Hello Robert & Thunderbolt, I would like to respond to your posts but then I'm going to back off from this topic only because this is the second warning we got from the moderator and I don't want to upset the applecart. They have been pretty good to me over the years. Plus, to be honest, it will only be like beating a dead horse, we all have our opinions and perspectives of things and that's not a bad thing. Okay............
Thunderbolt, that may have been true back in, let's say, '66 to maybe '74 when Mr. Cerio received a couple of degrees from Mr. Parker but not true in 1983 for his 9th and here's why. By 1974 Professor Cerio officially founded Nick Cerio's Kenpo, Inc. From then on there was NO WAY he would promote someone elses' art, no way........would you if you were him? Of course not! From 1974 on, he promoted ONLY NCK. I grant you, in those early years, specifically the mid to late 60's Cerio was instrumental in propagating Parker's art in New England, no doubt about it and yes, that very well could have influenced his early ranks with the IKKA but not over a decade and a half later and nine years after the advent of NCK. Like all of us, Prof. Cerio made some mistakes but that would have been pure stupidity and he wasn't a stupid man. Let's please give him that much.
Thunderbolt, as far as Sijo Emperado goes, from what I understand he awarded Mr. Parker his 8th dan for what Mr. Parker contributed to the Kenpo world in general, not Kajukenbo! Could he do it? Why not, he was not only Parker's senior but Prof. Chow's first black belt.
A previous question on Mr. Cerio not being on Mr. Parker's lineage trees would again be most likely because Cerio was awarded the 9th much like Emperado awarded Parker his 8th. Mr. Parker did not know the Kajukenbo curriuculum and Mr. Parker does not show up on Sijo Emperado's Kajukenbo Family Tree either but it has been confirmed he certainly made his 8th from him.
Robert, long post you had, whew! but a good one! Again, I'm not saying EPAK is deficient in takedowns and followups, that is a misunderstanding, all I am saying, as a matter of fact, Robert, I'm not saying it, I was quoting directly what Mr. Cerio stated in that 1990's Q&A column in his Newsletter. Cerio's roots are from a direct offshoot of Kajukenbo and it's pretty well accepted that Kajukenbo does place a more heavier emphasis on groundfighting, that's all, no big thing! Karazenpo and Kajukenbo has low line kicks and the flashier Korean inspired kicks but if I were to compare the two styles to Tae Kwon Do I would have to say TKD puts a stronger emphasis on their kicking techniques, know what I mean?
KenpoDave, again, thanks for the input. The only thing I can say about EPAK having more Kenpo and NCK having more grappling per se is this. Cerio's original art was KGS and it was based on the 'original Emperado method Kajukenbo. This style started to take shape in 1958 and was pretty much moving by 1960. Mr. George Pesare brought it out to New England in the very early 60's. Look at Parker's book published in 1961: Kenpo Karate Law of the Fist & Empty Hand and also look at his book The Secrets of Chinese Karate published in 1963. These books certainly don't reflect EPAK today but they were technically the 'original stuff' that triggered what EPAK eventually evolved into. Karazenpo Go Shinjutsu and Shaolin Kempo still maintain pretty much this original method material with some modification BUT it also has the 'newer stuff', the rapid fire multiple hand strikes as found in the legendary form Hansuki (a product of the 60's). NCK has kept some of the older tradition in some forms and techniques but has also evolved much further. I did several seminars traveling with Cerio in the early to mid 90's called "The Kenpo Hands" and the 'Continuous Returning fFst (Lin Wane Kune in Chinese) of Kenpo Karate. These techniques were ALL kenpo and had kenpo's signature moves.
I guess, we all (and I'm including myself!) have to experience one's entire system before we pass opinion or judgement on it as to what it contains and what it doesn't, what is it's strengths and what is it's weaknesses but we should never fall into the mentality of my dad can beat up your dad or my car is better than your car, whatever. We can go on to study our individual arts extensively and hardcore for the next ten years and all get together and pair off to fight, and I mean to fight for real, and the victor will go to the inherently better fighter and the man with the most heart not whether you study KGS, NCK or EPAK.
One last thing in defense of my lineage and it's founders techniques goes back to 1974. The Professional Karate Association-the PKA-which was the FIRST organization to bring the world kickboxing which back then was called: Full Contact Karate. It was televised on regular network stations and introduced Joe Corley and Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace to the world. Nick Cerio's instructor, George Pesare (Region 12 Representative of the PKA) who brought Sonny Gascon's system to New England that Fred Villari now calls Shaolin Kempo Karate, produced two World Kickboxing Champions in the likes of Dan Macaruso (light heavyweight who defeated the legendary Jeff Smith for the title) and a very young Bob Ryan who won the World Welterweight division defeating superstars like Ernie Hart Jr. Thing is, Danny Mac was defeating guys like Smith, Demetrius 'Oaktree' Edwards and all the time Danny was a BROWN belt. John Levesque was a BROWN belt and TKO'd the legendary Japanese karate master Hidy Ochiai in his first kickboxing match. All this with done with our original Hawaiian Shaolin Kempo method of KGS. Not too bad, I think.
Out of respect to the moderators I'm closing out as they suggested but if anyone wishes to discuss things further either pm me or drop me a line at
[email protected] In the words of Capt. James T. Kirk: "It was fun." Respectfully, Prof. Joe
