Professor Chow black belt class

If you look close, everyone in this photo is a black belt, so I am assuming this is one of Professor Chow's advanced black belt classes.

The Emperado brothers, Joe and Adriano, are sitting on each side of Professor Chow.

I don't know about you, but I would be scared as hell to be in this class. It looks to me that only one guy (tall guy in the back) has what you could call even a hint of a smile. The rest are dead serious.

I wouldn't last five minutes in this class.

Professor William "Thunderbolt" Chow

Pretty much all of what we know as Kenpo began with this man. 

This photo looks to be a cleaned up version of an old photo we have all probably seen a thousand times. I guess this new AI stuff is good for something, like cleaning up old photos.

Techniques are like maps

 

Mark your calendars

 

Dian Tanaka interview (part 1)

There have been a lot of great interviews come out lately, and here is another one from the Blood, Sweat, and Cinema YouTube channel. Dian Tanaka is a very accomplished kenpoist and became quite famous in the kenpo community for her skills with performing forms at the Long Beach Internationals.

(There is also a "part 2" but that is for members only it looks like.)

I've only listened to half of the interview so far but loved her stories about being at the West LA studio and how you couldn't part in front of the building unless you drove a Cadillac.

(If you drove just a normal car you had to park around back.)

Deadly

(recently posted on Facebook by Mr. Tom Bleeker)

Some of these articles from the early days of martial arts in America are fun to read, probably every martial art was touting itself as the "most leathal" or "most deadly" art.

And yes, we do have the ability to easily hurt someone with our martial art, but it is still interesting to look back and see how the martial arts were advertised to the public.

Mr. Parker and Mr. Brian Adams during a demonstration

(photo recently shared on Facebook by Mr. Spencer Bolejack)

What a great photo! 

1962, Mr. Parker and Mr. Brian Adams demonstrating what looks to be a club technique. Great work by the photographer at capturing the action just at the right moment. Notice the knee check!

Judging by the background in the photo this looks like it came from the same demonstration in this previous post from several years ago, (see link)

https://kenponotes.blogspot.com/2017/08/mr-parker-demonstrating.html

Looks like a who's who from the early days of kenpo, Dan Inosanto, Tom Bleecker, and Steve Golden for example.

Also, seeing as they were using a microphone at the demonstration I'm thinking the first photo of Mr. Parker in the following linked post came from this demonstration as well.

https://kenponotes.blogspot.com/2018/09/photos-of-mr-parker-shared-on-ed-parker.html 

And finally, here are a couple of links to posts about Mr. Brian Adams if you missed them and want to know a little more about him.

https://kenponotes.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-medical-implications-of-karate.html

https://kenponotes.blogspot.com/2025/08/mr-brian-adams-interview-on-kenpo-in.html