Shaolin Kenpo Castro's not Villari

[Twin Fist]

Does anyone here study this style? What is the general impression of it?

 

[Twin Fist]

wow, no one studies this kenpo or has an opinion of it?

 

[JTKenpo]

I have seen a few of the forms and tech. on dvd. They seem to stress speed and triple strikes, atleast that was my first impression. I have never seen much more then that. The only other thing I know is that he was a student of Chow or Parker (I can't remember which at the moment) and his schools seem to all be on the west coast. woof hows that for vague, sorry.

JT

 

[MeatWad2]

Sorry...I saw some of it on youtube...looks like Kenpo to me!

 

[shima]

Reviving this old thread, as I was doing training lineage and learned....

My instructor = Bill Grossman -> Rick Alemany -> Ralph Castro -> Ed Parker.

So it would seem the style of Kenpo I study is most likely Shaolin Kenpo. It's not in the name anywhere, the school name is just Bill Grossman's School of Kenpo Karate. But based on the lineage, I'm assuming it's Shaolin Kenpo style.

I just started 3 months ago at this school, loving it so far.

 

[Twin Fist]

Shima,
yeah, Prof Grossman is one of GGM Castro's blackbelts

are you learning a form yet?

I studied this style of kenpo a long time ago, and i always loved it.

 

[shima]

Shima,
yeah, Prof Grossman is one of GGM Castro's blackbelts

are you learning a form yet?

I studied this style of kenpo a long time ago, and i always loved it.

I know Lightning Ram, Mountain Meets River, Iron Fan, Eagle Flies Low and last night he taught me High River One since I want to start competing at tournaments again and he felt that Iron Fan + High River One was a more appropriate black belt competition form combination than my original suggestion of Iron Fan + Eagle Flies Low.

I *love* the various forms we have, they are just so much more interesting and complex than most of the karate and tae kwon do forms I've studied previously.

 

[Twin Fist]

Thats what i loved, it was the first time i had seen a kata that you could practice teh attacks and the defense, and it made sense.

Even after 20 years, I still can get through lightning ram, maybe mountain meets river.

I LOVED iron fan

 

[shima]

Thats what i loved, it was the first time i had seen a kata that you could practice teh attacks and the defense, and it made sense.

Even after 20 years, I still can get through lightning ram, maybe mountain meets river.

I LOVED iron fan

Yes yes yes! My favorite part of Kenpo is learning the attacks at the same time I learn the forms, it's just the best part... I don't have to wait til I get another black belt in this style before they'll teach me how to break down a form, even white belts learn it this way, which is *awesome*.

And I too LOVE Iron Fan, I knew not matter what I wanted to do that one in competition... so I'm glad when he changed my competition idea around he replaced Eagle Flies Low with High River One and left Iron Fan in my combination Iron Fan is just such a nice looking kata.

I can't wait to learn the rest, but right now my head is ready to implode w/ having only learned the last 4 of my 5 kata's in the past 2 months... so trying really hard to keep them separate and correct in my head... I find myself practicing at home daily in addition to being at class 4 times a week.

 

[Twin Fist]

yeah, i spent a lot of nights in the "attack line" doing the attacks on the people doing the kata.
In all my years and all the styles i have been in, never had that before or since.

lets see, when I was with Sifu Cataline, we did 1-60 count punching, 1-10 count kicking, 1-12 count kicking, 1-10 count blocking, sets 1-6, and the katas of course

I had jsut come from american kenpo, so it was a big shock to me.

 

[shima]

lets see, when I was with Sifu Cataline, we did 1-60 count punching, 1-10 count kicking, 1-12 count kicking, 1-10 count blocking, sets 1-6, and the katas of course

I had jsut come from american kenpo, so it was a big shock to me.

I've never done American Kenpo, so I don't have that to compare it to, but it is still sooo vastly different from the Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Small Circle Jujitsu I've done previously.

We do the same sets you listed above. I've also learned so far: sets 6-9, sets a,b,c,d, 1-12 count kicking, 1-66 count punching, 1-18 count blocking, 1-24 count block & double punch.

 

[Inkspill]

our club utilizes mat space at Professor Martin Castro's school a couple nights a week. I've attended a class and watched partial classes for a couple months now, I've seen/felt solid stuff and been impressed. His school is the only other place around this area that has solid Kenpo (there's quite a bit of crap around here). I'm not sure how much of the art they practice is specifically Castro Shaolin Kenpo as multiple arts are practiced at the school.

 

[Twin Fist]

Shima,
it drives me nuts that there is no Castro's Kenpo in texas. That and kajukenbo are the only arts i have any real interest in anymore.

You got any you tube vids?

 

[shima]

Shima,
it drives me nuts that there is no Castro's Kenpo in texas. That and kajukenbo are the only arts i have any real interest in anymore.

You got any you tube vids?

This is the first place I've lived to have Kenpo schools aplenty... hadn't really noticed Kenpo school on Long Island or Northwest Indiana (the two places I lived previously). When I was researching various schools to try out here earlier this year, I friend suggested I look up Kenpo schools and I found not one but two really close to my house during the search... the other one never called me back to give me information and I fell in love with my current school after my first time visiting there.

I've got a handful of iPhone videos that MP (Bill Grossman) has taken of me to help me practice / reference of myself loaded up on my smugmug site... uploading a few new ones right now, will post the link to view it in a few moments

 

[shima]

Ok I clearly need to get him to record me doing more of the forms. Evidently the only one I have that I could find was me doing the first half of Iron Fan after he first taught it to me (and stumbling through it since I had just learned that part, haha) I can now currently do all of this form with much less stumbling!

Actually what I really want to do is bring my 5D Mark II with one of my wide angle lens into class + my tripod and then get a whole bunch of nicer higher quality recordings of the forms... Their demo video they have is a few years old, so having some good quality videos would be nice and useful for that...

http://www.photography-by-cat.com/Martial-Arts/Grossmans-Kenpo

 

[Twin Fist]

loooooooooove the iron fan!! very nice

 

[shima]

loooooooooove the iron fan!! very nice

Thanks! It's just the first half, I need to get the whole thing recorded at some point I'm going to do that and then go straight into High River One for the tournament next month. So I've got one month to get that all perfected I'll try to get a video of both together once I can remember High River One all the way through. (only learned High River One on Tuesday...)

 

[Twin Fist]

interesting how different the forms can be given that they use the same pattern of attacks

 

[shima]

interesting how different the forms can be given that they use the same pattern of attacks

Yeah, it's one of the more fascinating parts of the art I think, that even though you always have the same set of 8 attacks, the forms can be vastly and dramatically different. I still can't get over just how many forms you have to learn in this style, it's practically double most of the previous styles I've learned.

 

[Twin Fist]

not only are there a LOT of forms, you have to learn both sides of the kata too, so it is actually double double