Mixed Martial Arts

Do you like to watch UFC, Pride or K-9? It has always been my favorite TV show, it’s just so interesting to watch! The match are just unpredictable and.. well, it’s just closer to reality than the regular martial art fighting! I’m so interested in MMA fighting that I want to learn MMA myself.. I decided to learn the king of MMA, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.. You can find more information about BJJ everywhere on the internet and watch the fight.. I won’t talk about them since there’s just sooo much to talk when we are talking the correlation between BJJ with MMA..

It’s been months since I learned BJJ.. everything is fun, im really enjoying myself with the art, the teaching, the dojo, the teachers.. except with the uniform.. my uniform (gi) is just so uncomfortable! it’s so heavy yet it got torn easily and it’s just.. not comfortable.. (In BJJ, the gi is also considered as one of our “weapon” It’s a very vital weapon that can decide the result of the match) I have searched everywhere on the store in my town and all I found is the standard gi that I currently use.. More problem comes when I decided to enter an MMA tournament in my town, the tournament needs me to wear some MMA gears for protections like fight gloves, hand wraps, mouth guards, etc.. And I really just can’t find it any store on my town! Well, maybe martial art is just not as popular as football.. I can find many football gear specialist here yet I haven’t seen any store specializing in martial art gears here.. :(

Kenpo Karate

Characteristics of Kenpo
Kenpo Karate is a complete fighting system that is particularly popular in the United States.

Kenpo places equal emphasis on the use of hands and feet and uses similar fighting techniques to other Okinawan fighting styles. Kenpo also practises Kata or forms like other martial arts. Whereas most Karate styles use white gis (uniforms) throughout, a visual characteristic of Kenpo is its use of black Gis for higher grades and even the mixing of black Gi tops with white pants and vice versa.

History of Kenpo
Like most Okinawan fighting arts, Kenpo Karate can trace its roots back to the Shaolin monks of China. Master “To-De” Sakugawa (1733-1815) from Shuri, the ancient capital of Okinawa, travelled to China in the 18th century to train with the Chuan Fa masters (Chuan Fa is what Chinese Kung Fu was called at that time). On his return to Okinawa he developed what became known as Shuri Te, from which Kenpo was later born. In contrast, the Okinawan martial arts developed in Naha, the modern-day capital of Okinawa, first became known as Naha-Te, and developed later on into Goju-Ryu Karate).

In 1916 a young Hawaiian named James Mitose travelled to Kyushu in Japan where he learnt Kosho Ryu Kempo. He later returned to Hawaii where he taught William Chow, who further developed the art. To differentiate his system from that of Mitose, William Chow called his school Kenpo Karate. As a visual break from the traditional Japanese and Okinawan Karate styles, Mitose and Chow introduced the wearing of black gis for higher ranks, to indicate that Kenpo was a different and more of a “war art” than the increasingly sports-oriented, white-Gi-wearing Karate styles.

Ed Parker, father of American Kenpo
Ed Parker, also a Hawaiian, was a student of William Chow. Ed Parker is considered the father of American Kenpo, as he had the greatest modern day influence on the spread of Kenpo around the world. Ed Parker opened the first ever university campus martial arts school in Utah USA in 1954, at the age of only 23.

Ed Parker later became a tournament promoter. At one of his early tournaments, Bruce Lee first came into the view of the general public. Ed Parker was also active as a movie actor, stunt coordinator, author and
instructor to many famous Hollywood actors.

Kempo or Kenpo?
There is no difference between Kenpo and Kempo, they are different spellings of the same martial art. The Japanese kanji character for kenpo and kempo is the same, yet when translated to English, the N can also be an M. Kenpo or Kempo translates to “Law of the fist”.

Shihan Fumio Demura

Shito-Ryu Karate was developed by Kenwa Mabuni (1890-1954), an Okinawan karate master who studied both the styles of Naha-Te (which developed into Gojuryu Karate) and Shuri-Te (which developed into Shorinryu). Shito Ryu was formed by the combination of the kata and techniques of these two styles. Mr Mabuni combined japanese syllables of his two main teachers, Ankoh Itosu (of Shuri-Te) and Kanryo Higaonna (Naha-Te) to honor them when he developed his own style, Shito-Ryu, which he started to teach when he moved to Osaka, Japan.

Characteristic for Shito-Ryu Karate are the square-on stances and linear strikes. Traditional Okinawan weapons are also taught in the Shito-Ryu style of karate

Wado-Ryu Karate

Wado-Ryu Karate was developed by Otsuka Hironori and is one of the four main styles of
Japanese karate. Hironori used his knowledge of Shotokan karate, Jujutsu, grappling and Tai Sabaki (Body Movement) to form his own style. Wado-ryu karate does not practice many of the body toughening exercises common to other styles of karate, preferring rather to use Tai Sabaki to evade attacks.

Shotokan Karate is one of the four main schools of Karate in Japan. It is best characterised by its long and deep stances and its use of more linear m

Shotokan Karate has little of the circular movements found in Okinawan styles of karate, nor does it have the body conditioning and supplementary training exercises typical for Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate.

Shotokon Karate is considered by many a sports style of Karate, where tournaments and point-sparring are central to the art.

Many exponents of Shotokan are displeased about the way Shotokan has been portrayed and would prefer that Shotokan becomes again the traditional, non-sports martial art as conceived by Funakoshi.