So my friend Matt thinks someone other than my students who have no choice would be interested in some of my thoughts and views concerning shaolin kempo…
To begin I will let you know something of myself: When I found my first Shaolin Kempo (sk) dojo I had earned a brown belt in judo, a yellow in kyokushin and an orange in shotokan. I fell in love with sk. It was a Villari school when I joined but before my first test in 1990 it had become MSDC. I had a great teacher who demanded perfection of her students constantly correcting the angle of the wrist, the position of the elbow…I appreciate her early instruction even more now. I have a great respect for this system that GM Villari created / put together, and it comes from years of shame due to the Villari bashing i have heard almost from the start, the lack of respect given the system stemming from his self promotion and a great deal of low standard in instruction and practice out there. I loved it and yet being an academic minded person I needed to know why the system sucked. In the end I found that the system is well developed and powerful in theory and practice and not very well elucidated in most circles. But it is crafted quite well, and the concepts to make it extremely effective are all there. So, I changed the way I studied, practiced, and taught sk. Then I met Shihan Ingargiola, a rare sk master who is open and excited about teaching sk, and really understands the system in depth. Now sk has exploded for me and my belief in it has been confirmed …’cause all that I thought could have been crap was in my imagination! Ok so enough blah blah.
My latest thoughts are around how many concepts are taught through one kata:
low / high fighting ; kick as you would walk; transfer your weight when you step down heel to toe with the strike landing as the toes settle and the front knee bends to drop the wieght into the strike; pull (or push) while sweeping; protect your head while you turn; drop your wieght when recieving a blow that travels horizontally;offensive-defensive pivoting on your axis / cat stance; using multple strikes to keep an opponent from rooting ; hiding while you strike; trapping. these are the things that will teach us the how of making all our techniques work and brings the why they work more to light. To teach this form i must be conscious that i am teaching the person how to fight with sk and not just some new movements otherwise i am stealing thier money, no?
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Hey Marlon, where are you ? I haven’t seen you on here for awhile. How are you ? Todd – Boston, Mass, USA.
Hi Todd,
I’ve been distracted with life stuff of late. Once I find the login info Matt sent me I will start boring you guys again?
Be well
Why doesn’t some of the black belt forms like a thousand Buddhas have writing for the form like some of the kyu rank forms?
Honestly, it’s just that I haven’t gotten to it yet. I really should get some new content going. Maybe the Martial Arts Symposium next month will get me in gear.
Honestly, I just haven’t gotten to it, and have been remiss on updating the site. I hope to get some new content going soon.
I’m curious as to when people teach/learn the black belt forms.
I’ve seen a fair amount of variation.
This is the order I learned them in. Two at each belt.
Six Kata
Honsuki
Sho Ton Kwok
Nengli North
Nengli South
Swift Tigers
Tai Sing Mon
Invincible Wall
Five Dragons Face the Four Winds
Branches of the Fallen Pine
I agree completely. I am a second Dan in Shaolin/Chinese Kempo and have trained in boxing, kickboxing and a little bit of judo and I have heard or read of many instances of other martial artists bashing this stem. I make it a point TO NOT bash other arts as I feel it is both immature and unprofessional and I think it to be the complete antithesis of what learning and studying martial arts is all about. I can’t count the number of times people have said “I have not trained in this art, but as a (whatever rank) in (whatever martial art) here is my opinion”, or my other favorite “ I trained in it but left after two months because….blah blah blah.”
My response to things like this is to wonder how, if you’ve never trained in it or only did so for a few lessons, are you qualified to criticize it? I don’t agree with how great grand master Villari promoted himself but, as have attended a few of his tournaments and seminars but never actually talked to the man face to face, I feel it is not my place to criticize. I say the martial arts is a BROTHERHOOD and we should treat each other with respect and that goes not just for the arts themselves, but the people too.
There was a time when there was some upheaval in the dojo I trained in when one instructor left and another took over and one or two students protested by picketing and boycotting classes. They tried to stop me from getting to class one day saying that “we don’t feel the new instructor is qualified.”
I asked this person what her rank was and she said yellow belt. I said to her, “okay so given your inexperience, what gives you the right to judge and instructor who has trained in the martial arts for years?”
She had no response. I went right in and got ready for class.