Were weapons (of any kind) part of early Parker Kenpo?
There is the creed "I come to you with only Karate - empty hands. I have no weapons..."
...but then there are exercises such as the Staff Set that seem a bit...discongruous with the creed. I'm just curious.
Mr. Parker was very clear that his interpretation of Kenpo would leave traditional weapons of traditonal arts behind. Personal everyday self-defense was, and continued to be his primary goal.
Although he included slef-defense techniques for weapons like guns, knives, and bludgeons, he felt that "good guys" had no need of lessons to learn how to attack or even defend themselves WITH these weapons.
He viewed them as "offensive tools" for the "bad guys" that would not be readily available to the average person in the American Culture as a defense tool. Just as he had no sword defenses as some traditional arts do, he felt these things would be out of place in the real world of everyday self-defense in the American Culture.
Mr. Parker initially allowed the staff as the only weapon taught in the beginning of his system. He reasoned that a staff was an everyday self-defense tool in the form of a broom and its handle, that could be utilized as a self-defense tool.
When Mr. Parker created the International Karate Championships in 1964, he had no idea that it, in conjunction with the coming in-progress commercial system, would cause him to introduce weapons. The combination of the two made it good business sense to introduce such material.
First, as the tournament evolved, it expanded the forms and kata divisions to include "weapons and showmanship divisions." Initially Kenpo had to compete in either what was called the "hard" Japanese/Okinawan divisions, or the "soft" of the Chinese/Filipino/Indonesian divisions.
Parker received complaints because Kenpo had a difficult time fitting in, (read winning) in either. They were not hard enough to satisfy the Japanese criterior, nor soft enough for the Chinese. So, Parker created a "Medium Division," careful to not label it "Kenpo" for fear of an implied bias. Competitors were openly invited to compete in whatever division they felt comfortable, or encouraged to compete in all of them if they desired. I wrote specific rules for judging each of the forms divisions, and style was not to be considered an issue, only the performance criterior. This opened all of the divisions to all competitors, and many competed across style lines successfully.
The natural progression from there was to create a "Traditional Weapons Division" for both the "Hard," and "Soft" competitor divisions. However Kenpo had no weapons. The demand from Kenpo Students to have weapons to expand their competition chioces drove Parker to created "Club," and "Knife" Sets, and even a brief foray into, the very popular at the time, "Nunchaku."
Later we added "Music or Showmanship Divisions" that also attracted many competitors from all styles. The result here was that many were beginning to perform "demo-like" routines, with well choreographed fights with multiple attackers set to music. The arena was filled with competitors and huge "boom boxes."
The division began to look like a casting call for a Bruce Lee T.V show or movie. Martial artists decided to become actors, and showcase themselves, much as Bruce Lee had done at the tournament. Oddly enough the competitors began to act like a bunch of actors as well, demanding use of the arena sound system and exotic props for their "act." Many with well rehersed routines, became angry when they couldn't perform in multiple divisions with their music blaring through the arena sound system.
But it was these Rountines that led Mr. Parker to ask me to create a division to showcase Kenpo in a similar manner. At his request I created the "Self-defense Division," and wrote the rules for insertion into the "IKC Rule Book."
These weapons carried over to the commercial studios and gave students what they wanted. Even though they were contrary to Mr. Parker's personal philosophy in America, they were very lucrative in the business world of commercial studios and tournaments. Parker was a martial arts genius - with five kids and a wife and several mortgages, and he had to become as good a businessman.
