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I'm black belt L5 non-trainer certified Krav Maga as a primary, but I have also been practicing taijiquan and baguazhang for several years, and recently took up xingyiquan which is the third in that family of martial arts. For several years I studied iaijutsu, though I've not actively practiced that art for several years. I've done brief two-three month studies of capoeira, hung gar, Shaolin long fist, kickboxing, boxing, tae kwon do, judo, muay thai, and recently started looking into either taking up aikido or Brazilian jiu-jitsu to supplement my poor ground game.

As far as my present practice, I have been focusing most heavily on my internal martial arts (taijiquan, baguazhang, and xingyiquan) because they take the most time to master but the least amount of time each day to actually practice.

So dose any one know who Ed Parker is.

I'm a practitioner of Kenpo.This sounds like you've been ill-informed my friend.

You are right about grapples,I suppose.In Kenpo we generally won't put you in a lock or hold,in fact just the opposite.There are a lot of counter grabs and ways of getting out of common locks and holds used by your average street fighter,not to mention we are taught to defend against locks and holds of those who are experienced.

And some guy didn't just make Kenpo,it was an already existing style that was brought to the U.S. some time in the 60's I believe.The usage of American in American Kenpo only means it is an American variation of the style.

There is a lot of striking.It's very relative to Kung Fu in the sense of every strike is a block and every block is a strike,very much like Wing Chun if you want to get technical.As I have said before Kenpo is a Chinese art,that found its way to Okinawa and Japan.There they developed their own variation of it,to differentiate their variation from the oringinal they named their version Kempo and the other Kenpo.Kenpo is the Japanese term for Chuan Fa,which means the Law of the Fist,although it is not limited to punching.Kenpo can be looked at as simply another branch of Kung Fu for the layman.Not that it isn't influenced by such styles but it runs deeper than that.Kenpo is the systematic deconstruction of the human anatomy in a self defense matter.It is said to be the hard application of Tai Chi.The two actually seem to complete one another in a Yin-Yang sense.Tai Chi builds energy,and Chuan Fa destroys energy.When combined they form Tai Chi Chuan.The two can be taught together,or separately,though when one practices both similarities are easily identified.

Now for the Karate thing.It originated in China,and the original translation was China Hand,a Chinese hand art.when it found it's way to Japan and Okinawa it was latter referred to as Empty Hand,still a hand art,though it was not limited to only hand strikes and techniques.Sound familiar?Karate is a watered down Kenpo/Chuan Fa.Someone took the basics of Kenpo/Chuan Fa and expanded off those.Karate is a style based of Kenpo/Chuan Fa,with other influences as well.Since Karate was the basics of common martial arts,it became the basic style of martial arts.Meaning it was an effective style that didn't have extreme depth.Almost like studying Martial Arts in general.When Kenpo came to the U.S. and other places,it was a style many people hadn't heard of,unlike Karate.Therefore,since Karate was well known,and had Kenpo characteristics having been made up of Kenpo's basics,the style's name became Kenpo Karate.That way it didn't come off as something nobody as ever heard of.They would think," Ken-what...oh,Karate.I check it out.",being as not everyone was extremely adventurous at the time.

Questions?Lol.