys are still hashing it out.
Knock it off! Lighten up! Have some fun! Go read posts in the Locker Room Forum!
Brother John
Senior Master
:rofl: 
R
rmcrobertson
Guest
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, duder.
Brother John
Senior Master
Care to elaborate?
In English???
Thanks
Your Brother (who never took Latin, but would like to... ya lucky Devil)
John
R
rmcrobertson
Guest
I never did either--I got it from a "Watchmen," comic--oddly enough, it impressed the living hell out of one of my grad school professors.
It's an old Roman remark--Juvenal, I believe--" who shall guard the guardians."
It's an old Roman remark--Juvenal, I believe--" who shall guard the guardians."
I realize that you cant expect a 4yo child, a 5'3, 105lb woman, and a 6'5, 225lb man to do the tech. the same. I'm talking about the different variations of the tech. I'm sure if you took Tatum, Palanzo, or any others, there is a good chance that they way they executed the tech. might be different.
What I was referring to one group saying, "Well, I'm in this org. and this is my Inst. and this is the way to do it. Anything else is wrong. If you dont do it this way, then you must not know what you're talking about." Come on Les, we have both seen alot of that in these forums.
Mike
Bro John, you're very correct in the above statements! Actually, considering I was one of the people on here that is always pushing for change and modification, I can't believe that I was actually sitting here, saying that there should be a more structured org!
I suppose the main things that people should be concerned about is that fact that there are many good people out there that are spreading Parkers art. Granted there are gonna be differences, but hey, at least we're all doing Kenpo, right!
Mike
E
Elfan
Guest
Rumor has it that the Watchmen is on a freshman reading list at Cornell.
R
rmcrobertson
Guest
I actually wouldn't mind if everybody in kenpo learned the same system, basically--or at least the same damn basics. Then maybe we wouldn't see some of the silly nonsense that even I've seen, in my limited attendance at tournaments.
Regrettably, I don't believe for a moment that unification of technique (and hey! if we did this, everybody'd have to learn the sets and forms decently! all right!) has much to do with these ideas about unifying kenpo. I think it's money, and power. Businessmen's associations. Folks muttering about passing legislation.
I repeat: I'm lucky, I gots me enough training (well, just enough), and I gots me my back yard.
But if kenpo is what Mr. Parker seems to've thought it was--a "martial science," a rationalization of all that goes on, sometimes more-haphazardly, in all the other arts--well, then kenpo is already unified. We just haven't noticed.
One way to test this: next time you see a technique that looks odd to you, or something that looks like a radical, pointless change in a form--including the repeated insistence that the forms are a waste of time--ask the practitioner WHY they're doing what they're doing.
If the answer boils down to, "Was I doing something different?" or, "Because that's what I was told," or, "Because this is what Mitose learned from his aunt," or, "Because if you're fighting eighteen guys on top of a bus in Hawaii, you need to be aware that taro root might be part of their diet," or, "Because an AK-47 can come with a folding stock," or, "Because boxers and judo people are better martial artists because they're more realistic," or, "Because the interstellar mediumistic rotatrional energeticism dictates the deployment of spinal energies in concomittant counterposition to the chi at Range 17 in this dialectic combat," or "WHO SAID YOU COULD QUESTION ME?" well then, they're messing with the unity of kenpo.
Regrettably, I don't believe for a moment that unification of technique (and hey! if we did this, everybody'd have to learn the sets and forms decently! all right!) has much to do with these ideas about unifying kenpo. I think it's money, and power. Businessmen's associations. Folks muttering about passing legislation.
I repeat: I'm lucky, I gots me enough training (well, just enough), and I gots me my back yard.
But if kenpo is what Mr. Parker seems to've thought it was--a "martial science," a rationalization of all that goes on, sometimes more-haphazardly, in all the other arts--well, then kenpo is already unified. We just haven't noticed.
One way to test this: next time you see a technique that looks odd to you, or something that looks like a radical, pointless change in a form--including the repeated insistence that the forms are a waste of time--ask the practitioner WHY they're doing what they're doing.
If the answer boils down to, "Was I doing something different?" or, "Because that's what I was told," or, "Because this is what Mitose learned from his aunt," or, "Because if you're fighting eighteen guys on top of a bus in Hawaii, you need to be aware that taro root might be part of their diet," or, "Because an AK-47 can come with a folding stock," or, "Because boxers and judo people are better martial artists because they're more realistic," or, "Because the interstellar mediumistic rotatrional energeticism dictates the deployment of spinal energies in concomittant counterposition to the chi at Range 17 in this dialectic combat," or "WHO SAID YOU COULD QUESTION ME?" well then, they're messing with the unity of kenpo.
Brother John
Senior Master
OK... that's pretty cool.
Thanks for sharing.
Your Bro.
John
Brother John
Senior Master
THAT is a profound thought.
Thanks for sharing it!
really makes you think.
Your Brother
John
Brother John
Senior Master
You're a good man Mike! Not just for agreeing with me (though there are brownie points in the mail fer'ya)... but for realizing and admitting that your prior statements contradicted what you've clung to for a while... that the outcome of the different chain's/branches of Kenpo is a Good thing. On more than one occassion I've had to take a step... or five... back and say "ooh; who said that load of poo? ....Oh, that was me?" and then go back and reasert some good sense into my posts. At least yours was grounded in an understandable sentiment!
I especially like your second parapraph here:
Right!
Keep the faith brother
Your Brother (who likes his crow served with a side of beans)
John
:asian:
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