thinking of kenpo now

[crysis]

let me start it off as im new. i live in the riverside area (near UCR) in california.

ive recently took an interest in martial arts at this point in my life. i'm 19, 5'6, 150lbs and play paintball on a national level.

i want a new hobby that i can use to get in shape. i tried working out but i am not very goal oriented as opposed to achievement driven. i figure the belt rankings are just the thing. also, i have checked out the schools around my area:

allens academy kenpo, jujitsu, and tai chi - not sure on pricing but if someone knows about this place let me know.
ata taekwondo: $65 for the first 6 weeks
shotokan: from my college
.. there is also brazillian jujitsu and kickboxing in the area, but i never took a fancy to wrestling/grappling....the kickboxing in this area is very female oriented.


anyway, i want to learn more about each of these. if you have any information, even close to realitive to this, post! information about average time between belts, belt system, techniques (linier to circular to whatever), belt tests, what to look for, what not to look for, ect ect.

i also have a buddy that now teaches/helps classes as a shorin-ryu black belt. he suggested taekwondo in the US is pretty watered down and not very effective. i'm not really looking for effectiveness so dont count it out.

mainly, i want to know what kenpo is as far as style. from what i read, its more of a chinese style boxing (??) or something. searching doesnst really help me since i have no clue what kenpo is about or what to look for. just make it easier on me and tell me what i need.


also if you know of any schools in my area write them down for me.

thanks and cheers,
Jon

 

[Drifter]

Kenpo is self defense oriented in general. If you want a workout, you will probably be able to get one. Look around and try them out for yourself. If it's something you just want to do, rather than get the self defense skill, it doesn't really matter what you do.

 

[crysis]

im a newb. what do you mean by self defense oriented....are you talking about eye gouging? groin stomping? gimme back my purse?

 

[dubljay]

im a newb. what do you mean by self defense oriented....are you talking about eye gouging? groin stomping? gimme back my purse?

You could say that. Generalizing kenpo is slightly difficult given the many branches there are. but basically they are based on the idea of self defense orientation. There are some eye gouges, groin stomping that sort of thing, but the focus is striking the opponen(s) and getting out of there. TKD in the states (generally speaking of course) is sport oriented, or more specifically geared towards tounaments and friendly competition. Kenpo is not, it is more for street/self defense application(in general terms ofcourse).

If you could find out what styles of kenpo are near by that would help define what to expect more.

-Josh

 

[crysis]

If you could find out what styles of kenpo are near by that would help define what to expect more.

-Josh

ill call in and find out. thanks!

 

[mj_lover]

from my personal experiance, tkd will give you a MUCH better workout then kenpo, although kenpo is much more practical. I can't tell you much about bjj or kickboxing though.

 

[crysis]

ok so ive had no prior martial arts training...hardly any knowledge of martial arts either... but i was walking around in my garage today and saw the red dangling thing from the garage door. in my head i thought i could so kick that. i did... heres a vid. keep in mind this thing is about as high as my head



(no martial arts training....only lots of jet li movies.)

http://www.shift-lock.net/jon/jonkick.AVI **right click and save as**

so what art would i work my way fastest through? .. im not really fit but would like to get there as well as get rid of fat. i seriously have very little muscle and cant run half a mile without stopping to walk... but i think i could work my way up.

 

[Blindside]

OK, biased recommendations coming up here.

1. Avoid the ATA taekwondo place like the plague, I've never seen one that wasn't crap.
2. Shotokan and kenpo completely depend on the instructor, being a kenpoist I would recommend it over most karate styles, but I'd take good karate over bad kenpo.
3. If a school is a Brazillian jiujitsu/kickboxing place, you might find the kickboxing alot more "real" than you seem to think. And if you go to this school you WILL get in shape or get your assed kick regularly. If you like competition, this may be the school for you.
4. If all you are worried about is a hobby to get into shape, and you don't really care how effective/useful it is, have you ever considered racquetball?

Lamont

 

[crysis]

OK, biased recommendations coming up here.

4. If all you are worried about is a hobby to get into shape, and you don't really care how effective/useful it is, have you ever considered racquetball?

Lamont

i play paintball on a national level (...well used to..but getting back in to it)

 

[Blindside]

I understand that, what I don't understand is your goals. They seem to be:

i want a new hobby that i can use to get in shape.

Cool, there are certainly worse reasons to get in martial arts.

i tried working out but i am not very goal oriented as opposed to achievement driven. i figure the belt rankings are just the thing.

Chasing rank is a very bad way to study martial arts, and I speak from experience.

i'm not really looking for effectiveness so dont count it out.

So you want to kick and punch (not grapple, you mentioned that) and don't really care if it would actually work.

Okey doke, it really doesn't matter then, in fact given these requirements you should look for the taebo/aerobic kickboxing classes. Those will get you in shape and I suspect the scenery will be alot better there. Maybe you can find one that awards belts.

Lamont

 

[crysis]

alrightg lemme clarify..

effectiveness is good....what i dont want is a class partially focused on groin punching, eye gouging ect. what i WANT is to be effective as far as striking goes. maybe work on boxing a bit...maybe work on kicking ect.

i wont be taking martial arts for the sole purpose of chasing belts, although i would like to progress quickly as i will be practicing 4+ sessions a week.

 

[evenflow1121]

alrightg lemme clarify..

what i WANT is to be effective as far as striking goes. maybe work on boxing a bit...maybe work on kicking ect.

Then go with kickboxing if this is all you want

 

[evenflow1121]

If you are interested in Kenpo, I learned the 24 technique system and it took about 4.5yrs to get shodan. But there are different styles of kenpo, there is the Parker System, there is tracy, there is shorinji, Kara-ho and a bunch of others.

I learned Ed Parkers and the belt system was white, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green, brown 3d, brown 2d, brown 1st, black belt. With 24 techniques in between each rank, except brown which has 72 in total because of the degrees and 10 at yellow belt.

 

[crysis]

it was suggested to me by a few people on MT so i wanted to learn a bit more about it.. kickboxing doesnt really appeal to me. as you said in another of my posts, if i dont stick with it its worthless.. i want something that i could see myself enjoying for years/a life time. raquetball, kickboxing (although very ..'scenic' wont do me anygood due to the fact that i'm already with the girl i want to marry) dont appeal to me. theres a BJJ class that offers muy thai as part of the curriculum i think ...but was never in to wrestling as said before.... honestly im putting my eggs towards either:

kenpo
shotokan
or taekwondo

...thing is the only classes of tkd i knwo of are ATA or a WTF form of tkd. from what i hear wtf is the more sport oriented one.

 

[Blindside]

what i dont want is a class partially focused on groin punching, eye gouging ect. what i WANT is to be effective as far as striking goes. maybe work on boxing a bit...maybe work on kicking ect.

Hmm, well that excludes most of the Parker lineage kenpo as well as kajukenbo.

I'd suggest that you take muay thai, but they don't use belts. Have fun in tae kwon do.

Lamont

 

[rmcrobertson]

Maybe try going to the shotokan at your college first; see if you're even interested in any martial art, and a college or a Y is a very traditional place to start.

As for kenpo, Larry Tatum and Frank Trejo are in Pasadena (American kenpo), Steve Hearring's in, what, Monrovia or something (Chinese kenpo); Bob White's down by the shore in Orange County....and the evil Clyde's in Riverside, but it drives to Mr. Tatum's, as I do. Point is, you should be able to find something.

I'd really start with what's at your own college, since that's going to be cheapest and most accessible--if you're a college student like I was, that's pretty important.

The other posts seemed right to me. Avoid TKD in California unless you have a really good reason to believe that the instructor's something special; kenpo's the best all-around art, but take any good teacher and good school over poor kenpo. I guarantee that there are as many gawdawful BJJ schools in SoCal as there are good ones, and I'd be particularly wary (as a rule; there are exceptions) about, "mixed arts," schools. I'd add that you just MIGHT be able to find somebody extraordinary teaching one of the traditional Chinese arts, like real t'ai chi, in the area--but that'll be tough, because SoCal is the Land of the Phony, and you may not be able to distinguish good and bad. Still, if you happen to find some park in the Riverside area with a buncha old Chinese folks who have a teacher and do t'ai chi....not at ALL a bad choice.

Personally, I first learned in a friend's back yard, then started groups up at Mr. Tatum's about 14 years ago. Black belt? seven years plus, just a dog watching TV the whole way.

 

[MJS]

it was suggested to me by a few people on MT so i wanted to learn a bit more about it.. kickboxing doesnt really appeal to me. as you said in another of my posts, if i dont stick with it its worthless.. i want something that i could see myself enjoying for years/a life time. raquetball, kickboxing (although very ..'scenic' wont do me anygood due to the fact that i'm already with the girl i want to marry) dont appeal to me. theres a BJJ class that offers muy thai as part of the curriculum i think ...but was never in to wrestling as said before.... honestly im putting my eggs towards either:

kenpo
shotokan
or taekwondo

...thing is the only classes of tkd i knwo of are ATA or a WTF form of tkd. from what i hear wtf is the more sport oriented one.

Seeing that you narrowed your choice down to these 3, I suggest you take a look at all 3. Go and watch a class or see if you can take a trial class. Make sure you ask questions of the students and the instructor at each school. Once you have taken a look at all 3, then you need to base your choice on what suits you best.

Mike

 

[crysis]

Seeing that you narrowed your choice down to these 3, I suggest you take a look at all 3. Go and watch a class or see if you can take a trial class. Make sure you ask questions of the students and the instructor at each school. Once you have taken a look at all 3, then you need to base your choice on what suits you best.

Mike

ive looked at tkd and shotokan. i have yet to find a kenpo class that isnt run down. dont really know what the forms look like. does anyone know of a jeet kun do class in riverside? i was interested in that for awhile but couldnt find a course to go to

 

[Pacificshore]

If I recall correctly in respect to Shotokan, I believe Ray Dalke is out that way. Was he the Shotokan club you looked into? From what I heard/was told, Dalke is one of the top Shotokan instructors around in SoCal.

 

[crysis]

no, actually the club at UCR is taught by several instructors but the main master is 7th dan edmond otis

others include
5th dan kevin warner
5th dan john rellias
and 4th dan Nathan Scarano