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THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN KENPO

By Will Tracy

It might rightfully be said that American Kenpo sprang full grown from the head of Ed Parker, much like Athena sprang fully armored when Prometheus split the head of Zeus with a two man beetle at Lake Tritonis. At least Ed was pleased with this analogy when it was presented to him in 1990.

Ed Parker's martial arts training under Chow, his teaching of Kenpo and study of the Chinese systems, his education and his life experience all, like the wisdom of a swallowed Metis, grew in Ed until the past became too confining for his new gift to the world. Thus, in 1965, American Kenpo was born through the genius of the founder of the new style.

But Ed did not reveal this new system completely that early. He was still using the term Chinese Kenpo, which he would then change to Ed Parker Kenpo. He recognized that his students would not be able to assimilate all of his new knowledge and theories immediately, so he gradually introduced his new concepts and movements over the next several years -- "line upon line, precept upon precept... here a little, there a little," that he could "prove" his students "herewith."

Ed often spoke in parables and reminded others that even Jesus had said that you cannot put new wine in old bottles. Ed knew that the future of American Kenpo would not be with his existing students, because they would resist breaking their ties to the past, and most had gone beyond Kenpo to study Kung Fu, first under James Wing Woo, and then under Bruce Lee. And as a prophet of the new order, Ed Parker would rightfully foresee that most of his black belts and advanced students would either reject the new system, or forsake it after a few years. Ed felt no great bitterness towards this, because American Kenpo was not created to replace Ed Parker Kenpo. It was created as a way to advance to his standard of Ed Parker Kenpo. He knew that his students could not serve two masters. They would not learn a system that was designed to take them where they already were, and most would go on to other systems where they could continue to develop. They would either learn from the teacher of the new style, or cling to their anachronistic past.

What Ed eventually created as "American Kenpo" was like, and yet very much unlike, other Kenpo systems and his former style. American Kenpo's differences were those of style and theory, but most importantly, this new system was the stairway to Ed Parker Kenpo. This new system would have its critics, and while much of their criticism was valid, none could deny the genius of the man who was its father.

Critics who do not understand Kenpo often ask why Ed Parker did not release videos or films of him personally demonstrating his system.

There were several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Ed would have to have slow down so people could see his moves. Ed knew from experience that his students would mimic whatever they saw him do, and one thing Ed was not, he was not slow. But more importantly, Ed realized that no two people are alike and American Kenpo was to be tailored to the individual. After all, it was the individual who would advance through American Kenpo to where he met the standards of Ed Parker Kenpo.

There were also many different ways of doing a movement. Many of his black belts would find that the way Ed taught them was completely different from all the others. To put a technique on film or video would freeze the technique for all time. The video would become the way the Master did it, and the only way it should be done. The 5 foot, 98 pound woman would have to emulate the 6 foot, 220 pound Ed Parker. This would go against one of Ed's fundamental concepts, that he would teach correct principles, not individual movements that were static and rooted in the past, and let the individual govern himself. The way Ed moved was right for Ed, the way his students should move would not be the same. Thus, he taught American Kenpo differently to each person, and each way was right for the student. Just as Ed realized that there was only one Bruce Lee, or one Mohammed Ali, there would only be one Ed Parker. He did not want his students to mimic him, to become puppets. He wanted them to become great in their own right.

To this end, Ed designed American Kenpo as a method for teaching principles and not just as a way to teach techniques. Rather than teaching 32 techniques and an equal number of variations for each belt as he had done with the KKAA and early IKKA, Ed reduced the number of techniques to 24 and eliminated the variations and created the "extension". He also simplified each technique, teaching only the first part of the technique to the beginning student who could now concentrate on the principle of the movement. No longer would a student practice move after move, time after time, like a boxer using the same move time after time to perfect it. He would learn the "why" of the move and concentrate on that as he practiced the move.

When the student was prepared for brown belt and black belt he would learn the extensions and the advanced applications and theories of the moves. And when he was ready he would move into Ed Parker Kenpo.

Not only would the student to learn the "why" of the move, but by simplifying the techniques, American Kenpo could be tailored to the individual who would perfect it according his own physical size and athletic ability.

American Kenpo forms were taught with hidden meaning so only the perspicacious would see what was intended. The system was designed to lead the student through tangled and obscure paths, where the instructor could point out the meaning of each twist or turn. Then, when it all came together, the student--the Ed Parker Kenpo black belt--would emerge from the darkness into the light of new understanding. The black belt would only need to know about 100 applications of American Kenpo, as his understanding of the "why" of the movement would replace all of the "techniques" of other Kenpo systems.

This was in marked contrast to his original System of Kenpo, where a student was taught hundreds of "techniques" and hundreds of variations--over 400 for first degree black belt alone. This was the system Ed no longer wanted to teach. It was the old way, the past, and breaking from this past was the very reason for the existence of the new American Kenpo. But it saddened Ed that few students of his new style were able to compete successfully with the old system in tournaments. It would have been even more disappointing to Ed to see the dismal record of American Kenpo in the new Ultimate and Extreme Fighting forms.

Those who understand the "Parker principle" also understand why Ed never chose his successor to American Kenpo it was not his system. Ed Parker Kenpo was his system, while American Kenpo was his legacy to the world. He had taught correct principles, and like Alexander the Great, he would leave succession to those who were best qualified. In the decade before Ed's early death, he no longer taught. Rather he taught through his writings. He had seen the failure of American Kenpo, but it was not a failure of the system. Rather it was a failure of his American Kenpo black belts to teach the principles he established with American Kenpo. Some of these black belts left him to found their own organizations where they would teach their versions of American Kenpo, never realizing that they could never teach the principles that would bring a student to Ed Parker Kenpo. They took with them the techniques, but for the most part, they left his "correct principles" behind.

As with the untimely death of Alexander the Great, so to in the aftermath of Ed Parker's death, the American Kenpo empire has been divided. The IKKA has floundered due to defections, internal politics and divisiveness. Already American Kenpo is being interpreted and reinterpreted by Ed Parker's American Kenpo black belts. Yet as Ed told us just three months before he died, none of his black belts knew the meaning of the flower he showed them.

In death Ed Parker has become a legend, bigger than life. His black belts have scrambled to fill the void in the system he created for them. But American Kenpo was never really a system. It is the visible _expression of Ed Parker's philosophy. A philosophy which holds that correct principles replace style; a philosophy which allows the same move to be taught a myriad of ways with each way being the right way. Ed lamented, some three months before his death that he had awarded black belts, but none had earned the philosopher's cloak. None had learned to think for himself, or be innovative.

When we asked Ed about some of his ideas which seemed absurd, he laughed and told us he had purposefully taught and written absurdities as a test. But none of his other students had ever questioned him. He wanted each student to prove or disprove every concept. He wanted them to think for themselves. And he most certainly did not want them to become the puppet they had become. Had they understood his principles, they would have discovered that the absurd concepts were little more than stumbling blocks put in the way to prove them, and catapults to teach them to think for themselves. Ed often lamented that his students knew what to think, but they didn’t know how to think, and only a rare few would ever fully understand the completeness of Ed Parker Kenpo. For this reason Ed Parker did not create American Kenpo as a system, but as an idea, an idea that encompassed all of his teachings and styles, from his first students to his last. Some were apart and some were the whole of what he taught, but all, from the beginning to the last are American Kenpo.

"Like the whispering of Leuce from the leaves of the white poplar which grows near leath, few will hear the warning that to drink of that water will bring forgetfulness of what once was."

The Kenpo Patch

The Parker Patch was designed between 1959 and 1960 by one of Ed Parker’s Pasadena Students, dick Tercell, for the Kenpo Karate Association of America (KKAA). The curved outline, as well as the tiger, dragon and K, are all Tercell’s artwork. The compass circle and lettering are Ed Parker’s design. The outline of the patch was taken from a photograph of a Chinese temple which Tercell traced and made numerous drawings until the final from took place.

The emblem was used by the KKAA from 1960 to 1964 when Ed Parker resigned from that organization to head the International Kenpo Karate Association (IKKA). While Ed loved the design of the KKAA patch, he openly expressed bitterness over the 1961 "defection" when all of his black belts and many of his top students, including Dick Tercell, left him.

Tercell died in 1962 while unsuccessfully practicing a Kung Fu technique in which he hanged himself. His death was ruled a suicide.

Ed was a sharp businessman, but he confided to his closest students that his one big business mistake was in not paying Tercell for the design of the patch, so Ed could hold the exclusive copyright. All of Ed’s designs after 1961, were his own creations, for which he kept his original drawings.

While copyright law does not permit an exclusive copyright, except by the original author, the Kenpo karate patch on the home page is copyrighted by Will Tracy. The design is from the original hard plates given to him by Ed Parker in 1962. The design was reworked and altered by Mr. Tracy to correct numerous graphic errors. Mr. Tracy has granted a copyleft for the of the patch on americankenpo.com on the condition that acknowledgment of copyright be made here, and notice be given that his design may not be reproduced or used by any person without permission of Mr. Tracy.