Kenpo Contraversy

[Michael Billings]

An interesting thread on the similarities of Kenpo to the Chinese Traditional Internal Arts has sprang up:

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=101916#post101916

We had a similar thread on this forum a few months ago, but this is much more detailed and interesting to me.

Do you think any of the Kenpo variants: EPAK, Tracy, Chinese, Kosho-Ryu, Flowing Hands, etc., are similar to any of the internal arts?

My basic premise is that they are not, except in the most abstract way, i.e. the body can "only" move in so many ways. I will cede that a punch is a punch, a block is a block, but is the premises, fundamentals, or teaching paradigm anywhere close to the same?

Oss,
-Michael
Kenpo-Texas.com

 

[Matt Stone]

In a related story...

When I was in Japan training with RyuShiKan, I was flatly amazed that while doing nothing but his RyuTe Karate (formerly referred to as Ryukyu Kempo prior to the Dillman Debacle), what he was doing (i.e. the way he was moving, the positions he was in, the applications of different techniques, etc.) was nearly identical to many of the things I had done in Xingyi, Taiji, Bagua and Yili.

Go figure.

These things were similar from both the standpoint that the body can only move in a finite number of ways as well as the conceptual particulars behind the techniques.

I would not go so far as to say that two (or more) arts that are superficially considerably different could not, in fact, be far more closely related than they appear to be. However, those similarities would need to be identified to convince most folks of the relationships perceived.

Gambarimasu.
:asian: :tank: :asian:

 

[Goldendragon7]

Origin.posted by Michael Billings
On the similarities of Kenpo to the Chinese Traditional Internal Arts; Do you think any of the Kenpo variants: EPAK, Tracy, Chinese Kenpo, Kosho-Ryu, Flowing Hands, etc., are similar to any of the internal arts? -Michael

When studying the human anatomy and specifically "kinesiology", you will find the human body has the potential for a wide variety of movement. When relating this to the Martial Arts, you will find a great number of similarities between a majority of them.

Differences seem to be more centralized or focused on differing training methods and philosophies.
Of course, basics are the most duplicated then the exact arrangement of those basics and exactly how to apply them (amount of force per a specific movement, path of action, exact weapon formation or surface, etc.) will become a "hot" topic of discussion as we already are aware of.

:asian: