# KT:message from Larry Tatum on the History of Ed Parker's Kenpo



## Clark Kent (Sep 3, 2010)

*message from Larry Tatum on the History of Ed Parker's Kenpo
By DavidCC - 09-03-2010 03:48 PM
Originally Posted at: KenpoTalk*
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I found this on facebook, it was a sequential series of comments he made in response to a wall post on his Facebook page.  Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/walltowall.p...8045216&ref=nf

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Larry Tatum 9/2/2010
Three things had to come together to create what we have today in terms of American Kenpo. The Universial Patteren, The Forms then the written techniques. Before that Kenpo was a style defined by is methology but not by catagories. Within its frame work it was like a net in that it capurted ideas from other systems and gave them practical appilcation a long with its unique concepts. 

 Logic was first and formost in terms of any idea being added to the early system. This is why so many in the days past would see some of Japan,China, Okinawa and even Koria in the Kenpo system...yet it moved completly different from all the rest. One thing that set it a part from the other system is. 

 that it followed the normal alingment of muscle to bone within the body. None of the motion was contray to that fact. If an idea was added then it had to fellow this parameter. Even its closet cusin Kung Fu did not escape this very important rule of Kenpo. The larger circles were rained in to resemble Its cusin but were condensed to fit the street. 

 So it was knowing this that Mr. Parker decided to find the unifying theremin of factors that allowed one to find the anwers to self defense attacks by first difining all basics and concepts and prioiteze them in their degree of difficulty to learn and use. 

 All basics had to be put through the testing frame work of motion and that frame would be the Universal Pateren which he discovered by looking at the eight angle of attack within a circle (an ancent pattern in China) He saw first off that is was not complete so he begain to connect the dots so to speak. 

 by fellowing the lines as they intersected into other lines forming all the know geometric shapes. It was then he said ah ha....this is Universal and being that it is all the basics of Kenpo will then be set on the patteren and shifted through untill each one has given its demostration of usage being that the human body is made up of the same Patteren. 

 Now the next thing was to take the basics and all the three dimension of the Patteren and put them into phyical Forms (Katas). And that my friend is how it was done. This is part of my new book I though I would share with you. 

 But then most students would not dig deep enough into the froms so he said lets put a written system down by extracting information from the forms. Thus you have the written manuels. 
 Then I felt people needed a vusual add so I did the first American Kenpo DVD's to help complete the path.



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