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Naming Conventions
Mr. Pilch has studied several different branches of Kenpo. Each one used a naming convention to help the practitioner with the recall of the structured information. The American Institute of Kenpo, as with all branches of Kenpo, has adopted a naming convention as well.
The naming convention that The American Institute of Kenpo uses primarily has two parts to each name. The first word describes what you are doing. This is what we call the Defense Category Keywords. The second word describes what the attacker is doing. This is what we call the Attack Category Keywords. In situations where there are multiple attacks or opponents additional words are added to reflect the increased complexity of the situation.
Mr. Pilch has compiled a Historical Kenpo Naming Convention comparison. The Historical Names lists contains the following Naming Conventions:
Ed Parker American Kenpo Systems (EPAKS) - The current Naming Convention used by EPAKS. This system is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the Parker Family.
Tracy Kenpo Systems - The current Naming Convention used by the Tracy Kenpo Systems.
American Kenpo Karate Association (AKKA Karate USA) - The Naming Convention used by AKKA Karate USA while it was run by Bill Packer. This is a derivative of the Tracy Kenpo Systems. This was the organization Mr. Pilch started his Kenpo journey with.
Note - Though there are similarities between techniques compared in the Kenpo Naming Conventions, these techniques can also have notable differences. If there has been any names that you are aware of that need to be corrected please email us and we will evaluate and update the listing when appropriate.