Matt Barnes' Kempo Page

'Gufbal1982' a former USSD instructor has graciously provided the Twelve Hands of the Tiger blocking system. Thanks, and let's enjoy the new section. More material coming soon - the other blocking systems, forms, clubs, knives, etc.

Thanks for sharing and for using the archive.

I've moved the blog to the front page, as that's what gets updated most frequently. I've also enabled the 'comments' function, so now you folks can comment on my posts. The pictures don't seem to want to load in the 'that was a weekend' post, but refresh once or twice and they will show. I'm not sure what the problem is. So, now that we're past the 'big event', I can get back to updating the history articles. I've got some really interesting info to add to the Mitose story, having to do with his 'I was a spy' comments at the trial. Stay tuned.

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.

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.

I posted the idea at martialtalk and martial arts planet, and I've gotten some pretty positive feedback so far. Almost all of mine are up or will be shortly, so now whether or not the project goes further is going to shift to the community. Let's see what happens.

I've put up a small slideshow of pictures from over the years. Hope you enjoy. I'll try to update them now and then.

I'm going to set the pictures up in a different way, so they will come down for a bit. Once I get the new system up and running, they will change more often, and there will be a separate section for those that deserve to stay up.

I've put in a 'blog' page, as the website was previously so labor intensive to update that I didn't want to unless I had the 'perfect' article. Now I can pop up short bits, and put the articles elsewhere. In the olden days it was 'text edit', yep the free text program that comes with macs, and now it is rapidweaver ($35 well spent!). So, now we might see some regular updates. I will get all of the previously existing info up ASAP.

Thanks for your patience,

Matt