Classes will resume at KCEH on Tuesday, January 9.
Our Curriculum. Try it, you’ll like it.
The Penn Ryukyu Kempo club was founded by Charles Terry when he was an undergraduate here at Penn in 1986. Chas has long since graduated, completed Med school, and started a commercial dojo. The current club curriculum integrates traditional Okinawan karate (Ryukyu Kempo) with Filipino stick fighting (Modern Arnis) and Chinese boxing (Wei Kuen Do)–the proverbial ‘Quaker Blend.’
Ryukyu Kempo (Grandmaster George Dillman) is a traditional Okinawan fighting system based on the “strike-to-grapple, grapple-to-strike” ideology. From this art, the club takes striking and joint-manipulation techniques, pressure-point theory, and traditional Okinawan kata (Naihanchi, Seisan, Wanshu, Passai, Kusanku, Chinto, Seiunchin, Sanchin). Instructors emphasize the importance the bunkai (breakdown) of kata play in being the basis of self-defense techniques.
Modern Arnis (Professor Remy Presas) is the source of a variety of fighting-shells, trapping techniques, and weapons training that the club practices. The instructors have found this teaching paradigm to be one of the most effective in helping students rapidly develop strong fighting fundamentals. Since the passing of Professor Presas in 2001, the club has worked closely with Master Jeff Delaney and Datu Tim Hartman.
Wei Kuen Do (Grandmaster Leo Fong) is an art closer to Western boxing than most forms of karate. The club takes basic footwork patterns, body mechanics, and proper punching technique from this art. In addition to the physical techniques, Grandmaster Fong focuses on developing mental and emotional strength in order to deal with any confrontation.
Initially as a beginner, you will learn the basic footwork patterns in combination with simple strikes and kicks. The next stage involves building upon these basics by including trapping, locks, and throws. Once these fundamentals have been cultivated, basic ground-fighting is taught as well as the rudiments of bunkai. Around brown belt level, you start doing advanced kata bunkai, and incorporating pressure points into all your grappling and striking techniques.
Our purpose is not to teach you how to fight. It is to teach the principles involved in fighting and let you develop your own fighting style. As such, you will always learn WHY we do what we do. If it doesn’t make sense – just ask! Also, unlike a lot of other schools, the system that we teach is at times soft, and at times hard, and mixes linear and circular techniques. This gives you more options from which to develop your own style.
We try to make our classes accessible to people with all sorts of motives for studying the martial arts, and varying degrees of physical fitness and motivation. Since most of you are mature adults, we let you decide how intensely you want to train. We aim for fun, fitness, and function.
All levels of experience are welcome – drop by, take a few classes and see how you like it.
