Home Study Course: YEL-3rd BLK

[rockpj]

In the past I've had the opportunity of training with some intense American Kenpo black belts (LaTourrette, Christopher, Shelstad) in the Colorado Springs-Pueblo area. The material learned appeared to be a mixture of Parker / Tracy systems; however, the art of American Kenpo comes easy to me and each form or technique is gratifying to learn or perform. 2 1/2 years ago I began training again and currently reviewing past belts and teaching myself 2nd black. I truly enjoy training several times a week once I discovered the Home Study Course provided by the Lamkin?s. Very detailed, very good instruction and I don't feel as though I'm training alone! My thanks to the Lamkin's.

[administrator]

Thank you for the compliments.

Kevin Lamkin

[Kenpo19426]

How will I know when to move to the kicks dvd's? I have started the Techniques Volume 1. Will I be instructed when to move to Kicks or will I learn the basics of the techniques first?

[Tombo]

I think you raise a good question there Kenpo19426. I already have a black belt in Kenpo a version that is a modified mixture of Tracy/Parker which kind of had me take a different approach. I think your question is great because someone who has no experience may feel a bit lost as there isn't a lot of focus on Basics, aside from the Kicks DVD. They wouldn't know if they could jump right into techniques/forms/sets of yellow or should they be working on basics etc..

I do think however, that if you use the Library of Kenpo Manuals in conjunction with the videos you can pick up the basics. The Manuals list all of the basics used in each technique then you can watch them and see/hear each basic being used in the technique which also puts that basic in a usable perspective for you. Also the belt requirement sheets list the basics you should know that level as well, so you can watch the techniques/forms/sets to be sure you see how they are done and pick them up. I admit that part is a bit kludgy for a beginner and it would be great for a beginner to have a companion DVD (like the kicks) that demonstrate all handstrikes, stances, blocks and variations. Heck it would also be good for people from other systems because what one system calls a roundhouse kick could be different for yet another. So such a video would put it all into perspective.

All that said, it doesn't answer when you should move to the kicks DVD. The kicks are basics and they progressively get harder and harder. So of all basics to be put on video I would have to agree that these would be the most important to get on video. You can never have enough practice with basics. So I would jump into it right away and jump into it often. Use those kicks as a part of every training session to warm up with and get your blood flowing. Make sure at the very least you work on the kicks for whatever belt level you are working on. If you feel you are ready to pick up another kick do so but don't jump ahead and forget the basic kicks. Sure a front kick might seem boring after doing it a thousand times, but as Bruce Lee is quoted as saying "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

As for my approach I started with comparing the requirements between my system and the original Parker system. Especially when it comes to where the forms are. Techniques were a bit harder because our system has techniques using the Tracy names and others using the Parker names yet may not be Tracy or Parker specific techniques. (The Tracy vs Parker videos are a good help here though, I recommend them if you have a bit of both under your belt). Then I watched the Rapid Review Forms & Sets DVD so that I could see what differences and similarities there were between what I was doing and what was traditional. From there I kind of settled on a two-fold approach.

1. I had someone in my class who was willing to work with me and to study the Parker curriculum with me, but she got a bit tied up preparing for her 2nd degree black belt test (which she will be finishing up over the next couple weeks). With that advantage we started working on Yellow Belt together.

2. At the same time, I started jumping around in the Parker system based on what I was working on at my class at the same time. For example, if we were working on Long 4, I'd start working on the Parker Long 4 as well. The logic behind this was I was reviewing what I already new and treated the differences as a mere variation.

For example our technique for a right arm headlock from the left flank is slightly different than Grip of Death on the Orange Belt sheet in that we add a knee strike to the attacker's leg at the end. Also we do not have the extended version which is on the 1 kyu brown sheet. Yet from another perspective we only teach Snapping Twig to advanced students and it is identical the the extended version of Snapping Twig on the 1st Black sheet. We don't have the short version that is on the Purple sheet. I just remember to stop snapping twig early for Parker Purple, and I consider Grip of Death to be two variations of our Side Headlock technique. The first without the kneee and the second as an advanced version without the knee as well.

I hope that helps.

[administrator]

QUOTE]How will I know when to move to the kicks dvd's?[/QUOTE]

The belt requirements sheets that are in our downloads section, provides what is required for each belt. Follow those. Always try to learn and train the basics, forms and sets are early as possible while learning the material for each belt. While we greade each test, it really shows who put time into the basics.

Each techique that introduces a new basic, teaches that basic in teh Home Study Course. The course was designed to 1) follow the Libary of Kenpo Manuals, and 2) to give you the proper basic at the proer time. Training basics out of sequence introduces bad habits and mistakes. When it come to kicks, training advanced out of sequence can easliy lead to injury. Follow the numerical order in the technique requirement sheets for all categories of basics, techniques, forms and sets.

Kevin Lamkin