Tracy's Kenpo
At this time martial arts instructors usually worked other jobs and taught at gyms or the YMCA. The Tracy brothers borrowed a business plan from a well known dance studio and implemented those practices into running Martial arts school which worked out very well . Al Tracy is such a huge part of Kenpo and if it wasn't for him and his family the traditional Kenpo might have been lost in time. Ed Parker was always tweaking, Altering and experimenting with other styles to eventually create what he called American Kenpo. when Ed Parker decided to start teaching a newer style he was creating (chinese Kenpo), Kenpo karate was turned over to the Tracy brothers and they sat down and took all the techniques that were on index cards at the time in step by step format and created names for each technique making it easier for memory recall relating the name to what the technique involved like Darkness meaning an attack from behind or Death meaning a choke or a ram meaning a take down or tackle, this way of memory recall was so effective that Ed Parker very quickly implemented its use in American Kenpo. The Tracy's kept Kenpo Karate close to what Kenpo was but removed all the jiu jitsu from it and placed it in belts so high nobody will find it. Insurance was really high for jiu jitsu so changes were made that were business decisions. Some school are adiing jiu jitsu back into the curriculum. They also changed the structure of the order the techniques were learned to help the student progress more smoothly.
Another major progression to the system was the colored belts Witch would spread to many other Martial art styles very quickly .This comes straight from Al Tracy's website and is also covered in his instructors series of videos. Again as i said before Al Tracy has Researched Kenpo more thoroughly then anyone and has spent 30 years and thousands of dollars to find the truth so check out his website at www.tracykenpo.com and learn more in one day then most instructors know.
This is from Al Tracy's website about the color belts and the change made by him and his brothers.
Enter the colored belt system.
While we studied under Ed Parker we wrote down and filmed everything we had ever been taught. All of the self defense techniques were written down on 4X6" filing cards. (Ed used the same method.) They were then divided by defense against grabs; left punch; right punch; kicks; multiple attack; etc.
When the Tracy brothers moved to San Francisco and opened our first studio - we set about "organizing" the structure of Kenpo.
The first thing we did was to create requirements for each belt level. It became apparent there was so much material to be learned up to Black Belt that, from a manageable teaching standpoint, there was a need for breaking "white belt" down into 4 levels rather than the 2 that had been the "norm." Even more so we wanted to make a greater distinction between each rank of white belt.
The techniques were sorted into groups of 40 self defense techniques. They were first divided by 1 - "must" know and 2 - difficulty. Then Katas were assigned to each belt level. There would be two katas per belt - (Short, long one) Short Two, Long Two - on down the line!
Enter the modern belt system. At that time (1962-63) we had formed our own supply company (Oriental Wholesale Supplies) to import our Gi's and belts directly from Japan. Back then we could get a #5 white Gi (unbleached) with belt - with all import duties - for $3.25. It would be years later until the pure white Gi was used. The early bleached white Gi's were so flimsy they would tear the first time you were grabbed.
At different times, many colored belts had been used by different systems; James Mitose even used a blue belt. The purple belts was available because of its use in Judo and a new green belt was out there. But what would we use as the 4th color? Our suppliers from Japan contacted us with a offer for "orange" belts that had came about as a mistake in the dying process.
Originally we would never have considered an "Orange" belt.- Back then we were all pretty "macho" - and what adult male would wear an Orange Belt? As fate would have it, they offered us such low price on over 1000 orange belts we could not turn it down.
The "Colored Belt" System in Kenpo was born:
Orange Belt - Shichikyu
Purple Belt - Rokkyu
Blue Belt - Gokyu
Green Belt - Yonkyu
Some time later we would reluctantly add Yellow Belt - Hachikyu - as a Youth Belt: (Only 10 self defense techniques as opposed to 40 for all the other belts.)
After Ed Parker saw that the Colored Belt system was being accepted, he then added the belt system we were using. Ed would make one change in that he would also award "Yellow Belt" for adults. It was at this time Ed Parker would establish and put out his first set of "written manuals" that had 32 self defense techniques for each belt. with the exception of yellow belt which had 10 self defense techniques.
Another major progression to the system was the colored belts Witch would spread to many other Martial art styles very quickly .This comes straight from Al Tracy's website and is also covered in his instructors series of videos. Again as i said before Al Tracy has Researched Kenpo more thoroughly then anyone and has spent 30 years and thousands of dollars to find the truth so check out his website at www.tracykenpo.com and learn more in one day then most instructors know.
This is from Al Tracy's website about the color belts and the change made by him and his brothers.
Enter the colored belt system.
While we studied under Ed Parker we wrote down and filmed everything we had ever been taught. All of the self defense techniques were written down on 4X6" filing cards. (Ed used the same method.) They were then divided by defense against grabs; left punch; right punch; kicks; multiple attack; etc.
When the Tracy brothers moved to San Francisco and opened our first studio - we set about "organizing" the structure of Kenpo.
The first thing we did was to create requirements for each belt level. It became apparent there was so much material to be learned up to Black Belt that, from a manageable teaching standpoint, there was a need for breaking "white belt" down into 4 levels rather than the 2 that had been the "norm." Even more so we wanted to make a greater distinction between each rank of white belt.
The techniques were sorted into groups of 40 self defense techniques. They were first divided by 1 - "must" know and 2 - difficulty. Then Katas were assigned to each belt level. There would be two katas per belt - (Short, long one) Short Two, Long Two - on down the line!
Enter the modern belt system. At that time (1962-63) we had formed our own supply company (Oriental Wholesale Supplies) to import our Gi's and belts directly from Japan. Back then we could get a #5 white Gi (unbleached) with belt - with all import duties - for $3.25. It would be years later until the pure white Gi was used. The early bleached white Gi's were so flimsy they would tear the first time you were grabbed.
At different times, many colored belts had been used by different systems; James Mitose even used a blue belt. The purple belts was available because of its use in Judo and a new green belt was out there. But what would we use as the 4th color? Our suppliers from Japan contacted us with a offer for "orange" belts that had came about as a mistake in the dying process.
Originally we would never have considered an "Orange" belt.- Back then we were all pretty "macho" - and what adult male would wear an Orange Belt? As fate would have it, they offered us such low price on over 1000 orange belts we could not turn it down.
The "Colored Belt" System in Kenpo was born:
Orange Belt - Shichikyu
Purple Belt - Rokkyu
Blue Belt - Gokyu
Green Belt - Yonkyu
Some time later we would reluctantly add Yellow Belt - Hachikyu - as a Youth Belt: (Only 10 self defense techniques as opposed to 40 for all the other belts.)
After Ed Parker saw that the Colored Belt system was being accepted, he then added the belt system we were using. Ed would make one change in that he would also award "Yellow Belt" for adults. It was at this time Ed Parker would establish and put out his first set of "written manuals" that had 32 self defense techniques for each belt. with the exception of yellow belt which had 10 self defense techniques.
The Tracy system of Kenpo also referred to as Traditional Kenpo because it stays true and teaches the techniques as they were taught by Mitose and passed on to William Chow, which was then passed on to Ed Parker who trained Al Tracy and His brother Jim. the Tracy bothers both received black belts under Ed Parker in 1962, The Tracy's opened their first school in the 1960's in San Jose California and it became a huge success because of the business tactics implemented.