Sacramento Kenpo Karate

 Happy New Year!  Wow!  2011 in Going to be an Amazing Year at SKK

Sacramento Kenpo Karate

KENPO 101 –

Contouring Principle - This concept involves using the outline of your or your opponent's body as a homing device or guide to accomplish certain feats. The concept is divided into two basic categories--methods that employ (1) body contact or (2) non-body contact. There are many sub-divisions to this concept.

Dead/Live - A grab is a Dead attack, a push is Semi-Live, a punch is Live.

SKK Monthly Update –

Okay! Let's get ready for the New Year. Tyler, James, Matthew, Gianah, Joshua, Nick, Davis, Jessica, Naomi, Yevgeny and Katelyn I hope you guys are ready for more fun and plenty of learning.

Everyone in our adult class will need to welcome Kimberly Wise, if you have not. Our adult class continues to be fun and invigorating. As most Kenpo practitioners know, Kenpo is very therapeutic, an amazing stress reducer, and depression remover. So if you do not feel like working out, at least come and be happy.

Please note, if you have paid Cordova Recreation and Park District, bring in your receipt to confirm that they have you on their roster. Lately, they have been hit and miss on recording students who have paid.

SKK REMINDERS

• All students must wear a karate uniform or workout clothes. Male students must wear a groin protector.
• Hygiene is a good thing. Please make sure your karate uniform is clean, finger and toe nails are trimmed, and remove jewelry in class. These reminders are for the safety of your fellow students. Thank you.
• Please, let us know by phone or e-mail if you cannot show up for class.
• Ms. Long's information
• Cell – 916-690-1682
• Email – kenpokaratechick@gmail.com
• Mr. Nakamoto's information
• Cell – 916-832-2882
• Email – ronnak4967@gmail.com
• Dues paid by the 10^th of every month.
• We charge a $10.00 belt fee for all belt promotions.
• The SKK patch is on sale for $10.00 each or $16.00 for two.
• Karate uniforms range from $20.00 to $25.00 depending on size.

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.     

             

Hello Everyone,

Quote - “I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend” -- J.R.R. Tolkien

Wow! Can you believe that we are already more than halfway through the year? Before you know it, it will be Christmas time, can you say Whoa!

 

Do not forget to visit the Sacramento Kenpo Karate web-site to check out the new calendar feature.  It'll tell you when classes are and when any special events occur.  The 4^th of July is coming up fast folks. I would like to extend our thanks to all of our students for showing the dedication and perseverance.

 

Our children’s class has gotten smaller as of late. S.K.K. would like to welcome Jon and Jonathan both are showing tremendous enthusiasm in our children’s class. Alyssa is moving along really well, she is one of the best students we have.Omari has been showing great promise and leadership abilities.

 

A reminder to all of the parents and all the adults, we have been directed by Cordova Parks and Recreation to make sure that the monthly tuition is paid for by the 10^th of every month.

 

Thank you to all those wonderful parents who have also made the commitment to make sure their child/children show up neat, clean and ready to go for 6:30 pm class.We like to see clean gis and clipped fingernails. 

 

The adult class has been a blast lately. Please take your time out to introduce yourself to Shannon and Jason, both are starting out fresh, although Jason has a brown belt in another style.  Gary works with Shannon and Jason is a good friend of Aron's. We would also like to introduce Erick, a first degree brown under Arnie Inouye from a long time ago.  We are glad to see Thomas's triumphant return and look forward to having both Eugene and Robert come back.  "Robert, Robert! -- Where ARE you??"

 

Welcome to all of the new people who have started up and thank you, it is and will be an honor and a pleasure to work with you all.

 

Tara is coming back from vacation in Alaska. Amy and Ron will be going on vacation from July 11^th to July 26^th. We already have Bryan, Erick, Thomas, and Gary lined up to help Tara with the children’s class. If any other adult students are available, I encourage you to come earlier and help teach in the children’s class.  Teaching is the best way to improve your knowledge and understanding of the art.  Thank you to those who decide to help out.

 

Have a happy, safe, and sane Fourth of July.

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.

Sacramento Kenpo Karate

More Promotions

More promotions at Sacramento Kenpo Karate. Chad and Kirk got their yellow belts! Woot! They have been practicing hard and they look really good. It has been odd not to have Eugene in class, but his work schedule doesn't permit him to be there. Ron and I met in Ron's garage on Sunday and the three of us smacked each other around for a few hours.

The following day, at Ron's school, Johnny got his orange belt! His schedule changed too, so he hasn't been able to come to our class, so he switched to Ron's, which is on opposite days. He has been looking really good and we were most pleased to kick him into his new rank.

--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 Kenpo Karate

Jeff Lane was Promoted!!

Last class, we had a promotion! Jeff was promoted to orange belt. He was not expecting it, which is what made it all the more fun. We did our normal warm up for class, then I told everyone to go stand by the wall.....except for Jeff. The look on his face was priceless! It was a 'what? who me?' look. Then I announced that Jeff was going to perform long form 1 for us. We all commented on what looked good and what needed improvement. Then, I sprang it on him. Lots of fun.

We have several new students since last posting. Two white belt brothers, Chad and Kirk, who have been a lot of fun. Another new student, Greg, comes from a Tae Kwon Do background and he's been great to have in class.

Most recently, we had a brown belt visit, Don, who we hope to have join us. He's been on a long break from kenpo, but like the rest of us, can't stay away. His instructor, Kevin, may also be dropping in from time to time to workout with us. Black belts are always welcome to come in and workout with us.

Kenpo Camp happened this last weekend too. Johnny was the only one able to go. I ended up having work, Steve hurt his wrist and Tara got strep throat at the last minute. But Johnny went to represent. :)

Due to his change in schedule, he isn't able to come to our class anymore, but Ron's class runs opposite days, so Johnny is able to go there. His class is at No-Limit Fighting and I go there to train with him on Mondays, just as he comes to our school on Tuesdays. It's great to have another school to work with that way.

I've been working with Dr. Dave Crouch for the last few months and we've been working on form 4. I've been able to pass on the new stuff I've learned to both Bryan and Eugene and everybody is benefiting from it.

More as it happens.....

--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.    

http://kenpokarate.ourtoolbar.com/

Sacramento Kenpo Karate

We have been having a lot of fun, as always, at Sacramento Kenpo Karate. Ron Nakamoto has been visiting our school regularly and bringing a wealth of knowledge with him. As a 'returning the favor' thing, he took me to his school where I got to watch Arnie Inouye teach form six. He and I had a wonderful chat and he is welcome at our school anytime, as are any/all of his students.

In a week, we're going to have the pleasure of having Dave Crouch come to our school and teach us a thing or two about Kenpo. He has agreed to be my new instructor and I'm greatly looking forward to what he has to share.

Rich Hale may be coming to Santa Rosa soon and I hope to get down there to work with him. If anyone reading this is in the Sacramento area and would like to see Dave Crouch on Wed May 7th, please email me at kenpokaratechick@gmail.com for further details. :)

--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 had the most amazing test on the first Wed. in April. Bryan Parker tested for his third brown, Tricia Stirling tested for her blue and Steve Holland tested for his blue as well.

They have all been training really hard for this test, so it was no wonder that they did so well. As expected, they were all a bit nervous. I think Steve did the fastest long two known to man. :)

Part of the nervousness probably had something to do with the large cast of characters watching them on their test. :)

We had a seven-person panel who gave them endless grief and questions. We had Ronald Nakamoto, 3rd black, Renee Neal, 3rd black, Aron Jolly-Meers, 2nd and Elaine Christensen, 2nd and Evan Christensen, 1st, along with Tara and me. We had a lot of fun. I think they had fun too, but not the same kind the panel did. :)

We wanted to make sure that they all felt like they earned their rank and got to show off on their test.

As you can see, we decided to do a mass attack on Bryan. I stayed out to direct. :)

Tara and I were very proud of our students. We could see, as well as our students, the areas they need to work on, but we could also see very clearly how far they'd come. Good job everyone!!

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

For the last week, I've been visiting Camey in Texas. We have been having a great time, of course, and not the least of which was our visit to Bill Piper's school, where she trains. The first time we went, she and I had tons of fun running through techniques and extensions. Camey really knows how to bang!

We worked out the following Saturday morning for 3 hours and had a wonderful time, as always. We were, after all, doing kenpo. Later, her friend Dawn met us at the botanical gardens to take some pictures.

While I was away, I really appreciated having Bryan and Eugene cover the children's and adult's class. Aron was a tremendous help as well. Tara's family has been hit hard with the flu and she wasn't able to attend.

I look forward to getting back to 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 Karate

Last week, we had a visit from a new kenpoist named Ron. He's a third black and has been studying for over 30 years. Like many of us, he's missed having other black belts to work out with. He came to check us out and worked out with me, Renee and Phillip. I'll be bringing my camera to class shortly to get pictures with all of our new friends. Having all of these black belts come is like having a mini-seminar or camp every class. Aron and his mom Elaine came the next class and we worked on doing yellow belt techniques for a wide variety of attacks.

All five of the new additions to our school have a lot of great information and move really well. One of the things I love about our school is that we attract kenpoists from many backgrounds, so we get a wealth of different perspectives.

Steve, Trish and Bryan will be testing soon. All are looking sharp and we are really proud of their progress.

If you are a kenpoist either in, near, or passing through the Sacramento area, you are always welcome to come by and visit. And if you like it, you can even stay awhile. :)

--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

Tara and I had a great time with Lee Wedlake in Fresno. Graham Lelliott hosted Mr. Wedlake and I was most pleased to see both of them. On Friday, I went to an all-belt seminar where we looked at the 'gift' techniques. I learned something really cool about Gift of Destiny, which I promptly shared with Tara the next day. She agreed and we made the executive decision to do the technique that way from now on.

I'm amazed at how much I have learned in the last year and a half, since leaving 'formal' instruction.

In addition to this, we worked on form 6 the whole next day. We learned it from start to finish and I learned things in that kata that I had always suspected, but had never been shown.

When I say 'suspected,' I mean that I knew that certain movements had purpose, but was told they didn't. I now know that information to be false. I learned a ton of great stuff and so did Tara.

Lee Wedlake and Graham Lelliott were as great a always and I look forward to our next meeting. Until then, Tara and I will be practicing diligently and getting ready for our next kenpo adventure. :)

We also look forward to sharing our new knowledge with our students and our new kenpo friends.

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 Karate

Eugene Got His Brown Belt!!

A couple of nights ago, we were very happy to be able to promote Eugene Brathwaite to Third Brown. He gave his all and tested for about an hour. We know how hard he'd been working before the test, so this was really just an opportunity for him to show off what he has been working so hard on.

His Uke, Steve Holland, did a great job kicking, striking and falling down a lot.

We have found the areas where we, as instructors, need to improve our teaching and I believe Eugene has found some areas where he could put more attention as a student.

Overall, we were very proud of him. We were also pleased to have Arin, a black belt who has been working with us lately, sit on the board as well.

On another note, I went and visited a Trevor Haines' school in Citrus Heights and we were invited to their next inter-school tournament. When it happens, I'll be sure to let our students know so they can get a taste of what competition is like. I'll be visiting another school very soon as well and hope to get back down to Santa Rosa soon to visit Dr. Dave.

Tara and I will be heading out to see Lee Wedlake on the 16th and might go to his all-belts seminar the night before in Fresno. If any of you are interested in going, see me for details. The Friday evening event is $25 and open to all belts. I believe Steve was talking about going, so perhaps you all can discuss carpooling. Tara and I will likely be spending the night so we can go to the all-day seminar the next day.

It'll be great to see Eugene this Tuesday wearing a black gi for the first time.

Congratulations Eugene!!

--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

January 2008 News

Last night, we had 4 visiting black belts come to our class. They are kenpo 'orphans' and we are hoping to convince them to make SKK their new home. All four were very competent and a lot of fun to play with.

Eugene will be up for testing for brown belt at the end of this month and we know he'll do great. The new year has started off a little slowly in the adult class, but we have two new students in the kids' class. Danielle and Alex have joined us and are having a great time.

Steve is a ton of fun to harass in the adult class and he takes it so well. It could be because he can't hear what I'm saying. Bryan was gone for 3 weeks, as was Tara and Eugene and Kevin is taking this month off.

Tara and I will be seeing Lee Wedlake next month for a seminar on form 6. I also may be heading up to Milt Guinette's school in Oregon for a seminar with Phil Porter and possibly Lee Epperson. Bryan visits their school on a fairly consistent basis and has all good things to say.

I visited two other schools recently, Don Snider's in Gold River and Bob Langley's school in (I think) Citrus Heights. Both of them made me feel very welcome and, as always, I picked up a few new little drills and such to torture our own students with.

The Kenpo Continuum book is well on its way to being done. I've been getting a few last minute entries and I've been having to do a fair amount of editing on some of the ones I've received. But it's moving along and I'm getting quotes from printers to get this show on the road. I hope to have it done no later than the end of Feb. Hopefully sooner, depending on how long the printer takes.

Oh, and most importantly, Tara and I were sporting our new electric blue matching gis the other night. We looked and felt spiffy. We've decided that blue is the new black, which are our school colors (black and blue). :)

See you on the mats!

--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

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.    

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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.

Sacramento Kenpo Karate

We have been having a ton of fun at the new school. Last Saturday, Tara and I went down to Dr. Porter's school in Santa Rosa and played with their people there. We reviewed some terminology and techniques for the yellow and orange.

We look at the four ranges: Out of range, In range, Contact penetration and Contact manipulation.

We talked about the three zones: Height, width and depth and how you need to cancel at least two of them in any technique to make them effective.

We discussed the Line of Action vs. the Path of Action. You always use a path of action to block a line of action.

Recently, in the kids' class, Noah, Jessica, Connor, Jadon and Jacob all earned a stripe for being able to recite the kenpo creed. They were very excited and very proud.

Last class was small, but we had fun working on shoulder rolls and how to slap out when you fall. More work is needed when everyone is healed.

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.