A couple of links to Larry Tatum interviews

In the past it seemed like Mr. Tatum didn't do any interviews, or if he did they weren't readily available.  

Lately however a couple of interviews with Mr. Tatum have come up on YouTube. 

Here are the links, enjoy.

link to My Empty Hands interview

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link to Whistlekick Martial Arts interview

Some thoughts on Kenpo techniques by Mr. Shayne Simpson

(recently posted on Facebook by Mr. Shayne Simpson)

A Kenpo technique is essentially a coordinated flurry of strikes, but only if you take the opponent out of time with the very first strike.

Just like in an MMA fight, once the opponent is stunned and their timing is broken, the fighter immediately unleashes a rapid combination of strikes to finish the encounter.

If you fail to disrupt their timing on the first move, what began as self-defense quickly turns into a back-and-forth fight

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Part 2 of my thoughts on Kenpo Techniques, and How we train them at Rock Solid. 

Kenpo techniques are not self-defense. In the techniques, you already know the answer before the problem is even given to you. That’s not how real violence works.

Ed Parker’s Kenpo techniques are Cycle of Consideration short stories, training tools that teach recognizable moments, concepts, and principles. They explore Attitude, Environment, dimensional stages of action, positions, maneuvers, targets, weapons, and angles. The principles and concepts within them are rooted in logic, using the three points of view to determine what is useful, unusual and what is useless.

That is exactly how Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu uses Ed Parker’s Kenpo techniques to train.

We treat them as valuable short stories to learn from … but if I ever end up in a real self-defense situation or a fight, I won’t be reciting a technique. I’ll be writing my own story in real time, using the awareness, principles, concepts, and adaptable tools I gained from all those stories.

The technique isn’t the answer.

It’s the training that prepares you to create your own answer when it matters.

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Part 3 of my thoughts on Kenpo Techniques 

One of my biggest pet peeves? Keyboard warriors who trash the cooperative stage of training because they don’t understand how real learning and skill development actually work. They see partners drilling techniques slowly and cooperatively and immediately dismiss it as “not real fighting.”

They’re right about one thing: a good practitioner moves through the full progression, cooperative → collaborative → competitive → combative.  Those stages are clearly laid out in Lawrence Robinson's book The Better Bad Guy (available on Amazon). 

But what they miss is that the cooperative stage isn’t a weakness, it’s the essential foundation everything else is built on.

Here’s why it’s so powerful:

Recent neuroscience shows that “muscle memory” isn’t actually stored in the muscles at all. Muscles store zero memory, they simply respond to electrical (and chemical) signals from the brain, routed through the spine. 

The real work happens in the ganglia and especially the cerebellum, which fine-tunes movement using vision and proprioceptive feedback (those receptors that tell your body where its parts are in space).

To develop real skill, we have to make imperfect movements. That’s how the cerebellum calibrates and refines technique. This is exactly why the progression slow/mechanical → slow/fluid→ fast/mechanical → fast/fluid is so effective. 

Going slow first allows the brain to properly wire the movement. Rushing it too early just grooves in mistakes. And don’t forget: roughly half of effective movement is anticipation and expectation. 

That’s why visualization is so powerful, it builds long term potentiation, strengthening the neural connections related to the movement before you even execute it. The cooperative stage gives us the safe, focused reps needed to build these deep, reliable patterns. It’s where the real wiring happens.

To everyone here who already gets it: keep embracing the process. 

Respect every stage of the journey. 

Real skill isn’t built in ego-driven chaos, it’s forged through deliberate, intelligent practice.

Train Intelligently . 

Train with purpose. 

Forge your own path.

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Part 4

When we train, we always have a choice: we can train in the Attention State or the Intention State.

In the Attention State, we deliberately focus on refining a specific principle, concept, or combination. This focused work is best done in cooperative or collaborative training environments, where your partner supports your skill development.

Example: Let’s say I’m refining the technique Five Swords and I want to improve my perceptual speed, one of the key types of speed in our system. I know I’m right-eye dominant, so I naturally scan left-to-right and top-to-bottom.

In the Attention State, I consciously pay attention to where my dominant eye is focusing (usually my opponent’s right shoulder). I adjust my positioning and movement so my dominant eye stays closest to the opponent and locked onto that key area. This is a principle I’m working to internalize so deeply that I no longer have to think about it, I just do it.

Over time, this builds the ability to see the fight more clearly and recognize defensive opportunities faster.

As Skip Hancock teaches: The Dominant Eye will lead and the rest will follow.

Once I’ve done the focused work in the Attention State, I shift into the Intention State. This is where I test myself in more competitive or combat-oriented training. My single intention might be “see the fight better,” but I don’t consciously focus on the mechanics anymore. I simply get in and train to end the fight.

After the round, I step back and analyze:

• How well did I maintain perceptual speed and dominant-eye positioning?

• Did the skill show up naturally, or do I need to return to the Attention State to sharpen it further?

This process aligns directly with Skip Hancock’s teaching that Intention guides Attention. It’s a smart, layered way to build real skill. This is the power of intelligent training. I could train in a primitive way and only chase raw physical speed. I have fast-twitch fibers, so that comes relatively easy to me.

But real dominance comes from mastering all types of speed, such as perceptual speed, which comes from familiarity and deliberate practice. That’s what allows me to neutralize someone who’s physically faster than I am. I’m using perceptual speed and eye dominance as one example, but the same Attention → Intention process applies to countless principles in Kenpo.

So when you hear others criticize the way we train, have sympathy for them.

They simply don’t understand it.

Their approach is often primitive because they’ve never learned how to build skills this deliberately and intelligently.

Trust the process. Never let someone who says “That’ll never work” discourage you. Usually, it’s because they don’t know how to train effectively.

Stay compassionate. 

Their abilities will always be limited until they learn to train smarter.

Keep forging ahead.

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.)