The history of how this Manual of the Lost Techniques was developed is an interesting one. For those who know my other writings on Kenpo topics will know that I normally do not give much personal details or ‘name-drop’. However, the people involved with the background of this material are very notable. It is hopeful that practitioners of Kenpo from the 1960s and 1970s will experience nostalgia, and the new practitioners of our art will get inspired from how we trained in the developmental days of Kenpo in America.

Part 4 - The Assimilation Years – 1990 to 1996

For the next three years, Eric and I would teach Parker’s Kenpo and be visited by many students seeking more insights into Kenpo. Leilani Parker, Ed’s wife, would give out our school address to individuals in this part of the nation. We had students migrating from all parts of the country to train with us, including Canada. Some have become known in their own right. We promoted Martin Wheeler to 2nd Degree Black Belt (he created his own system call “Iron Monkey” and taught in seminars with the Wedlake and Planas groups), Michael Beal to 2nd Black Belt (now a regional representative for the Chinese Karate Federation), Larry Charles to 4th Black Belt (he also taught at some seminars with Lee Wedlake), and others. During this time period I had become promoted to 7th Degree Black Belt in American Kenpo, and Eric to 5th.

We finished the Library of Kenpo series in 1993 and sold them to our students in our newly formed organization, the Order of American Kenpoists (O.A.K.). We coined the term ‘kenpoists’ rather than using the standard ‘kenpoka’ because we wanted to drive the students to the American heritage of Kenpo, rather than the oriental. Now ‘kenpoists’ is the only term that you will hear referring to a practitioner of Kenpo. Our acronym, O.A.K. was to supercede the ‘old pine tree style’ of Kenpo – the mighty American Oak is stronger and greater than the soft pine. Our O.A.K newsletters, “The Forum”, were highly sought out for the informative content that we gave. In 1996, Eric and I started to teach private lessons again. We made a road trip down to Al Tracy’s headquarters and were accepted back as instructors. At that time our school had grown to its largest of about 80 students. Eric and I gave an option between Tracy’s and Parker’s Kenpo to our students. Currently, I strongly suggest to all American Kenpo Black Belts to cross-train into the Tracy System and all Tracy black belts to cross-train into the Parker System. The students that I have promoted up to and past black belt in both systems are my best. In general, the Tracy students have always been stronger fighters, and the Parker students have been more articulate about Kenpo. We have found that when we had brought both systems of knowledge to our students, we had created the ultimate Kenpoists. In essence, these Kenpoists are the examples of the phrase, “We the Warrior and the Scholar, come together …”

During the 1980s and 1990s, Eric and I had learned quite a bit about the Filipino martial arts. I am married to a Filipino lady, and have had a great deal of access to their arts. Eric expanded his knowledge by traveling and studying with Dan Inosanto. Eventually we had developed a complete and unique system of the Filipino martial arts that we had learned, and many students traveled to Louisville to learn it. Al Tracy and his brother Will Tracy have always been very helpful to me. When I first visited Al in 1996, I asked him how to get a website started. The Tracy website, www.tracyskarate.com, was one of the first martial arts websites available on the Internet, and certainly the first site about Kenpo. I wanted to start a website that featured our system of Pangasinan Arnis de Mano. I was knowledgeable with computers, yet did not know how to create web pages. Al introduced me to his brother Will, who taught me over the telephone, how to program websites. The result, in 1996 we created our first website – www.arnis.org. It was a successful site. Al knew about the manuals that Eric and I had written for Ed Parker – The Library of Kenpo. Al insisted that we make the American Kenpo materials available on the web. In his travels he had seen how quickly the American Kenpo system had begun to erode. We followed his advice and began to produce the first American Kenpo Karate Home Study Course on video. The students that we have turned out with this program have been phenomenal. As result to the knowledge of learning how to develop websites, I had become very proficient with computers.

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