Tracy's Kenpo for the street?

**yoshida** · Posted On: 6/17/2007 8:32pm

How affective is Tracy's kenpo or American kenpo for street fighting? As a whole, these systems seem to be pretty versatile - they're able to maintain their traditions while giving real life self defense knowledge.

Yoshida

**kwoww** · Posted On: 6/17/2007 9:13pm

Rhetorical question? You just answered it yoruself.

Or if you don't trust your own brain, use the search function.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 6/18/2007 3:41am

They are actually very much the opposite of versatile.

Most Tracy and American Kempo (EPAK) is the same thing as Shaolin Kempo or other forms. They all lack realistic sparring, while the ones that do include it, dont train with it nearly enough. I studied Kempo for a few years and was a 3rd Brown so I have some knowledge of Kempo. For the street it sucks, for MMA it sucks and it even sucked for point fighting.

If you had Kempo 5.0 in your area from Jeff Speakman, then it might be worth a try. Hes the only guy that promotes sparring and added in realistic ground fighting and clinch technique. The only problem is that its pretty much just crappy MMA. But if you wanted Kempo, his is the only brand I would trust. They spar and are not afraid if anything new.

**Jim_Jude** · Posted On: 6/20/2007 11:21pm

Hey, Tracy kicked my ass on the playground in 3rd grade, so I'm sure about it there. I'm not sure about the street, tho. She had to ask her mom first, and look both ways, had to hold hands...

**Ke?poFist** · Posted On: 6/21/2007 2:27am

Tracy Kenpo is an off-shoot of Mitose Kosho-Ryu Kenpo, which sets it apart from typical American Kenpo innovation which came later on. But at this point in time, all of the lineages of Ke?po have intertwined, merged, split, copulated, and all that's left is a lot of meaningless ranks, and a load of delusion of what actually happens in a fight.

I wouldn't go there personally. Ke?po schools I'd trust (assuming nothing else was around) would be as Joe said, Jeff Speakman and his affiliates, and certain Kajukenbo schools as well as Kempo schools who come directly from that lineage. Your best bet is to watch classes, and see how much live training and sparring takes place in class. If you see "punching in" and stuff that looks like this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

Run away, run very far away.

**Christian_** · Posted On: 6/25/2007 3:03pm

Originally Posted by KempoFist

Tracy Kenpo is an off-shoot of Mitose Kosho-Ryu Kenpo, which sets it apart from typical American Kenpo innovation which came later on. But at this point in time, all of the lineages of Ke?po have intertwined, merged, split, copulated, and all that's left is a lot of meaningless ranks, and a load of delusion of what actually happens in a fight.

I wouldn't go there personally. Ke?po schools I'd trust (assuming nothing else was around) would be as Joe said, Jeff Speakman and his affiliates, and certain Kajukenbo schools as well as Kempo schools who come directly from that lineage. Your best bet is to watch classes, and see how much live training and sparring takes place in class. If you see "punching in" and stuff that looks like this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

Run away, run very far away.

I think my school may be larping, I'm starting to realize how much of kenpo will never work in a real situation. All of our techniques have the attacker "stepping through" or "punching in" and not resisting. One of our black belts teaches sparring most of the time, (we do full contact I guess, no grappling, attacking legs or back though.) He's a real nice guy, but to tell you the truth, i havent learned anything from the kenpo system, it seems like everybody is just imitaitng the UFC.

However, my instructor seems to be friends with Jeff Speakman, and I've attended 2 of his seminars at my school. His stuff is the only thing I've seen as realistic, you might wana check him out maybe.

I'm also in a 1 year contract that should be ending soon, ( a sign of bullshjdo? I almost signed a 2 year!!!!) I'm considering joining a MMA school about 30 minuites away, its the only thing in my area.

Well, that was my first post, um, hope to hear more from you all.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 6/25/2007 6:46pm

Join the MMA school and then decide what is better.

**Christian_** · Posted On: 6/28/2007 11:16am

I'm gonna go visit this saturday.

**lazy guru** · Posted On: 7/24/2007 3:22pm

i study kenpo, jujitsu , aikido and have put them all in me as a mma fighter which seem's to be doing pretty good for me and in the streets i have no problem but anyways i am glad to finally find some kenpoest on here

**krazy kaju** · Posted On: 7/26/2007 9:49pm

It really matters to your dojo.

The instructor at the Kenpo Karate of Oakland County dojo, which is in Michigan, is pretty good.

Although he teaches all the forms, traditional stances, etc. during private lessons, he uses, I'd say, about 2/3 of the time teaching real striking techniques which greatly remind me of Muay Thai.

Group lessons are about 50% conditioning and calisthenics, and 50% mittwork using different combinations of strikes, using fists, palms, elbows, knees, and shins.