Why I Studied the Martial Arts I Have
We included four or more martial arts in our academy’s curriculum. When I look at these arts, I see a distinct reason that I studied each one. These arts cover striking, grappling, ground fighting and a practical self-defense weapon, the cane.
I started studying Shotokan karate in the Fall of 1994. I switched to Taekwondo with my nephew in the Spring of 1995. Taekwondo brought striking into my self-defense arsenal. I wrestled some in high school and took several law enforcement defensive training classes but Taekwondo helped me to develop my striking skills. After I realized the inadequacy of most Taekwondo stylists’ hand techniques, I also added boxing to my repertoire.
Ken Breaking in the late 1990s.
Around the time that I was going to test for 1st Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo, I started training in Judo also. I was always interested in grappling. My instructor was a 4th Dan (6th Dan today) in Taekwondo and a 2nd Dan in Judo. Many of our self-defenses we were teaching were based in Judo, so I wanted to learn the art. I also was interested in BJJ, which developed out of Judo.
The Judo helped me to learn to grapple on my feet. Judo also contains ground fighting but the throws are emphasized more than anything else. 70 percent of judo training is focused on throws.
Kenneth and Me Rolling
In April 2009, the Gracie Brothers, Ryron and Renner, created Gracie University to spread their grandfather’s system throughout the world. We have adopted some of this curriculum plus part of the Grand Masters’ original 40 lessons from the Rio academy.
I also began studying Goju Shorei weapons system around this time to add skills with the cane. Since I was only interested in a weapon that be carried legally, the cane was the perfect match. I have also picked up cane techniques from Bartitsu and some of the Hapkido cane videos.
The philosophy behind our curriculum is that there are some people that we want to strike with, some people that we want to grapple with and for those that we want to do neither, we have the cane. The key is to build a curriculum that makes sense and teaches the self-defense skills in a progressive manner.
