It looks like since the beginning of time or at least the introduction of the term Martial Art there have been endless comparisons of different styles, systems and methodology in fighting and defense. Its all over the place more than ever with the internet and multimedia. Ultimate fighting and the like events where guys try to prove that their art is superior, and most recently the entrance of a loose based form known as MMA or Mixed Martial Arts which try to bring the most effective moves together in a formless art.
If one thing is sure in the martial arts it is that things constantly change at a very fast pace, and with this channge public opinion and popularity come and goes. I have been in the martial arts for many years so I will give you a run down in succession of what the most (by public perception anyway) fearsome martial arts were and are.
1. Karate from Okinawa WWII
2. Judo back in the fifties to mid sixties (Think James Bond).
3. Tae Kwon Do in the seventies because there were so few Kung Fu schools to take advantage of demand from the popularity of Bruce Lee and David Carradine in "Kung Fu" - Marketing is a wonderful thing.
4. Aikido - we welcome Steven Seagal
5. Birth of the UFC and here comes Ju Jitsu as the dominator.
6. MMA - UFC type events now try multi arts instead of which art is best. As any MA Instructor can tell you one on one Ju Jitsu has definite advantage.
And there we are now. So you say I am missing a few, yes that is true so we will touch on those now.
Tae Bo - more of a fad and not a martial art it is exercise and a good workout.
Krav Maga - good self defense art but it was not widely available and faded in popularity quickly as the public has martial art attention deficit disorder.
In my life as a martial artist and then a martial art teacher I have practiced many arts, some just to see what they are about, and others to help me along my journey to find the ultimate fighting art. I have done the various Kung Fu classes, the Kuk Sool classes, the Karate forms, the Ju Jitsu, Kickboxing, all sorts of stick arts, knife arts, sword arts, and firearm styles of combat shooting.
After all my searching I found that there in fact is not an ultimate martial art and each one was good for maybe one thing only, and no art is good for all things no matter what the brochure tells you. Each one had a glaring weakness. Judo or way of gentle is excellent at throwing but not good against a puncher. Boxing has great hand techniques, but useless against the kicker. Karate is good depending on which system and philosophy (defense or tournament) but is limited against a street brawler. Aikido is great at using an attackers movements against them, but useless against a skilled and balance oriented opponent. Ju Jitsu is great for one on one defense and useless against several attackers if it goes to the ground (nothing like an attackers buddy kicking you in the head while your on-top of his friend). MMA is great for one on one and cage, but almost useless against the street fighter or multiple jack asses. So we must look further and know our own limitation and needs to make the educated decision.
I did not find what I was looking for so I designed my own arts from my experience of bleeding and broken bones and knowing first hand what works and what does not. First I figured that tournament or ring work was not my interest, so my main focus was on pure defense or street fighting which usually means no rules and I get to go home no matter what.
The systems that I teach now out of my seven black belts that I earned are Jeet Kune Do the style of Bruce Lee that I learned from one the the original Lee School students, and a new form of Kempo Karate that I heavily modified to where it barely resembled anything in the Kempo or Kenpo world today.
First I hate using the work expert but I am expert in the movements of the body and how to streamline and align it to get the most speed and power from any move. To do this I take the move I want then remove all the un necessary steps, make sure there is no chambering or telegraph to let anyone know what is going to happen to them, then tweak it to get more and more power so that each strike caused the most energy delivery and disruption of tissue and bone. I have used these methods with professional fighters and increased their speed and power by an average of 20% to 25% which is huge. Its a weird gift but its mine.
After years of searching I resigned myself to the fact that what I longed for did not excist so I forged an art of my own, American Combat Kempo. As for the name, well I am an American for sure, I wanted only combat aspects so tournament play was out, and since my teaching lineage traces back to the Saholin Temple in China it had to be Kempo (Chuan Fa in Chinese).
In phase one I took the modified strikes that I was speaking of above that were from standard Kempo or Kenpo along with Okinawan Karate, melded them with Kung Fu strikes that I liked, developed new non passive blocking (blocks are hard fast strikes) along with soft trapping blocking for grappling work.
In phase two I took the best of Ju Jitsu from the original Ju Jitsu ( Aiki) and incorporated them to work along side the strikes and both blocking methods.
In phase three we went all out on the traditional weapons of Okinawa and modernized the procedures for real world fighting scenarios, along with swords and edged weapon (knives) fighting from Philippino arts that I modified for my needs. Then we went modern with all sorts of firearms in the advanced Master levels. You can not be a true master unless you can handle any and all weapons available to you, or thrust upon you.
So, am I saying that my art is the ultimate fighting art? No, but it is for my needs and what I designed it for. I have had others including agencies copy many aspects of my system, and many use my moves in real combat so I know what I teach is effective for the real world. Would it be effective in like a UFC even thing? Yes we would win everything. Now if only they would just throw out all those rules again so we could. Of course things are just the way they should be ni that repect. My rule book? I think its written on the back of a napkin somewhere. It says go home alive to your family.
If one thing is sure in the martial arts it is that things constantly change at a very fast pace, and with this channge public opinion and popularity come and goes. I have been in the martial arts for many years so I will give you a run down in succession of what the most (by public perception anyway) fearsome martial arts were and are.1. Karate from Okinawa WWII
2. Judo back in the fifties to mid sixties (Think James Bond).
3. Tae Kwon Do in the seventies because there were so few Kung Fu schools to take advantage of demand from the popularity of Bruce Lee and David Carradine in "Kung Fu" - Marketing is a wonderful thing.
4. Aikido - we welcome Steven Seagal
5. Birth of the UFC and here comes Ju Jitsu as the dominator.
6. MMA - UFC type events now try multi arts instead of which art is best. As any MA Instructor can tell you one on one Ju Jitsu has definite advantage.
And there we are now. So you say I am missing a few, yes that is true so we will touch on those now.
Tae Bo - more of a fad and not a martial art it is exercise and a good workout.
Krav Maga - good self defense art but it was not widely available and faded in popularity quickly as the public has martial art attention deficit disorder.
In my life as a martial artist and then a martial art teacher I have practiced many arts, some just to see what they are about, and others to help me along my journey to find the ultimate fighting art. I have done the various Kung Fu classes, the Kuk Sool classes, the Karate forms, the Ju Jitsu, Kickboxing, all sorts of stick arts, knife arts, sword arts, and firearm styles of combat shooting.
After all my searching I found that there in fact is not an ultimate martial art and each one was good for maybe one thing only, and no art is good for all things no matter what the brochure tells you. Each one had a glaring weakness. Judo or way of gentle is excellent at throwing but not good against a puncher. Boxing has great hand techniques, but useless against the kicker. Karate is good depending on which system and philosophy (defense or tournament) but is limited against a street brawler. Aikido is great at using an attackers movements against them, but useless against a skilled and balance oriented opponent. Ju Jitsu is great for one on one defense and useless against several attackers if it goes to the ground (nothing like an attackers buddy kicking you in the head while your on-top of his friend). MMA is great for one on one and cage, but almost useless against the street fighter or multiple jack asses. So we must look further and know our own limitation and needs to make the educated decision.
I did not find what I was looking for so I designed my own arts from my experience of bleeding and broken bones and knowing first hand what works and what does not. First I figured that tournament or ring work was not my interest, so my main focus was on pure defense or street fighting which usually means no rules and I get to go home no matter what.
The systems that I teach now out of my seven black belts that I earned are Jeet Kune Do the style of Bruce Lee that I learned from one the the original Lee School students, and a new form of Kempo Karate that I heavily modified to where it barely resembled anything in the Kempo or Kenpo world today.
First I hate using the work expert but I am expert in the movements of the body and how to streamline and align it to get the most speed and power from any move. To do this I take the move I want then remove all the un necessary steps, make sure there is no chambering or telegraph to let anyone know what is going to happen to them, then tweak it to get more and more power so that each strike caused the most energy delivery and disruption of tissue and bone. I have used these methods with professional fighters and increased their speed and power by an average of 20% to 25% which is huge. Its a weird gift but its mine.After years of searching I resigned myself to the fact that what I longed for did not excist so I forged an art of my own, American Combat Kempo. As for the name, well I am an American for sure, I wanted only combat aspects so tournament play was out, and since my teaching lineage traces back to the Saholin Temple in China it had to be Kempo (Chuan Fa in Chinese).
In phase one I took the modified strikes that I was speaking of above that were from standard Kempo or Kenpo along with Okinawan Karate, melded them with Kung Fu strikes that I liked, developed new non passive blocking (blocks are hard fast strikes) along with soft trapping blocking for grappling work.
In phase two I took the best of Ju Jitsu from the original Ju Jitsu ( Aiki) and incorporated them to work along side the strikes and both blocking methods.
In phase three we went all out on the traditional weapons of Okinawa and modernized the procedures for real world fighting scenarios, along with swords and edged weapon (knives) fighting from Philippino arts that I modified for my needs. Then we went modern with all sorts of firearms in the advanced Master levels. You can not be a true master unless you can handle any and all weapons available to you, or thrust upon you.
So, am I saying that my art is the ultimate fighting art? No, but it is for my needs and what I designed it for. I have had others including agencies copy many aspects of my system, and many use my moves in real combat so I know what I teach is effective for the real world. Would it be effective in like a UFC even thing? Yes we would win everything. Now if only they would just throw out all those rules again so we could. Of course things are just the way they should be ni that repect. My rule book? I think its written on the back of a napkin somewhere. It says go home alive to your family.
Carter Hargrave is the chief instructor at Hargrave Martial Arts, Head of the World Jeet Kune Do Federation and World Kempo Association, and can be reached at http://www.CarterHargrave.org or http://www.Kempo.org
