Family Groupings
of American and Traditional Kenpo Techniques
"You may train for a long, long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning Karate is not very different from learning to dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of Karate-do" - Gichin Funakoshi
Family groupings are a great way to help with your response time in a self-defense situation and are key to understanding the workings of Kenpo..
To view the Family Groupings of your particular system, please choose one of the following pages, but please note I have broken them down into categories such as Punches, Grabs, etc. From that point you could continue to break them down into subcategories, such as all techniques that begin with a left inward block of opponents right punch, etc. .
Ed Parker’s American Kenpo Family Groupings
The Tracy’s System of Traditional Kenpo Family Groupings
Note: This is my own version of Family Groupings and does not reflect what is outlined in Ed Parker's American Kenpo. For a great explanation of of Mr. Parker's Family Groupings I highly recommend the Kenpo Secrets web site and the page on American Family Groupings.
Family groupings reduce the number techniques for each specific attack, thus reducing response time. But there are other variables that you have to take in account in a self-defense situation, such as:
- Increased adrenaline
- Increased heart rate
- Increased respiration
- Vascular flow moves away from extremities
- Pupil dilation
- Sense of time and space is distorted
These changes affect your performance in following ways:
- Loss of fine and complex motor skills
- Tunnel vision
- Hearing is impaired
- Loss of depth perception
- Increase in reaction/response time
There are way to train to improve your performance and spontaneity to help with the previously mentioned physiological changes, such as those mentioned in the Flow Drills and Grafting section.
