Healthy Lifestyle Blog

I was never one to bother with how to create safety, security in the home and neighborhood because I lived rather comfortably. When the woman I treasured more than anyone was placed in deadly peril, I made a turnaround.

The entire time I was single was spent in one and the same residence, highly fortified and cloistered in an upscale district. My marriage to Kate instantly had me mounting a surveillance camera system in our newly acquired property not far from our offices.

By then, I had begun to take a little more interest in learning how to create safety, security in the home and neighborhood. I had our property outfitted with a wireless security alarm, entry and driveway alarms.

We encountered a guy who appeared to have lost his bearings while we moseyed on around the area after dark. He countered our attempt to help by pointing a gun at us, wanting anything of value that we carried.

I motioned assent to Kate even when we now owned a stun gun and personal safety alarm as our first moves in knowing how to create safety, security in the home and neighborhood. That we were one body stronger than the man did not matter to me.

We surrendered all our valuables and I pleaded that we be let off. Instead, the guy grabbed Kate and ordered me to take him to my car and drive him past the area’s entrance security.

Everything I had gathered about how to create safety, security in the home and neighborhood up to this point told me that this man was going to ransack our place and then probably kill us.

I summoned up the bravery to take my stun gun out for fear of putting my spouse at death’s door. Surprisingly, Kate aimed a pepper spray at him, too, and we debilitated the attacker. Afterwards, I had a change of heart about disregarding protection.

You can make your system of Chinese Karate into Power Kenpo fairly easily. Of course, you’re going to have to take a stand against the old school boys, but this isn’t always bad. In fact, if you do make your martial art into a Power Kenpo system, you will be following the footsteps of Ed Parker more closely than the old school boys.

The concept of Power in the Fist Law art is something I made up many decades ago. It actually grew from an incident in 1968 in which I asked my instructor to take a look at a kata I had been polishing. My instructor stepped on to the mat and I took a position and started moving.

The form was actually out of a series of books on Japanese Karate, and it is called Heian Five. It is a strong form, with solid stance and large, significant movements. As such, it seems to stand opposed to the fast whirling arms of Parker theory.

When I ended the kata my instructor observed, “Yes, definitely a Japanese form.” He didn’t say much more, and I had the feeling that there was an opinion he wasn’t voicing. Many decades later, I understand why, he was trying to teach me one thing, and I was working in a completely different direction.

To be honest, Chinese Karate does not fit well with classical Shotokan Karate. Kenpo, as I have intimated, relies on fast hands and circling motions. Shotokan holds a disdain for subterfuge, and preaches the power of a strong stance, facing your enemy squarely, and attacking in a linear manner.

Each system has its strengths, and its weaknesses, but they don’t fit together. It is difficult even to shift from one art to another in the middle of combat. The funny thing about all this is that original Parker system was built upon the Heian forms of classical Karate.

Most people blink when I say such a thing, but it is true. If you can find a copy of one of Ed Parker’s first books you will find that it is nothing more than a sequence of the applications of the Heian forms. Indeed, if you link the applications in his book, you are actually doing the Heians.

In conclusion, now you understand what I mean when I remarked about Power Kenpo and being true to the footsteps of Ed Parker. The fact is that true and dedicated martial artists should study as many systems as they can. The truth of the matter is that if you want power in your art, or accelerated weapons, or better kicks, then study a separate system that has what you want, and let the power of that other art bleed back to your art, and that is how you will have Power Kenpo.