Doc
Senior Master
Originally posted by pete
... you mention the "commercial art"... was there a point in the development of the Kenpo System that the system was changed in order to become more marketable? Is this the new system, or EPAK, as opposed to the old Chinese Kenpo system?
What Parker called "Chinese Kenpo" didn't really change, but circumstances caused him to split off a branch of a more commercial marketable product. This is Parker's latest and last version of his Kenpo Business.
That doesn't mean the Chinese Kenpo didn't continue to exist. In fact Parker continued to evolve his personal execution and teaching of the science until he passed, and it evolved along side and with different interpretations of his commercial arts as well. Don't confuse what Parker did with what he sold. That's why the "newbies" can't move like Parker or get the same effect. He didn't teach them his art, he taught them their art.
Different students learned different things at different times. Most evolved into the commercial art as a business oportunity to make a living. But many who were around before the "motion based" commercial kenpo was created still teach from that era.
All of the diverse Kenpo of Parker Lineage still exists in one form or another. So much so, the word "Kenpo" has become as generic as "karate." You never know what it is until you get on the floor.