Archive for the 'karate' Category

Thousands of people the world over have studied various forms of Kenpo or Kempo Karate. I remember when I first started learning karate lessons from an actual instructor, he told me about some of the styles of Okinawan karate. Later when I started learning kenpo karate, I was told that there were Chinese, Japanese, Okinawan, and Hawaiian styles of Kenpo. Well let me tell you that I was confused then and while searching through the internet for kenpo history – I am still a little fuzzy.

In this post I will discuss the difficulty discerning history because of bias, poor records, frame of reference,  and other research challenges. I will also speak of Kempo/Kenpo’s recent history since James Mitose in Hawaii and the Hawaii Karate Museum’s online records. Here is a video of some of Kenpo’s early history including its spread from China, Okinawa, and Japan.

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It is with a heavy heart that I write this post about my long time friend, fellow fighter, and Kenpo Master, Frank Mafnas, who died last Tuesday. Frank lived most recently in Kansas City, MO. Here is Franks obituary.

Frank and I met in the mid-70’s at Tracy’s Karate School in San Diego. I believe Frank started at the Lemon Grove Tracy’s School. We were both blue or green belts at the time and I remember lots of tough fighters of the time used to spar after the Tuesday night group classes. Frank was a hard worker and willing to put in lots of extra work into sparring. I for one appreciated the sparring partner while we were honing our craft.

You see we were trying to play with the big boys on Thursday nights as well as get ready for Southern California tournaments. Frank had a great sense of humor and kept all of use motivated as well as keeping it real. You see Frank excelled at tournaments because he fought with all comers and really enjoyed the challenge of fighting the heavy weights like Lap Napoleon, Terry Crook, and John West. Here is an early picture of Frank apparently at a Joe Lewis seminar.

Todd McElhinney, Irving Hoffman, Joe Lewis, Dick Willett, Dave Hays, Frank Mafnas

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You’ve started to take karate lessons from your local school for some reason. Perhaps you have had a run in at the local pub or you have been mugged. Whatever the reason you have decided to learn how to defend yourself. You want to become the next Ninja Warrior! You do not want to be a MMA star but you just want that highly respected Black Belt.

You went with a reputable school that has been recommended by one of your buddies and have had your introductory lessons. The school is one of many that teach basics, self-defense techniques, katas and sparring. If you are really motivated you can do some semi or full contact sport karate tournaments later.

In this post I will focus on self-defense techniques, what they are, how long it takes to learn them well and do they work. I will also speak about beginning students with the goal of self defense and how realistic that is learning a traditional martial art. Here is a demonstration of some American Kenpo and Tracy’s Kenpo Karate techniques.

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Now that you have achieved your brown or black belt and have fought a few open tournaments, you have overcome the pre-fight jitters but want to start winning some matches. Yes you know all of the kicks and punches as well as the next guy or gal but you have not won a trophy yet? What can you do?

In this post I will go over what a tournament is and what knowledge you are expected to gain from fighting at these matches. I will speak to specific strategies that will help you improve you point fighting and I will note how to transition point fighting to self-defense.

You have heard me mention ways to improve you sparring from time to time but to date have not seen me in any of my tournament matches. Well today I have a blast from the past to share with you. Bob Whites Karate Studios has kindly furnished us with a tape of some old team competitions from Parker’s International Karate Tournaments! I’m not sure of the year but my best guess is about 1979 or 1980. Please have a look and then I will go over some strategies. I am wearing a black top and red gi bottoms.

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So you have learned how to throw all of the kicks and punches and have achieved a black belt in your chosen style of karate; how can you improve your fighting ability? You have fought at a couple of open tournaments (open to all styles) and have yet to win a trophy? You had to defend your girlfriends honor and end up looking as bad as the other guy?

Do any of these statements resemble you? If so – read on. In this post I will introduce advanced fighting tactics that American Kenpo Karate teaches to brown and black belt students. Many of you that have learned your karate at Tracy’s or Joe Lewis Fighting Systems will recognize these techniques too as I believe Joe Lewis and Bruce Lee to be the source.

Do you remember that childhood game of hand slapping? Seemingly the fastest guy could slap the other guy’s hand before he could move it! If one knows how to do initial movement, he or she can slap the hand before the the other guy can move it! Watch this video I found and then I will explain initial movement and a high level overview of Angular Attacks.

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Here is an introduction by my friend, fellow black belt and hall of famer - David Hays:

I wanted to give this post a introduction.  Many of you know that this post is done by John Zimmer.  John is a good friend of mine and was inducted into the KenpoHall of Fame this past weekend along with Victor Hervias and John West. All of these men are from the San Diego school of Dick Willett. All of us that come from that school are proud to be part of this great fighting system.

 

John Zimmer, Victor Hervias and John West are some of the best all around fighters I have ever trained with.  The speed of Victor, the hard hitting, unorthodox left handed style of John Zimmer and raw brutalness of John West always kept me on my toes. All three of these men are greats in the arts. 

 

Last year at the 40th anniversary of Dick Willett’s  San Diego American Kenpo School (now owned and ran by Todd McElhinny) a statement was read by Al Tracy.  Master Tracy said that Dick Willett had produced some of the best fighter in Kenpo Karate. 

 

The legendary fighter, Joe Lewis, who was at the event, stood up and said “That statement was not completely true.”  Joe went on to say “Dick Willett had produced some of the best fighters anywhere period”.  We were all humbled by that statement coming from the Joe Lewis.  Congratulations men!

I am pleased to announce that I was among three black belts (John West, Victor Hervias and John Zimmer) that were nominated and inducted into the Kenpo Hall of Fame this last weekend in Chicago! Dick Willett’s American Kenpo Karate board selected us to go the the Tracy’s Karate – Gathering of Eagles 2009.

John West, Victor Hervias and I (John W. Zimmer) were all students of Dick Willett at Tracy’s Karate. Later we amicably split off from Tracy’s Karate and Dick formed American Kenpo Karate.  In this post I will give a brief bio of each of us and speak more on the Gathering of Eagles 2009. Here is a picture of my instructor, Richard “Dick” Willett and myself.

Dick Willett & John Zimmer

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There have been many great fighters and fighting arts that use similar moves but throw them differently. Kung Fu kicks look different than Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai kicks look different than Karate kicks. Which way of throwing a kick is best?

What am I talking about? Well one example I am going to talk about is a wheel kick, also known as a round house kick. There are significant differences from style to style on how to throw this kick. I’ll talk about some of the rationals and what you have to consider when throwing a wheel kick. Here is one way to throw the round house kick from Bas Rutten.

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I saw this on the news not to long ago and decided to find out more about it. I have kind of a closet interest in ballet because at one time I wanted to be a dancer. I thought that karate and ballet might be the perfect combination but as probably happens so many times – I had to chose one over the other (I could only afford to take karate lessons, not both).

Practitioners of ballet have to be in superb condition to make all of the moves look easy. That is kind of like fighting because one should not telegraph a move by grunting during a the initial execution of a kick. Now as much as I like good form during kicks and punches, I am more concerned with the application, meaning does the kick actually connect. Watch this video for the overview of Balete (TM) the new fitness craze in LA.

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