Kenpo in central NJ?

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pknox

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I was wondering if anyone knew of an American Kenpo school in this area (I live in Edison). I have seen a "White Tiger Kempo" school in Edison, but I am not sure if they are Parker, Tracy, or tied to any American Kenpo lineage at all. I am especially interested in any schools that also teach any grappling and weaponry.

If anyone is knowledgeable in regards to White Tiger Kempo and their lineage, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well.
 
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pknox

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Yeah...and as usual, it didn't take long to digress into another topic! I took a lot of what was said with a grain of salt, but after visiting this guy's school, I definitely have some hesitation, and have decided to stay away. He seems to be one of those guys where if you ask him what he teaches, he tells you what you want to hear. Evidently, after black belt, you begin training in Parker Kenpo techniques. The instructor has no direct Parker lineage that I know of. Prior to that, it's basically TKD with some jujutsu thrown in, and a little bit of ground grappling. He only teaches once a week -- the rest of the time it's done by his instructional staff. None of that bothers me per se, but I was basically told that he does teach "Kenpo concepts" prior to Shodan -- when I asked for further elaboration, none of his black belts could articulate even one concept to me. That had me worried. Also, he does grappling at least one night a week -- unfortunately, it appears that he is teaching it out of a book or something (he has a Gracie Self-Defense cert on the wall, but no rank whatsoever in BJJ, yet claims to teach grappling derived from it), and many of the students have picked up some bad habits. Again, the black belts couldn't describe to me any core tenets (emphasis on establishing position was not even mentioned, for example). It may be a good school for some, but unfortunately, it's not for me. I'm going to stick on my current grappling track, and start studying BJJ proper as soon as my economic situation allows me to. I have actually found a gentleman about half an hour from me who is quite knowledgeable as well as reasonably priced. He is a BJJ brown under Royler, teaches just about all of his own classes, has a fantastic competition record, and is also a rather personable fellow. Perhaps one day I will be able to find a Kenpo school that I can use to enhance my personal grappling training.
 

arnisador

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I've been doing BJJ under an instructor who was brown but just made black after taking 2nd in Brazil. It's great stuff.
 
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pknox

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Originally posted by arnisador
I've been doing BJJ under an instructor who was brown but just made black after taking 2nd in Brazil. It's great stuff.

I agree. I've been exposed to it quite a bit while training freestyle grappling, but I've been wanting to study BJJ proper for quite a while. Unfortunately all of the instructors near me were either 50 or more miles away, and/or cost almost $200/month to train with (sometimes for only 2x week - that's what I get for living in the Northea$t)! On a teacher's salary, and with 4 kids, that's just not happening. The gentleman I spoke of (Mike Mrkulic in Montclair, NJ) has opened an academy closer to me, just got his brown a few months ago, and is charging a little over half that to train up to 4 days a week. Here's a link to his bio on his site:

http://www.mbjj.com/bio.html

He's still a purple in his picture on the site, but he received his brown belt on 5/29/03 from David Adiv (who is under Royler), which I confirmed. Currently I'm waiting on a teaching job in my district to come through (in the meantime, I'm working with an autistic child at an aftercare center -- very meaningful work, but unfortunately it is part time and doesn't pay well :() - as soon as the full-time job comes through, I'm there.
 

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