Matt Barnes' Kempo Page

I happened to have been taught combination #93 at a seminar once upon a time, and then one day about four years ago, it was posted on the old yahoo newsgroup for our enjoyment. I just stumbled across that post, so it reminded me. Since the two folks who described it haven't had contact for quite a number of years, and both were pretty high up in the organization, before starting their own, I think it is pretty good corroborations. I'll start an 'other combinatons' page for 'out of order' ones, until I get more surrounding ones.

I've reached the end of my recently found 'animal notes' with a dozen dragon techniques. Please, check them out and send in your variations. I'm sure I have more techniques floating around, but I've got a few more notebooks to track down. So, now it's pretty much up to the community. If you want to see it here, let me know. If you have something that's not here yet, send it in.

Enjoy,

Matt

There's about 5 crane techniques up now, and I received a submission of a snow leopard technique, appropriately from Canada.

Thanks to all who have contributed.

Matt

There is a thread discussing the nature of this distinction on martialtalk. I haven't hopped in yet, mainly because the starting point was the animal page here, so it feels like my opinion is already noted. It feels somewhat strange to have spawned a thread. Stop by and participate - the more the merrier.

Okay, I've pasted in from my notes some tigers, snakes and leopards. Does anyone recognize them, and if your school teaches animal techniques, please send in some not on the list, or perhaps confirm ones that are.

Thanks and enjoy,

Matt

I found more of my notes, so there are some tigers up along with a bunch of snakes. The animals section will be filling up shortly, as the rest will go up at my next chance. I will probably have to reorganize the site to keep the menus under control. Bear with me.

Thanks,
Matt

I just remembered that a while back I typed up a manual for my friend's school, and created a page for each of the basic 5 animals with five example techniques. I found them on my hard drive, so a page for each animal will be up shortly. Before I post the techniques, though, I want to develop a quick blurb on why these techniques are considered 'tigers' or 'cranes'.

I rescued an article that had been lingering on my palm pilot recounting my process of exploring the bunkai of the Shaolin Kempo 1-5 kata series. It's not really done yet, and the technical aspects have been left out for the moment, but give me your thoughts on it. Do you have parts of these forms that you have no idea about why you are doing the movement you are doing?

Over the course of sharing some techniques, the question 'What is a Kempo' cropped up in regards to kempo techniques. Most folks in Shaolin Kempo have combinations and 'kempos', along with weapons defenses, grabs, etc.

Some however aren't as familiar with 'kempos' as we often term them, so I took a moment to give an explanation as to why we might have a bunch of front punch defenses called combinations, and then have another set of front punch defenses called 'kempos'. As soon as I sent the email containing the explanation, I thought that I might need to explain this again sometime, so I figured I would post it. It is over in the articles section.

I've been (in the spare time between doing three websites, doing my job, teaching at CCMAA, going to graduate school and maintaining some semblance of family life) searching out my notes and finding kempos that I have accumulated. I found some that I had been sent, and they are already typed in, so I've pasted them into their own pages. They are going to be in groups by source, as for now, I don't have time to analyze, compare, contrast and so on. The source for one set is Carl Heinzl, who was kind enough to send me some techniques from the (no longer in existence) New Hampshire MSDC schools ages ago, and the other came from someone in New Jersey whose name I lost ages ago. The New Jersey ones, however seem to reflect the kempos I learned at the first school I attended in Connecticut.