Sometimes I wonder why I do enjoy so much practicing kempo.
The answer, I guess, is multilayered.
Considering I was born in the 70s and I was an impressionable child in the 80s, I enjoyed a lot of (bad) martial arts movies. American Ninja, Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Enter the Dragon, The Karate Kid. The list is long and illustrious and left an everlasting mark in my brain. Martial arts were cool! Ninjas were fierce! Underdogs could become the Übermenscht with the proper teacher and training. And I was the underdog: overweight, an insufferable know-it-all, often mocked but fortunately never bullied.
My parents enrolled me in a Judo class. It was OK, I had good technique but I was awful during sparring: too heavy, not agile, not fast… and I never, ever won a single combat during a tournament. I made it to brown belt and I gave up: I was never going to get a black belt. I started lifting weights and got fitter and stronger but kept looking longingly at the guys practicing aikido in my gym… After a while I had the chance to practice kyokushinkai karate for 6 months, and I realized much had changed since the last time I wore a gi: I was faster and I was stronger.
Sadly, the six months were up and there were no more classes for me. My gym back then during my college years didn’t provide any kind of martial art training and I started swimming and got back to weight lifting. Not long after, my professional life kicked in and I pretty much left all physical activity behind: back to overweight! I did try to swim and do some weight lifting, but with no discipline or frequency to be healthy or useful.
I did that for years and years, always trying (a little) to find a martial arts class to join (but no taekwondo… for some reason I cannot recall I have always boycotted taekwondo) to no avail.
Fast forward a few more years and a change of continent and I’m on my current job and a dojo comes to offer kempo classes on site… kempo… One of those 80s movies was called Kenpo: The Perfect Weapon (OK, 1991) and the name stuck in my head. I decided to join, and I felt in love.
A mixture of karate and kungfu has enough of formalism to let you learn some cool forms and lots of free style to not make you feel confined: you are actually encouraged to find your way, to create your moves!
With a great stress in cardiovascular exercise, hand speed and some kicks I found the perfect sport for me. I got lean, I got strong and I got in shape! Even more, I found out that fighting is fun. Of course I’m talking about a “fake” fighting, sparring, with rules and times and good spirits. It’s like a game of tag: the goal is to see who’s faster and more capable, not who can kick harder.
But martial arts are more than just sports: they offer a great way to focus your mind and increase your selfconfidence. Kempo is not an exception. My school follows the so called “five principles” that describe how a kempo student and practitioner should behave: character, effort, etiquette, self control and sincerity. They may seem (heck, I see them) a little quaint, but they definitely put you in the right frame of mind to learn what your body can do and what you can do with your body.
I have gone to some tournaments, I have won some trophies but, most importantly I have been able to overcome my paralyzing fear when sparring with public outside my usual dojo and comfort zone. Plastic trophies are cool, but that little victory is way more important for me.
I’m still halfway to my black belt, with some more years of practice in front of me before I can claim I’m proficient on the art… but it’s the path what is important, not the destination, and the path is lots of fun, lots of fun.
