Happy May everyone. This year sure is going by fast. We have so much coming our way before the end of the year.
May 12th at CCWG(Calvary Chapel West Grove) is the Bob Mitchell Martial Artists for Christ fundraising dinner and Silent Auction 6pm .Then of course the actual Martial Artists event is at Downey Calvary this year on June 9th,a Saturday at 7pm.This year we are again having our Fireworks Stand in July, more information to come, but be on the lookout.
We all would like to wish all our new families a great big Welcome. Thank you for joining our Kenpo Family. We of course would like to congratulate Mr. Bob White on his promotion to 10th Degree we are so proud of you and honored to be part of your Organization.
Just a Kenpo refresher for our students both new and old, Mr. Parker was born in Hawaii in 1931 and began training in the martial arts at a young age in judo and later boxing. Sometime in the 1940s, Ed Parker was first introduced to Kenpō by Frank Chow who then introduced Ed Parker to William Chow, a student of James Mitose. William trained Parker while serving in the Coast Guard and attending Brigham Young University. In 1953 he was promoted to the rank of black belt. Seeing that modern times posed new situations that were not addressed in Kenpo, Mr. Parker adapted the art to make it more easily applicable to the streets of America and called his style, American Kenpo Karate.Ed Parker opened the first “Americanized” karate school in the western United States in Provo, Utah in 1954.By 1956, Parker opened a Dojo in Pasadena, California. His first brown belt student was Charles Beeder. There is controversy over whether Beeder received the first black belt awarded by Parker. Beeder’s son has stated for the record that his father’s black belt came after Ed Parker had moved to California. The other black belts in chronological order up to 1962 were: Rich Montgomery, James Ibrao, Mills Crenshaw, authorized by Ed Parker to open a school in Salt Lake City, UT in late 1958 (That school later became the birthplace of the International Kenpo Karate Association; or IKKA.), Tom Garriga, Rick Flores, Al and Jim Tracy of Tracy Kenpo, Chuck Sullivan, John McSweeney, Dave Hebler,and Bob White .
Parker was well known for his business creativity and helped many martial artists open their own dojos. He was well known in Hollywood where he trained a great many stunt men and celebrities; most notable was Elvis Presley, a few masters who are known around the world to this day such as Bob White, Huk Planas, Larry Tatum, Bob Mitchell, Ron Chapel, Eddie Downey, John Sepulveda, and Steve LaBounty. He helped Bruce Lee gain national attention by introducing him at his International Karate Championships. He served as one of Elvis Presley’s bodyguards during the singer’s final years, did movie stunt-work and acting, and was the Kenpo instructor of martial arts action movie actor Jeff Speakman. He is best known to Kenpoists as the founder of American Kenpo and is referred to fondly as the “Father of American Kenpo”. He is formally referred to as Senior Grand Master of American Kenpo.
