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My visit to Dr Chapéls studio in Los Angeles
By Dominic - 09-30-2010 11:25 AM
Originally Posted at: KenpoTalk
====================
Hello, this is a post about my visit to Dr Chapéls SubLevel Kenpo Studio in Los Angeles http://www.martialscienceuniversity.com/; but first a brief self introduction as I rarely post on Kenpotalk. My name is Dominic Jones and Im a 4th Black in American Kenpo Karate under Mr Kevin Mills of the British Kenpo Karate Union (BKKU). After emigrating from England to Japan 11 years ago I have continued to learn and teach Kenpo, having started with the BKKU in 1989. In Japan I usually train on Monday Tuesday and Friday for about 90mins each session adding up to a weekly training time of around 5 hours, plus a little bit of time surfing Kenpo/self defense sites.
As many of you are aware Dr Chapél frequently posts on Kenpotalk and also hosts his own section. Dr Chapél is a notorious Kenpo Instructor and is outspoken on a number of Kenpo topics so I was nervous about attending his classes even though in England I have been able to attend a few classes in SubLevel Kenpo taught by Mr Kevin Mills. Mr Mills is the European Director of SubLevel Kenpo in Europe. http://www.sl4europe.com/ and I am thankful for his instruction and introduction to Dr Chapél.
Anyways onto America, in Los Angeles I was lucky enough to do a lot of training in one week, summarized below:
Saturday
My training started at 3pm on Saturday with a four hour plus class followed by more Kenop lessons over dinner till around 2am.
Sunday
No lessons. Apart from long Kenpo conversations on the phone. Writing up notes.
Monday
A trip to see Mr Edmond Parker where we talked art, kenpo, TV commercials. Plus about his Kinetica training Kenpo for drunk uncle Bob. Very Cool. After that it was to LA to catch a movie and more Kenpo chats with Dr Chapél for a few hours, till late at night. Interestingly we tried to go to Jerrys in Westwood but it was closed.
Tuesday
On the Tuesday Lessons started at 7:30pm till around 11pm then dinner and more Kenpo talk till around 3am. Mr DeLollis and Mr Angell helped to instruct me.
Wednesday
On the Wednesday was movie night, more Kenpo talk and impromptu lessons in the car park of the Chinese restaurant that Mr Parker used to frequent. Followed by a trip to the bar that Mr Angell manages. Again it was a late night.
Thursday
On Thursday was another 3hr class where Mr Viera helped me. After class one of Dr Chapéls students, Dr Stone http://www.kinetics3.com/ gave me a half hour chiropractic adjustment, including the use of a cold laser. Wow! This was a life changing experience in an awesome way! I highly recommend Dr Stone.
Friday
No lessons. Writing up notes.
Saturday
Started at 3:30pm finished at 7:00pm with Mr DeLollis again helping to instruct me. Followed by great pizza til 9:30pm and a final Kenpo demo in a high crime area of Los Angeles complete with cop cars whizzing by with their blues lights and sirens. Very left field. Then it was time to say goodbye.
Sunday
Flew back to Japan in the morning. A tad tired but very happy.
In LA over the course of those 8 days including 14 hours of class time in the studio and probably another 20 hours talking about Kenpo with impromptu lessons. I was instructed on basics and worked up to SubLevel 3 Yellow Orange and Purple Techniques. Examples of some of these techniques can be found on the youtube site. http://www.youtube.com/user/rChapél
In my opinion Dr Chapél is a living national treasure [FONT="]人間国宝　[/FONT](ningen kokuhou) as they say in Japan. Dr Chapél appears to live, breathe, practice, teach, research, talk and write about Kenpo all day every day!! After just one week I was exhausted but happy. Dr Chapél's students are very talented martial artists, have a wealth of detailed Kenpo knowledge and are good people.
A reoccurring theme in all the lessons was to do moves precisely and then testing the structural integrity of your body to show how tiny variations in your body position could destroy your structural integrity. These tests or examples were informative and very cool. In the past Dr Chapél has posted some of them on the internet.
The classes had a disciplined feel to them. Lots of Sir, Yes Sir! However, it was great to see the instructors using sir to their students; a sign of mutual respect that I appreciated. For example:
Mr Jones Sir! Please execute that Inward Block again. This time to the correct angle. Sir, yes sir! was my learned response.
I also heard the command Again a lot ;-)
The classes also had a variable stress rhythm to them. Sometimes the stress was put on to the student to perform. Whilst at other times, especially using the background jazz, the students were relaxed and the focus of the class became less intense but still workmanlike.
I was treated very well by everyone; it is indeed a Kenpo family there similar to the BKKU back in England. When I left Dr Chapéls studio I said I felt that I was leaving home. They replied that I was.
All in all my visit to Dr Chapéls Martial Science University (MSU) in Los Angeles was fantastic. Fantastic people. Fantastic training and an absolute wealth of SubLevel Kenpo material to keep me going for a long while, at least until I can wrangle another trip to LA or to England. If you get the chance to train with Dr Chapél or his students I highly recommend it. You wont be disappointed but your brain will ache.
Thats it. Thank you to those who made it to the end of this rambling post
Cheers Dom Jones
PS. The below Gary Larson cartoon depicts how my brain felt after 5 minutes of each class.
Read More...
------------------------------------
KenpoTalk.com Post Bot - Kenpo Feed
By Dominic - 09-30-2010 11:25 AM
Originally Posted at: KenpoTalk
====================
Hello, this is a post about my visit to Dr Chapéls SubLevel Kenpo Studio in Los Angeles http://www.martialscienceuniversity.com/; but first a brief self introduction as I rarely post on Kenpotalk. My name is Dominic Jones and Im a 4th Black in American Kenpo Karate under Mr Kevin Mills of the British Kenpo Karate Union (BKKU). After emigrating from England to Japan 11 years ago I have continued to learn and teach Kenpo, having started with the BKKU in 1989. In Japan I usually train on Monday Tuesday and Friday for about 90mins each session adding up to a weekly training time of around 5 hours, plus a little bit of time surfing Kenpo/self defense sites.
As many of you are aware Dr Chapél frequently posts on Kenpotalk and also hosts his own section. Dr Chapél is a notorious Kenpo Instructor and is outspoken on a number of Kenpo topics so I was nervous about attending his classes even though in England I have been able to attend a few classes in SubLevel Kenpo taught by Mr Kevin Mills. Mr Mills is the European Director of SubLevel Kenpo in Europe. http://www.sl4europe.com/ and I am thankful for his instruction and introduction to Dr Chapél.
Anyways onto America, in Los Angeles I was lucky enough to do a lot of training in one week, summarized below:
Saturday
My training started at 3pm on Saturday with a four hour plus class followed by more Kenop lessons over dinner till around 2am.
Sunday
No lessons. Apart from long Kenpo conversations on the phone. Writing up notes.
Monday
A trip to see Mr Edmond Parker where we talked art, kenpo, TV commercials. Plus about his Kinetica training Kenpo for drunk uncle Bob. Very Cool. After that it was to LA to catch a movie and more Kenpo chats with Dr Chapél for a few hours, till late at night. Interestingly we tried to go to Jerrys in Westwood but it was closed.
Tuesday
On the Tuesday Lessons started at 7:30pm till around 11pm then dinner and more Kenpo talk till around 3am. Mr DeLollis and Mr Angell helped to instruct me.
Wednesday
On the Wednesday was movie night, more Kenpo talk and impromptu lessons in the car park of the Chinese restaurant that Mr Parker used to frequent. Followed by a trip to the bar that Mr Angell manages. Again it was a late night.
Thursday
On Thursday was another 3hr class where Mr Viera helped me. After class one of Dr Chapéls students, Dr Stone http://www.kinetics3.com/ gave me a half hour chiropractic adjustment, including the use of a cold laser. Wow! This was a life changing experience in an awesome way! I highly recommend Dr Stone.
Friday
No lessons. Writing up notes.
Saturday
Started at 3:30pm finished at 7:00pm with Mr DeLollis again helping to instruct me. Followed by great pizza til 9:30pm and a final Kenpo demo in a high crime area of Los Angeles complete with cop cars whizzing by with their blues lights and sirens. Very left field. Then it was time to say goodbye.
Sunday
Flew back to Japan in the morning. A tad tired but very happy.
In LA over the course of those 8 days including 14 hours of class time in the studio and probably another 20 hours talking about Kenpo with impromptu lessons. I was instructed on basics and worked up to SubLevel 3 Yellow Orange and Purple Techniques. Examples of some of these techniques can be found on the youtube site. http://www.youtube.com/user/rChapél
In my opinion Dr Chapél is a living national treasure [FONT="]人間国宝　[/FONT](ningen kokuhou) as they say in Japan. Dr Chapél appears to live, breathe, practice, teach, research, talk and write about Kenpo all day every day!! After just one week I was exhausted but happy. Dr Chapél's students are very talented martial artists, have a wealth of detailed Kenpo knowledge and are good people.
A reoccurring theme in all the lessons was to do moves precisely and then testing the structural integrity of your body to show how tiny variations in your body position could destroy your structural integrity. These tests or examples were informative and very cool. In the past Dr Chapél has posted some of them on the internet.
The classes had a disciplined feel to them. Lots of Sir, Yes Sir! However, it was great to see the instructors using sir to their students; a sign of mutual respect that I appreciated. For example:
Mr Jones Sir! Please execute that Inward Block again. This time to the correct angle. Sir, yes sir! was my learned response.
I also heard the command Again a lot ;-)
The classes also had a variable stress rhythm to them. Sometimes the stress was put on to the student to perform. Whilst at other times, especially using the background jazz, the students were relaxed and the focus of the class became less intense but still workmanlike.
I was treated very well by everyone; it is indeed a Kenpo family there similar to the BKKU back in England. When I left Dr Chapéls studio I said I felt that I was leaving home. They replied that I was.
All in all my visit to Dr Chapéls Martial Science University (MSU) in Los Angeles was fantastic. Fantastic people. Fantastic training and an absolute wealth of SubLevel Kenpo material to keep me going for a long while, at least until I can wrangle another trip to LA or to England. If you get the chance to train with Dr Chapél or his students I highly recommend it. You wont be disappointed but your brain will ache.
Thats it. Thank you to those who made it to the end of this rambling post
Cheers Dom Jones
PS. The below Gary Larson cartoon depicts how my brain felt after 5 minutes of each class.
Read More...
------------------------------------
KenpoTalk.com Post Bot - Kenpo Feed
