Sacramento Martial Arts

Camp Kenpo 2007

The event was a blast!

This event was attended by a lot of people who Tara had trained with coming up and she was pleased to have her old peeps meet her new.

Tara and I went up and brought my husband (purple belt) and our student Chris (also a purple belt and posts on this forum) and I was quite proud that they made us look so good.

Scott put on a really fun event.

We saw Bob White, who taught sparring. He's a terrific guy and a great instructor. This is the second time I've seen him and he was a lot of fun. We worked on guaging distances, the importance of turning the supporting leg on several kicks and a lot more.

Frank Trejo taught us some wonderful lockflow drills. Tara and I were putting each other in, then getting out of quite a few locks. Frank was in fine form and was showing us all sorts of cool stuff. We will be doing that lockflow stuff in class tomorrow night, I'm sure.

I met Huk Planas for the first time. We worked on Flashing Wings primarily. We discussed the importance of moving past the target to be in position for the next strike and he also talked about how lots of people in kenpo don't have good basics and how everything is just basics. So now he goes around teaching basics.

In Scott Halsey's seminar, we did a giant, rotating technique line. Tons of fun. It's great to do it with all black belts so we don't have to spend any time explaining techniques. We just whip, bang, smacked our way through.

Ed Planas did a seminar on sticks. It was fun. Tara and I would've enjoyed it more, but it was the last seminar on the last day and we hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. I'd like to say it was because of all the fun and merriment we had, but mostly it was because SOMEONE in our cabin snored like a buzzsaw ALL NIGHT LONG. I'm not going to name names because Chris knows who he is.

We did enjoy making references to our lack of sleep for the entire day on Sunday. Chris now enjoys a unique sort of reputation. One of our cabin-mates took his mattress and went to go sleep in his car. He probably got a lot better sleep than the rest of us did.

On Saturday night, Huk and Frank played the guitar and several of us sang. That was fun, but I'm a bit hoarse today.

I was also in somewhat fine form giving out rations of razzing to anyone in my vicinity. All in good fun and people gave it back just as readily. My kind of good time.

I'm sure Tara will have further input.

--Amy

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Sacramento Martial Arts

We've had an eventful time recently. We started seven new students this month. Our four siblings came back in our kids' class (Anaela, Jasmine, Ariel and Frankie!! Good to have you guys back!!) We also had Angelica in the kids' class and her dad Kevin in the adult's class. We also were glad to have Kaitlyn in our adult's class.

We'd like to take a moment to congratulate Misha on earning her yellow belt last Thursday. A job well done- keep up the good work!! Her sister Jacci also received her yellow belt the following class. Both have improved tremendously since their new rank was strapped on. We're very pleased with their progress.

I went to a seminar in Fresno with Lee Wedlake on Saturday and we worked all the weapons techniques for about 6 hours. It was a tremendous and amazing event. He said it was just his job, but that doesn't make me any less grateful for the information. I learned a ridiculous amount of material. He will be coming back in December in Fresno to teach us the inside and outside of form six. Tara will be going with me next time and Chris has also expressed an interest in attending.

Eugene is doing a great job getting ready for his third brown test. Trish has been hitting harder and getting more proficient as time goes on. I'm also pleased that Aaron is getting such a good grasp of the material. He and Bryan love to smack each other!

Our 'other' Arin tested and was awarded his yellow belt recently as well and he's doing a great job understanding the material and relaxing in the face of an imminent attack.

In the kids' class, Jadon did a great job last night reacting appropriately and giving his best. Good Job Jadon!

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Sacramento Kenpo Karate

Congratulations to Connor, Jadon and Jessica

Last Thursday, Jadon, Jessica and Connor earned their sparring stripes for orange belt. We run a system of 5 stripes per belt level for the children's belt levels including stripes for techniques, basics, kata, sets and sparring. This is another step towards orange belt for each of them and we are very proud of their progress.

In addition, Jessica earned her first green academic achievement/upstanding behavior stripe- these stripes go on the other tip of the belt- apart from the main 5 and can be earned for having good grades or for improved behavior or focus in class or for just going above and beyond. This was the case for Jessica- she went above and beyond to help Jadon learn to spar better on Thursday night. It was so neat to see the oldest in our kid's class taking time out to help out our youngest student. She encouraged him, gave him pointers and even left herself open sometimes so that he could gain some confidence in closing in and hitting a target on a larger opponent. Well done Jessica and great work and progress by all!!

Keep up the good work kids!! :)

Tara :)

P.S. We also had a great visit from a black belt, Richard, who worked out with us Monday night. We're hoping he'll come back and work out with us again.

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Sacramento Martial Arts

Many Changes!!

Tara and I are both back from vacation and are in training mode! We've upped the class workouts to make sure everyone is getting a good sweat going.

We have several 'new' students. Jacci and Misha are sisters who came from Kovar's and have been doing a great job. They are getting used to the contact that we make in our classes, but they're hanging in like troopers.

We also have a new student, Arin, who has joined us and we're glad to have him.

Trish, Aaron and Chris all got their purple belts and we're very proud of them and their progress.

We went to Mr. Speakman's camp in Vegas in June and I got hurt pretty badly. That happened at the end of June and my hip is still not back to where it was. After returning from the camp and after much discussion, Tara and I decided that the 5.0 curriculum wasn't right for us, so we withdrew our charter.

We are working with a number of kenpo seniors who have graciously given us some of their time. Tara and I will be going to a kenpo camp in Whiskeytown in the middle of Sept., where we expect to be energized and bombarded with kenpo information. Huk Planas will be there, along with a number of other kenpo greats.

We have recently had two brown belts from a local Tracy school come to visit us. We hope they like what they see and decide to stay.

Oh, and the Kenpo Continuum book is coming along nicely. The deadline is extended until the end of August. Please get your submissions in as soon as possible!

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Kenpo Continuum

'KENPO CONTINUUM'

The Goal:

To create a book which validates some of the many kenpo practitioners who have done so much for our art.

Why It's Needed:

Kenpo karate is a huge tree with many branches. The kenpo system has split into many different facets over the years, especially since the death of Ed Parker Sr.

Unfortunately, this split has caused huge rifts in the kenpo community. People are encouraged to be separate from their kenpo cousins because of technique differences, lineage differences or because one of the instructors doesn't like the other. It's nuts.

The other thing I've noticed is that all of us have had a unique kenpo experience. We came in for different reasons, have taken breaks for different reasons and have changed instructors for different reasons. (Or didn't change and didn't take breaks.) The point is that we all have a story to tell.

Also, for those of us who have been in kenpo for quite some time, we have all done something to further the art, be it teaching classes, opening schools, doing seminars, writing books, making videos and more. I believe those stories need to be told and in doing so, I believe it will bring us all a little closer.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of 'promoting' yourself and your actions, think instead about promoting where you've come from. Tell about how kenpo has changed your life, what it has meant to you and how much you have learned from your instructor(s). People often forget to tell those close to them how important they are; this is an opportunity to do just that.

The Journey book was a great idea. It talked about the personal journey of 24 different martial artists. That's a great thing. However, there are more than 24 kenpoists worthy of mention. And also, for those who WERE mentioned, their journey continues.

Some of those who I am personally aware of have been specially invited to share their story. Unfortunately, I don't know them all. I don't know who has trained with whom, for how long, the seminars they taught, or the many lives they touched. That's the story for you all to tell.

I also don't know that much about the other branches of kenpo. I'd like to have some people talk about their experiences with the AKKI and the IKCA, as well as SamPai kenpo, Hawaiian, Tracy and the other groups who are all under the Kenpo flag.

If you don't feel comfortable doing it just for yourself, think about doing it for your school, your instructor and to give honor and validation to your lineage. I'll have a page up of sample questions for you to answer and there will be space for one picture of yourself (or it can be of you and your instructor.)

If you refer 5 people to be in the book, (and they decide to participate), then your listing will be free. Some of you at your school may decide to all participate in order to put in a listing for your instructor as your gift. I think that is a great sign of respect.

Qualifications:

To qualify for participation, you need to have achieved the rank of black belt and need to have been in kenpo for at least 10 years. (If it's really close to 10, we allow for some fudge room.)

The Particulars:

Each person who chooses to participate, will have one page of 8.5 x 11, Arial Narrow 12pt., single-spaced type to tell their story. *A little less if you want to include a picture. In that space, you can tell of your kenpo experience.

There will be some general guidelines for ideas of what to write and if you are not confident in your writing abilities, I'll be happy to help you out.

The cost for participation is $50 (unless otherwise noted for specific people). With this, you get 2 copies of the book and you get to have a full page to tell your story. This price is for the first issue only, so please take this opportunity to get in on this great book.

If you're interested in some information about this book, please fill out the form below and you'll be notified as things progress. Filling out the form creates no obligation on your part. It's just for information.

If you received an email about it already and are not at all interested, please hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email. I'd like to keep track of how many people are interested so I know when to proceed.

If you see the value of this project, please pass along the information to any kenpo black belts you know. The more we can have in the book, the stronger the statement of unity will be.

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Sacramento Martial Arts

Last class, we had several promotions. Jadon and Jacob promoted to yellow, which we were all pleased about and Chris B and Jonah received stripes for learning their material.

We had some potential new students come and visit and we look forward to their return next week.

We've been working on our flow drills, as well as learning Thundering Hammers with Jacci and Misha. As always, our class is fun and we have a great time. There are always new kenpo things to learn. :)

--Amy and Tara

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Sacramento Kenpo Karate

We've had a lot going on at the school in the last couple of months.

In the kids' class, Jessica, Noah, and Connor were all promoted to yellow belt and everybody has received stripes. We have two new students, Chris B. and Jonah. Both are doing very well.

In the adult's class, last night, Aaron was promoted to purple belt. We are all very proud of him. Tricia will be looking to promote soon as well. Bryan has been absent for all of March, but he will be back this month and Robert is still deciding about his training plan.

We have two new teenage students, Misha and Jacci in the adult's class too. They are transfer students from another school that closed nearby. They are great fun to have in class and we are enjoying them immensely. They are also making very good progress in changing over to an all-kenpo curriculum.

Mr. Speakman came for a visit in March and Tara and I got tuned up on our 5.0 material. We are currently finishing up the blue belt material and have started on green. Most of it is the same as we already knew, so we just have 4 new ones to go and we can move to brown.

We enjoyed working out with Cremer's martial arts when Mr. Speakman came and Tara and I travelled down with Mr. Speakman to Dr. Porter's Academy in Santa Rosa to go to another seminar there. We learned a ton. The ground fighting is new to us and is challenging, but we're all having a great time with it.

Robert and I visited another karate school in the area for a workout. We're trying to keep all communication lines open with other schools so we can collaborate on seminars and exchange knowledge. Robert and I had a lot of fun.

We are looking forward to the camp in June in Vegas, where we hope to learn a lot of the new material and get more comfortable with the ground fighting and the knife work.

And we look forward to more promotions this month in the kids' class, as well as in the adult class.

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style of martial arts, created by Ed Parker, designed to promote good self-esteem, confidence, self-reliance, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. If you want to learn the ultimate in self defense, we teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.    

Kenpo Kenpo Kenpo

We've had so much change over the last couple of months. We had a new student, Bryan, start in December. He has considerable prior training and we have really enjoyed having him in class.

Mr. Speakman came to town in the beginning of January and did all sorts of training with us on the new 5.0 material. Our students went up to the Folsom school for the class, but worked out at our school before and after.

We reviewed the six new 5.0 purple belt techniques and had a great time. It has been great to finally get the new 5.0 dvds so we can start reviewing and learning the new techniques.

Tara, unfortunately for us, but good for her, was visiting family in Canada for several weeks, but is back now (that's good for us).

Last night, we had a new student who will hopefully be joining our school. His name is Ed and he just moved here from Colorado. He is a black belt under the Sepulveda line and we had a great time working out with him.

We also worked on some new drills called 'counterpoint'. This is a progressive system and we're looking forwarding to usig the drill to enhance our existing knowledge.

Things are looking great at the school. We've been missing Josh, whose school schedule changed, but I've been working out with him on the weekends, so at least he's keeping up on things and I always enjoy seeing him.

I'm going to be heading to Florida in a week for a karate camp and to Lake Arrowhead the following weekend to train at the Speakman school down there and become more versed in the 5.0 material.

All is looking well.

--Amy

American Kenpo Karate is a hard/soft style designed to promote good self-esteem, excellent defensive skills and is a lot of fun. We teach Kenpo Karate in Rancho Cordova at Mather Sports Facility.