Doc,
First it seems that perhaps a hello is in order. :asian: Hello, and thanks so much for your interest. I see now from this thread that you are more than familiar with Infinite Insights. That's great.
Same to you sir. If you look again youÂ’ll find I am in every volume.
What you have to say here is very interesting to me, because I've been curious about finding out more information regarding Ed Parker's original intent in terms of Kenpo. Actually, I was originally more specifically interested in the Kenpo we learn today and why it often differs amongst some Kenpo schools.
The contemporary or the business kenpo is by design an interpretive conceptual product. Instructors as well as students were supposed to interpret that material to their personally liking. Clearly in the arts this was innovative on one level, but destructive to the overall art on another that establishes no definitive material beyond the generalized concepts. Every school, student, teacher is different because the only goal was to make the individual as competent as possible with the available material. Even simple blocks are different from student to student and school to school. This is an anomaly in the arts and far from the norm in other discipline with more depth of available knowledge or definitive structure.
I wanted to know more about the way Ed Parker originally wanted the material presented in Kenpo as he first presented it. I am most interested in how that may have changed in translation over time to the differences in what we are learning in the present.
Good luck there. ThatÂ’s like attempting to decipher Henry FordÂ’s original intent for his method for the building of the automobile. You might want to re-think that position rather than trying to find a definitive thought process for an entity designed to be interpreted by whomever comes in contact with it.
Simply, he was creating a conceptual vehicle that every student could find value in, and come away with something they find functional that did NOT require his presence day-to-day for instructors or students to learn. Afterall he was the one and only expert for this newly created conceptual art and couldn't be everywhere on a consistent basis. His personal art, is another story however.
These thoughts of mine are the result of research on Kenpo for my thesis paper. I discovered that Ed Parker had a written curriculum, which you must also know of; I think it is entitled the "Accumulative Journal".
I was looking at my copy yesterday cleaning out my archives after moving a school. Although I never really used it, I was presented with a copy of most material as Parker produced it from the early sixties so I have a lot of stuff.
I also took a look at the original commercial material of 32 techniques per belt that started with orange and stopped at green. After green the material changes to “green/brown” where the extensions of the orange belt material are added back in. It wasn’t until much later that the purple extensions, weapon forms, etc were added to expand the commercial and competition material.
I would love to find that as well, but was disappointed to learn that it is no longer in print.
There are lots of guys that still have theirs. I bet Dennis Conatser is another with it. That Dude (he’s a Bud so I can call him that), never got rid of anything. Parker used to call him the “Pack Rat” he accumulated so much written material from every source he could get his hands on.
I remain interested in Ed Parker's intentions before others influenced the teaching of the Kenpo that is taught today.
Now you are moving in a completely different direction. Before Parker was influenced by Chinese Masters in California, the Kenpo was closer to what he was taught in Hawaii and represented in his first commercial “kenpo karate” book in 1961. But even that was evolving rapidly before he “split off” the commercial motion based version.
This interest was sparked by research and an article that I read: Kenpo Never Change.
Ed Parker used to say, “Kenpo never changes, but is perpetually refined.” But he was not talking about a single entity Kenpo as most think it is. There are many, many versions inclusive of the commercial “Kenpo” with the word “karate” attached to it that he taught and sold as a business model for instructor students to make a living. This is the perpetually refined kenpo he spoke of which was based on a teachers/students personal interpretation and use of abstract motion theory. It changed from teacher to teacher, student to student, and Parker ranked them according to their own group not to an overall “kenpo” as well.
Further, since Ed Parker authored the Infinite Insights books, I assumed these were his original thoughts, or rather his original intentions, for Kenpo. I had not considered otherwise.
Infinite Insights were written as a model for all martial artists as you observed, however Ed Parker used his commercial version of kenpo as the basis for the business material he had evolved from the early seventies. Actually there was no new material in the Infinite Insights. It simply represented commercial product Parker (and others) worked on from about 1972 to 1980. In fact in the first volume he states as much, and the first volume was published as I recall in 1981.
As of 6:41 am that was the best information I had on the subject matter. Thanks for the enlightenment. I had no idea that Ed Parker had considered something different from the beginning, but find it fascinating that he made changes in his intent, and I wonder about that. I am further curious as to whether or not you think that some of the original concepts should have remained.
The original (and more) material does remain, it simply is not represented in the business model because it is too labor intensive and requires extensive knowledge not available to most. Additionally Parker never intended for it to be mass disseminated per his agreement with the Chinese who took him under their wing as a non-white and entrusted him with certain information the Chinese still hold close to the vest.
However, whether it was his first conception for Kenpo, or what circumstances may have caused him to change from his original intent, my feelings about these five books remain the same, and my interest in how he wanted the material presented remains the same. Perhaps sometime after I've had a chance to read the other books we could discuss the changes in his intent.
Parker never had a change of intent. He continued to expand and accumulate knowledge of the science until he passed. However the information in Infinite Insights represents more of a necessary divergence from his concurrently developing personal art, rather than a replacement as some may suggest. Clearly the Parker seen on film in the fifties and sixties is different in execution than the Parker of the eighties. He is not executing the material represented in Infinite Insights. That is why most could not replicate what Parker did when he executed a technique. He was not doing the same thing he was teaching. In later video of seminars, you can see that when he teaches slowly he does things different than when he “explodes.”
Either way it sounds like the books you are recommending may help me in some way in my quest - good books for a thirsty mind are always a welcome thing! I will put them on my list of reads right after I finish "The Path to Excellence" which is due to arrive in a week.
You will find them interesting, and they contain information that is not in Infinite Insights and allude to things mysteriously “dropped” later on from the commercial kenpo that remained in Parker’s personal evolution. I always use the “slap-check” as an example. It was never written about in any of Parker’s published work, yet was very prominent in his explosive execution.
It's funny how we come to learn new things, because my original intent here, on this thread, was simply to agree with something you had said earlier in this thread about it being Edmund Parker's place, if anyone's, to make changes to the volumes. I didn't state it before, but I agree with that. At the same time, I also think they are fine just the way they are.
Yes, the only thing I would like to see Edmund do is re-do some of the pictures, (As Ed Parker intended to do before he passed), and compile the volumes into one large hard cover with an addendum from Ed Parker Jr. separate from the original material.
I'm glad I didn't make that simple statement, because I've learned something new. Thanks.
My final advice, is don't think of American Kenpo as a single entity with an expectation everyone is even close to the same thing. Beyond the, what has become, the generic name, most are very different interpretations as Parker intended for most.
I always learn something in these exchanges. Thank you for participating. We must do it again sir.
Resectfully,
artyon:
I will certainly look to find you in each volume. 
