Summary of Dynamic Kenpo Karate Boot Camp

A big thank you goes out to Associate Professor, Rob Broad, for putting on an awesome Kenpo Karate camp in Sarnia, Ontario this past weekend. The students received 15 hours of instruction over the course of 3 days, and the training was intense. If you did not make it out, you won’t want to miss this one next year. Jason Arnold, Pat Robinson, Rob Broad, and Scott Southwell did a great job with their teaching. Pretty much everything was covered – sets, techniques, groundwork, sparring, weaponry, you name it.

On the Saturday, I taught 3 seminars, all approximately one hour in length. The first one was a sparring session. In this seminar I worked on sparring combinations for both continuous and point sparring, as well as how to create openings against your opponent. I also gave several strategies of how to fight against aggressive fighters, counter-fighters, as well as runners. In my second seminar, I taught the students Stance Set 2, most of which it was their first time learning it. By the end of the summer, everyone got up and performed it!

In the last seminar, something extraordinary happened. Jason Arnold (5th Degree American Kenpo Karate Black Belt) and I did a joint tag-team seminar. Jason and I have known each other for almost 20 years now. The two of us taught at a local camp together back in 1999, have been at a few seminars together over the years, and trained at the same Kenpo school briefly back in 1991. We have actually had differences over the years, although mutual admiration for one another’s dedication to the martial arts.

This past weekend everything changed. Jason and I became friends, let go of all past differences, and together put on a joint seminar which I hear some students are still talking about. Essentially, I taught the base technique (ideal phase) of various self-defense scenarios, while Jason showed how they parallel other self-defense techniques in the system, as well as some nice insertions. First, I started by teaching Evading the Storm, and Jason then showed how this technique is basically the same as Attacking Mace. The students learned how, given a change in the nature of the attack, Attacking Mace could also be applied for an overhead club attack. Second, I taught the technique Defying the Storm. After learning the technique with detail, Jason taught how you can disarm the club should the opponent block the inward elbow strike to the head, and then continue on as normal with the ending of Defying the Storm. Finally, I finished by teaching the Back Breaker, and Jason followed by showing its similarity to Brushing the Storm and even how the Back Breaker could be performed off of an overhead club attack coming from 3 o’clock as in Brushing the Storm.

To top of the day, Rob’s mother made enough food to feed about two dozen hungry lions, which each participant received as part of their Kenpo camp package.

Dynamic Kenpo Karate Boot Camp = Success. Can’t wait for next year.